Ex-San Francisco prosecutor says lawless city’s crime stats ‘are worse than the data shows’
A former San Francisco prosecutor says the city’s crime is worse than the data shows, as police evade arrests while the “pro-criminal” district attorney fails to act.
Charles Cully Stimson said the public is reluctant to report crimes and police are hesitant to make arrests because they know District Attorney Brooke Jenkins will not prosecute.
In July 2022, San Fran mayor named Brooke Jenkins, outspoken critic of ousted DA Chesa Boudin, as his replacement, saying her choice was the right person to pursue criminal justice reform while holding offenders accountable.
Voters in the famously liberal city kicked out the politically progressive Boudin in a special recall election a month earlier. Jenkins, who left Boudin’s office in 2021 to volunteer for the recall, is both black and Latina. She is San Francisco’s first Latina district attorney. Vice President Kamala Harris was the city’s first black district attorney.
While the city’s residents continue to wage a seemingly never-ending battle against criminals, it recently came to light with the murder of Cash App CEO Bob Lee and the brutal broad daylight attack on the city’s former fire commissioner.
Brooke Jenkins has been the troubled town’s district attorney for less than a year, replacing the equally progressive Chesa Boudin
Former San Francisco prosecutor Charles “Cully” Stimson said police are hesitant to make arrests because they know the current “pro-criminal” district attorney won’t prosecute
Stimson suggested that San Francisco’s crime statistics are even worse than the numbers suggest
Stimson points the finger at former District Attorney George Gascon, who served between 2011 and 2019, as the city’s number one problem.
He says the San Francisco crime problem really took off between 2015 and 2016 as a result of Gascon’s controversial policies.
“That policy includes not prosecuting crimes, decreasing most crimes to misdemeanors, not asking for long prison terms even for people convicted of the worst crimes, and never asking for bail,” Stimson said.
Citing Justice Department data, Stimson said there were an average of 151 rapes per year when Gascon took office. In 2019, the number exploded to 346 per year.
“You always know with rape … the number of people who have actually been raped is much higher than the number of people who report being raped,” Stimson added.
Aggravated assaults also rose from 2,300 a year to about 2,600 during Gascon’s tenure.
Stimson also pointed to both Gascon’s and Boudin’s policies not to prosecute shoplifting.
“You’ve seen the videos of people just discounting with five fingers, walking into Target, walking into Nordstrom Rack… and just walking out in daylight with stuff worth $950. They refused to prosecute any of that,” police said.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin addresses supporters on election night in June 2022
Organic food giant Whole Foods opened a new ‘flagship’ location on Trinity Place in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood in March 2022
A Whole Foods spokesperson said the store was closed last night due to staff safety concerns amid rampant drug use, theft and aggressive behavior in the area
Stimson went on to address other issues facing San Francisco, including its status as a sanctuary city, the rise of the police movement, and major retailers, including Whole Foods and Walgreens, fleeing crime because of crime.
In the end, Stimson was hopeful, saying more arrests are happening and tent camps where crimes are happening are closing.
“But it’s still a safe haven, so illegal aliens, who represent a large percentage of those arrested, are not handed over to ICE even after being convicted,” he reluctantly admitted.
San Francisco Police Officers Association vice president Lt. Tracy McCray has said the neighborhood where Cash App founder Bob Lee was killed has witnessed at least 12 homicides this year alone.
The city’s Southern and Tenderloin counties, which have seen rising crime rates this year, have seen four stabbing incidents in the past week alone, including Lee’s.
‘We are understaffed, so only our presence on patrols is currently seriously lacking. It is to be expected that crime will see some increase, but I think we are now at an abyss where we can go one way or the other,” McCray said.
Last week, San Francisco was rocked by the brutal murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee, pictured
Disturbing cell phone footage shared via a local neighborhood app shows a man wandering the nearby area with a metal crowbar in hand prior to the attack on Don Carmignani
Lee, 43, was stabbed several times in the chest at 2:35 a.m. as he walked through the Rincon Hill neighborhood, in the Southern District, close to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
McCray says police are understaffed and the entire neighborhood is now at a tipping point.
A day later, the former San Francisco fire chief was brutally attacked with a metal crowbar just steps from his mother’s front door.
Disturbing cell phone footage shows a man wandering the nearby area with a metal crowbar in hand, though police have yet to confirm he is the attacker.
Don Carmignani, 53, was fighting for his life in hospital after the gruesome beating on April 5.
Friends close to the victim claim he was targeted by a “group of homeless people” as he left his mother’s home just outside the city’s Marina District.
Carmignani – who served as fire commissioner in 2013 – was reportedly slashed with a knife and had his skull fractured by the pipe.
His family has since decided to flee the city, friends say. Carmignani is expected to make a full recovery.
Boudin had been the target of a multimillion-dollar recall by residents who say San Francisco has become an increasingly unsafe place to live.
Many recallers were Democrats in a city where Republicans are a clear minority. But the election is having repercussions beyond San Francisco, with national polls showing Americans growing concerned about violent crime.
Boudin was elected district attorney in San Francisco in 2019 and pledged to implement criminal justice reforms to keep minor offenders out of jail and spare young people from long prison terms.
His critics blame those policies for an increase in murders, shootings and property crimes, as well as a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans and ubiquitous open-air drug markets.
His defenders say the spike was a function of the pandemic, noting that crime is returning to levels that existed before. They claim the city’s growing homeless population has distorted some residents’ sense of security.