Patterico's Pontifications

6/25/2022

Constitutional Vanguard: The Chesa Boudin Recall, and What It Means for Los Angeles

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 11:13 am



This one took me a while to write (it’s 4000 words), but I hope you like it. It’s a dissertation on two recent massive pieces dealing with crime and District Attorneys in two major California cities. The first piece is about San Francisco, and was published in the Atlantic. The second piece is about Los Angeles, and was published on Bari Weiss’s Substack.

Excerpt from the free portion, about San Francisco:

Bowles describes an open-air safe space on Market Street dedicated to the care and “safe” drugging of addicts. Syringes are distributed to a zombie population of doped-up hoboes, in an area where tourists used to enjoy being sightseers. Nowadays, if some homeless (sorry, I mean “unhoused”) guy ends up bleeding on the sidewalk and an ambulance is called, advocacy groups stand by to advise the would-be patient that he doesn’t have to submit to treatment. He can stay right there in his druggie Shangri-La and die on the streets next month if he prefers. Many take the advice.

Excerpt from the paid portion:

As a personal note, though, I would like to add that cases where gang members are caught with guns are always cases that should get a prosecutor’s attention. We used to call such cases “murders waiting to happen.” It should not come as a shock to any elected D.A. that a policy of leniency to gang members with guns, especially when they have serious and/or violent felonies on their record, means some number of people are going to die as a result.

Become a subscriber and you’ll get to find out what I think of the effort to recall the D.A. in Los Angeles.

37 Responses to “Constitutional Vanguard: The Chesa Boudin Recall, and What It Means for Los Angeles”

  1. This may get lost in the deluge of comments on the Weekend Open Thread, but do read the piece if you’re interested in the topic.

    Patterico (f00a00)

  2. I read the piece and it is excellent. It’s a thorough and insightful analysis of a vexing issue impacting two major regions in California. He does not hesitate to lay blame where it belongs, and lays out clearly his reasoning. Be warned though: it’s simultaneously frustrating and heartbreaking when you stop and consider how many innocent people have been harmed by the policies of two very powerful white guys.

    Dana (1225fc)

  3. I’ve also read it. Great work. Be safe, sir. Good luck with the recall.

    felipe (484255)

  4. I hope that they didn’t flood the recall with bogus signatures like the left usually does.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  5. There is nothing quite like a rich white guy defending the poor and downtrodden.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  6. I just read the whole Atlantic article. Wow.

    Please thank Mrs. P for bringing it to your attention, because it redounded to my edification.

    norcal (da5491)

  7. People aren’t saints. If you want less crime you need good crime prevention, appropriate consequences and, a lot of times, a strong drug and mental health treatment system. We don’t have 2 of those things and losing the one we do have isn’t going to help.

    Nic (896fdf)

  8. Don’t know how you’re coping day to day w/t Gascon problem, P, but your restraint remains admirable. Brother Bluto may have more pragmatic advice 😉

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uepFO4psgKE

    DCSCA (4f9c6a)

  9. That 1st Amendment really is something, isn’t it?

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  10. Ncc,

    The US actually has very good drug recovery programs. They’re just not the government-run ones. Mental health is another issue, but drug recovery is often a good first, uh, step.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  11. You would think I could spell “Nic”

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  12. Be safe, Patterico.

    nk (e5c287)

  13. @Kevin @11 I haven’t looked at addiction studies in a while but from what I remember, we have a lot of variety of private addiction treatment facilities, but we don’t really get good results from drug treatment and the people laying on the street in SF probably don’t have a lot of access to the private facilities. I would also argue that a lot of drug use comes from a mental health place and if you don’t treat the cause, some other kind of maladaptive behavior will occur.

    Nic (896fdf)

  14. Many treatment programs, public and private are, imho, aimed at something other than the client’s recovery. Either they are sobriety mills in it for the buck, or they are government-run processing more concerned about fulfilling a program than fulfilling a need.

    That isn’t to say that all are that way, and the closer they are to the 12-step world the more likely they are to be helpful. Still, you are dealing with drug addicts who are not the most honest or responsible people in the world, and there’s a lot of money chasing the problem.

