Drowning out District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ speech on the steps of the Hall of Justice, StopCrimeSF protesters clashed with a smaller group of counter-protesting lawyers Friday morning.
The event came a week after judge Kay Tsenin sentenced Daniel Cauich, the perpetrator of a notorious stabbing case from 2021 in which he brutally and randomly attacked 94-year-old Ahn “Peng” Taylor in Lower Nob Hill, to ten years in prison, five years of probation and mandatory behavioral and mental health treatment program. Taylor, who is now 97, survived the attack.
The original demonstration, organized by Delta Chinatown Initiative board member and StopCrimeSF Secretary Lily Ho, had been called in response to this sentence.
StopCrimeSF clearly stood in solidarity with Jenkins and her office, as she had pushed for a 12-year prison sentence for Cauich since his arrest in June 2021.
However, there seemed to be a lot of confusion over the details, as many protesters mentioned the injustice of Cauich “going free.” In reality, Cauich remains in county jail, where he has been awaiting a judge’s decision for nearly three years, and once he enters the mandated treatment program, he will be under intense supervision and have limited freedom. Additionally, if he leaves a mental-health treatment facility or violates his five-year probation sentence, he will go to prison for ten years.
It’s highly unlikely he will be back on the streets or a threat to anyone for a long time.
Jenkins did not attempt to clear that up today. She only said, “It’s important that the court and the public understand that these decisions have consequences,” and that “this [demonstration] shows that the public is paying attention.”
District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey was also in attendance, among those holding signs with slogans like, “Stop Asian Hate,” “Justice for Ahn Taylor,” and “We judge the judges.”
It’s that last sentiment the lawyers take issue with.
“[Judge Kay Tsenin] is one of the biggest and strongest supporters of mental rehabilitation,” said Rebecca Young, a private criminal defense attorney who spent 19 years working in the San Francisco Public Defender’s office. “Brooke Jenkins fundamentally doesn’t understand mental illness.”
Young said that, in essence, Jenkins is using the outrage over the sentence for her political gain, to drum up an Asian voter base, potentially at the expense of an impartial judicial system.
Tsenin, who sometimes handles cases like this one as a visiting judge, is retired and is not subject to recall.
There were about 50 StopCrimeSF protesters in attendance. Less than 10 people had arrived to counter-protest, but they made themselves heard nonetheless.
“At first they came for the judges, then they came for me!” yelled Young once Jenkins began speaking.
In response, protesters from the StopCrimeSF crowd turned their attention away from the speaker’s podium toward Young’s group, and the scene got chaotic. The lawyers continued to chant, “Brooke, stop lying!” while one woman holding a sign that said, “Judges must hold criminals accountable” began recording the lawyers.
One man called Young a “stupid bitch,” and the San Francisco sheriffs standing by stepped in.
“This is not political to us, this is about public safety,” said Ho, the StopCrimeSF secretary. When asked what solution Ho and her crowd were looking for today, she said, “We know [Judge Tsenin] can’t be recalled, since she’s already retired. But we’re pissed off, and we don’t know what else to do.”
But it’s certainly fodder for politicians like former Mayor Mark Farrell and Daniel Lurie, both of whom are running for mayor and were on the scene.
So was Yvette Corkrean, the “fiscally conservative, socially liberal” Republican candidate for state Senate, who stuck around after the rally died down. Corkrean chatted up the lingering Stop Asian Hate protestors and handed them a petition to get Prop. 47 on the November ballot, which proposes reversing a previous Prop. 47 from 2014 that reduced some theft and drug charges from felonies to misdemeanors.
“I actually don’t think [the new Prop. 47] is harsh enough on the criminals, but it’s better than what we have now,” the candidate said, smiling.
