Kamala Harris Is Satisfied with Her Three Great Political Achievements
San Francisco first female District Attorney Kamala Harris formally announced her campaign for her second term as DA in early June. When she first run for that position, she received support from many Chinese voters, she has been emphasizing to pay attention to different needs of different communities. When Kamala Harris received an exclusive interview this newspaper earlier in her office, she narrated her hard efforts and achievement after she was elected. Kamala Harris emphasized that the raise in the incrimination rate of felony criminals, the development of outreach work in immigrants communities and the work performance of the task group for abused children and seniors are the three political achievements most satisfactory to her in her tenure.
Forty-three year old Kamala Harris defeated incumbent Arlo Smith with a vote over 56% in 2003 and became the 24th San Francisco District Attorney, the first female district attorney in San Francisco, and the first African District Attorney in California.
Born in Eastern Bay Oakland, Kamala Harris graduated from Hastings College of the Law and became an assistant district attorney of Alameda County in 1990.
He Jing Li (her Chinese name – translator)’s original name is Kamala D. Harris, as “Kamala” in Indian language means “lotus flower in full blossom,” the renown Chinese community leader Xi Feng Su got that meaning and made a beautiful Chinese name for Kamala Harris.
Stick to the “Successful Incrimination” Conviction
Ever since her election in 2003, Kamala Harris has repeatedly emphasized to the outside world that she sticks to the conviction that “One who succeeds in incriminating the criminal is a great prosecutor,” during her tenure she has made marked improvement in the incrimination rate of the District Attorney Office, and the raise of incrimination rate of serious violent crimes is one of her proud political achievements.
What she has achieved so far, Kamala Harris said, totally depend on the spirit of success from hard working, “it is not wrong to work hard, it is wrong to sit and doing nothing. When I first run for the District Attorney Office, people said that it is “the worst District Attorney Office in California,” the incrimination rate of serious violent crimes was very low.”
According to the District Attorney Office, the incrimination rate of felonies by the District Attorney Office was only 52% before Kamala took her office, much lower than the average incrimination rate of 83% nationwide.
Last year, the number of felony incrimination rate by the District Attorney Office increased by nearly 15%, from 52% in 2003 to 67% in 2006, the highest number in ten years. Other achievements include fighting against drug and gangs, such as felony and violent crimes, the number of criminals put into jail increase by 40%; the incrimination rate for murder case reached 87%; the incrimination rate for drug dealers increased from 56% in 2003 to 74% in 2006.
Chinese prosecutor Marshall Kline has worked in the District Attorney Office for 9 years and half, he is responsible for murder case prosecution at the present time, he praised Kamala Harris for actively retain outstanding prosecutors from various places, for continuously raising the professionalism of the District Attorney Office, and he listed numerous Chinese staffs working in the District Attorney Office, he believes that Chinese Americans are very well represented in the District Attorney Office, “Kamala Harris is very active in the Chinese community and the attorney association. She looks for qualified Chinese prosecutors, there are quite many Chinese prosecuting representatives in the District Attorney Office. I know that there are lots of Chinese residents in San Francisco, we also reflect the need of the communities, I believe that Kamala Harris will continue to work hard to ensure that we balance the needs of all communities.”
Hope to Make Voice for the Chinese Community
In addition, Kamala Harris also feels very gratifying with the development efforts in immigrant community work during her tenure. Kamala Harris’ mother came to U.S.A. from India in 1960’s, on the day Kamala Harris announce to run for her second term in the election, she said to this newspaper that with an immigrant background, she hopes to make voice for the Chinese community and to communicate with the community in Chinese language.
At the interview, Kamala Harris introduced the translated Chinese pamphlet regarding the services of the District Attorney Office, and the Immigrant Resources Exhibition the office hosted in Chinatown in May, they are new approaches for the District Attorney Office to contact the Chinese community, which were never done by the District Attorney Office prior to her taking the office. She emphasized the importance to understand the needs and culture of different ethnic communities, such as teaching her staffs the culture and value of different communities, including the Chinese community.
And maintain racial diversity at the District Attorney Office also helps its various works such as prosecution and counseling. At the present time there are 21% Asian staffs in the District Attorney Office, Kamala Harris said, “We do not mean that one particular community is more special than other communities, it is that each community has a different need, we have to understand the diversity of different races, everyone is equal, break any barrier, it will be more effective to solve problems.”
Then Kamala Harris talked about the Hatred Crime Group under the District Attorney Office, she said that she would definitely treat each hatred crime seriously.
In March of this year, the District Attorney Office formally added the charge of hatred crime against 25 year old while man Joseph Melcher who was suspected in killing three Asian youngsters by gunshots.
The said suspect killed a 34 year old Korean lady Song Sun Lee and then killed a 22 year old San Francisco State University student Kam Yan Li at the square in Japan Town by gunshots in a Korean Bar in Japan Town, San Francisco on October 21 of last year. Upon investigation, the police department discovered that that the suspect was involved in the gunshot case in which 21 year old Chinese – white bred boy Robert Stanford died in Portola District in August of last year.
Strengthening the Service to Abused Children and Seniors
The prosecution by the District Attorney Office is used to punish the perpetrators, in addition the young people anti-crime program launched teaches high school students to prevent hatred crime from taking place in school. Kamala Harris believes that the education of hatred prevention is as important as prosecution, “Talking about ‘hatred’, I believe that the problem comes from ignorance. When we educate people about the advantages of different cultures and different races, they would act more carefully. It is better for us to accept the difference of each person than feeling angry.”
