I Was Robbed in San Francisco While the Cameras Rolled • Hacker News Board

Re: I Was Robbed in San Francisco While the Cameras Rolled

#141

Post by ako » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:35 AM UTC

epicureanideal wrote: post #51

ma2rten wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually don't know if the crime rate in SF is higher than elsewhere, but if it is I think cause is the opposite. It's what happens when capitalism goes unchecked. Cost of living is on the rise while wages are stagnant. Crimes are often committed by people who are desperate. Also there are no facilities for people who are mentally ill, who will go on to commit crimes.

Capitalism isn't what's happening in SF. NIMBYism, cronyism, inability to build, tons of regulatory red tape to do anything, high taxes, etc. is not capitalism.

All of those may be true, but the bad effects of uncontrolled capitalism most likely also have something to do with the situation.

If you expect people to live by the rules, they should have a honest opportunity to do so. But if all they can get is a job that doesn't even pay for a small room, what are your possibilities to live a honest live?

If you remove punishment, but the only option people have is to break the law to survive, the only outcome to be expected is increased number of crimes.

Re: I Was Robbed in San Francisco While the Cameras Rolled

#142

Post by seanmcdirmid » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:35 AM UTC

olivermarks wrote: post #30

SF District Attorney Chesa Boudin ran for office in November 2019 focusing his campaign on ending mass incarceration with restorative justice models, rather than punitive incarceral methods. Since then crime in SF has absolutely exploded, fuelled by proposition 47 which reduced stealing less than $900 day to a misdemeanor. Add in a massive opioid crisis and the result is a rapidly growing crisis of shoplifting, petty…

It isn’t half, maybe 25%? I crunched the numbers awhile ago and it was something like 2X California’s population share, which is about 12%.

Re: I Was Robbed in San Francisco While the Cameras Rolled

#143

Post by olivermarks » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:35 AM UTC

asdff wrote: post #126

Gimpei wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crime has exploded across the US since the start of COVID, not just SF. So I'm not convinced Chesa is to blame. Which isn't too say I'm a big fan of his either. Homelessness is indeed a problem, but according to the biannual survey, most of the unhoused are from the bay area. This suggested the crisis is the result of skyrocketing rents and the steady disappearance of SROs. Yet another thing we can thank Nimbys for.…

I think the elephant in the room is the mental health crisis. You don't notice the person walking by you who lives in their car. You notice the person who is shoeless in traffic and screaming. We elected to close our mental health treatment facilities and turn these people out to the street to fend for themselves. Then when they deny offered treatment or shelter we claim they did it through their own volition and all…

There are only 6000 psych beds in all of California right now, but the state has spent 13 billion over the last 3 years on 'homeless'. Far more will be spent this year but the problems are getting worse.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/audit-california-track-h...

Re: I Was Robbed in San Francisco While the Cameras Rolled

#144

Post by jonahhorowitz » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:36 AM UTC

premium-komodo wrote: post #3

Yes, that seems to be how it is in SF. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arss9V3A1VA Is it possible that, despite good intentions, the policies being implemented there actually have very harmful effects?

The biggest problem is that the Cops 1) hate the DA because he's charging them with crimes, and 2) have a terrible clearance rate, which predates the current DA. They're hoping to drum up the narrative that this is his fault and replace him in a recall election.

To some extent, it's working. Every time you talk to the cops right now, they will tell you that the crime is the DA's fault.

Re: I Was Robbed in San Francisco While the Cameras Rolled

#145

Post by dheera » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:36 AM UTC

narrator wrote: post #113

dheera wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always thought that an honestly useful product would be some kind of theft deterrent device that you either attach to your car, or attach to your camera equipment, and it detects the car window getting smashed or the tripod getting moved out of range of a beacon in the owner's pocket. If triggered it should spray a combination of fart spray, glitter, pepper spray, honey, flour, feathers, ink, in all directions.…

Traps to defend property are very illegal.

Why would this be a trap? They're free to run, they will just look like a glittering sticky chicken and smell like shit.

