SF DA Brooke Jenkins sounds a lot like Chesa Boudin in her latest remarks about Trump sending troops to SF, saying she’d prosecute the troops if they use excessive force, though she’s always dismissed those charges against SF cops.
When Salesforce CEO and now-Hawaii resident Marc Benioff made his remarks that Trump should send the National Guard into San Francisco, he probably did not realize he was creating a week-long (and counting) media controversy that would overshadow his Dreamforce conference. Those remarks may have led directly to Donald Trump’s Wednesday threat to send Guard troops here, though who knows if Trump was even aware of Benioff’s comments while spewing his regular stream-of-consciousness rambling.
Still, Benioff’s National Guard remark set off a DEFCON 1 level of indignant responses from even the most centrist and moderate SF law-and-order politicians.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins scolded Benioff’s comment in a Friday night Twitter thread where she introduced the notion that she might prosecute Guard members or ICE agents for using excessive force. “If you come to San Francisco and illegally harass our residents, use excessive force or cross any other boundaries that the law prescribes, I will not hesitate to do my job and hold you accountable just like I do other violators of the law every single day,” Jenkins said on Xitter.
And very quickly after Trump made his Wednesday remarks about SF, Jenkins gave an interview to Politico and reiterated she would prosecute troops in SF if they used excessive force. “If I believe, and have conviction, that we can meet our burden and charges are appropriate, that I won’t hesitate to do so,” she told that outlet.
Jenkins also said he believed that Benioff’s remarks were definitely behind Trump’s mention of sending troops to SF on Wednesday.
“I believe that that is the only thing that has brought San Francisco into [Trump’s] focus right now, at this moment in time,” Jenkins said. “We have not given him any reason to say that we should be again prioritized in line for the National Guard. There is no secret that Mr. Benioff is now a supporter of President Trump, and that they likely have some level of communication.”
Obviously, Jenkins’s comments about prosecuting law enforcement go completely against her well-established history of always dismissing the charges against SFPD officers accused of using excessive force (charges that had generally been brought by her predecessor and seeming arch-nemesis Chesa Boudin.)
But there is also the question of whether Jenkins can even legally charge ICE agents or National Guard troops. It would be an absolutely unprecedented move, and would put us in unchartered waters, even by Trump era standards.
“We have to make clear to our residents where we stand,” Jenkins told Politico. “This is about me being clear to them that if there is a provable case, that I am not going to hesitate to move forward, regardless of how difficult that hurdle may be. If I believe, and have conviction, that we can meet our burden and charges are appropriate, that I won’t hesitate to do so.”
The administration laughed off Jenkins’s threat. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin responded to Politico that Jenkins “is going to sue law enforcement for enforcing the rule of law — something she refuses to do as District Attorney.”
Jenkins may be conflating ICE agents with National Guard troops here. ICE agents have been quite unnecessarily physical in their SF operations, while National Guard troops dispatched to other cities have mostly just stood around or picked up trash. But Jenkins may be purposefully conflating the two, perhaps to fill a political void in a city where the sitting mayor feels he has to avoid even saying Trump’s name.
Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 31: San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins speaks during a news conference on October 31, 2022 in San Francisco, California. Jenkins announced state level charges against David Wayne DePape who attacked Paul Pelosi, husband of U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, after breaking into their home. DePape is being charged with attempted murder, residential burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, false imprisonment of an elder and threats to a public official and their family. The U.S. attorney has also filed federal charges against DePape. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)