A lot of fraudsters, sexual predators, and other criminals would disagree with you. She was very good at putting them away. She's the perfect pick for the job right now...
The fact that you won't support your claim with evidence is telling. You've been fooled again. Turns out,
The big picture: Harris is pointing to her time as a district attorney and California Attorney General as a point of contrast against former President Trump, the GOP nominee who is a convicted felon.
State of play: It's a risky strategy as Harris has consistently faced criticism from some progressives who accused her of being too tough on crime and helped derail her 2020 presidential campaign.
- This time around, she is betting it will help her against Trump.
- "I took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain," she said at a campaign rally in Wisconsin this last week. "So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type."
Yes, but: The Trump campaign has simultaneously accused Harris of being weak on crime and a San Francisco "liberal" — a classic GOP attack against a Democrat.
Reality check: The violent crime rate per 100,000 residents in California dropped by 10% during Harris's first four years in office as the state's attorney general, according to an Axios review of FBI crime data.
- The violent crime rate in the state was 439.6 per 100,000 residents the year before she took office and fell to 396.4 by 2014.
- During that period, the California Department of Justice improved DNA testing capabilities and cleared the state's DNA backlog for the first time. Her office also signed an agreement with Mexico's AG to combat transnational gangs.
- However, violent crime surged to 444.8 in 2016 during her last year in office to a six-year high, an Axios review found.
Zoom in: As District Attorney of San Francisco, the number of cases from violent crimes in the city her office cleared skyrocketed by 24% during her time as DA, an Axios review found.
- Those cleared cases came as the number of violent crimes rose steadily in the city of San Francisco during her first five years in office then fell 15% in her last two years, the analysis found.
Clearing out all those cases, many of which were weak, should have affected her numbers, making her conviction rate lower. During that time, San Francisco had a horrible problem with homelessness and crime. The fact that she was able to actually turn it around is impressive. She didn't make the problem, and likely she's not the only one who brought it down. But still.