San Francisco’s ‘woke’ District Attorney Chesa Boudin has finally charged a ‘prolific’ female shoplifter, 41, who stole $40,000 in merchandise from the same Target in 120 incidents over a one-year period.
Aziza Graves was arrested Tuesday for her alleged shoplifting spree about two weeks after voters forced Boudin into a recall election, with a petition yielding 83,000 signatures – far above the 51,000 required by the city.
The push to hold Graves responsible only came after Target demanded that Boudin launch an investigation, which revealed that the store, at the Stonestown Galleria shopping mall, was hit by the same person more than 100 times between October 2020 and November 2021.
It is unclear how much Graves stole in each incident, though she is only being charged with a felony in eight cases, along with 120 misdemeanor counts of petty theft. This is because, in San Francisco, charges of property theft less than $950 in value was downgraded from a felony to a misdemeanor in 2014.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin finally charged a shoplifter after she stole $40,000 in merchandise from the same Target in 120 incidents over a one-year period. Meanwhile, critics have successfully secured a recall election for June 7 to oust the ‘woke’ official
The push to arrest Aziza Graves, the ‘prolific’ shoplifter, only came after a request to the district attorney’s office by the Target being looted, at the Stonestown Galleria shopping mall
Store staff and security do not pursue or stop thieves who have taken anything worth less than $1,000, though Graves’s charges show that she looted more than $1,000 in merchandise on eight occasions and still slipped away until her arrest.
Graves carried out her scheme by using self-checkout kiosks to appear as though she were paying for her merchandise. She would scam the machine by scanning the items, but only submitting cash payments of $1, or sometimes even one cent.
She would then waltz out of the store without completing the rest of her transactions, officials said. Boudin said that Graves stole home goods like laundry detergent that are frequently stolen and resold for profit just a short walk from the looted store.
“I am proud of our office’s leadership, meticulous investigation, and cross-agency coordination with the San Francisco Police Department,” Boudin said in a statement sent to the Daily Mail. “We are committed to stopping those who participate in organized retail theft, including by dismantling the fencing networks that make this type of crime profitable.”
Graves carried out her scheme by using self-checkout kiosks to appear as though she were paying for her merchandise. She would scam the machine by scanning the items, but only submitting cash payments of $1, or sometimes even one cent
Graves is being held in jail, without bail set in her case, and her next court appearance is Thursday, according to court records.
“The suspect in this case has been a particularly brazen and prolific retail theft offender,” said Police Chief Bill Scott in a statement to the Daily Mail. “We hope this case — like many others on which we partner with our local prosecutors — sends a strong message to would-be shoplifters that their lawless conduct won’t be tolerated in San Francisco.”
Boudin told The San Francisco Chronicle that Graves’s arrest is the first of what will be a “whole series of arrests” related to the city’s ongoing retail theft operations, noting that there are more than a dozen investigations currently underway.
The office of the district attorney’s twitter page tweeted news about the arrest today, writing, ‘Our office is committed to stopping organized retail theft–including by dismantling fencing networks.’
Fencing refers to stealing merchandise and selling it on the street to people who most likely don’t know the items are stolen.
On Boudin’s own page, he tweeted, ‘Breaking news: @SFDAOffice operation results in arrest of prolific retail thief. Our office will be charging her with more than 100 separate thefts from Target. Thank you to SFPD for assisting with the arrest. More information coming soon.’
Boudin told The San Francisco Chronicle that Graves’s arrest is the first of what will be a “whole series of arrests” related to the city’s ongoing retail theft operations
San Francisco residents may soon say goodbye to their ‘woke’ district attorney, however, as the department of elections certified the petition for his recall on November 4
His tweet drew a number of comments from critics asking why it took over 100 thefts for his office to arrest Graves, with one user, named RE Development Guy, replying, ‘How does one get away with 99 thefts before being arrested for the 100th incident. This is a complete failure.’
Another user, named Au Contraire, tweeted mockingly, ‘Soooo she’ll be let out the back door shortly after her arrest…’ and another user, named Aditya Bavnani, wrote, ‘Thinking charging someone AFTER 100 thefts is a sign of progress,’ with an emoji of a face palm.
San Francisco residents may soon say goodbye to their ‘woke’ district attorney, however, as the department of elections certified the petition for his recall on November 4 and the election is set for June 7.
The effort has been led by members of Boudin’s own Democrat party, who say that they’ve been appalled by the decline in quality of life in the wealthy city caused by soaring crime.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed hasn’t commented on the recall, and will choose Boudin’s successor should he be ousted next year. Financial disclosures obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this month show that the campaign to unseat Boudin has attracted $1.6m – far in excess of the $650,000 raised by the embattled DA’s supporters.
Boudin has been charging people for theft in less than 50% of all cases throughout his tenure, new data reveals
He has also convicted far less people of both crimes than Gascon, only convicting thieves in 79% of thefts and 62% of petty thefts
Boudin was sworn into office on January 8, 2020 after running on the promise to take a new approach to crime by not prosecuting lower-level offenses.
