San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin has tried to present his soft-on-crime policies as the result of his upbringing, with both of his parents being incarcerated. But Boudin’s parents were not victims of an unforgiving justice system. They were terrorists.
60 Minutes tried to portray Boudin as a sympathetic figure, saying that “few prosecutors have been directly touched by incarceration” as Boudin had. Boudin leans into the sympathy as well, talking about how his earliest memories are having to go through metal detectors “just to give them a hug.” Boudin’s parents, according to him, were simply unarmed getaway drivers.
Few prosecutors have been as directly touched by incarceration as San Francisco’s new DA, Chesa Boudin. When he was a toddler, his far-left activist parents were imprisoned for their part in a fatal heist. His mother served 22 years. His father’s still in. https://t.co/OzEMZRYTMV pic.twitter.com/7ZsVDGDuve
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 29, 2021
In 1981, David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, both members of the terrorist organization the Weather Underground, left their 14-month-old son Chesa with a babysitter to take part in a historically infamous armed robbery and killing — the planned heist of a Brinks armored truck. Other members of the heist killed Brinks guard Peter Paige and police officers Edward O’Grady and Waverly Brown.
Gilbert and Kathy Boudin were not victims: Paige, O’Grady, Brown, and their families were. Gilbert and Boudin were terrorists who took part in a planned armed robbery. They knew the possible outcomes and took part in it anyway. Gilbert showed no remorse during the trial. Boudin took a plea deal that saw her serve 22 years in prison, after which she landed a cushy job at Columbia University, which she holds to this day.
David Gilbert is still in prison, right where he belongs. Chesa Boudin has been seeking his release, saying, “This is just a question about how do we balance retribution against other social interests.”
That just about sums up the damaging worldview that Boudin has brought to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. Justice is now considered “retribution” in San Francisco, where Boudin has overseen a drop in the rate of felony prosecutions. Burglaries, arson, motor vehicle theft, and shootings have all risen significantly in San Francisco, while Boudin has been preoccupied with emptying the city’s jails during the pandemic.
It is surely difficult for any child to grow up with even one parent in prison, let alone both. But Chesa Boudin is now responsible for upholding the rule of law in San Francisco. That he bases his damaging policies on his past experience, when both of his parents were terrorists who belonged in prison, shows that he still isn’t up for the job.
