Open season on progressive prosecutors

We've put up a new window sign: the usual suspects -- police unions, Republicans, and cranky Democratic Party "moderates" who function as the opposition to progressive Democrats in this one party town -- are hot to recall our new District Attorney. Elected in 2019, Chesa Boudin is a nightmare to the throw-away-the-keys, tough-on-crime brigade. Within the considerable constraints imposed by the pandemic year, Boudin has made a lot of moves we elected him for:

• reduced the jail population by 40 percent during the pandemic by releasing misdemeanor and short time offenders.

• joined progressive country supervisors in seeking to bar the police from hiring officers with records of misconduct in other departments. [To which this citizen can only say, well, duh ... ]

• joined other progressive prosecutors in calling on the State Bar of California to prohibit elected prosecutors from accepting campaign contributions from police unions. That reform is going to take a broad political push.

No wonder the usual suspects don't like him. He's working for structural reforms that could help get a fairer shake for communities for whom there's been little justice in "Justice." 

Boudin isn't the only "progressive prosecutor" under attack as a rather bad-humored citizenry emerges from pandemic misery. 

As a San Franciscan, I'm dubious about including George Gascon in this category; he wasn't much for charging our cops when they killed with only flimsy excuses. But, elected to reform the Los Angeles D.A.'s office in 2020, he seems to have changed his ways in his new job. He has angered the usual suspects by refusing to prosecute juveniles as adults, suggested that long sentences accomplish nothing except cost the state money and separate families, and begun to re-examine cases in which cops killed without apparent legal basis. Los Angeles Times reporters James Queally and Joe Mozingo have written an in-depth examination of Gascon's new initiatives. His early record seems impressive, especially in a city which has long suffered from regressive prosecution policies dictated by an aggressive police union.

This week, Philadelphia will see whether progressive D.A. Larry Krasner can survive police and politicians aiming to ride a backlash against new criminal justice priorities. In a city famous for electing a fascist cop, Frank Rizzo, as mayor more than once, Krasner's election in 2017 signaled new times. His record before that campaign: successfully litigating against civil rights infringements by police. He promised "to stop prosecuting drug possession and prostitution and to hold the police accountable for misconduct." But during the pandemic year, murders have increased by 40 percent, though still less than in the bad old days of the 1980s and 90s. A pro-cop former prosecutor who Krasner let go from is office is waving the "law and order" flag in the Democratic primary. We'll find out Tuesday who has the voters on their side. The winner will be a likely shoo-in in the general election.

UPDATE 5/18: Looks like Krasner won his primary decisively.