Kamala Harris’ ‘Tough On Crime’ Schtick Is A Sham

Harris’s 2024 sham campaign ads tout her as a “tough on crime” 20-year prosecutor in an attempt to hide her true colors.

I served for 24 years as the elected Riverside County district attorney (the fourth-largest DA’s office in California), with bipartisan support. Viewed from within the profession, Harris was a failed prosecutor, both as San Francisco DA and California attorney general. Harris’ record, social media posts, and own words reveal her as a far-left politician — not a fair-minded and tough, nonpartisan prosecutor. Her actions reveal more sympathy for criminals than for crime victims and law-abiding members of the public.

District attorneys should be nonpartisan, professional prosecutors seeking justice with integrity and ethics as their cornerstone. Their job is to protect public safety by enforcing the law and prosecuting criminals. To the contrary, as a “progressive” prosecutor, Harris refused to file a death-penalty case against a gang member who gunned down a young police officer; had numerous ethical lapses and constitutional violations, causing the dismissal of over 1,000 criminal drug cases; and disregarded victims’ requests for help dealing with Catholic clergy sexual abuse cases, failing to prosecute any related cases as DA or AG.

Far from following her oath to uphold the Constitution and to protect public safety, she has advocated for open borders, welcoming the inevitable criminal element of such policies into our cities and towns. She also supported defunding the police and removing ICE as an enforcement tool. Unbelievably, she continues to promote “no cash” bail, allowing serious and violent criminals back on the streets to re-offend.

Further, as AG, her misleading ballot description led to the passage of the hoax Proposition 47, ironically called the “The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act.” This law created a prison-to-homelessness pipeline that sent thousands of state prisoners back into local communities.

As a result, theft and drug abuse throughout California soared, causing significant harm to thousands of victims. The law enforcement community dubbed Prop 47 the “get out of jail free card.” Ten years later, there is no accountability for the victimization or jobs lost and businesses closed due to Prop 47 crime.

During the 2020 Minneapolis riots after George Floyd’s tragic death, rather than denouncing violence and standing up for law and order, Harris supported violent rioters who had been arrested and jailed. On social media, she urged followers to donate money to a nonprofit group to bail out the rioters, later stating, “They’re not going to let up. And they should not. And we should not.” The Minneapolis riots resulted in over 600 arrests, 160-plus cases of arson, including the burning of a police station, two riot-related deaths, and $500 million dollars of damage to homes and businesses. 

These are not the actions of a no-nonsense top law enforcement official, but the actions of a radical leftist politician who disregards the safety of the community for political purposes.

True to her leftist form, if elected president, Harris wants to “transform” and “reimagine” public safety. As stated in Harris’ book The Truths We Hold, she wants “to look out for the overlooked, to speak up for those whose voices aren’t being heard, to see and address the causes of crime, not just their consequences.”

In plain language, this means she wants to continue on her “progressive” path and forget about enforcing the laws passed by a democratically elected legislature, while ignoring threats to public safety. Voters need only look to San Francisco and Minneapolis to understand how Harris’ anti-law-and-order policies will impact the country.

Grover Trask was a district attorney in Riverside County, California, for 24 years.