Live data from Hacker News

Chesa Boudin Recalled by San Francisco Voters

wsj.com

1–10 of 101 posts

Re: Chesa Boudin Recalled by San Francisco Voters

#4
post #3

[flagged]

As I understand it, Boudin barely eked out a win to begin with. Philadelphia is about twice the size of San Francisco, which has outsized visibility in our political culture but is in fact about the size of Nashville. Philly overwhelmingly reelected its progressive prosecutor. There's something to be said for the idea that, ideology aside, you also just have to seem good at the actual job; the job is not simply a series of policy positions, but also a bunch of real management work. The rap on Boudin is that he did not seem good at the actual job.

So, no, I doubt it.

I don't know what you mean by "the far left" though. The actual far left doesn't re-examine its positions by design, just like the actual far-right. If you mean "the Democratic party", it was never as sold on prison abolition as Twitter would have had you believe.

There's still a lot of room --- and actual bipartisan support! --- for CJ reform in US politics.

Re: Chesa Boudin Recalled by San Francisco Voters

#6
post #5
post #3

[flagged]

Quoted post unavailable.

housing the homeless

SF and the Bay Area have been preventing housing creation for decades: https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/sf-housing/, to the point that average SF rent is $3700/month: https://bungalow.com/articles/what-is-the-real-cost-of-livin.... The Bay Area is more politically left than anywhere else in the U.S.

Re: Chesa Boudin Recalled by San Francisco Voters

#7
post #4
post #3

[flagged]

As I understand it, Boudin barely eked out a win to begin with. Philadelphia is about twice the size of San Francisco, which has outsized visibility in our political culture but is in fact about the size of Nashville. Philly overwhelmingly reelected its progressive prosecutor. There's something to be said for the idea that, ideology aside, you also just have to seem good at the actual job; the job is not simply a ser…

> There's still a lot of room --- and actual bipartisan support! --- for CJ reform in US politics

To expand on this: there are legions of non-violent, opportunistic crimes that put young Americans in jail only to release them years later unskilled, difficult to hire and possibly disenfranchised. At the same time, hosts of violent crimes carry relatively short sentences with no attempts at rehabilitation. And all sorts of society-corroding, sociopathic white-collar crime goes unnoticed by a justice system overloaded by the first group.

Reducing penalties on the former, honing focus on the second and creating an enforcement mechanism for the latter finds bipartisan support (first two play on separate sides of the aisle for a bargain; the last has populist appeal in both camps).

Re: Chesa Boudin Recalled by San Francisco Voters

#8
post #5
post #3

[flagged]

Quoted post unavailable.

When you're writing things like "you're part of the problem", you've departed from the norms of this place. There's a place for that kind of advocacy, but it's not HN; we're here for curious conversation. Even some people ordinarily inclined to agree with you will recoil from this kind of rhetoric here.

Re: Chesa Boudin Recalled by San Francisco Voters

#9
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it, Boudin barely eked out a win to begin with. Philadelphia is about twice the size of San Francisco, which has outsized visibility in our political culture but is in fact about the size of Nashville. Philly overwhelmingly reelected its progressive prosecutor. There's something to be said for the idea that, ideology aside, you also just have to seem good at the actual job; the job is not simply a ser…

> There's still a lot of room --- and actual bipartisan support! --- for CJ reform in US politics To expand on this: there are legions of non-violent, opportunistic crimes that put young Americans in jail only to release them years later unskilled, difficult to hire and possibly disenfranchised. At the same time, hosts of violent crimes carry relatively short sentences with no attempts at rehabilitation. And all sort…

What non-violent opportunistic crimes are putting young Americans in jail? Theft? Is there bipartisan support for reducing its penalties? Or do you mean some other one?

I can see bipartisan support for reducing penalties for victimless, non-oppotunistic crimes, like drug use.

Re: Chesa Boudin Recalled by San Francisco Voters

#10
Looks like having a DA raised by Weather Underground was too much, even for San Francisco:

"Boudin fell in love with David Gilbert in the 1970s and gave birth to their son Chesa in 1980. When her son was 14 months old, she was arrested and subsequently incarcerated for murder and bank robbery. Her son was raised by former Weatherman leaders Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn."

Post reply on HN