San Franciscans Recall Leftist Boudin, Who Says, 'We Have Already Won'

(CNSNews.com) – San Franciscans — tired of their soft-on-crime District Attorney Chesa Boudin — sent him packing in Tuesday’s recall election.

San Francisco is overwhelmingly Democrat, but nevertheless, about 60 percent of voters opted to boot Boudin.

On Tuesday night, a defiant Boudin blamed “right-wing billionaires” for his recall and explained why “we have already won.”

“I want to be very clear about what happened tonight,” Boudin told his supporters.

“The right-wing billionaires outspent us 3 to 1. They exploited an environment in which people are appropriately upset…They were given an opportunity to voice their frustration and their outrage and they took that opportunity,” he said.

(Boudin blamed two years of COVID, corruption at city hall, poverty and injustice for people’s frustrations.)

Boudin urged his enthusiastic supporters to repeat after him three times the following phrases and words: “We are not afraid…justice…is on our side…Our cause…is righteous…and we have already won.”

Except — Boudin lost his job.

But nevertheless, Boudin went on to explain why “we have already won.”

“We have already won because we are part of a national movement that recognizes we can never incarcerate our way out of poverty.

“We have already won because we have shown San Francisco and the world that we do not need to rely on fear-mongering or exploitation to build safety.

“We have already won because even as our juvenile incarceration population fell by 50 percent, and our adult jail population fell by 40 percent, and our state prison population out of San Francisco County fell by 30 percent, our crime rate stayed flat or declined.

“We have already won because instead of resorting to mass incarceration, we resorted to mass referrals to drug treatment programming and mental health services.

“We have already won because we recognized the importance of making sure that every single person who is a victim of crime, no matter what language they speak, no matter what country they were born in, no matter how old they are, no matter what kinds of injuries they suffered, deserve services and care and support and love.

“We have already won, because we recognize that to build safety we must think about what happens after someone’s sentence is served — we must have re-entry planning.

“We have already won because we have redefined the way that people think about the role of the District Attorney’s Office. We represent the people…when we stand up in court, when we fight for justice.

“It is not just about protecting the rich and powerful. It is about protecting everybody in this great City of St. Francis. And that is something that we are all going to continue to fight for…”

Boudin admitted he’s “made mistakes” and “learned a lot,” although he did not specify.

He also referred to “the dangers of recalls and the ways in which they undermine our democracy and take power and choice away from others.”

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