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Boudin: A Leopard Never Changes its Spots

February 1, 2020
Tony Montoya - SFPOA President

There’s the old saying, “a leopard never changes its spots.” Like most old sayings, there’s a lot of truth to them. This is certainly the case for our newly elected District Attorney, Chesa Boudin.

In just a few weeks, Mr. Boudin has shown that he is approaching his job as the top prosecutor like the criminal defense attorney he truly is. Nothing exemplifies this better than his decision to drop the charges against Jamaica Hampton for his violent, unprovoked attack on our officers.

I’ve been contacted by law enforcement leaders from across the country expressing their outrage over Boudin’s actions. And we haven’t just heard from the unions. San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia blasted Boudin’s decision as “shocking and despicable.” Unfortunately, our own Chief did not step up for us with like boldness.

No one is buying his lawyer double talk about protecting our officers’ rights during an investigation. The reality is if you’re the District Attorney in one of the nation’s largest cities, you should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Concurrent investigations are neither complicated nor unique.

I was proud to have so many SFPOA members stand with us, along with leaders from the San Jose Police Officers’ Association, the Los Angeles Police Protective League and UCOPS, a national law enforcement coalition SFPOA help found, to call out Mr. Boudin for his criminals first agenda. And to call for U.S. Attorney General Barr to intervene and do what Boudin won’t: prosecute violent criminals who attack cops.

But we know this is just the beginning with Boudin. In fact, he also let another suspect go who attacked our officers. Why? Well, because Mr. Boudin doesn’t feel that we should enforce the lie and sleep laws in our city, it’s acceptable for those suspects to assault officers. Even reach for our guns as happened in that case.

We intend on holding Boudin accountable for letting criminals go free. We launched a new website, www.BoudinBlunders.com, for officers or members of the public to let us know about criminals who are going uncharged so we can assess those cases and bring them to light.

All of Mr. Boudin’s early actions have been focused on increased sympathy for criminal suspects at the expense of crime victims and public safety. Whether it’s the elimination of cash bail for all, failing to file charges for violent crimes or letting cop attackers go free, we can see Boudin’s spots clear as day. They are definitely not changing.