San Francisco's criminal justice system is under scrutiny on multiple fronts: a judge just released the killer of 84-year-old Grandpa Vicha Ratanapakdee on probation after pretrial credit math made prison time impossible, while SF's courts have gone five years without reporting a single data point to the state and resolve only 32% of cases filed. Meanwhile, new research reinforces what Oakland's Ceasefire program proved in practice—less than 0.5% of a city's population drives the majority of its violence, raising hard questions about whether San Francisco is targeting the right people at all.
Violent offenders are flooding a program designed for petty crimes. Public defenders call it "treatment." The numbers call it fraud.
Feb. 4 deadline looms. If qualified attorneys don't file to run, voters won't even get a choice.
Californians voted for public safety. The state legislature decided their votes don't count.
The Feb. 4 deadline to challenge soft-on-crime judges is days away—and almost no one has stepped up.
State lawmakers gutted accountability for youth crime. Now kids are shooting classmates and beating tourists.
After five years, Vicha Ratanapakdee's family learns their father's life was "negotiable." Six hours of deliberation was all it took.
Video shows Watson running full-speed into 84-year-old Vicha. He walks after 5 years. This is progressive justice.
Antoine Watson shoved an 84-year-old to his death, photographed the body, and got involuntary manslaughter. Welcome to San Francisco.
Judge Begert awarded diversion to a man with 18 burglaries. He didn't even show up to court. This is what "following the law" looks like.
Judge Begert diverted armed robbers and attempted murderers into "treatment." Now a homicide prosecutor is taking over.