Monday Schadenfreude: Chesa Boudin gets religion on shoplifting
There's nothing like a smarmy, smug leftist who's realized he's cooked his own goose.
That brings us to the case of Chesa Boudin, the district attorney of San Francisco, who's effectively legalized shoplifting in the name of "criminal justice reform." He's prompted massive store closures with ugly videos of broad-daylight robberies on large and small stores. Boudin's refusal to prosecute has turned San Francisco into another socialist crime pit, Caracas. And now, like his mentor Hugo Chávez, he's facing a voter recall.
This seems to be concentrating his mind, given that he's suddenly changing his tune — and comically enough, fooling no one.
Here's his tweet condemning the brazen open-air robbery on the Louis Vuitton boutique on tony Union Square:
I'm outraged by the looting in Union Square last night. We are seeing similar crimes across the country. I have a simple message: don't bring that noise to our City.
— Chesa Boudin хНЪх╛╣цАЭ (@chesaboudin) November 20, 2021
Great work by SFPD.
Standby for felony charges.
In that raid, organized criminals smashed and grabbed virtually all the merchandise and left the shop a ruin.
Louis Vuitton San Francisco, Union square got cleared out!! pic.twitter.com/7Sz6rlRo8n
— Da Juan (@CARLITOSGUEY) November 20, 2021
At first glance I thought this was people knocked to the ground.
— Dion Lim (@DionLimTV) November 20, 2021
Reality: Louis Vuitton was cleared out by robbers Friday night.
I passed Burberry where about a dozen maybe more were starting to vandalize/break in.
Windows at FENDI & YSL were broken too. #SanFrancisco pic.twitter.com/cVsstKTIg2
Apparently, they attacked other tony boutiques, too, picking them clean. Police arrived and arrested the last few coming out the door, but local news reports that most of them got away:
The @LouisVuitton store at @UnionSquareSF “got emptied out,” says @yealenne. Broken glass litters the store. Most of the thieves got away in multiple cars… pic.twitter.com/VztNFMby2t
— Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) November 20, 2021
San Francisco's Union Square was raided last night. ЁЯШФ
— Michelle Tandler ЁЯФж (@michelletandler) November 20, 2021
+ Louis Vuitton robbed clean
+ 80 people reported looting Bloomingdale's
+ Attempted break-ins at Yves St. Laurent, Burberry, & Hermes
To return to Chesa's tweet, well, that doesn't sound like the Chesa we know, perpetually blaming poverty and racism for this kind of crime, yakking on about "ending incarceration" and the "prison industrial complex." He does his part to advance "social justice" by refusing to prosecute perpetrators. What's happened, though, is that small perpetrators have grown into monsters, organized thievery rings, and they are expanding operations. Around the time Union Square was emptied out, organized thieves targeted the Walnut Creek Nordstrom, which I know since I've shopped there myself, is an easy BART trip away.
Here's the other thing: Boudin has up until now stated that he's letting the little guys go so he can focus on taking down the big guys, the organized crime rings, kind of the same way Joe Biden says his ICE will take down only organized human-smuggling rings and ignore individual illegals.
How's that going? Seems the organized rings have grown more bold and powerful based on this policy, very comparable to the leftists who refuse to recognize the wisdom of the "broken window policy," which brooks no small crimes because doing so fosters big ones. Rudy Giuliani, who cleaned up New York in the 1990s, proved that flawlessly.
