San Francisco Crime Concerns Fuel Recall in Test of Liberal City
Chesa Boudin’s potential ouster as district attorney fits a broader pattern across the country.
San Francisco police officers patrol near a new controversial billboard that warns against fentanyl in the city.
Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesSan Franciscans elected Chesa Boudin to serve as district attorney in 2019 after he promised to end mass incarceration and attack the root causes of crime. Less than three years later, he’s facing a recall election that could cut his term — and his progressive agenda — short.
It’s a stark turnabout for one of America’s most liberal cities. As San Francisco struggles with a visible unsheltered homeless population, an addiction crisis fueled by opioids, and echoes of a nationwide spike in gun violence, Boudin has been cast as a totem of local dysfunction.
Zoom out of San Francisco, however, and Tuesday’s recall election also fits into a broader pattern of challenges mounted against district attorneys who were chosen by voters to reform the criminal-justice system, and a renewed call for tougher approaches to public safety across the US. Mayors such as New York’s Eric Adams ran and won last year on a platform of strengthening law enforcement; San Francisco’s own London Breed has promised to crack down on drug dealing and has proposed spending millions more on police next year. She has notably declined to take a position on the recall.