In her concern of different needs of the communities, Kamala Harris said that during her tenure she has been very active in strengthening the service to the abused children and seniors by the special group. As far as the assistance services provided to the senior victims, specialist for abused seniors Helen Karr and director Han Quan Lin from the victim service program have sponsored numerous workshops in Chinese community regarding senior abuse, teaching seniors to prevent from being cheated.
Han Quan Lin estimated that the District Attorney Office receives 400 senior abuse cases each year, including 150 cases taking place on Asian seniors, and quite a lot of the cases related to economic abuse.
Director Han Quan Lin has been working in the District Attorney Office for 10 years and has cooperated with Kamala Harris for 3 years, at the interview with this newspaper, he praised Kamala Harris for being willing to listen him regarding the needs of related community people, “She is a very special District Attorney, not only is she diligent, she also hires many professionally skilled employees… She is very serious and fair, and would discuss with us how to assist the community people to implement it.”
Goes to Singtao TV Station to Talk about the Work of the District Attorney Office
In addition, the public does not know the Special Emphasis Child Abuse group pretty well, according to investigator Chia Ling Hsiao of that group, its work includes investigating the divorced and separated parents, if either one does not abide by the agreement, abducting any child in private is illegal.
Chia Ling Hsiao officially began her work in the District Attorney Office in August of last year. She immigrated from Taiwan at the age of 14, had her internship at the Benefit Fraud and Abused Senior Group of the District Attorney Office, she also accompanied Kamala Harris to the TV station of this newspaper in March to take questions from the public “Kamala Harris really tries to contact different communities. For example, she earlier received interview by Singtao Chinese TV Station, talk to the audience about the work of the District Attorney Office, and introduce the services provided by the District Attorney Office.”
Special Emphasis Child Abuse Group is one of the units of the Victim Service Department of the District Attorney Office, other units include abused seniors and Asian domestic violence victim group, etc. All the units of the Victim Service Department assist 3000 victims of violent crimes and witnesses each year. The District Attorney Office indicated that during 2004-2005, they assisted 400 Asian domestic violence victims.
No Regret for Disposition of the Killing Police Office Case and the Three Fatal Automobile Accident Case
The Killing Police Officer Case in Bay Area in 2004 and the Fatal Automobile Accident in which three Chinese fathers died last year in Sunset District, both cases caused great responses, quite a few opposing voice criticizing the decisions made by Kamala Harris. Up to now, Kamala Harris stands by her personal principle, and calmly looks at the criticism in the past, what was requested was the evaluation of her by the public on the overall lever, instead of the degree of welcome of her decisions.
On April 10, 2004, San Francisco Bay Area Police Officer Isaac Espinoza died on duty by firing with AK47 by 21 year old African youth David Hill.
After Kamala Harris took over the case, she said that she would not seek capital sentence, if David Hill was convicted, she would request the court to sentence him life imprisonment without bail. She explained that what she did was to maintain her position against capitol sentence at the time of her election.
The decision by Kamala Harris triggered comments from all walks of life, the police department clearly expressed their position to demand that Kamala Harris seek death sentence or refer the case to that State government. However, Kamala Harris refused and said that those people who criticized her handing of the case were playing political tricks.
Up to today, Kamala Harris reaffirmed that the judicial system reflects justice, “The key point of that case is that the perpetrator faced severe punishment, the jury sentenced him life imprisonment, and will die in the prison, I believe that justice is reflected.”
Alleges that Capitol Sentence Has Many Drawbacks
With regard to capitol sentence and life imprisonment, Kamala Harris frankly said that capitol sentence is a system with many drawbacks, “a capitol inmate usually waits for 25 years to be executed, during the death roll, those people are the most costly group in the prison.”
She said that she prefers that the relevant resources be used more for prevention and security by the police department, “the average amount of money California spends each day on those (on death roll) can be used to hire 1100 police officers to patrol on the street. I’d rather to have more police officers on the street to catch those criminals who murder people, that we have more police officers to protect the security of our city.”
She also pointed out another drawback of capitol sentence, “Recently there are 200 inmates on death roll nationwide who are proved to be innocent upon DNA testing, therefore, it (death sentence) is a system with lots of drawbacks.”
Another case took place on August 6 of last year. There was a severe automobile accident on Brotherhood Blvd. in Sunset District, driver Shuang Chang Zhou, passengers Bin Song Mo and Ji Shou Zhang were on their way and their vehicle lost control and overturned with the suspicion of 19 year old driver Brian McCarthy who was cutting the lane, all 3 middle age fathers died.
No Prosecution for the Automobile Accident of Three Lives
After the accident took place, the police immediately hurried to San Francisco State University and arrested Brain McCarthy who was participating in ball game in the campus. The case was transferred to the District Attorney Office, the authority decided not to press any criminal charge because of insufficient evidence. The families of the deceased went to protest in front of the City Hall, and also had a meeting with Kamala Harris, in order to get justice for their fathers.
Kamala Harris does not regret for her decision not to press criminal charge against Brian McCarthy, “Even if we are very sad about the incident, after we have reviewed the relevant evidence, including very experienced senior people in the office, I do not believe that any criminal factor is involved in that tragedy. However, it does not mean that nobody should bear any responsibility for the incident, the civil court probably may make a judgment.”
In summery, she said, “I sincerely request that people judge me from the overall of the incident, instead of the degree of welcome of my decision… there must be a time that I did not live up to everyone’s expectations, or that I made everyone happy, that is my work. ”
