OPINION:
It’s no secret billionaire George Soros has been tossing millions of dollars into district attorneys’ races around the nation, with the intent to slide some of his socialist ideas into local communities — specifically, to reform the justice system so that criminals run free and victims, well, victims are then victimized again and again.
But what is new is that Democrats are starting to feel the effects of this far-left “Let the Looters Be Looters and Loot” type of justice system.
Democrats are becoming the victims. And they don’t like it — no, they don’t like it one little bit.
Take San Franciscans, where the liberals loom large.
“In San Francisco, Democrats Are at War With Themselves Over Crime,” The New York Times wrote in a recent headline.
The story was about the city’s leftist district attorney, Chesa Boudin, who took over the office in January 2020 after raising “hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors associated with Soros,” as The Daily Signal wrote, but who is currently facing recall. Why?
“[H]is message of leniency for perpetrators has rankled residents of the city, many of whom feel unsafe and violated by property crimes,” The Times wrote.
No surprise.
Boudin once served as a public defender and translator for Hugo Chavez, the now-deceased socialist leader of Venezuela and had vowed during campaign season in San Francisco to implement no-cash bail policies and reduce incarceration rates — the latter, by simply turning blind eyes to certain crimes and criminals. But what to expect from someone whose parents who were card-carrying members of the Weather Underground, and after mom and dad were sent to prison, was then raised by the co-founders of the Weather Underground, right?
Voila.
“Meet Chesa Boudin, the Rogue Prosecutor Wreaking Havoc in San Francisco,” The Heritage Foundation wrote in August, 2021.
You get a local district attorney who believes the death penalty is “racist,” and that crimes involving drugs and property offenses are barely worth an arrest, never mind an imprisonment.
“During Boudin’s first year in office, homicides increased by 31%,” The Washington Examiner reported.
Hmm.
“Regarding property offenses, the police department recently reported that vehicle break-ins are up between 100% and 750% in parts of the city,” The Heritage Foundation reported.
Interesting.
“More people are getting their cars stolen and apartments broken into,” The Atlantic reported, while also clarifying that “fewer people are getting their bags snatched.”
But still.
Even Democrats are getting disgruntled.
Criminals, it seems, don’t care if their targets vote Republican or Democrat.
And for Democrats who voted in this piece of far-leftist, unqualified fill-in-the-blank, that must be rather shocking, sobering, even.
From The Times: “As the former chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, Mary Jung has a long list of liberal bona fides, including her early days in politics volunteering in Ohio for the presidential campaign of George McGovern and her service on the board of the local Planned Parenthood branch. ‘In Cleveland, I was considered a communist,’ she said.”
After months of rising crime, she’s having a change of heart.
“[T]he squalor and petty crime that she sees as crescendoing on some city streets — her office has been broken into four times during the coronavirus pandemic — has tested her liberal outlook,” the newspaper goes on. “[She] wondered what kind of city her granddaughter would grow up in.”
She’s wondering if she will be “able to take her [granddaughter] out in the stroller,” due to rising crime rates and rising fears in San Francisco.
Well, welcome to reality, Ms. Jung.
That’s just what conservatives have been saying for years every time a “defund the police” and “no-cash bail” leftist comes along, decrying so-called “racist” justice systems that actually incarcerate crooks.
That’s just what Republicans have been fighting against for years when feel-good liberals and low-information leftists campaign for such brainiac policies such as open borders and Antifa takeovers of city streets.
“The People vs. Chesa Boudin,” The Atlantic wrote in a headline. The subhead? “San Franciscans do not feel safe and secure.”
So the recall is in high swing. And because many Democrats in this highly Democratic-populated city are now on board with a recall, there’s a decent chance Boudin may in fact be facing a forced removal from office.
“Chesa Boudin and the Limits of San Francisco Liberalism,” New York Magazine wrote.
But here’s the thing: Voters should have been smart enough to have seen where a guy like Boudin would lead the criminal justice system in the first place. His background screamed soft on crime. His background screamed soft on criminals.
So the conclusion can only be this: Democrats don’t care about crime until the criminals come to their own doors.
And George Soros knows this, and that’s why he’s been so successful buying district attorneys at select spots around the country.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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