= Her history as a prosecutor and eventually legislator
== The Pro-Kamala Case ==
* Elected San Francisco DA in 2004 while promising to never impose capital punishment, and held to this even when 6 months later every cop and 'cops' like Feinstein were calling for the death penalty for a 21-year old who killed an undercover cop.
* In 2004 instituted a program "[[ https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/kamala-harris-trump-obama-california-attorney-general | which put first-time offenders between ages eighteen and twenty-four into eighteen-month-long city college apprentice programs, which contributed to the city’s recidivism rates dropping from 54 percent to 10 percent in six years ]]".
* Supported reforming California’s three-strikes law and refrained from seeking life sentences for people charged with non-violent violations of their third-strike.
* Talks a good talk about the need for criminal justice reform.
== But sadly, ==
* "[[ https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/01/kamala-harris-truths-we-hold-review/579430/ | Under District Attorney Kamala Harris, the overall felony-conviction rate in San Francisco rose from 52 percent in 2003 to 67 percent in 2006, the highest seen in a decade. Many of the convictions accounting for that increase stemmed from drug-related prosecutions, which also soared, from 56 percent in 2003 to 74 percent in 2006. ]]"
* Championed the law making it a crime for elementary kids in California to be late to school, potentially jailing parents and [[ https://www.uclalawreview.org/an-interrogation-and-response-to-the-predominant-framing-of-truancy-2/ | hugely disproportionately affecting low-income households and not actually solving truancy rates anyways ]]
* Her office covered up a lab tech's malfeasance, and rather than admitting any problems she [[ https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Judge-rips-Harris-office-for-hiding-problems-3263797.php | fought this in court ]], ultimately losing (and [[ https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Judge-rips-Harris-office-for-hiding-problems-3263797.php | accusing the judge of a conflict of interest for having a husband who was a defense attorney ]], which she also lost on)
* [[ https://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/05/05/harris-renews-effort-to-block-gender-reassignment-for-trans-inmate/ | Fought to keep a Californian inmate from gender reassignment therapy ]]
* [[ https://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-ff-federal-judges-order-state-to-release-more-prisoners-20141114-story.html | Attempted to block the release of non-violent offenders during prison overcrowding, ]] saying that it would deprive the State of needed prison labor
* [[ https://observer.com/2015/03/california-prosecutor-falsifies-transcript-of-confession/ | Defended state prosecutor Robert Murray after he added false entries to a confession transcript to threaten a defendent with greater charges ]]
* Repeatedly brought charges against Backpage.com, and later co-authored bills resulting in its closure, which [[ https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/7-sex-workers-on-what-it-means-to-lose-backpage.html | sex workers have said literally threatens their lives ]]
* Remember that death penalty thing in 2004? Well in 2014, she in fact appealed a federal judge's ruling that the death penalty was unconstitutional.
* "she opposed instituting police body cameras"
* "stood against a bill requiring her office to investigate police shootings"
* " tried to dismiss a lawsuit brought by inmates over the use of solitary confinement, even claimed there was no such thing in CA prisons"
* https://twitter.com/BethLynch2020/status/1067872028412297226
* Mortgage crisis fallout half-measures
* Laughed when asked if she would support legal marijuana
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>Compare . . . Harris’s reply when asked about her decision to become a prosecutor: “There is a duty and responsibility to be a voice for the most voiceless and vulnerable and to do the work of justice. And that’s the work I wanted to do.”
>
>Harris’s response might be understandable coming from someone with less experience — a lay person, a law student, or even a junior DA. But who, especially in the era of Black Lives Matter, would flatly describe the enforcement arm of the criminal enforcement as doing “the work of justice?” What person with any experience in criminal court can claim to be an advocate for the “most vulnerable,” without recognizing that the victim in one case is often the defendant in the next — that the issues at play are systemic, and that the justice meted out by the court system is a rough one at best? Harris has stayed away from engaging with these deeper questions in interviews. Perhaps because, as a prosecutor, she understands that there are no good answers.
>
> . . .
>
> Reid was, of course, right to observe that Democrats have run as “tough on crime” for the very same reasons Filipovic offered as a justification of Harris’s record: they were practically required to do so to get ahead. But I would suggest this: None of them were so obligated.
-[[ https://theintercept.com/2019/01/20/a-problem-for-kamala-harris-can-a-prosecutor-become-president-in-the-age-of-black-lives-matter/ | Briahna Gray, "A Problem for Kamala Harris: Can a Prosecutor Become President in the Age of Black Lives Matter?" ]]
----
= And now . . . =
- **2018-11**: [[ https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/11/kamala-harris-is-effectively-stealing-money-from-s.html | Harris creates her own donation link ostensibly to support Stacey Abrams, but taking 50% of the donation cut ]]
- **2019-01**: Met with Wall Street donors //before// announcing candidacy, so that she won't have taken any such money technically //during// her run.
- **2019-01-21**: [[ https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sen-kamala-harris-announces-run-president-2020/story?id=60472358 | Harris officially announced her candidacy on Good Morning America ]]