Data shows Boudin has kept his promise. But many locals of the famously liberal City by the Bay have now turned on him, as outrage over spiraling crime statistics and shocking anecdotal evidence of serious and often avoidable crime committed on his watch.
The DA has been charging people with theft in less than 50% of all cases throughout his tenure, new data reveals, leading to claims he’d effectively legalized theft.
Crime in San Francisco has been climbing steadily, with larceny theft outweighing any other infraction. There was a 13.4% spike in larceny from the start of the year through November 14, as compared to the same time last year, according to the city police department’s most recent data.
Homicide is also on the rise, by 9.3%, human trafficking has gone up by 27.3%, assault has spiked by 8.7%, and arson has risen by 7.8%. Overall crime has spiked by 7.5%.
Crime in San Francisco has been climbing steadily, with larceny theft outweighing any other infraction
Businesses throughout the city have reduced their hours or closed entirely because of the uptick in property theft, and Boudin has been lambasted by local critics for ‘destroying the fabric of our city.’
A Safeway grocery store became one of the most recent business to suffer from the rampant shoplifting, citing it as the reason for scaling back its round-the-clock service to just 6am to 9pm in an announcement made last week.
Walgreens has already closed 17 of its 70 San Francisco stores and announced last month that it was closing another five because of constant shoplifting by thieves who waltz past security guards and sell the items outside the drugstore chain’s doors.
Shocking videos shared on social media have shown thieves ransacking shelves of expensive cosmetics, while security guards stand nearby, powerless to intervene.
Boudin’s office has only been charging people of theft in 46% of all cases since taking office.
A 24-hour Safeway store in the Castro area of San Francisco (pictured) has cut it’s hours now open from 6am to 9pm after it was targeted by ‘off the charts’ shoplifting
In comparison, his predecessor George Gascon made such charges in 62% of all cases in 2018 and 2019, according to city data analyzed by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Some who have joined the recall even came from Boudin’s own administration as 50 lawyers from his office quit or were fired since he took the reins in January 2020, representing roughly one-third of the department’s prosecutors.
‘He has vowed from the beginning to not prosecute quality of life crimes. Quality of life is … the basis of a society, of our city. If you’re not going to hold people responsible for that you’re basically destroying the fabric of our city,’ Richie Greenberg, a former Republican mayoral candidate and spokesperson for the Committee Supporting the Recall of DA Chesa Boudin, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Boudin has an even lower rate in petty crime and has only made charges in 35% of all cases, compared to Gascon’s 58%.
Boudin has also convicted far less people of both crimes than Gascon, only convicting thieves in 79% of thefts and 62% of petty thefts. Gascon has an 82% conviction rate for theft and a 77% conviction rate for petty theft.
Overall, Boudin has charged people with crimes in 48% of all reported cases, while Gascon has a charging rate of 54%.
‘Chesa Boudin is protecting criminals and suspects over crime victims,’ Tony Montoya said in a statement to the Chronicle.
Montoya leads San Francisco Police Officers’ Association, which has said that Boudin refuses to charge cases even with sufficient evidence and pointed to an example in which he initially dropped charges against a man who allegedly attempted to assault police officers with a glass bottle before he was shot by police.
‘He refuses to adequately prosecute criminals and fails to take drug dealing on our neighborhood streets seriously. He doesn’t hold serial offenders accountable and has released them from custody without consequences,’ writes the San Franciscans for Public Safety Supporting the Recall of Chesa Boudin, one of the largest groups supporting the recall, on its website.
The impact of Boudin’s alleged relaxed approach to prosecuting has spelled trouble for businesses through the city.
When Safeway announced its reduced hours, its San Fransisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman told CBS SF that ‘a lot of retailers [have] been experiencing increasing property crime and theft from their stores. I think the last six months from what they say has been off the charts in terms of how bad it’s been. It’s sad, upsetting and frustrating.’
Local Walgreens have also been shuttered as thefts in the chain’s 53 remaining stores are five times the average for their stores elsewhere in the country, according to company officials.
A Walgreens official revealed in May that the pharmacy store spends 46 times as much on security at stores in the city than elsewhere in the country.
Viral videos taken throughout the summer have shown shoplifters brazenly sauntering out of stores with armfuls of stolen goods as witnesses watch in shock.
One video that received over six million views was filmed in June at a Walgreens on 300 Gough Street, which is now closed, that showed a thief heaping armfuls of Walgreens products into a trash bag.
He then rode his bike through the store with the stolen goods while the security guard and bystanders looked on.
Walgreens is shuttering five of its stores in San Francisco because of financial losses due to constant shoplifting. One of the stores, pictured above, was subject of a viral video showing a man filling a garbage bag full of goods as security guards watched and let him go
He then rode his bike through the store with the stolen goods while the security guard and bystanders looked on
The suspect, Jean Lugo-Romero, 40, was arrested shortly after and remains in jail. He had previously robbed the same store on May 29, 30, 31 and June 1 – in addition to CVS stores throughout the city – but the chains declined to prosecute.
