San Francisco’s notoriously woke mayor is calling for ‘more aggressive policing’ in an effort to end ‘the reign of criminals who are destroying our city.’
Mayor London Breed launched an emergency police intervention Tuesday aimed at curbing open drug use, brazen home break-ins and other criminal behaviors taking place in San Francisco’s crime-ridden Tenderloin neighborhood and across the city.
She argued that it’s time San Francisco officials get aggressive and ‘less tolerant of all the bulls*** that has destroyed our city’ and the progressive policies that have allowed criminal behavior to make a mockery of the city’s famed tolerance and compassion.
‘It’s time the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end,’ she said. ‘And it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement, more aggressive with the changes in our policies.’
‘All of our residents, our workers and everyone who visits our city should feel safe no matter what part of town they are in. I know San Francisco is a compassionate city. We are a city that prides ourselves on second chances and rehabilitation,’ the mayor said.
‘But we’re not a city where anything goes. Our compassion should not be mistaken for weakness or indifference.’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking Wednesday, slammed the ‘attitude of lawlessness’ sweeping the nation, citing the mobs of robbers have targeted luxury boutiques in her hometown of San Francisco and stores in other cities.
‘It’s absolutely outrageous. Obviously, it cannot continue,’ Pelosi said Wednesday. ‘We cannot have that lawlessness become the norm. And these people have – they coordinate with each other. And they plan traffic patterns and the rest, so that they can reach their goal and depart very quickly.’
Although she said she agrees with the need for change, Pelosi did not endorse the mayor’s plan to increase policing and review zero bail policies.
Mayor London Breed launched an emergency police intervention Tuesday aimed at curbing open drug use, brazen home break-ins and other criminal behaviors taking place in San Francisco’s crime-ridden Tenderloin neighborhood and across the city
During her news conference Tuesday, Breed said she plans to introduce legislation that allows law enforcement officers real-time access to surveillance video in certain situations, as well as measures that would make it harder to sell stolen goods.
‘What I’m proposing today, and what I will be proposing in the future will make a lot of people uncomfortable, and I don’t care,’ the Democrat argued. ‘We are past the point where what we see is even remotely acceptable.’
She continued: ‘In recent months we’ve not only seen a number of high-profile incidents of brazen robberies and car break-ins but also street behavior and criminal activity – especially in the Tenderloin – that has become far too normal and cannot continue to be tolerated.’
On Tuesday afternoon, San Francisco police revealed over past week, police seized nearly a kilo of drugs, multiple weapons, $3,400 in drug money and arrested 17 suspected dealers in the Tenderloin, which is regarded as one of the poorest and most drug-infested neighborhoods in San Francisco.
Over the last month there were also six shootings, 2O drug arrests and 16 assault and batteries in the 50-square block Tenderloin alone, CBS 5 reported.
Breed, who met with a group of Tenderloin families last week, said ‘hearing their stories as hard’ and demonstrates exactly why change is necessary.
On Tuesday afternoon, San Francisco police released a drug enforcement update for the Tenderloin, which is regarded as one of the poorest and most drug-infested neighborhoods in San Francisco
An estimated 90 people overran a Nordstrom Inc. store in the wealthy Bay Area suburb of Walnut Creek, California, on November 20 and made off with more than $100,000 of merchandise, escaping in cars that had their license plates removed or covered
A suspect was seen running away with an armful of merchandise after stealing from a Luis Vuitton store in San Francisco’s Union Square in November (left). Footage from the aftermath (right) shows the glass door was shattered in the incident, and the shelves were completely empty
‘Hearing their stories was heartbreaking. Just imagine if you had to walk your kids down the streets of the Tenderloin every single day with people shooting up (on drugs), selling drugs and because the sidewalks were so packed with people, you had to walk out into the streets in incoming traffic on a regular basis,’ Breed explained.
‘You got these brand new playgrounds where you don’t even feel comfortable walking your kids to play in them because of everything you see around them so you don’t feel safe.’
Breed’s push for change comes as residents and visitors scurry past scenes of lawlessness and squalor across San Francisco.
Daytime shootings are occurring in the touristy Haight-Ashbury and just steps from the Opera House and Symphony Hall, drug dealers carry translucent bags filled with crystal-like rocks or stand outside the public library’s main branch, flashing wads of cash while peddling heroin and methamphetamine.
