Since the beginning of the election season, there has been an entire mountain-hill of misinformation present about Kamala Harris. While certain aspects of Harris are most certainly problematic, the issues surrounding her prosecutorial record are littered with misinformation in an attempt to discredit her. In this deep-dive, we’re examining Kamala Harris ‘s actual record and what she actually did while serving as DA.
I’d like to make it known that I am not a political operative; DNC associate, Democratic donor, or anything of the like.
First and foremost, I’d like to say that a chunk of Harris’s record I support. From what I’ve seen online; in forums, and through mentions of her name most seem to believe that Harris was out as a prosecutor to target black families and the black community. While her constituency was at the time dominantly black, that isn’t and was never always the case.
- Harris ‘s record on truancy
Kamala Harris indeed championed a truancy program that either (would) fine families up to $2,500 or the parents involved would face up to a year in jail for truant students. The program, per records, was meant to deter families from not making their best effort to ensure their students were actually going to school. A large part of Harris ‘s truancy efforts appear to be pointed and geared towards this study [click here].
If I’m being totally honest, I think. this is where my questions about Harris first began. What isn’t clear about this truancy program is whether or not Harris took into account how black families are hurt by these programs. What about families whom are broken? Who don’t have both parents? Who don’t have means to transport their kids to school? Who lived out of school bus areas.? None of these questions appear to have been plausibly answered. It is still sort of unjust in a way to judge Harris simply by the act of enforcing what was already on the books.
On this issue.. I give Harris a solid D.
2. …. non-violent offenders.
This one has always seemed pretty obvious considering that her record has been publicly available on this since 2004. Beginning that year, Harris helped champion the Back on Track initiative (it’s literally what it sounds like). While the program never actually managed to go full-frontal, it did serve a few hundred people. Publicly available records show that the program was meant to help first time offenders obtain a high-school diploma and a job, instead of actually serving time in jail.
The program then went on to be imitated across the country in select cities.
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