Next Tuesday is the  June 7 primary election.

Joe Biden, Donald Trump our whoever one’s perceived national savior/boogeyman isn’t on the ballot.

So, who cares?
Actually who cares anyway? Most of us over 18 don’t bother to vote.

But we sure spend a lot of time bellyaching, taking to social media pointing fingers every time the wind rustles the leaves, and trying to shove down other people’s throats our values, views, and perceptions.

And almost all of our fixations are on the national level with a heavy dose of interest in Sacramento.

It’s odd. We invest most our rage and energy on stages that we have the least impact on and that impact us the least on a day-to-day and one-on-one basis.

That is not being dismissive of the need for common defense, safety nets such as Social Security, and welfare, interstate freeways, a national air traffic control system and such.

It’s just those things for the most part are federal decisions where our  votes will have the least amount of influence.

The impacts the nation and state have on our day-to-day lives and what our neighborhoods and communities are and what they can or will become is not driven by the same forces although there is obviously overlap.

Clearly there are laws of the nation and laws of the state that govern us.

But how government performs at the national level has less direct impact on our daily lives than the local level.

Take the war on crime, as we like to call it.

The president for the most part can’t do much — if anything — to keep our neighborhoods safer.

Most crime that impacts us isn’t at the hands of migrating hordes of criminals traveling coast-to-coast or even operating much outside of their own backyard.

People believe law and order (or law and disorder) depends on whatever national or state political jockey they are gambling on spews out in campaign rhetoric and — if they happen to get elected — on what they get done.

Yet the one position most likely to reduce the chance of repeat offenders flourishing that account for 90 percent of the crime in our neighborhoods and cities gets minimal attention and happens to be on the ballot June 7 — the office of San Joaquin County District Attorney.

The DA wields much more power over your day-to-day safety than any president ever will.

That’s because they decide who will be prosecuted — and to what extent — for crimes.

And it goes beyond that. It is decisions that office makes that have the potential to set in motion rehabilitation that can lead to first time offenders not turning into repeat offenders. They can also prevent misdemeanor behaviors from becoming de facto felonious behaviors through prosecutions that ignore the nuances the administration of justice requires.

There is a difference between the law and justice.

The law is black and white.

Justice deals with the gray area most crime takes place.

Most of us would agree taking the life of another is wrong. But when you start adding “extenuating circumstances” such as self-defense and saving the life of another what is black and white becomes gray. And even from there — was the response based on the circumstances necessary — colors how much leeway one who acts in self-defense or on protecting others can have.

Legislators and governors can pass and sign all the laws they want, but it is the call of the DA whether to prosecute.

That is what is at stake on June 7.

We practically hyperventilate regardless where we stand on the spectrum of issues and variable course of actions that the concepts “restorative justice” as well as “law and order” conjure up.

And while we are all too happy to play pin the tail on the donkey — or the elephant if those running red better fit your views — we are less enthusiastic about the DA’s race.

Yet as ironic as it might be, the result of the DA race is going to have a much bigger impact by far on public safety in Manteca, Lathrop or Ripon than all the huffing and puffing that either Biden, Trump, or their minions do on the subject.

The president isn’t the gatekeeper to order or justice in our lives. The district attorney is.

The ballot contains the incumbent DA Tori Verber Salazar and her challenger Ron Freitas who has 37 years of experience as a prosecutor.
Verber Salazar has aligned herself with the restorative justice movement in California led by George Gascon and Chesa Boudin, the county DAs of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Freitas, on the other hand, aligns himself with the current standard for DA decision making reflected in most California counties.

Of course, it is not that black and white.

Verber Salazar cut her teeth on the restorative justice movement  by  going after the prosecution of homeless crime in a manner that worked on changing behavior instead of spending an inordinate amount of resources and tax dollars on prosecuting homeless for the same crimes they have to commit day in and day out in order to simply live.

Yes, that did prompt her to jump ship, so to speak, and try to apply the same approach to other crimes that the DAs in Los Angeles and San Francisco have applied on a blanket wholesale basis with less than stellar results. The bad outcomes usually come from treating the 10 percent of the criminal element responsible for 90 percent of the crime no different than the 90 percent that account for 10 percent of the crime.

Do that and the results will not only be less than spectacular but they will also backfire.

Freitas, for his part, has always embraced part of the “restorative justice” movement’s basic elements that are tied to diversion programs for juvenile offenders for fairly serious crimes as well as first-time adult offenders.

Yes,  that approach has had mixed results.

What makes it all the more frustrating is we know next to nothing about where either Freitas or Verber Salazar stands on a wide variety of justice scenarios because the residents of San Joaquin County and roughly 3,100 other counties and equivalent entities devote most of their energy to the national political debate on crime.

Because there isn’t a presidential race at the top of the ticket and the governor’s race is perceived as being nothing more than  the re-anointment of Gavin Newsom, most won’t vote Tuesday even though that is the day voting will decide who sets the tone for the safety of San Joaquin County and its seven cities as well as the standard of justice for a four-year period.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com