By Steve Sailer
03/30/2023
One of the stranger developments of the 2020s is that just as the mainstream media has cranked up its campaign against “gun violence” to new levels, the Soros-backed district attorneys whom the media helped elect with its “racial reckoning” are turning the heat against gun violence way down. A good example is in Oakland right now.
With the aid of George Soros’s money, a black civil rights lawyer named Pamela Y. Price was recently elected district attorney of Alameda County in the eastern San Francisco Bay (Oakland, Berkeley, and Fremont). Her main goal is to reduce the number of black criminals behind bars.
Leftist activists know something that has been obscured in the minds of much of the general public: that blacks commit vastly more gun crimes per capita than any other group, so… reducing the number of blacks behind bars means going easier on gun crimes.
Here’s an example from the East Bay in northern California. From the Berkeley Scanner:
Leaked memo: DA Pamela Price to shorten prison sentences, lean into probation
Emilie Raguso
MAR 2, 2023 10:29 AMBarring “extraordinary circumstances” and approval by District Attorney Pamela Price herself, the penalty for most crimes in Alameda County will soon be restricted to probation or the lowest-level prison term.
Price announced the news in a memo to her office Wednesday afternoon and it quickly made its way to the media. …
Alameda County voters elected Pamela Price in November on her promise to address racial disparities and “disrupt the system.” …
The Scanner granted anonymity to DA’s office employees interviewed for this story due to widespread concerns about retribution.
They said they are deeply concerned about the impacts the new policies will have on public safety in Alameda County and that neither victims nor their families have been asked to weigh in.
“This is catastrophic to the safety of our community,” one DA’s office employee said. “What this does is get rid of anything that adds time beyond the base, core crime.”
Going forward, if a case is eligible for probation, that “shall be the presumptive offer,” the directive reads. If it is not, the sentencing offer “shall be the low term.”
“Almost all felonies, including those that are serious or violent, will now be probation eligible,” said one source familiar with the situation. “You basically have to make a probation offer.”
Exceptions include murder and certain sex crimes involving young children. But that’s about it, sources said.
The Price memo specifies that the new policies are “presumptive, not mandatory” — but makes clear that divergence from the path requires both extraordinary circumstances and multiple supervisors to sign off, including Price herself. …
Sentencing enhancements and allegations are essentially add-ons to the main criminal charges that increase the penalties in the case of conviction.
They often come into play when guns are used, if victims are particularly old or young, if there is gang involvement or if someone commits a new offense while out on bail. …
A robbery by a first-time offender involving a shove and a purse snatch, they continued, is now likely to have the same penalty as an armed robbery by someone with a history of violence.
Price wrote that firearm allegations, bail violations and gang enhancements “shall not be pursued in any case” without extraordinary circumstances and approval from multiple supervisors including Price.
But to get anything done politically in the 2020s, you need racial representation, which white people are not allowed to have. Fortunately, Alameda County has Asians who are outraged over the murder of 2-year-old Jasper Wu. The toddler was struck dead in his car seat by a stray bullet from a gunfight between two black gangs rolling down I-880.
And now from ABC7News.com:
EXCLUSIVE: I-Team obtains Alameda Co. DA’s email; lesser sentence for Jasper Wu’s killers?
By Dan Noyes KGO logo
Wednesday, March 29, 2023 10:04PMALAMEDA COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) — Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is drawing new criticism over her plans not to pursue jail time for those who commit violent crimes against the Asian American community. Price discussed that in an email obtained by the I-Team’s Dan Noyes.
… Three men — Trevor Green, Johnny Jackson, and Ivory Bivens have their preliminary hearing on murder charges in three weeks. A member of the AAPI community asked Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price for an update on the case, and Price sent this email Tuesday that reads in part, “Our office is currently working on a partnership with the Asian Law Caucus to support AAPI victims of violence in ways that open up broader possibilities for healing and non-carceral forms of accountability.”
“Non-carceral” — meaning no jail time, even for violent criminals.
Norbert Chu served as Alameda County prosecutor for 35 years. He told the I-Team, “If I were Jasper’s parents, I would be highly offended. And I would be very fearful.”
Chu says, looking at that email, it is clear Price is paving the way for lesser charges and lesser sentencing in the Jasper Wu case. He called it “insulting.”
Here’s the email from DA Price. The last two paragraphs are eye-opening:
[Comment at Unz.com]
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