SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Matt Dorsey, the newest city supervisor, announced yesterday he has become the second to endorse the recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin, which San Franciscans will be voting on next week.
In an op/ed for SF Gate Tuesday, Dorsey — who as District 6 supervisor represents south of Market on the board — said he came to his decision “as someone who identifies as an addict and alcoholic, and who has spent most of my adult life in recovery.”
Dorsey said Boudin’s quote in The Washington Post that “most of the residents [of the Tenderloin] I speak with aren’t particularly upset that there are drug sales happening there,” “has forced his allies and potential allies into the unenviable position of defending the indefensible.”
“It’s bad enough for San Franciscans to feel our own concerns ignored or minimized,” Dorsey wrote. “It’s worse to consider how the words of San Francisco’s chief elected law enforcement official might be emboldening those who traffic deadly drugs and engage in dangerous criminal conduct on our neighborhoods’ streets.”
Dorsey wrote that Boudin’s remark that “I need the police department to bring me kilos, not crumbs” harkened back to a time before “‘crumbs’ as deadly as fentanyl” filled the city’s streets. He also wrote that the police subsequently have found kilos of fentanyl but, citing a report in the San Francisco Standard, said that Boudin “did not secure a single conviction for possession with the intent to sell fentanyl among the cases he prosecuted in 2021.”
Almost 1,400 San Franciscans died of drug overdoses in 2020 and 2021 (711 and 645 in each year, respectively, compared to 441 in 2019 and 259 in 2018).
Boudin did not respond to a request for comment for this report as of press time.
Dorsey’s op/ed acknowledges that to some his stand will be seen as a foregone conclusion, having served as the San Francisco Police Department’s head of strategic communications immediately before he was tapped for the board of supervisors for Mayor London Breed last month following the ascension of Supervisor Matt Haney to the California State Assembly.
The SFPD has frequently been in conflict with Boudin’s administration. Boudin blasted the police for using DNA from rape kits to connect victims to crimes, and the SFPD ended a memorandum of understanding between it and the district attorney’s office after a DA investigator testified they were pressured to sign an incomplete affidavit against a police officer.
Dorsey is the second supervisor to endorse the recall, after District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani, who represents the Marina.
Breed has not taken a stand on the recall.
Mary Jung, the chair of the Safer SF Without Boudin recall campaign, thanked Dorsey for his endorsement.
“We’re grateful for Supervisor Dorsey’s leadership and support,” Jung stated to KRON4. “The supervisor’s case for why he’s supporting the recall of DA Boudin is rock solid. We have a fentanyl, drug dealing, and overdose crisis in San Francisco that Chesa does not take seriously. Actions speak louder than words and Boudin failed to earn a single conviction in 2021 for dealing fentanyl despite nearly 500 deaths from this deadly drug that’s wreaking havoc in our communities. San Franciscans know we can have smart criminal justice reforms and public safety for all. That’s why diverse communities across our City are backing Yes on H and we’re working everyday to ensure Chesa’s last day in office is June 7.”