    In the end, all treatment programs dump their clients into AA, NA, CA or similar, which is where any long-term recovery happens.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  15. Given that one of the primary purposes of that post seems to be to encourage people to back the recall and sign the petition, can I suggest that you make this particular post free to the public? It seems like you should be shouting that message with the largest megaphone.

    aphrael (70acec)

  16. I second aphrael’s motion.

    felipe (484255)

  17. The vote against Chesa Boudin was not as heavy as initially reported. It was not 61% for the recall, but 55% And the lead in the election for mayor ofLos Angeles was reversed, although there will still be a runoff between the same two people. \It’s hard to get votes to change on a large scale.

    Sammy Finkelman (b434ee)

  18. The problem is that the laws are, at one and the same time, too tough and too lenient, at least de facto. And also stupid.

    Tough building codes. And illegal to prescribe heroin or Oxycontin, or their substitutes without enrollment in a drug treatment regimen for which there are no spots in the first place, klet alone volunteers.

    But very improvised shelter or congregate living that they dislike and that can endanger them, and safe injection sites maybe with an antidote to overdoses available. Ignoring the fact that people disposed to or used to committing crimes will continue if nothing stops them and that some non-criminal, or at any rate non-intrinsically evil, activity is associated with that.. .

    Drug rehab that doesn’t work and creates a dangerous situation for them when they finish because their tolerance has been reduced and the strength of the doses they can get is unknown.

    The leftists control the law de facto, and the conservatives the de jure laws, and you get something that nobody can favor.

    Sammy Finkelman (b434ee)

  19. Sammy, that’s now 3 elections post 2020 that have received large questionable vote dumps – the 2021 NJ gubernatorial (resulting a flip of results where the GOP candidate had leading margins on par with Youngkin in VA until the next morning), the Chesa recall (6% less but recall still wo), and a flip to a Bass lead over Caruso.

    urbanleftbehind (553bd2)

  20. Sammy, that’s now 3 elections post 2020 that have received large questionable vote dumps….

    In California, most conservatives vote in-person and others vote by mail and their votes are counted last. Nothing nefarious.

    More than 84% of L.A. County voters used mail-in ballots and waited to either mail or drop them off at polling places or drop boxes, (Registrar-Recorder spokesman Michael Sanchez) said. The ballots’ signatures must be verified and then scanned by humans for errors or stains before they can be fed into a vote-counting machine.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  21. Update:

    Countywide turnout was 28.4%, and officials said the vast majority of this latest batch of about 43,000 ballots came from people who had voted by mail.

    Bass’ lead over Caruso has grown as election workers processed ballots that were either dropped off in the days leading up to the primary or postmarked and mailed in by election day. On election night, Bass trailed Caruso by 5 percentage points.

    The latest results show Bass’ lead growing slightly, winning 43% of votes to Caruso’s 36%.

    Left to be counted are ballots that need to be verified or have potential issues with the voter signature cured, or corrected.

    The L.A. County registrar-recorder’s office estimated about 13,800 ballots are left to be counted before certifying the results July 1. This was the first city election since a new law went into effect ensuring that every voter is mailed a ballot, a process designed to bring in more voters and focus less on a single day of in-person voting.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  22. In California, most conservatives vote in-person

    Thank you Donald Trump.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  23. urbanleftbehind, at 19: i can’t comment on the one of those that’s outside of California, but in California:

    (a) this is normal — absentees returned on election day (which have to be checked against the polling place rosters) have leaned left for at least a quarter century.

    (b) the number of uncounted ballots is tracked and reported regularly, there are no surprise caches of unexpected ballots.

    You’re inferring skullduggery that isn’t there.

    aphrael (4c4719)

  24. Rip Murdock — I worked in polling places from 1992-2008. After that, I voted in person up through March of 2020. But now that (a) i’m mailed a ballot and (b) i’d prefer not to wait in a polling place … it’s unlikely that i’ll ever vote in person again.

    aphrael (4c4719)

  25. Drug rehab that doesn’t work

    By itself, drug rehab hasn’t worked for millennia. There are solutions, but they are long-term and nobody makes money offering a long-term solution. All they can do is dry one out, getting a person past the physical addiction. But the cause of the addiction isn’t physical and never was.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  26. @24-

    Same here. I haven’t been inside a voting booth since the’80s, when my polling location was inside a convalescent hospital. Never again. That and I don’t like long lines or crowds.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  27. I would really like to see a study correlating mailed-out ballots with partisan tilt, across multiple states. In CA they mail everyone a ballot. In NM, it’s forbidden by the state constitution. I think that mailed ballots lower the effort needed to vote, and glean votes from less-engaged people. I believe that Democrats believe that this helps them. I wonder if that’s universally true. What is true in CA might not be true in Alabama.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  28. I voted a few weeks ago in person. In part it was because I’d procrastinated about requesting a mail ballot.

