Kapala Devi Harris frequently points to her time as a counsel as evidence that she is a strong advocate for public health. And since she is so glad of her history, if elected president, she will try to implement the same procedures she tried before. But the truth is that her disastrous policies as the San Francisco district attorney ( DA ) increased crime, freed murderers, and cost lives.
From 2004 to 2010, Harris served as DA in San Francisco. The violent crime rate in San Francisco increased by 19 % in her first year, an upward trend that lasted for the duration of her rule. Her laws, implemented and proposed, drew condemnation from longtime law enforcement authorities.
Former San Francisco attorney Jim Hammer, who worked in the district attorney’s office just before Harris was sworn in, wrote a withering 2006 newspaper in SFGate criticizing her lenient plea deals for violent offenders. He described case after case where violent criminals immediately left prisons and offended once, harming more sufferers.
Hammer made reference to Dwayne Reed, who with six prior criminal convictions, agreed to serve only five years in prison for his role in the death of a man and testified against the other murderer in exchange for his plea deal. Under Harris ‘ course, Reed was released just two weeks after speaking. Hammer wrote that Reed murdered another person in another state just eight months later, and he was found guilty and eventually given a life sentence.
Scott McAlpin, a lifelong domestic violence criminal, got a petition deal that got him out of jail in less than a month. A few months after his discharge, he murdered Anastasia Melnitchenko,” the girl he had constantly terrorized, finally dumping her body in a vehicle trunk”, Hammer related.
In a 2006 meeting on” San Francisco/unscripted”, Hammer talked about criminal James McKinnon, who killed a gentleman, placed the figure in the man’s shower, and moved into the victim’s residence. According to Hammer, who was aware of the case from working in the DA’s office, McKinnon was spending the victim’s wealth and had a minute victim, an old man from whom he was taking income.
” When I was in the DA’s office, we demanded life in prison”, Hammer said in the discussion. When she was sworn in, Harris next took over the investigation. In exchange for a guilty appeal to the death, Mckinnon received a plea bargain, the lesser cost of deliberate murder, and six years in prison ( including time served while awaiting trial ). She also agreed to waive the charges against the old target. Two years later, he was granted parole.
” Tough on crime” is just another battle exist. Harris has really been weak on murder and sought to completely criminals, with no regard for public security, victims ‘ rights, or important justice.
Freeing Drug Retailers
Hammer was speaking out in 2006 to warn the public about a radical program Harris was developing to relieve San Francisco medication dealers on their first and second acts and just prosecute them if they were caught dealing drugs a second time.  ,  ,  ,
The intention is to” send a message to criminals that, even if they are detained by San Francisco police, they have a good chance of being freed when the district attorney declines to file charges,” Hammer wrote. ” Many homicides are directly related to turf wars and drug dealing,” he said. While some crimes are indeed challenging to prosecute, aggressively prosecuting the most dangerous drug dealers is a proven method to stop violence.
Heather Fong, the police chief in San Francisco, sent Harris a letter on October 24, 2005, causing concern about the plan.
” This proposal asks us not to arrest, but instead detain and release observed narcotics sales suspects”, Fong wrote. Your office would then file all three counts when the same suspect is detained the third time for narcotics sales. The plan was discussed at a meeting where Fong said that the benefits of the proposal were triple the amount of evidence needed for prosecution, increased bail, and reduced costs for housing inmates because drug dealers would be operating on the street rather than in jail.
In Fong’s letter, it was important to take into account the negative effects of such a strategy, such as narcotics sellers being released back onto the streets soon after being arrested and having no immediate negative effects from their illegal actions.
Fong warned of an increase in” commuter crime,” or” commuter criminals coming to San Francisco from outside of town to practice their trade where they are aware they can sell drugs without penalties. It would result in even more drug sales and rival drug dealers fighting over turf, which would increase the level of violent crime.
Fong claimed that her department had turned down the program.
Fong currently serves as an acting assistant secretary for the Office for State and Local Law Enforcement and as a senior counselor for law enforcement for the Biden-Harris administration under DHS Secretary Mayorkas.
Conviction Rates
Harris may sound like an airhead without a clue when she speaks, but there is a dangerous, criminal-friendly agenda behind her professed” tough on crime” policies.
For instance, her website‘s presidential agenda promises to” Make our communities safer from gun violence and crime.” As proof that she can make that happen, her agenda crows,” During her time as district attorney, she raised conviction rates for violent offenders — including gang members, gun felons, and domestic abusers”. Of course, that does n’t mean violent criminals did n’t get out of prison fast and reoffend.
Raised conviction rates, that sounds good. And sure, compared to the previous district attorney, Terence Hallinan, who had a 49 percent conviction rate for murder, rape, robbery, and assault cases, Harris did raise conviction rates, winning 55 percent of the murder trials her office brought. However, her rate was still comparatively low given that rates were running at 83 percent at the time in California, according to a report from the San Francisco Weekly.
But conviction rates do n’t tell the entire story, Hammer said. The district attorney’s choice of cases to prosecute and how many she wins determine the conviction rate.  ,
” If you do easy cases, you get more]convictions]. If you take on tough cases, you’re going to get a worse conviction rate”, Hammer said, noting that in the seven years before Harris was in office, homicides went down every year. And in the three years ( at the time of Hammer’s interview ) since Harris was in office, homicides had gone up each year, he said. A criminal’s conviction rate does not, however, indicate the punishment received. It might be six years in prison for murder or life without parole. There is a connection between not prosecuting difficult cases, plea bargaining serious murder cases, and crime rising, according to the article.
Harris enjoys revealing details of her past as a prosecutor, but when you examine her, it becomes clear that she has long been unwilling to stand up for the people who elected her. That has not changed. Harris has ignored her duty to protect the U.S. border from foreign invaders who cross into our country illegally, and today’s disregard for crime and its effects on innocent people is obvious from how she has ignored her responsibility. That is a crime. She does n’t care.
We do n’t have to consider how dangerous living in a country where even more criminals are freed and the consequences are lessened. We need only take a closer look at her careless track record in San Francisco.
The Federalist’s Beth Brelje is a correspondent for elections. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.