San Francisco Officials Decry Anti-Asian Violence In Wake Of Fatal Attack
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – Speaking in front of the Hall of Justice, District Attorney Chesa Boudin, along with several Supervisors and Assemblymember Phil Ting came together to denounce crimes against the Asian-American Pacific Islander community.
"This is not a new problem. This is a problem that has existed for decades, that has gotten very little investment and very little attention," said retired District 1 Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer.
Among the actions, Assemblymember Phil Ting announced $1.4 million in state funding to track crimes against the AAPI community.
"If you don't have the data, then you think it's just an isolated incident. And we have one case, we have one court trial, but we really don't know how prevalent the situation is. Well, now we do," Ting said.
Also announced a Cantonese speaking victim's advocate inside the DA's office. "He hired someone and spent his precious money to set aside this position, this person for our Chinese or Asian victims of crime," Fewer said.
"We will hold people who cause harm in our communities accountable and we will continue to take steps necessary to fix a badly broken criminal justice system," Boudin said.
The news conference came the same day as the victim in another attack on an elderly Asian Oakland citizen died.
75-year-old Pak Ho was out for his morning walk in Oakland on Tuesday when was robbed, knocked to the ground and left brain dead. His family turned off life support Thursday afternoon.
The suspect in that case, 26-year-old Teaunte Bailey has been charged with murder in Alameda County. He was out on GPS monitoring in San Francisco following an April 2020 arrest for being a passenger in a car that took part in a robbery.
KPIX 5 asked DA Boudin about the case.
"The case against Mr. Bailey in San Francisco, the only case that has ever been filed against him, was filed under my leadership. It was, from an evidentiary standpoint, a very weak case. We held him in San Francisco County Jail for 179 days, and given the state of the evidence, we could not legally or in good conscience hold him longer on such weak evidence and given his very minimal role in a very serious crime," Boudin said.
Bailey entered a guilty plea to a lesser charge, not robbery, but has not been sentenced in that crime yet. He had multiple run-ins with other law enforcement agencies after his release from San Francisco, as well.
Boudin was also asked about a recall effort against him.
"We will not allow a fringe group of Republicans to distract us from the critical work we have to do in the District Attorney's office and in city government, from building safety, from uplifting members of our community who have been harmed by crime, or from working together to rebuild after a devastating pandemic," Boudin said.