Re: I Was Robbed in San Francisco While the Cameras Rolled

#146

Post by Cookingboy » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:36 AM UTC

anonfornoreason wrote: post #137

foota wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative would be that they believe it is good policy and they're willing to accept some increase in crime. Not saying I necessarily agree or accept that the policies are necessarily causing an increase in crime, but I do think it's worth pointing out that this is a possibility. (that imo is not unlikely)

In my social circle, which includes co-workers and families, this is explicitly stated, and it's rationalized with "they deserve more than they have, so if it takes crime to get them more, that's just in my book". I think it's more likely than you expect, at least on the very vocal group that is aggressively pushing the overton window on our views on the social contract.

Next time you should ask them "do you think the all victims of those crimes deserved their fate as well?"

Re: I Was Robbed in San Francisco While the Cameras Rolled

#147

Post by fuzxi » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:36 AM UTC

narrator wrote: post #113

dheera wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always thought that an honestly useful product would be some kind of theft deterrent device that you either attach to your car, or attach to your camera equipment, and it detects the car window getting smashed or the tripod getting moved out of range of a beacon in the owner's pocket. If triggered it should spray a combination of fart spray, glitter, pepper spray, honey, flour, feathers, ink, in all directions.…

Traps to defend property are very illegal.

Booby traps are illegal if designed to cause bodily harm. It's not so cut-and-dry when it's something merely annoying, like a glitter bomb, though I would definitely not want to be the manufacturer trying to defend that in court.

Re: I Was Robbed in San Francisco While the Cameras Rolled

#148

Post by freeone3000 » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:37 AM UTC

pmoriarty wrote: post #115

84fryb75 wrote: post #9

In early 2020, before lockdown, I visited San Francisco as a tourist with my wife. We took a wrong turn at a book store and wound up on a street covered in feces. The next street was fine. Then on the next, we watched a homeless woman shoot up on the street. Then a supercar pulled into a garage. I'm not the best traveled, I'll admit, so I can't compare SF to foreign cities. I'm a simple hillbilly from the Southeast,…

"The homeless are way more aggressive than they are in Chicago or Texan cities. The feces. The crime." So where do homeless people go to the bathroom in Chicago and Texas? In SF most businesses won't let homeless people (ie. obviously poor people and/or people with severe mental issues) use their bathrooms, and even if they did, most of the city closes down at night, so there's nowhere to go. SF has some public bathr…

In Texas they use restrooms at fast food places, gas stations, and Starbuckses like everyone else out on the town and in need of a pee. Failing that, the one in the local mall. Not having bathrooms available to the public is a problem of SF's own invention.

Re: I Was Robbed in San Francisco While the Cameras Rolled

#149

Post by yupper32 » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:37 AM UTC

dcow wrote: post #124

yupper32 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This was my third time in SF. > Also, I've always refused to move to Silicon Valley > The author is in denial. > it is a really expensive shithole I'm always amazed by people who have visited a place a few times as a tourist and think "I'm qualified to shit on people who choose to live here". What makes you think you have any say in the situation? SF has massive neighborhood diversity as far as living situations go…

Just curious, what are you doing to turn it around? I don't think it's fair to use the collective "we" in this case unless you're actively working to solve these problems. Otherwise it comes off as incredibly dismissive.

Voting, contributing to campaigns, some volunteering around prop times. Though I'll admit I haven't done much around the recall of our DA outside of donating. I should be doing more there.

I'm also active in my neighborhood in my own way, trying to get people together for events (think trivia, bar game tournaments, etc). Though of course this has limited during covid.

I think your comment is kinda rude, though. Even if all I was doing was voting, I think I'd still qualify to talk on the issues. Anything more is gatekeeping.

Re: I Was Robbed in San Francisco While the Cameras Rolled

#150

Post by tptacek » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:37 AM UTC

olivermarks wrote: post #30

SF District Attorney Chesa Boudin ran for office in November 2019 focusing his campaign on ending mass incarceration with restorative justice models, rather than punitive incarceral methods. Since then crime in SF has absolutely exploded, fuelled by proposition 47 which reduced stealing less than $900 day to a misdemeanor. Add in a massive opioid crisis and the result is a rapidly growing crisis of shoplifting, petty…

John Pfaff, a law professor at Fordham who wrote "the book" on mass incarceration, has been at pains to point out that crime (and particularly violent crime) has risen uniformly, across the country, in both "red" areas and "blue", and the rise cannot be attributed to "progressive prosecutors", or really any particular policy intervention.