(KRON) — San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said “we should all be livid” after a repeat offender was released from custody. The offender is a drug addict who recently violated a stay-away order from St. James Park downtown. He has been arrested by police several times for using drugs in public, including at the park, authorities said.
A community center located near St. James Park is unable take children to the playground “because of persistent meth and fentanyl use,” Mayor Mahan wrote. One drug addict’s freedom should not be prioritized over everyone else in the community, the mayor said.
“The judge simply returns this repeat offender to the streets to continue to make one of our most historic public parks unusable for the rest of the community. Extremely disappointing — we’ve pleaded with our criminal justice system to hold drug dealers and users accountable for the significant impact they have on our public spaces,” Mahan wrote on X.
Mahan continued, “We should all be livid over a system that prioritizes the supposed civil liberties of the deeply addicted over everyone else’s right to access and use the public spaces for which they are paying. This person needs to be given a choice between treatment or jail, not endless drug use in our parks.”…