--- title: Chesa Boudin's recall is about more than one prosecutor description: Despite crime in San Francisco being down, residents feel less safe, polling shows. canonical: https://time.com/6185001/san-francisco-chesa-boudin-criminal-justice/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-06-07T21:55:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T14:20:58.288Z article:section: Politics og:title: Chesa Boudin's recall is about much more than one prosecutor og:description: The situation in San Francisco could be an early flare for criminal-justice focused policymakers from both parties. og:url: https://time.com/6185001/san-francisco-chesa-boudin-criminal-justice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb5acb33bd32e5099/698a329e457a527e31d66821/Chesa-Boudin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: District Attorney Chesa Boudin Holds Campaign Rally On Recall Election Day og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chesa Boudin's recall is about much more than one prosecutor twitter:description: The situation in San Francisco could be an early flare for criminal-justice focused policymakers from both parties. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb5acb33bd32e5099/698a329e457a527e31d66821/Chesa-Boudin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Chesa Boudin's Recall Election in San Francisco Is About So Much More Than One Prosecutor  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Jun 7, 2022 9:55 PM UTC  San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin looks on as he waits to greet potential voters outside of the Castro Street MUNI station in San Francisco, on June 7, 2022. San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin looks on as he waits to greet potential voters outside of the Castro Street MUNI station in San Francisco, on June 7, 2022.Justin Sullivan—Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Jun 7, 2022 9:55 PM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ Chesa Boudin [came](https://www.npr.org/2019/11/20/781358722/san-francisco-elects-chesa-boudin-as-new-district-attorney) to [power](https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/DA-Chesa-Boudin-17196456.php) at age 39 as something of a rock star, a progressive district attorney in San Francisco who made good on promises to eliminate cash bail, ease up on petty crimes, and reduce the number of inmates at jails and prisons. He [prosecuted](https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco/sf-officer-charged-with-voluntary-manslaughter-for-2017-shooting-of-mentally-ill-man/2714565/) an on-duty police officer for manslaughter, a first for the city. He created an office to [reopen](https://abcnews.go.com/US/joaquin-ciria-exonerated-32-years-prison-wrongful-murder/story?id=84163417) suspected wrongful convictions, [explored](https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/boudin-diversion-recidivism-17185654.php) alternative sentencing arrangements, and called out policing he [saw](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/chesa-boudin-recall-san-francisco.html) as racist. [Zero](https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco/das-office-agrees-to-re-sentence-last-man-on-death-row-out-of-sf-to-life/2322691/) cases prosecuted by the San Francisco DA’s office remain on California’s death row. Minors are being tried as [juveniles](https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/L-A-and-S-F-have-it-right-No-children-should-15827850.php), not adults. Boudin’s efforts at change are actually [working](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/04/san-francisco-los-angeles-da-recalls/629701/). Put another way: For progressives intent on overhauling the criminal-justice system, Boudin appeared perfectly cast as the lawyer to lead the charge, and San Francisco—at least from afar—seemed like a sufficiently liberal place to test many of their pet policies. Yet, on Tuesday, voters in San Francisco were deciding whether to boot Boudin, now aged 41, a year-and-a-half before his term as the city’s top prosecutor ends. It’s not that crime is particularly up in San Francisco, and it’s not as though prosecutors dictate the behavior of would-be criminals, either. Reports of violent crime are actually [down](https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/San-Francisco-crime-Chesa-Boudin-London-Breed-16751930.php) in San Francisco, and the city’s crime [rates](https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2022/05/chesa-boudin-crime-rates-false-narratives-progressive-da-george-gascon-kim-foxx/) are comparable or lower than that of other cities. The problem facing Boudin is [this](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/chesa-boudin-recall-san-francisco-crime/629907/): residents of San Francisco [feel](https://sfstandard.com/politics/San-francisco-standard-voter-poll-june-2022/) less safe by a 2-to-1 margin, and such strong, personal feelings beat facts in politics. There’s a reason the _order_ part of _law-and-order_ campaign messaging works so well. Boudin’s potential demise has been the [stuff](https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/rogue-prosecutors-gascon-and-boudin-panicking-over-recall-elections) of conservative dreams since he first won election in 2019\. The son of two convicted members of the violent Weather Underground, he was raised by two of the group’s founders while his parents served prison time. Boudin had grown into a Yale- and Oxford-educated public defender when he decided to pursue the top gig in the prosecutor’s office. Although he had never prosecuted a case in his life and had a rocky relationship with the establishment wing of the Democratic Party and an often hostile one with the police union, Boudin won on his first try for public office. The politics he faced during his early days in the job back in 2020 are not those he faces today, however. In the intervening years, America has faced a reckoning with racism of all stripes, especially when it comes to injustice for [Asian-American](https://time.com/5938482/asian-american-attacks/) and [Black](https://time.com/magazine/us/5851840/june-22nd-2020-vol-195-no-23-u-s/) residents. The Covid-19 [lockdowns](https://time.com/magazine/us/5806214/march-30th-2020-vol-195-no-11-u-s/) and [isolation](https://time.com/magazine/us/5810478/april-6th-2020-vol-195-no-12-u-s/) changed societal patterns in ways the country still hasn’t fully recognized. A substance abuse epidemic is flooding health care systems and courts alike. And the Great Resignation remade vast pieces of the economy. Take all of that and concentrate it into San Francisco, a city viewed by much of the country as a playground for the progressive fringe despite its metro area [rivaling](https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/metro-micro.html) Boston or Detroit in size. San Francisco recently faced some of the worst anti-Asian-American [violence](https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/27/us/anti-asian-hate-crimes-san-francisco-lawsuit/index.html) in the country, while [twice](https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/04/29/fact-check-did-san-francisco-have-twice-as-many-drug-overdose-deaths-as-covid-deaths-in-2020/) as many people died there from drug overdoses than Covid-19 during Boudin’s first year on the job. Roughly [half](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/chesa-boudin-recall-san-francisco-crime/629907/) of Boudin’s staff have either quit, retired, or been fired. That environment, coupled with Boudin’s perceived [leniency](https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Deadly-S-F-hit-and-run-Suspect-due-in-court-15848170.php) for so-called victimless crimes like shoplifting, left plenty in the Bay Area frustrated. An early recall effort against Boudin came up short, but a second attempt secured enough signatures to put the question to voters. Efforts to boot Boudin [raised](https://sfethics.org/ethics/2021/11/campaign-finance-dashboards-june-7-2022.html) roughly $7 million, and his friends are being outspent by a 2-to-1 margin. He can [blame](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/05/us/chesa-boudin-recall-san-francisco.html) big GOP donors and misinformation campaigns, but none of that completely explains why [polling](https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Chesa-Boudin-recall-closer-poll-shows-17177181.php) and early-voting trends suggest a majority of voters don’t want him to complete his term. The spasm tensing in San Francisco could be an early flare for criminal-justice focused policymakers from both parties. Boudin is a charismatic figure, but he fits in a broader movement of prosecutors elected on pledges to revamp the system. Not all of them are the bleeding-heart liberals critics make them out to be. While Fox News targets the DAs of [New York City](https://abcnews.go.com/US/manhattan-da-backtracks-prosecution-memo-perceived-soft-crime/story?id=82676186), [Chicago](https://nypost.com/2021/12/25/chicago-da-kim-foxx-ripped-as-soft-on-crime-following-mall-shooting/), [Philadelphia](https://www.vox.com/2021/7/30/22600669/larry-krasner-philadelphia-reform-prosecutors-crime), [Boston](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/26/rachael-rollins-us-attorney/), [St. Louis](https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/tony-messenger/messenger-schmitt-says-gardner-is-weak-on-crime-these-numbers-tell-a-different-story/article%5F79cfc1c1-27ee-5bd9-8c69-958c36e5f1d4.html), and [Los Angeles](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/19/us/george-gascon.html), [conservatives](https://rightoncrime.com/), too, have made strides in the same policy space. Places like [Greenwood](https://rightoncrime.com/news/events/the-dollars-sense-of-second-chance-hiring-ms-employer-engagement-forum/), Miss., [Pima County](https://tucson.com/news/local/pima-county-leading-the-state-in-criminal-justice-reform-efforts/article%5F8f6f1125-79c0-55a0-93d3-dd3b417228da.html), Ariz., and [York County](https://www.ydr.com/story/news/watchdog/2022/02/22/york-county-prison-average-daily-county-prisoner-population-decrease/6783559001/), Pa., may seem like unlikely places for similar efforts to have taken hold, but they have. The unknown is whether policy leaders in these communities, red and blue alike, will stick with their current efforts, or recoil in fear of what the next election could bring. Still, there is no denying the current electoral realities are tough. Sure, Philadelphia’s prosecutor [weathered](https://apnews.com/article/philadelphia-district-attorney-election-larry-krasner-a9a4bcd720a38265e477db2f27086703) his own primary last year despite unrelenting accusations he had gone soft on crime. But the district attorney for Los Angeles will face his own [challenge](https://www.foxnews.com/us/los-angeles-da-george-gascon-recall-support-grows-figuratively-and-literally-in-voters-hands) if his opponents can secure enough signatures by next month to force a recall for a litany of reform efforts that sound curiously like what has been unfolding in the Bay Area. And, of course, some of the Republican Party’s sharpest operatives are [watching](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/02/us/politics/prosecutors-recall-virginia.html) closely to see what San Francisco voters do on Tuesday, and will try to replicate the strategy elsewhere if it is successful. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ Chesa Boudin's recall is about more than one prosecutor ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6185001/san-francisco-chesa-boudin-criminal-justice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6185001/san-francisco-chesa-boudin-criminal-justice/"},"headline":"Chesa Boudin's Recall Election in San Francisco Is About So Much More Than One Prosecutor","datePublished":"2022-06-07T21:55:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T14:20:58.288Z","description":"Despite crime in San Francisco being down, residents feel less safe, polling shows.","url":"https://time.com/6185001/san-francisco-chesa-boudin-criminal-justice/","keywords":["The D.C. 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