Soros-backed Bay Area DA facing recall says 'DA's role has no impact on crime'

Soros-funded Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is on the verge of facing a recall after just six months in office, with concerned citizens accusing her of being too soft on criminals. 

In response to the allegations, Price argued that as DA, she "has no impact on crime," and suggested the recall effort was nothing more than a coordinated attack by Republican-funded outside interest groups.



"I was elected because the people in this community didn't feel safe, unfortunately," Price said in an interview with CBS News Bay Area reporter Betty Yu. "We know that crime under my predecessor was pretty much exploding."

Immediately after blaming former Alameda County DA Nancy O'Malley for the levels of delinquancy during her tenure, Price claimed that "the DA's role has really no impact on crime." She instead suggested that investing in "alternatives to incarceration" was the way to create safe communities, arguing that putting people in jail is often racist.
 

"Any time that we can divert someone from the criminal justice system, that is a goal because the criminal justice system has shown to be racially biased," Price explained. "Often what studies have shown– and it's true in Alameda County– many times people who are perpetrators or labeled as perpetrators were actually victims."

According to KQED, since assuming her position Price has made a number of consequential moves, including the decisions not to charge minors as adults, and to drop "special circumstances" charges, such as those in the case of 23-month-old Jasper Yu, who was killed by a stray bullet during a highway shootout. As a result of Price's policies, the people involved in Yu's death will have the possibility of parole.

The recall effort, "Save Alameda for Everyone," was launched earlier this month, and has received the support of a number of high-profile locals, including Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce President Carl Chan.

"We are doing this on behalf of people in the county," Chan said, "and we just want to keep people safe. Especially seniors, children and families. They deserve protection and making sure that we have the proper law and order in place to protect everyone."

Price, who won with 53 percent of the vote, dismissed her challengers as "election deniers" who "wanted a second bite at the apple," calling their campaign "undemocratic."