Columns/Op-Eds
January 5, 2010
No Felon Should Have Body Armor
A California appeals court on Dec. 17 struck down our state's ban on violent felons possessing body armor. The court said that law was too confusing for the average violent felon to follow. Specifically, defendant Ethan Saleem, on parole for manslaughter and wearing a 10-pound bulletproof vest, couldn't be expected to know whether his particular brand of body armor was illegal or not. Read More
November 9, 2009
Kamala D. Harris: Finding the Path Back on Track
Einstein's definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. By that measure, our current approach to criminal justice may need a shrink -- and a new way of doing business. Read More
October 14, 2009
Truancy Costs us all
When Michael was in kindergarten, he missed more than 80 days of school. He was not ill and no one from Michael's family ever called to say why he was not attending school. Read More
October 8, 2009
Saving Public Reources and Protecting our Most Important Resource: Children
Education, public safety, and the economy: three vastly complex issue areas that time and again are proven to be inextricably linked. Read More
June 30, 2009
Commentary: Extreme vigilance needed to combat loan scams
Across California, a new scam is cropping up.
It goes something like this: A homeowner falls behind on his mortgage and soon thereafter receives a letter from a company promising to help him get a modification of his mortgage. Over time, the homeowner ends up paying hefty fees of $3,000 to the company, and waits, having been instructed not to contact his lender and thinking his mortgage problems are being resolved.
Read More
September 24, 2008
Why prosecute parents of chronically truant students?
Combating truancy is a smart approach to crime prevention. As the city’s chief prosecutor, I sent every parent of a San Francisco Unified School District student a letter at the beginning of the 2007-08 school year explaining that I was prepared to prosecute parents if they broke the law by keeping their children out of school. Read More
October 7, 2007
Absence and Perdition
For many of us, the first question asked at the dinner table while growing up often was, "What did you learn in school today?" The reality is far from that today for many San Francisco children. The reality is that too many of the city's children are failing to get an education, simply because they are not attending school on a regular basis. Chronic school absence is profoundly impacting the future of San Francisco's children as well as the safety of our communities. Read More
May 13, 2007
Courting the Community
On any given day, take a walk in the Tenderloin, Civic Center or South of Market, and you will see the same problems that have plagued our neighborhoods for decades: drugs, theft, prostitution, auto break-ins and aggressive panhandling. Has the justice system forgotten about these neighborhoods? No. But the fact is that low-level offenders cycle through the system, at a cost to the city of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The result? Offenders don't get the life-saving help they need, victims lose faith in the justice system, and neighbors have to live in a dangerous and frightening environment. Read More
February 28, 2007
Law Enforcement's Real Battles
OPINION In order to be smart on crime, law enforcement needs to make important choices about where to focus our resources. Unfortunately, the Bush administration has been making poor choices, and those choices are hitting home in San Francisco. Read More
February 18, 2007
State prison crisis comes home -- daily
In any California town, on any given day, the crisis in our state prisons comes home. Every day, former offenders are released from prison with no plan and few skills, ill prepared to live crime-free in the real world. Reentering our communities and reoffending in such massive numbers, they have emerged as the primary threat to public safety in California. Read More
October 10, 2006
A Real War on Crime
Once again, with their backs against the wall, Republicans are attempting to stave off political defeat in November by playing to Americans' fears about safety and security. Central to the conservative playbook for years has been the lie that progressives cannot keep our communities safe. The reality is that the current, shortsighted approach to public safety, which touts punishment without rehabilitation, has been a failure. Read More
July 11, 2006
Close Prison's Revolving Door
ONE STAGGERING fact risks being overlooked in California's debate over prison reform: 90 percent of state prisoners will return to our neighborhoods sooner or later. And after they come back, more than half of them will go straight back to prison within two years, most for committing more crimes. The surge of repeat offenders returning from jails and prisons is emerging as the most urgent threat to public safety in California. Read More
May 10, 2006
No Fear
LAST THURSDAY, a courageous young man was murdered in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood. Terrell Rollins was only 22 years old. Taking a stand against the violence in his community, he bravely came forward and testified about a murder he witnessed last year. Read More
February 23, 2006
Earning Freedom in This Generation
“Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation.” Perhaps no one knew the truth of those words better than the woman who spoke them—Coretta Scott King. An icon in the fight for justice and equal rights, King lived to see the achievement of many victories in that struggle. Yet, as her words reflect, she knew that much remained to done Read More
February 9, 2006
Help for Victims and Witnesses of Crime
Residents in every neighborhood in our city want and deserve neighborhoods that are safe for families, children and the elderly. To accomplish that goal, we must build strong bonds of trust with communities while at the same time removing dangerous and repeat offenders from the streets. The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has made combating and preventing violent crime a top priority. We are sending more violent and serious offenders to prison. Read More
July 22, 2005
Putting the Merchants of Exploitation Out of Business
June 15, 2005
Safe Medical Pot
May 24, 2005
Ending the Modern Day Slave Trade
December 15, 2004
Protecting children
September 10, 2004
Homeland Security Begins at Home
April 23, 2004