FREE//GRATUITO
PUBLISHED BY ACCIÓN LATINA
Vol. 49 No. 23
November 21-December 4, 2019
PROMISING JUSTICE REFORM, CHESA BOUDIN UPSETS THE STATUS QUO CON UNA PROMETEDORA REFORMA A LA JUSTICIA, CHESA BOUDIN PERTURBA AL STATUS QUO Tyler Breisacher
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El Tecolote
A NEW DAWN A NEW D.A.
upporters of San Francisco’s District Attorney elect Chesa Boudin who hoped to celebrate a win on election night, instead had to wait four days for enough votes to be counted to be assured of a win. But the mood at El Rio on Saturday, Nov. 9 was electric, marking the end of a hard-fought race that drew national attention, and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Although Boudin received nearly 9,000 more first-place votes than his closest opponent, he only had about 36 percent of the vote overall. So San Francisco’s ranked-choice voting system kicked in, awarding votes to him or to his opponent, Suzy Loftus, according to voters’ second and third place choices. In the end, he won by just 2,831 votes. Among Boudin’s distinctive green and orange campaign signs, supporters at the party also wore shirts and buttons for other progressive candidates, such as Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, and Shahid Buttar, who is running to represent San Francisco in the House of Representatives. The energy that kept the party going for several hours “is putting wind in our sales,” as supporter Cody England put it. “This energy is going to transfer to progressive races in San Francisco and the Bay Area. We see pro- El fiscal de distrito electo, Chesa Boudin, y su prometida, Valerie Block, celebran la victoria en El Río, el 9 de noviembre de 2019. District Attorney elect gressivism winning, and it’s overdue Chesa Boudin and fiancee Valerie Block celebrate Boudin’s electoral victory at El Rio on Nov. 9, 2019. Photo: Beth LaBerge for San Francisco,” he added. District Attorney races don’t of- Tyler Breisacher ten get a lot of attention, but in this El Tecolote case, the victory party drew some big names, including former supervisor os partidarios del fiscal de disand mayoral candidate Jane Kim, trito de San Francisco electo, District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney, Chesa Boudin, quien esperaba and Black Lives Matter activist celebrar una victoria en la misma Shaun King. noche de las elecciones, tuvieron However, Boudin himself was que esperar cuatro días para que el missing for the first few hours. That’s conteo de votos fuera suficiente para because he was on a flight from New asegurar una victoria. Pero el estado York when the Department of Elec- de ánimo en El Río el sábado 9 de tions released the results showing noviembre fue vibrante, y marcó el that he had won. He was able to see final de una elección muy reñida que the results, and a flood of congratu- atrajo la atención nacional y cientos latory text messages, using the in- de miles de dólares. flight wifi. Many of those texts came Aunque Boudin recibió casi 9 mil through a Google Voice number. votos más que su oponente más cer“[Google’s systems] thought I was cano, solo tuvo alrededor del 36 por spamming because so many messag- ciento de los votos en general. Por lo es were going out. So while I was on tanto, el sistema de votación por orthe plane I actually lost one of my den de preferencia de San Francisco two numbers,” Boudin said. entró en acción, otorgándole votos a Boudin had been in New York él o a su oponente, Suzy Loftus, de to visit his father, who has been in acuerdo con las elecciones de segunprison for nearly Boudin’s entire do y tercer lugar de los votantes. Al life. That experience “caused Chesa final, ganó por solo 2,831 votos. to dedicate his career to making our Entre los distintivos carteles de country safer by reforming our crim- campaña de Boudin en verde y nainal justice system,” according to his ranja, sus partidarios también usaron campaign website. He’s promised to camisetas y pines para otros candi- Chesa Boudin saluda a Shaun King durante la celebración de su victoria llevada a cabo en El Río, el 9 de noviememphasize “restorative justice” (a datos progresistas, como el senador bre de 2019, mientras que el actor Jamal Trulove observa a la multitud. Ambos, King y Trulove, respaldaron e model of justice that focuses on re- y candidato presidencial Bernie San- hicieron proselitismo para Boudin, atrayendo la atención a nivel local y nacional. Chesa Boudin greets Shaun habilitating offenders through recon- ders y Shahid Buttar, que se postula King at his campaign’s victory party held at El Rio while local actor Jamal Trulove looks into the crowd. Both King and Trulove endorsed and campaigned for Boudin’s election bringing in local and national attention. Nov. 9, 2019. Photo: ciliation with victims and the greater Nick Derenzi
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See CHESA, page 10
Vea BOUDIN, página 10