Antoine Watson, convicted of killing 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee, walked free from a San Francisco courtroom this week after Judge Linda Colfax sentenced him to time already served — a mathematically predictable outcome driven by California's 2-for-1 pretrial credit rule and a four-year sentencing cap on involuntary manslaughter. The case has reignited debate over how San Francisco's courts handle violent crime, from prosecution decisions to judicial philosophy, against a backdrop of other recent incidents — a Chinatown stabbing two days before Lunar New Year and a civil lawsuit over a parole system that allegedly told agents to stop looking for violations before two women were killed.
SF Superior Court Judge Linda Colfax has a proven track record of giving violent criminals light sentences.
A San Francisco judge just suspended the sentence of the man who killed an 84-year-old Asian grandfather in cold blood. This is the state of "justice" in the city.
Antoine Watson slammed into an 84-year-old man, left him dying on the pavement, and fled. Five years later, the system hands him the exit door.
An Asian American man was stabbed in broad daylight two days before Lunar New Year. The mayor's bodyguards got press coverage. He got bystanders who kept walking.
Now a civil rights lawsuit names the officials who told parole agents to look the other way.
A man caught with a loaded gun got diversion and a homework assignment. 36 days later, someone was dead.
The billionaire claiming to ‘always stand with labor’ made millions from private prisons and other aggressively anti‑union investments
California labor law says unions can only strike after completing the impasse process. UESF skipped the steps and called a strike anyway.
The SF Latinx Democratic Club reinstated its leader after sexual assault allegations—then fled the SF Dem party when Nancy Tung called for accountability
Violent offenders are flooding a program designed for petty crimes. Public defenders call it "treatment." The numbers call it fraud.