Fox News Flash top headlines for August 15
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A San Francisco police union is once again calling out the local, liberal prosecutor, as a mother continues to grieve the loss of her daughter who was plowed down in a hit-and-run on New Year’s Eve by a suspect who critics argue should have remained behind bars given his lengthy criminal record.
The renewed criticism comes as San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is expected to host a national organizing phone call Monday "celebrating 5 years of elected progressive leaders."
"There's no pain like the pain felt by a mother losing her child. Hanako Abe was killed just 8 months ago by a man who should've been in jail," the San Francisco Police Officer’s Association tweeted Saturday, sharing another message from Abe’s mother. "Long after Boudin finished his pathetic CYA campaign, Hanako's mother grieves. She always will. He will never understand."
Her mother had tweeted a framed photo of her daughter on an altar, announcing that it was the first Obon festival, a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors, since Hanako's death.
"I lit a fire so that her soul could reach her house without hesitation," the woman captioned the photo. "I am looking forward to lighting the lanterns. I really want to meet Hanako!"
Fox News reached out to Boudin's office for comment on Sunday.
Police said 27-year-old Abe and 60-year-old Elizabeth Platt were two pedestrians killed when Troy McAlister blew through a red light at an intersection driving a stolen car in a "methamphetamine-fueled rampage" after allegedly stealing a cash register and a laptop from a sandwich shop nearby.
This undated photo provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) shows Troy McAlister, a parolee who was allegedly intoxicated when he ran a red light in a stolen car on New Year's Eve killing two pedestrians. The San Francisco police officers union says a plea agreement for a robbery set McAlister free on parole in April, and that San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin's office failed to prosecute McAlister's multiple arrests in the aftermath, including one December 20 for alleged car theft. (California Department of Corrections)
McAlister is facing a slew of charges, including manslaughter in connection to the crash. In June, Abe’s family filed a wrongful death claim against the city of San Francisco, KGO reported.
In a Jan. 5 detention motion, Assistant District Attorney Ryan Kao admitted that prosecutors missed McAlister’s "out-of-control spiral" that played out for months, as the parolee was allowed to remain out of jail despite several, sometimes violent arrest over alleged drug and property crimes.
"Defendant’s pattern of criminality has done nothing but increase over the years, and unfortunately the People missed Defendant’s out-of-control spiral while on parole," Kao wrote in the motion, according to the San Francisco Examiner. "In hindsight, the thread running through these cases seems obvious. It was only a matter of time before Defendant victimized someone else — it is just so disturbing that the victimization happened so quickly and so traumatically."
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McAlister previously served five years in county jail for robbing a market with an airsoft gun. His subsequent arrests while out of parolee came for allegedly stealing cars near the Balboa BART Station, bashing down a door of a vacant apartment building claiming the owner gave him permission to do drug there, and for jumping into a car and grabbing at the driver’s pockets until the driver exited the vehicle.
The district attorney’s office never formally filed charged in connection to those offenses.
"I’ve said from the beginning that hindsight is 20/20," Boudin said after the incident. "Every single law enforcement agency that has had contact with Mr. McAlister wishes they had done something different that might have prevented this tragedy, and that certainly includes my office and my staff."
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