    Question: if you had to fill out a form, even online, to get that mail-in ballot, would you always be sure to do so? IF you forgot, would you still vote in-person?

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  29. Yes, and Yes — but, even now when i’m the least engaged i’ve ever been in my life, i’m more engaged than most people I know.

    aphrael (4c4719)

  30. Question: if you had to fill out a form, even online, to get that mail-in ballot, would you always be sure to do so? IF you forgot, would you still vote in-person?

    Yes/Maybe, depending on how important the election was. Local college district board elections, no.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  31. Meanwhile, the CA Attorney General “accidentally” releases the full database of carry permits, including names and home addresses, type of gun and other identifying information.

    California gun owners have been put at risk by the Attorney General’s office after a new dashboard leaked their personal information.

    The California Department of Justice’s 2022 Firearms Dashboard Portal went live on Monday with publicly-accessible files that include identifying information for those who have concealed carry permits. The leaked information includes the person’s full name, race, home address, date of birth, and date their permit was issued. The data also shows the type of permit issued, indicating if the permit holder is a member of law enforcement or a judge.

    The Reload reviewed a copy of the Lost Angeles County database and found 244 judge permits listed in the database. The files included the home addresses, full names, and dates of birth for all of them. The same was true for seven custodial officers, 63 people with a place of employment permit, and 420 reserve officers.

    2,891 people in Los Angeles County with standard licenses also had their information compromised by the leak, though the database appears to include some duplicate entries as well.

    https://thereload.com/new-california-ag-website-leaks-massive-trove-of-gun-owner-private-information/

    I bet those judges are very unhappy.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  32. Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 6/28/2022 @ 10:44 pm

    That right there is an argument for constitutional carry (people not needing a permit to carry). If one doesn’t need a permit, one doesn’t have to provide the government with personal information that can be leaked.

    norcal (da5491)

  33. Leak of California concealed-carry permit data is larger than initially reported

    A massive leak of personal information from a California state database for permits to carry concealed weapons is larger than initially reported, officials said Wednesday.

    The revelation came a day after the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said it was informed of a data breach affecting every person with a California concealed-carry permit.

    On Wednesday, the California Department of Justice said the leak was more extensive, affecting not only current permit holders but anybody who was granted or denied a permit to carry a concealed weapon between 2011 and 2021.

    The data were exposed when the Department of Justice updated its Firearms Dashboard Portal on Monday, state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office said in a statement.

    The information included names, dates of birth, gender, race, driver’s license numbers, addresses and criminal histories, according to the statement. Social Security numbers and financial information were not exposed.

    In addition to information from the concealed-carry permit applications, data on the Assault Weapon Registry, Handguns Certified for Sale, Dealer Record of Sale, Firearm Safety Certificate and Gun Violence Restraining Order dashboards were “also impacted,” Bonta’s office said, but authorities are investigating whether any personally identifiable information was exposed from those dashboards.

    They’re looking into it and promise strong action. Prediction: no one is responsible and no one is fired. And no one in the office is terribly upset.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  34. More from the same article:

    Leaked data puts thousands of people at risk, including judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers, said the firearms group, which called the breach “a massive violation of California law.”

    Since getting a CCW permit in the metropolitan areas is difficult, the most likely holders are ex-cops, judges and other court personnel. All of these folks take some effort to keep their personal information private (and state law makes their information generally inaccessible). I sure would not want to be a judge who sentenced gang murderers, and have my personal information released like this. After all, there’s a reason that CCW was granted.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  35. Can the people harmed by this data breach sue the California government?

    Will anybody be fired for it?

    I think we already know the answers.

    norcal (da5491)

  36. Be a b1tch if some of those toting judges in on the court of appeals.

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)

  37. *is

    Kevin M (eeb9e9)


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