SAN FRANCISCO—Former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon decided to give up his job in mid-October and try for the equivalent position in Los Angeles on March 3, the next local election day. It's likely that Gascon's move had little to do with the fact that he and three other Bay Area DAs were named as defendants in the Erotic Service Provider Legal, Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) lawsuit to overturn California's anti-prostitution laws, but who knows? Too bad that suit wasn't filed today, though, rather than four years ago, because the incoming district attortney, Chesa Boudin, might very well have offered to settle the case on terms favorable to the plaintiffs.
Boudin, who won the November 5 election by almost 9,000 votes over Suzy Loftus, who was appointed to the position last month by SF Mayor London Breed after Gascon resigned, ran on a platform of declining to prosecute "quality of life" crimes: illegal acts generally committed by people because of their social position of being homeless, drug-addicted ... or simply trying to put a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs by offering sexual services for a price.
"We will not prosecute cases involving quality-of-life crimes," he wrote in response to an American Civil Liberties Union pre-election questionnaire. "Crimes such as public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc., should not and will not be prosecuted. Many of these crimes are still being prosecuted; we have a long way to go to decriminalize poverty and homelessness." [Emphasis added]
Boudin knows a bit about how quality of life can affect a person's behavior. When he was 14 months old, his parents, Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, were convicted of armed robbery resulting in deaths back in 1981 soon after they'd left the radical left-wing political group the Weather Underground, and while mom was released after 22 years, dad will remain behind bars for life. Chesa Boudin was raised by Weather Underground founding members Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, both of whom became university professors. Chesa attended law school after college and found work as one of San Francisco's deputy public defenders before running for DA.
"Boudin’s term doesn’t officially begin until Jan. 1, so it’s unclear whether Loftus will stick around until her term expires or whether Breed will tap the voters’ choice to take over," noted San Francisco Chronicle journalist Evan Sernoffsky. "In a statement Sunday, the mayor’s office said it will work with Boudin and Loftus 'to ensure a smooth transition that works best for the district attorney’s office and the city.' Boudin said he didn’t know when his first official day will be, but he will use any time in between to begin building his team."
But aside from the fact that the San Francisco Police Officers' Association worked against his election, in part because Boudin opposes "gang enhancements," which greatly increase the penalty for crimes if a defendant is found to have participated in a street gang, and several conservative "news" outlets can't seem to get over the idea that Boudin won't put people in jail for peeing or pooping on the sidewalk, even sex workers themselves are wary of Boudin's promises.
"He [Boudin] told me he supports decrim of sex work, so we'll see," ESPLERP co-founder and working prostitute Maxine Doogan told AVN in an email. "Remember that time when Terence Hallinan was elected district attorney of San Francisco in 1996 and he said he wasn't going to enforce the prostitution laws—and the Mayor Willie Brown got mad and threatened him?
"Stepping up his pressure campaign against San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, Mayor Willie Brown said yesterday that he may ask for the creation of a joint federal-state-city task force to enforce drug and prostitution laws in the city," reported Cannabis News back in October of 2000.
"Let's hope the new DA doesn't face the same treatment from the current mayor, who might retaliate against him as he was not her pick for DA," Doogan added, noting that, "Also under 'progressive DA Hallinan' came the advent of the fake rehab/diversion programs for prostitutes and our clients under the guise of 'helping them exit'—a totally failed policy which has spread unchecked across the US like cancer."
But Boudin hasn't taken office yet, so it's too soon to presume what his policies will actually be, and how they may differ from his campaign promises. In fact, it's unclear when Boudin will assume his DA responsibilities—but one thing's for sure: Lots of people will be interested to see how liberal this son of "Weathermen" turns out to be.
