Citizens can press civil charges, but the power to prosecute someone for jail time is reserved for the government. And the local and state governments, not the federal govt.

DAs are elected, so notionally, Boudin, the DA for SF, is representating the will of the people by not prosecuting criminals deemed to be "low level crimes".

> not the federal govt

U.S. Attorneys prosecute people for crimes that violate federal law, convictions which often result in time in federal prisons.

Not sure what is going on in SF. But in Baltimore they would have been arrested and chargeg. Sure the city might drop the charges if the police bungle the investigation purposely or due to incompetence. But people are arrested and charged.

Citizens don’t get to decide whether to press criminal charges; only the government can decide that. They may take the victim’s request into consideration, but that’s the extent of it.