Having reported crime in SF after I was burgled via forced entry I can say first hand that it is arduous and the only reason I went through with the process is for insurance reasons. I do not trust those statistics at all. People who value their time more than the goods they were deprived of may decide that it simply isn't worth reporting. Every officer I talked to made sure to tell me that they weren't going to do anything about it, that there was no hope of getting my stuff back, and that I should avoid wasting everyone's time. If I didn't have a rather expensive laptop stolen I wouldn't have bothered. I was required to wait for police to arrive and they took over 8 hours arriving at 5am and all they did was tell me in person they were not going to do anything and they were clearly upset that I actually went through with the report and made them visit.
One of the offices that a friend worked at had a homeless person enter the lobby and start harassing people. They called the police who then reprimanded the reception and told them that the homeless person has their rights and does not have to leave, they informed the homeless person that he was under no obligation to leave which made it even more difficult for the office staff to remove him which they were unable to do. Women had to be escorted in and out of the office for the rest of the day while a random homeless person hurled abuse at them. It was all extremely unpleasant.
Kate Steinle was a friend of a friend and she was randomly shot and killed by a homeless person on Pier 14 not far from where I was living in SF. The accused was acquitted due to lack of evidence. A senseless killing of a kind lady for which there will be no justice.
I did not have much respect for SF police but after living there for some time I have even less respect for them now. This mess is part of their refusal to do their job, maybe that's due to a political diktat but it has been in place for so long now it seems that the current crop of police officers are totally ok with this status quo. I guess everyone who wasn't has already left the force.
On April 3rd, Florida became the 26th state that allows concealed carry without a permit[0]. This means over half the states now allow concealed carry without a permit. And it's likely that Nebraska will also pass constitutional carry [1] (ie concealed carry without a permit) this year becoming the 27th state.
Are any cities safe? Most cities have neighborhoods that outsiders are discouraged from visiting. SF just has a weird dynamic where those neighborhoods become the entire city once the sun goes down and 99% of people board up their windows and doors.
Checking violent crime rates in SF vs, say, Boston, Boston is actually a tiny bit higher (6 vs 5 per 1,000 residents). (Source: neighborhoodscout.com)
It'd be great if this discussion didn't death-spiral like the last one.
You can argue about the causes and the effects all you want, but unless you're doing something about it – either moving away, getting involved in policy, or volunteering at a soup kitchen – it's all just more ineffectual, angry talk... the same empty 'someone should do something' talk that has kicked this can down the road for decades now.
You say we have “kicked this can down the road for decades” as if billions and billions haven’t been poured into social services and charities and social justice initiatives of various types. I’ve no idea if you’re oblivious or disingenuous, but the way you have characterized the problem is not congruent with the reality I’ve witnessed over those same decades.
This idea that social services (community centers, at-risk youth outreach programs, etc) can do the work instead of police is tempting, but it's very unlikely.
Yes, that doesn't mean they are unnecessary. (Quite the opposite, as police also does too much. And similarly the prison system is also so laughably underfunded compared to its size that it almost makes things worse.)
But. And that's the real issue that many people just don't want to see, it's still chronically underfunded (and mismanaged, but getting better management is not going to be cheap).
Of those billions, have they been spent wisely? Spending feel-good dollars that are politically appealing and spending those same billions on bitter medicine (read: shelters that nobody wants to build, making more public toilets, etc.) that will not get you reelected are two very different things. Anyone can piss away a few billion and give themselves a gold star and a press conference for doing it.
The problems have done nothing but grow. Yes, there have been services. No, there haven't been solutions. That is kicking the can down the road, despite how well-meaing people may be.
Bad take. NOT being able to speak about this publicly is precisely what got us here in the first place. We NEED to start expressing that we’re not okay with this before anything will change.
Your comment reeks of “stop whining, I didn’t even hit you that hard”.
How long until acceptance of what was once one of the most beautiful cities on earth becoming a cyberpunk opium den? You people are doing your city such a disservice. Fix it sooner, not later.
Complaining about people who are saying its broken is the opposite of fixing it.
What is it going to take to admit that The City has a problem? Because the collective denial and doubling down on our failed policies clearly isn't working.
A commenter on the SF Chronicle page made an interesting argument: the city should return to at-large elections for the Board of Supervisors. Even though a significant majority of the city roughly agrees the city needs stricter enforcement of the laws, it can't quite get there. Citywide elections typically result in center or right-of-center (in relative SF terms) winners; for example, the most recent left-of-center mayor in SF was Art Agnos, 1988-1992. But a majority of the Board of Supervisors is now left of center; district neighborhoods are too susceptible to pandering and cheap promises.
Readit News
Weren't people giving stats for the Bob Lee article(s) saying pretty much the opposite?
One of the offices that a friend worked at had a homeless person enter the lobby and start harassing people. They called the police who then reprimanded the reception and told them that the homeless person has their rights and does not have to leave, they informed the homeless person that he was under no obligation to leave which made it even more difficult for the office staff to remove him which they were unable to do. Women had to be escorted in and out of the office for the rest of the day while a random homeless person hurled abuse at them. It was all extremely unpleasant.
Kate Steinle was a friend of a friend and she was randomly shot and killed by a homeless person on Pier 14 not far from where I was living in SF. The accused was acquitted due to lack of evidence. A senseless killing of a kind lady for which there will be no justice.
I did not have much respect for SF police but after living there for some time I have even less respect for them now. This mess is part of their refusal to do their job, maybe that's due to a political diktat but it has been in place for so long now it seems that the current crop of police officers are totally ok with this status quo. I guess everyone who wasn't has already left the force.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/katharinabuchholz/2023/04/06/wh...
In 1971, the only state without a concealed carry ban was Vermont.
https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/constitution-of-the...
[0] https://www.flgov.com/2023/04/03/governor-ron-desantis-signs... [1] https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/03/28/permitless-concealed...
Checking violent crime rates in SF vs, say, Boston, Boston is actually a tiny bit higher (6 vs 5 per 1,000 residents). (Source: neighborhoodscout.com)
You can argue about the causes and the effects all you want, but unless you're doing something about it – either moving away, getting involved in policy, or volunteering at a soup kitchen – it's all just more ineffectual, angry talk... the same empty 'someone should do something' talk that has kicked this can down the road for decades now.
Yes, that doesn't mean they are unnecessary. (Quite the opposite, as police also does too much. And similarly the prison system is also so laughably underfunded compared to its size that it almost makes things worse.)
But. And that's the real issue that many people just don't want to see, it's still chronically underfunded (and mismanaged, but getting better management is not going to be cheap).
Great on you if you are... but doesn't exactly solve issues of people being attacked with metal pipes, no?
Explaining that SF is not safe is actually doing something. Because believe it or not, many people still think this violence and crime is no big deal.
Your comment reeks of “stop whining, I didn’t even hit you that hard”.
How long until acceptance of what was once one of the most beautiful cities on earth becoming a cyberpunk opium den? You people are doing your city such a disservice. Fix it sooner, not later.
Complaining about people who are saying its broken is the opposite of fixing it.
Unlike the rest of the country, for most of its history San Francisco has had at-large elections for the board. It's only in the past 20 years that we've had district elections. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Board_of_Supervi...
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