D.A.s Jenkins, Price fighting for different victims
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins was elected last fall on a wave of voter discontent over the way things had been going under her progressive predecessor, Chesa Boudin. The story was different one county over, where progressive civil rights attorney Pamela Price defeated her moderate opponent to become Alameda County’s first Black district attorney.
In their 2022 campaigns, Jenkins, who is Black and Latina, and Price portrayed themselves as victims’ rights champions. Each is delivering in radically different ways.
And so far, only Price is showing that the families of people killed by police are victims, too.
On Jan. 31, Price announced she would reopen investigations into eight officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths to determine whether charges should be filed.
Jenkins, meanwhile, hasn’t announced any new investigations since taking office, and recently signaled her intent to drop a high-profile police killing probe that has been limping along for more than five years.
The case in question revolves around former San Francisco police Officer Christopher Samayoa, who was on his fourth day on the job when he fatally shot unarmed Keita O’Neil, a carjacking suspect, during a police chase in December 2017.
Boudin charged Samayoa with manslaughter after taking office in 2020, nine days before the statute of limitations was set to expire. The case is believed to be the first in San Francisco history where an officer was charged for an on-duty killing.
In a letter this month to Attorney General Rob Bonta, Jenkins said she intended to drop the prosecution, claiming it was filed by Boudin for “political reasons.”
But that isn’t how O’Neil’s aunt, April Green, sees it. In a phone call with me last week, she condemned Jenkins’ decision and said, “It isn’t fair, and it isn’t justice.”
Jenkins’ decision is not only unjust; it’s a dereliction of one of her duties as the progressive D.A. she professes to be, which is to ensure police are helping Black and brown folks, not harming them.
Price’s decision to review a number of police-related deaths elicited a mixed-bag of responses from law enforcement agencies. The Oakland Police Officers’ Association called the revisiting of shootings in 2007 and 2008 “ridiculous”; and the Pleasanton Police Officers Association claimed nothing new would be learned by conducting a second review of a 2022 shooting. At least seven organizations focused on police accountability applauded Price’s announcement.
But a different high-profile decision, related to her campaign pledge to introduce compassionate sentencing to a local justice system that has long functioned without it, has drawn sharper debate.
On Feb. 9, Price withdrew murder charges for Delonzo Logwood, who was accused of killing Richard Carter in a 2008 Oakland carjacking. As The Chronicle reported, the resulting plea deal struck down a lengthy list of felony charges by prosecutors working under Price’s predecessor Nancy O’Malley, carrying the possibility of life sentences for Logwood and co-defendant Dijon Holifield. Instead, Price charged Logwood with voluntary manslaughter in the July 1, 2008, shooting death of Eric Ford at a gas station in Fruitvale.
Carter’s mother called the dismissal of charges related to her son’s killing “unjust.”
Black and brown neighborhoods affected by crime and mass incarceration, in a county where 70% of residents are not white, are a big reason Price prevailed with 53% of the vote to 47% for Chief Assistant District Attorney Terry Wiley, who was popular in the suburbs and held the fundraising advantage.
Three years prior, Black and brown neighborhoods in San Francisco, which is 60% nonwhite, helped Boudin edge interim District Attorney Suzy Loftus by the slimmer margin of 51% to 49%. The Chronicle reported these same neighborhoods voted against Boudin in the recall last summer, which shows that San Francisco’s communities of color are no longer as enamored with radically progressive policies as Alameda’s seem to be.
Jenkins was a leader in the recall movement against Boudin. Mayor London Breed appointed her as Boudin’s replacement in July.
By August, Jenkins had ordered a review of dozens of drug cases in which the office extended plea offers under Boudin; restaffed the office’s Victim Services Division, which helps crime victims and their families navigate legal proceedings; and put in place a number of new policies, including one that would let prosecutors pursue harsher sentences for people dealing drugs within 1,000 feet of schools.
“In San Francisco ... most people have become extremely fed up with the drug dealing, with public drug use and they are calling for something different than perhaps what they were calling for five or even 10 years ago,” Jenkins said during a recent University of San Francisco Law School panel on the future of prosecution in America.
Despite the blowback they’ve taken, Price and Jenkins are keeping their word about fighting for victims. The key difference between them, so far: Jenkins has an outmoded and restricted standard for victimhood, whereas Price applies a broader definition that could make the justice system fairer for everyone, even if some folks, understandably, can’t quite embrace her vision just yet.