How Did Burns Respond To 'Corruptionist' In San Francisco?

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From the beginning of the 20th century to the turbulent aftermath of the Second World War, America underwent a profound cultural shift marked by the resurgence of conservatism and traditional values alongside the struggle with corruption. San Francisco, a distinct city known for its vice and crime, embodied this cultural shift as depicted in Lisa Riggin’s narrative, “San Francisco’s Queen of Vice: The Strange Career of Abortionist Inez Brown Burns.” Inez Burns was a woman well-known for her illegal abortion network in San Francisco conducted through her Filmore Street clinic, overseeing thousands of abortions for women all along the West Coast. As a result of abortions prohibited by state and federal law, women had no choice but to receive …show more content…

However, the newly elected district attorney, Edmund Gerald “Pat” Brown, would attempt to rid the streets of San Francisco of its vice and police corruption. In America’s historically transformative period, the clashing lives and actions of Inez Burns and Pat Brown were deeply influenced by a symphony of conservative values, the redefinition of gender roles, and the fight against corruption defined in this narrative. Delving deeper into the shift to a more traditional America, Pat Brown’s election as the district attorney most likely resulted from his commitment to implementing conservative principles in his political rise. His conservative nature seemed to arise from his religious beliefs as a Roman Catholic, embodying the conservative nature of America’s ideals and customs. The narrative mentions Pat Brown selected a small group of men from the police department and district attorney’s office to plan and carry out a raid on the Filmore clinic, with most of these men being “Good Roman Catholics” that he knew Burns couldn’t bribe or pay …show more content…

Analyzing the success and failures of Inez Burns, she was successful in her endeavors running her illegal abortion clinic until her demise due to legal implications, societal exclusion, and imprisonment. Additionally, both her failures and successes were in defiance of the traditional gender expectations of the time. The narrative states, “Inez had acquired expensive tastes, but the unprecedented frivolity of the 1920s brought an increasing number of clients to fill her pockets and pay the bills.” (Riggin P. 488 - Amazon Kindle). This piece of text provides the reason for Burns’s success as an abortionist who capitalized on the changing societal landscape, where the women of this time gained more independence and autonomy over their actions, resulting in behaviors or activities such as premarital sex that required the demand for abortion services. Burns' failures began as her legal troubles caught up with her, as stated in the narrative where Burns had escaped prosecution on multiple occasions but later evidence from raids on her Filmore clinic and further investigation would result in her

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