Reports of larceny theft – shoplifting from a person or business – are up nearly 17 percent to more than 28,000 from the same time last year, with groups of brazen looters constantly breaking into stores and grabbing everything they could get their hands on.
Pelosi commented Wednesday on the ‘outrageous’ robberies, some of which were planned through online messaging apps according to law enforcement – that have are regularly taking place in the city and pointed to legislation being developed in the House to improve tracking of online sales, where stolen goods get pedaled
More than 45,000 incidents have been reported so far this year, up from last year when most people were shut indoors, but below the roughly 60,000 complaints in previous years
Police were parked outside a Fendi store in San Francisco on November 30 amid a rise in slash and grab thefts
Pelosi commented Wednesday on the ‘outrageous’ robberies, some of which were planned through online messaging apps according to law enforcement – that have are regularly taking place in the city and pointed to legislation being developed in the House to improve tracking of online sales, where stolen goods get pedaled.
She was asked to comment after Breed called for a crackdown on crime.
‘The fact is that there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from I don’t know where. Maybe you do?’ said Pelosi, when asked about a spate of robberies.
California’s Proposition 47 – lighter sentences for thieves
Proposition 47 was passed by California voters on November 5, 2014.
It made some ‘non-violent’ property crimes, where the value of the stolen goods does not exceed $950, into misdemeanors.
It also made some ‘simple’ drug possession offenses into misdemeanors, and allows past convictions for these charges to be reduced to a misdemeanor by a court.
Under California law, though, if two or more person’s conspire to ‘cheat and defraud any person or any property, by any means which are in themselves criminal’ they can face no more than one year in county prison, a fine of $10,000 or a combination of the two.
‘And some of it is, again, [targeted] high-level stores as the retailers have told us and some of it is your local Walgreens. But none of it is acceptable. And again, it has to be stopped.’
She touted a bipartisan bill at the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers (INFORM Consumers) Act.
It directs online platforms to collect information on large third-party sellers, including their government ID, bank account, and tax ID information, while providing information for consumers to verify.
‘Because what people do is they steal things and sell them online,’ said Pelosi. ‘They have to establish their legitimacy if they’re going to be sold online.’
She also pointed to a Judiciary Committee bill to ‘incentivize’ online platforms to weed out sellers of counterfeit products.
Pelosi sought to contrast the organized robberies with other types of theft.
‘And again, showing that people are not able to profit from that. It isn’t like punish somebody stealing something to go home because they don’t have the money to buy. This is about stealing for profit. They have to prove where it came from. It’s outrageous. And it must, I agree with the mayor, it must be stopped,’ she said.
‘It’s not just San Francisco. It’s an it’s an our entire country. And that’s evidenced by the appeals that we are receiving from across the country for the legislation,’ Pelosi added.
The recent spate of robberies that saw stores in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area ransacked by hordes of looters was organized on social media by people who often did not know each other, police investigating the incidents now reveal.
A map shows the locations of some of the major smash-and-grab robberies that have recently taken place in Southern California
A police officer stood at the site of a shooting in San Francisco in early November, when two people were shot in broad daylight in the city’s Haught-Ashbury neighborhood, an area that has become overrun with young homeless people
National pharmacy chain Walgreens has closed 17 of its 70 San Francisco locations in the past two years, citing shelf raiders who have swiped every kind of product not behind lock and key. The retailer claims it needs to shutter five additional stores in the city because the soft laws on shoplifting have led to rampant theft.
Walgreens insists that San Francisco’s rampant crime is to blame, revealing it spends 46 times as much on security at its city stores, which face five times as many shoplifting incidents compared with those elsewhere in the country
Meanwhile, requests to clean dirty streets and sidewalks are flooding the majority of calls to 311, the city’s services line.
Overall, though, crime has been trending down for years. More than 45,000 incidents have been reported so far this year, up from last year when most people were shut indoors, but below the roughly 60,000 complaints in previous years.
San Francisco’s well-publicized problems have served as fodder for conservative media outlets. Former President Donald Trump jumped in again recently, releasing a statement saying the National Guard should be sent to San Francisco to deter smash-and-grab robberies.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10314279/Woke-San-Francisco-mayor-London-Breed-calls-aggressive-policing-end-crime-reign.html
