“It is up to you and me to make sure that future leaders of this office remain independent decision makers and stay the course of holding public officials accountable and law enforcement officers accountable for their actions,” she said Monday, flanked by more than a dozen supporters, some donning her original 2022 campaign shirts. “Our challenges are too great to be divided.”
Price’s ouster comes just two years after San Francisco recalled its progressive district attorney, Chesa Boudin, and as Oakland voters recalled Mayor Sheng Thao. Statewide, voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 36, which rolls back lower penalties for certain petty theft and drug possession crimes that voters had passed a decade ago.
During the somber press conference, Price spoke about her administration’s efforts to push forward reform during its two years. Under Price, the Alameda County district attorney’s office secured its first-ever indictment against a corporate polluter in connection to a toxic fire last year. She also touted the creation of a public accountability unit to review cases of police misconduct and an investigation into past administrations’ practice of excluding Black and Jewish jurors from death penalty cases.
“In November of 2022, Alameda County took a huge step forward toward a better criminal legal system,” she told reporters. “In January of 2023, I took office, and since then, I’ve fought to bring change and help to a broken criminal justice system. Under my leadership as district attorney, we made incredible strides towards serving the victims in this county.”
During her tenure, Price faced scrutiny for allowing the statute of limitations to expire on at least hundreds of misdemeanor cases. She also recently came under fire after her office missed the deadline to charge two officers in the death of Mario Gonzalez, an unarmed man who died after being pinned to the ground by police in 2021. His was one of the cases her office reopened under the new accountability unit.
