I am so impressed by Brooke Jenkins, San Francisco’s new District Attorney. I watched news coverage of her walking through the Tenderloin, and her statements regarding drug dealers were inspirational. She condemned her predecessor, Chesa Boudin, for letting dealers go scot free, which resulted in them returning to the same street corners where they could peddle their poison drugs that were killing people. She promised to crack down on drug dealers, and pledged to consider “revoking” plea deals Boudin made that let so many of these retailers of death off the hook.
This is exactly why London Breed appointed her. It’s why San Franciscans recalled Boudin. People are fed up with crime, and a lot of crime is tied in with illegal drug use. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not some kind of intolerant anti-drug nanny. I grew up taking drugs that were illegal. I was arrested a long time ago for possession of marijuana when it was a felony. I think adult Americans should have the freedom to decide for themselves what to put into their bodies.
But fentanyl and these other street drugs are different from the pot and LSD I took back in the day. Those substances made us peaceful and loving. Today’s street drugs make people crazy and violent, and eventually grind them down into zombies. We need look no further than our own streets in Oakland, where people who are hooked are making their own and our lives miserable. They constitute—in my opinion—the majority of homeless people. To have a District Attorney who’s offended by street crime and is brave enough to stand up to the inevitable criticism is a phenomenon we should celebrate.
How different Ms. Jenkins is from the person who may well be elected Alameda County’s next District Attorney. Pamela Price would never crack down on drug dealing. The only people she will crack down are Oakland police officers, whom she loathes; she’ll find the slightest pretext to indict them. Her position papers are filled with the silliest woke jargon: she promises to “provide pathways to restorative justice.” She will “end mass incarceration” and “root out racial, socioeconomic and gender disparities within Alameda County’s criminal justice system,” as if those different categories commit crimes in equal proportion. More ominously, she vows to “hold law enforcement officers accountable for unlawful conduct.”
Notice that word “unlawful.” If Price is elected D.A., it will be up to her to determine what is “unlawful.” With her history of prejudice against cops, it’s easy to envision her constantly harassing officers, questioning their every move and motive, and going after them even if they shoot someone in self-defense. If you think morale at the Oakland Police Department (and all the other police departments in Alameda County) is low now, just wait until Price takes office. There will be an exodus of cops from Oakland, and crime will inevitably soar. Pamela Price is the answer to Cat Brooks’ prayers.
I salute the people of San Francisco for waking up to the menace of a “progressive” District Attorney. I congratulate Mayor Breed for doing the right thing. I condemn the people of Oakland who will vote for Pamela Price. They’re the same people who put up “Defund the Police” signs in their multi-million-dollar homes, but God forbid they should see someone suspicious in their neighborhood: a speedy call to 9-1-1 is the first thing they’d do. They hate the cops, except when they need them.
Well, San Francisco awoke from its coma. We can only hope that Oakland will, too. When people realize the bill of goods our progressive City Council has sold them, they may just decide to vote for more candidates like Brooke Jenkins.
Steve Heimoff