It Takes Two To Make a Thing Go Right

One of the three staff members of the Examiner must have read our post about San Francisco community courts because yesterday they had a story which described the difference between the community courts that have already been set up and the community courts Gavin is trying to implement.

The one Gavin wants to setup is an actual sort of a mini-court in which there's a DA, prosecutor, and judge and is designed to have a verdict rendered within 24 hours. The one's that have already been set up is kind of similar but made up of people from the community who volunteer to sit on the court. Instead of rendering verdicts, the court does something very San Francisco instead, mainly discuss what the person's "crime" does to the community and then make some sort of decision on what to do. We see a lot of "not that we want to make a judgment on your pissing on the street because that would be imposing our values on your values…" or "you can go into community service if you want, but we feel that it's up to you" type discussions. These community courts, however, aren't known for working that well, as things tend to drag on.

So which community court does Gavin want to do? Both. The plan is to continue with both community courts because, well, because...because...we'll we don't know. Some say that running both community courts are basically redundant and a waste of taxpayer’s money, but what do some people know? Ross Mirkarimi says he's not opposed to doing both courts, but that he wishes more resources were put in the community courts. As for Jennifer Friedenbach of the Coalition on Homelessness, she says piss away, what do I care?