Harris’ Abysmal ‘Top Cop’ Record

That former California Attorney General Kamala Harris is surging in the Democratic presidential polls tells us one not very surprising thing: Democrats are situational when it comes to concerns about “authoritarianism.” A few progressive writers have pointed it out, but most Democrats couldn’t care less that Harris’ record as the state’s top cop, and as the San Francisco district attorney, is characterized by heavy-handed and unjust uses of police power.

There’s no way to remove politics from the political system, but our system of government depends, at some level, on the fair administration of the justice system. That’s especially true given the outsized power of police and prosecutors. Often, the process is the punishment. If a district attorney or attorney general targets you for political reasons, you might eventually get your day in court and win — but not until your life has been destroyed in the process.

One of the dirty open secrets about California politics is that the state’s muscular police unions, despite their preening about law and order, have long been closely allied with the Democratic Party. Some of those unions were reticent about backing Harris when she first ran for the statewide post, but they eventually endorsed her campaign. That’s not a surprise. Republicans have little power here — and Democrats are most zealous about boosting public-sector pay and pensions, which are main issues that motivate these organizations.

Until the last couple of years, the majority Democrats have done little about police use of force and civil liberties concerns. They’ve built a massive governmental apparatus, and someone needs to enforce all the new rules and regulations, after all. (Republicans haven’t been any better, but, again, they lack any tangible power.) It’s reminiscent of that old quotation from Orson Welles’ 1957 movie A Touch of Evil: “A policeman’s job is only easy in a police state.” Harris is among those who have been trying to make that job as easy as possible.

University of San Francisco School of Law Professor Lara Bazelon wrote, in an eye-opening New York Times column, that Harris “fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors.” Harris’ office even opposed the release of a man who was found by the Innocence Project to be not guilty.