There were dueling events Friday on what should be done to curb the recent string of attacks against Asian American and Pacific Islander community in San Francisco.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin hosted a virtual summit to outline his thoughts.
Just a few hours later, there was a rally that involved a small but very vocal crowd with a very direct message: They think the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office is part of the problem when it comes to violence against the AAPI community.
Outside the San Francisco Hall of Justice, a group of demonstrators stood to denounce the string of attacks on Asian American victims and express concern over Boudin.
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“Asian Americans, AAPI community are the most targeted. We have a long list of victims. Which is not even the complete list yet. This is a list of victims since he has been in office and its very alarming to us,” said Leanne Louie, a rally organizer.
Louie led the group and said it's time for Boudin to go.
“We do want to recall Chesa Boudin,” she said. “We don’t want innocent people going into jail but if someone did commit a crime. He should take it seriously and put them behind bars.”
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Rally organizers said the event was planned before Boudin hosted a virtual summit on the AAPI attacks. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office told NBC Bay Area that Friday's AAPI summit had been planned and publicized as far back as March.
“How we can better investigate and prosecute hate crimes? We talked about concrete tools that we can use to improve the legal system response to and prevention of hate and against the AAPI community," Boudin said during Friday's summit.
But demonstrators said that it's a little too late.
“The majority of us are disgusted and feel there is injustice here," said Jeff Lee of the Wah Ying Social Club.
Supporters of Boudin shared a statement from former supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer which said in part:
“The misinformation and division created by the recall proponents does nothing to keep our city safe or help victims of crime." The statement also pointed out that Boudin was just in court prosecuting the suspect in the attack on two Asian American elders.
