Berkeley Law event touts defunding police, pays Angela Davis $1,000 to champion ‘decarceration’

Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who was recalled for being soft on crime, hosted a talk with avowed communist Angela Davis about criminal justice reform as the inaugural event of his new legal center at the University of California Berkeley.

After voters recalled Boudin in June of last year over his leniency toward crime, Berkeley’s law school hired him to lead its new Criminal Law and Justice Center, where he earns $210,000 per year.

Davis, a prominent racial activist and scholar who was previously on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, supported Boudin’s campaign and spoke out against the recall.

Boudin began the panel by praising Davis, who supports reparations and argues for abolishing prisons and police, for “the intellectual firepower she has brought to this movement.”

The pair then addressed “backlash” to “criminal justice reform,” which Boudin attributed to “fearmongering,” “police unions” and “Republican strategists.”