Sacramento’s outgoing sheriff and DA sparred with Black Lives Matter. What comes next?
Next month’s Sacramento County election marks the end of an era for local law enforcement.
Two right-leaning leaders who were front-and-center during protests over police shootings that shook the city are leaving office, opening the door to change in the county’s criminal justice practices.
Sheriff Scott Jones is running for Congress after 12 years leading his office. His campaign for the House of Representatives is reviving some of the moments that made him a controversial figure among left-leaning residents. In one advertisement, he brags that he “stood up to” Black Lives Matter during protests over alleged police brutality.
District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, meanwhile, is running for attorney general after eight years as the county’s top prosecutor. Left-leaning groups criticized her, too, after she declined to press charges against dozens of police officers who used their weapons on duty. At one point, activists disrupted one of her 2019 speaking events to criticize her record investigating shootings by police.
With both law enforcement leaders departing, groups that called for change now have an opportunity to choose who comes next. Residents and community leaders have been doing their homework, monitoring debates and putting questions to the candidates.
“We weren’t paying attention (before). I think that we’ve dropped the ball from generations to generations and I want to speak up for a new generation to understand that it only is a strategy, nothing more, nothing else,” said Berry Accius, a community activist leading a voter education program this spring. “This is not about emotions. This is not about liking her or liking him. This is about a strategy to make sure that we make a major play for our well-being and our kids’ well-being down the line.”
Another activist watching the election is Stevante Clark, whose brother was Stephon was shot to death by police officers in 2018, leading to protests that at times shut down the city. Schubert and then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra reviewed the shooting, and each declined to press criminal charges against the officers.
Stevante Clark is critical of both Jones and Schubert. He wants their successors to bring justice in Sacramento, for his brother and others who have been wronged by law enforcement.
Others who wanted to see prosecutions after Stephon Clark’s death also are paying close attention to the election.
“When you look at the totality, everything that’s happened in the past five years going back to the national and global impact on Stephon Clark’s murder, call to recognizing what structural racism, institutional racism, white supremacy and the poor systems look like,” said Ryan McClinton, program manager with the advocacy group Public Health Advocates. “This election matters because it’s our chance to finally put candidates or at least one candidate in place to really address these issues.”
Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Thien Ho, who came to the U.S. as a Vietnamese refugee, is facing former Deputy District Attorney Alana Mathews, who is Black, in the race for district attorney. Either would become the first person of color to hold that office.
The race to succeed Jones pits Undersheriff Jim Barnes and against Democratic Assemblyman Jim Cooper. Barnes has Jones’ backing, but says he’d chart his own course if he’s elected. Cooper, a 30-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office, has support from a wide range of unions and elected officials.
A change in Sacramento
Flojaune Cofer, a senior policy director with an advocacy group that calls attention to health disparities, is focusing on the sheriff’s race. She noted that the sheriff runs the county jail and does not report directly to the Board of Supervisors.
Cofer of the group Public Health Advocates is looking for a sheriff candidate who takes responsibility, accountability when overseeing jails and not seeing them as the primary place for preventive action.
“For one the sheriff is elected (and) has no boss,” said Cofer, who served on the Sheriff’s Outreach Community Advisory Board from 2016 to 2020. “Structurally, the sheriff is in control of a large portion of the county budget, including the jail facility which gives the sheriff a lot more authority and a lot more influence over the ways in which the police department operates. If they arrest people, they go into jails run by the sheriff.”
McClinton said he is closely watching the district attorney race because it’s the “highest-ranking officer “in our region. He stressed the district attorney will make decisions about who faces criminal charges in court, and whether to prosecute law enforcement officers accused of wrongdoing.
“They’re the ones who are supposed to hold the sheriff’s department, the Sacramento Police Department and every other jurisdiction accountable, as well as those who are breaking laws and committing crimes,” said McClinton. “It hasn’t always been an equitable distribution of justice. It’s been an injustice (in Sacramento), so when you think about what this opportunity represents, it’s a changing of the guard that this region hasn’t seen before.”
Black Lives Matter leader calls for transparency
Black Lives Matter Sacramento founder, Tanya Faison, said she is focused on her community.
When it comes to the upcoming elections, she wants someone in these positions who won’t tolerate injustice and who will focus on transparency and accountability.
“We want to see someone in those offices that implements changes that lean into community power and that give transparency and ensure accountability when their deputies or police are doing wrong things, or the DA,” said Faison. “Anything that leans into the community and makes the community stronger.”
She said specifically for Black voters, she urged them to do their research on all the candidates’ history and not select a candidate based on their skin color or preferred political party.
“It’s very common in Black voters and it’s no shade,” said Faison. “A lot of times we lean on a (political) party, we lean on the hue of someone’s skin to determine our decisions, or name recognition, when we don’t know the actual details or the history of their work.”
She urges people to do the legwork and background checks on the candidates they are leaning towards selecting for the midterm elections.