Now, with the recall on, there's the sorry spectacle of Chesa trying to change his tune, quite unsuccessfully, showing no recognition for his role in the catastrophe. That's led to a full-blown ratio of sarcasm, cynicism, incredulousness, and sheer loathing from Twitterati. Here's a sample:
1/ This is the stupidity of the tweet. You make it seem like you just discover there is looting in SF. It’s been there for a long time now and enhanced by your embrace of shoplifting and terrible prosecutorial record. You’re outraged? Really? How many shoplifters have you …
— Vincent Au (@VincentAuGondor) November 21, 2021
Louis Vuitton in San Francisco got hit. 1 guy is wearing 2 masks. Cops actually end up arresting some of the thieves. But Chesa Boudin is the DA so they probably wont face any real punishment pic.twitter.com/DJHZyHJzg8
— Nuance Bro (@NuanceBro) November 20, 2021
Don’t worry, @chesaboudin will make sure these brave cops are prosecuted and that the thieves are given serious counseling #sanfrancisco https://t.co/5RlI4T8bTX
— jason@calacanis.com (@Jason) November 20, 2021
I’m a Chesa Boudin supporter, here is my daily routine:
— Alex Cohen (@anothercohen) November 21, 2021
7am: Wake up, put my ski mask and hoodie on. Dressed and ready for the day
7:30am: Hit Walgreens. We found a store still open and stole $750 of goods
8am: Hit our second Walgreens. Me and the boys took the cash register
Louis Vuitton vs Chesa Boudin.
— Safe Embarcadero For Recall Chesa (@EmbarcaderoSafe) November 20, 2021
I go with LV, and #recallChesaBoudin https://t.co/2fP7Aive8M
Knock it off, @chesaboudin has legalized looting, pilferage, shoplifting. You folks know that, you endorsed his candidacy. https://t.co/7A7DkILcxK
— Milo™ (@chasbottom) November 21, 2021
Super hot take: today is the first day I'm glad Chesa Boudin is our DA, as it may stifle some of the looting. Seeing as how those looters represent his devout base, and they wouldn't want to get their Crime King in trouble before his recall vote. So we may be okay on this one.
— George Denny (@GeorgePDenny) November 21, 2021
Weird, we’re not seeing crimes like that in Florida. Maybe it has something to do with the leadership of the department that punishes people for bad behavior?
— Robert McLaws (@robertmclaws) November 20, 2021
Thinking charging someone AFTER 100 thefts is a sign of progress ЁЯджтЩВя╕П @safersfnoboudin
— Aditya Bhavnani (@AdityaBhavnani) November 17, 2021
Too late, comrade. You’ve done so much damage and talking tough now ain’t gonna cut it. We’ve been Chesa’d… pic.twitter.com/ONxeo0jFdN
— Myles Pynchon (@MylesPynchon) November 20, 2021
The America-loving side of me hates watching our cities descend into uninhabitable hellscapes.
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) November 21, 2021
The other part of me is rather enjoying people getting what they voted for. https://t.co/WWQyqS6dIF
San Francisco DA @chesaboudin was swept into office promising ultra-progressive reforms. This is how it's shaken out: pic.twitter.com/vuZQWTq7uY
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) November 12, 2021
Apparently, something has concentrated young Chesa's mind. Why do I think that? Well, not just because it doesn't sound like him, but because as he tweets what he tweets now, these two groups of characters are still around. Here's the first group — the internet "influencers" calling for more loot fests:
Footage of Louis Vuitton in Union Square of San Francisco getting emptied. Look at how chill they are.
— Jenny, Girl from 4th ЁЯМН, щД░чЩ╜х╗вчЙй ЁЯжН (@JennyChachan) November 20, 2021
I could’ve been physically able to do this. Call me next time! pic.twitter.com/8maf4x6PPy
@ NYC, i say we start at soho around 10? pls lmk https://t.co/SS8MjYpiQx
— niggasbebrokeokayy (@khilanii) November 20, 2021
I hope like anything they are joking, but I see no indication of it. These are the "they have insurance" crowd.
There's also the press, particularly the San Francisco Chronicle, which seems to have made it its mission to advocate for all the old Soros arguments about poverty causing crime, along with many other arguments put forward in its pages suggesting that crime ain't so bad in San Francisco.
OPINION: As the pandemic made clear, poverty is the root of crime. Throwing the book at every shoplifter doesn’t work. The people behind the Chesa Boudin recall effort know this — or should, columnist Justin Phillips writes. https://t.co/Ur918GmLL0
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) November 14, 2021
They're still out there, but Chesa's singing a new tune.
What a spectacle this is getting to be now that Dr. Chesa-stein's crime monster has gotten out of its cage. The monster is out, and unlike them, Chesa can see that it's coming after Chesa.
Image: Twitter screen shot.
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