Bye. The vote was decisive. Last night, Chesa Boudin’s parting words were “we can never incarcerate our way out of poverty,” once again implicitly making the insane case that all poor people are criminals rather than law-abiding citizens themselves disproportionately harmed by crime. Then, San Francisco’s infamous pro-crime District Attorney was finally and overwhelmingly recalled by one of the most left-wing cities in United States history. It was a victory for the grass roots activists who first mobilized to recall the School Board, spearheaded by desperate parents stripped of school resources throughout the pandemic. It was a victory for the city’s Asian American community, comprising over a third of San Francisco, fiercely animated over the deterioration of public safety. It was finally a victory for a small but growing subset of the tech community, which not only applied fresh resources and attention to the recall elections, but, in stark contrast with the broader “nomad in the cloud” narrative, real work on behalf of their real home where they really live.

Three cheers for the pirate siege of San Francisco Bay. We did it, Joe.

Already, Chesa’s recall has been cast by local and national media in predictably partisan terms, with coverage amounting to something very close to disinformation. In the first place, we’re told, there is no crime in San Francisco. But in the second, all of this really terrible and highly-visible crime is not Chesa Boudin’s fault. It’s the cops, it’s the virus, it’s the tech industry!