In July, Boudin defended the shoplifter and said, ‘When I watch that video, I think about five questions that people are not asking that I think they should. Is he drug addicted, mentally ill, desperate? Is he part of a major retail fencing operation? What’s driving this behavior and is it in any way representative, because it was presented as something symptomatic?’
Boudin was slammed by an Instagram user who posted another viral video of an incident in July when at least ten people stole armfuls of designer goods from luxury department store Neiman Marcus before fleeing without anyone trying to stop them.
‘Everyone in the city is tired of this so please sign the recall petition to oust Chesa Boudin now! Crime is legal basically and allowed and tolerated due to policies put in place and supported by all our supervisors and mayor and DA,’ Instagram user sfstreets415, whose bio reads, ‘Asian photographer and crime reporter,’ wrote.
Meanwhile, more than 150 families have hired the Patrol Special Officers – who are overseen by the police commissioner – to monitor their neighborhoods.
‘We don’t feel safe in our neighborhood,’ Katie Lyons, resident of the Marina District neighborhood, told CBS San Francisco. ‘We have an alarm, we have cameras on our property, but we want the extra security of having someone have eyes on our place.’
Lyons said that she, like many other residents, is cautious about walking around outside. ‘Especially at night, I don’t walk with a purse, I’ll drive, or I’ll take an Uber, and it’s beginning to become a daytime problem too,’ she shared.
A video posted to Instagram in July captures the moment at least 10 people stole loads of designer bags from Neiman Marcus in San Francisco and fled undeterred
Witnesses told KTVU that the store was about to close when the suspects came in and smashed display cases before nabbing the goods and leaving
Officer Alan Byard, who was hired to patrol the Marina District from 8pm to 5am, shared that his clients has more than doubled since COVID hit the city, from 70 last year to 150 now, with each household paying him $65-a-month.
‘People are afraid of what’s been going on,’ the officer said. ‘They want a safe place to raise their kids. In the last year, I’ve had 10 of my clients move out of the city.’
Byard was hired after a rash of repeated instances of car break-ins and home burglaries. While he most often deals with homeless people sleeping on residents’ doorsteps, Byard has also addressed incidents of petty theft and burglary.
Between May 2020 and May 2021, there was a 753 percent increase in the car break-ins in the city’s Central District, according to the Chronicle.
Boudin’s recall isn’t just supported by business owners, police, and worried citizens, its also been backed by former employees and friends.
About two weeks ago, a pair of prosecutors quit their jobs in the San Francisco District Attorney’s office and touted their support for the effort to recall him.
Brooke Jenkins and Dan DuBain told KNTV they stepped down from their posts in San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s office due to his lack of commitment to prosecuting crimes, and the danger they say his policies are unleashing on the crime-ridden city’s streets.
They both accused Boudin of making San Francisco more dangerous by regularly handing down more lenient sentences than are prescribed by law, releasing criminals early and in some cases not filing charges at all.
‘Chesa has a radical approach that involves not charging crime in the first place and simply releasing individuals with no rehabilitation and putting them in positions where they are simply more likely to re-offend,’ Jenkins said, who had been a prosecutor for seven years, most recently in the homicide department.
Brooke Jenkins and Dan DuBain are two of the attorneys who have resigned from the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office in recent months over DA Chesa Boudin’s policies
‘Being an African American and Latino woman, I would wholeheartedly agree that the criminal justice system needs a lot of work, but when you are a district attorney, your job is to have balance.’
DuBain added that he believes Boudin ‘disregards the laws that he doesn’t like, and he disregards the court decisions that he doesn’t like to impose his own version of what he believes is just – and that’s not the job of the district attorney.
‘The office was headed in such the wrong direction that the best thing I could do was to join the effort to recall Chesa Boudin as district attorney,’ said DuBain, a former district attorney in Solano County.
‘I take no pleasure in saying this,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want to be in this position. I consider Chesa a friend.’
Several high-profile cases of repeat offenders being freed by Boudin’s office to go on a kill drew a lot of condemnation and helped in pushing some of his staff out.
The DA has reportedly dismissed the cases against 113 out of 131 people busted for felony domestic violence in the last three months of 2020, according to the Chronicle.
Domestic violence suspect Joseph Williams was released twice before he allegedly murdered seven-month-old Synciere Williams in April.
The 26-year-old was charged over the death of Synciere Williams after the infant arrived at at California Pacific Medical Center showing signs of severe trauma last week.
Police admitted Williams, said to have been caring for the baby at the time of the murder, had been arrested twice in separate domestic violence incidents in January and March of this year, but he did not face charges from either incident.
Boudin claimed they had been unable to book Williams for the assaults because the alleged victim who he was in a relationship with had not wanted to file charges.
But California State law considers domestic violence a crime against the state, with campaigners saying it was Boudin’s duty to find a way to make a case stick.
Boudin’s comment angered domestic violence advocates in San Francisco who say the District Attorney fundamentally misunderstood the nature of family violence cases.