District Attorney Brooke Jenkins gets a crash course in San Francisco politics
SAN FRANCISCO — During an annual Chinatown community event hosted by the police department in September, interim San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins moved through the crowd like a rock star, stopping to oblige selfie requests and chat with locals gathered at Portsmouth Square for a discussion on public safety and crime.
Jenkins, 41, is frequently recognized on San Francisco's streets these days — at a family-friendly NoPa block party, during an art walk on Clement Street or a Noe Valley pumpkin-carving contest judged by drag queens.
The political newcomer surged to celebrity in July as Mayor London Breed's pick to replace progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin after voters ousted him from office a month earlier. But much like her predecessor, Jenkins has become one of the city's most controversial political figures.
For some, Jenkins has ushered in a necessary crackdown on crime in a city struggling with drug overdoses and violent attacks against Asian Americans and vulnerable populations. For others, she's a political pawn with questionable ethics, intent on dragging the city back to a failed tough-on-crime era of decades past.
Jenkins ascended to power roughly nine months after she
