Live data from Hacker News

I Was Robbed in San Francisco While the Cameras Rolled

petapixel.com

171–180 of 390 posts

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

#171
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SF's areas of poverty are mixed in with the highly visited areas and aren't really getting gentrified. Its easy to make a wrong turn. When you lived in NY did you go north of 110th st or further east then williamsburg?

I've lived in both SF and north of 110th street in NYC. I frequently visit tough parts of Bedstuy. There is absolutely no comparison - the worst parts of SF is much more dangerous than the worst parts of NYC. Expensive shithole is an appropriate description.

SF has an abundance of shit, for sure, but it's nowhere near as dangerous as NYC. From my own experience, I concur that "in New York, trouble finds you."[0]

[0]https://youtu.be/agvzE91Xfek?t=77

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

#172

> The police officer said he was glad to have the license plate number but that robbery is so low-profile in the courts right now that even if they did catch him, without video proof, the thieves would be let go within a day or so. Even with video proof, there's a good chance that Chesa would drop all charges anyway. Related topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27216343

Why would you say that and not: the cops in San Francisco have an agenda, and that agenda is getting rid of Chesa. They have this agenda because he charged a few of them with crimes.

The cops are going around blaming Chesa for every problem, while simultainously having one of the worst clearance rates in the country.[1][2]

Also, organized crime might be responsible for the shoplifting, which wouldn't really fit the Chesa/Prop 47 narrative.[3]

>To prosecute, the district attorney has pursued aggregated charges for multiple petty theft incidents by the same person, such as a recent case of stolen scooters.

[1] - https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/This-is-how-the-pa...

[2] - https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/stay-safe/crime-data/clea...

[3]- https://www.sfchronicle.com/local-politics/article/Out-of-co...

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

#173

It was my last day in SF after a semester-long internship, and I decided to take photos around downtown. I was passing through Union Square on my way home when I saw a guy weaving through traffic, with two people chasing after him and yelling at him to give something back. I instinctively started booking it after him, caught up to him in the middle of a food truck area, grabbed him by his hoodie collar, and pinned hi…

Nobody comes to live in SF because of those things you experienced. They come for the sweet VC money, jobs at Facebook and Google. And likewise, criminals come because that money exists there too.

There is VC money in NYC, Chicago, Boston, and Seattle, and I can work at Google or Facebook from most of those cities. I will never move to SF in the condition it is in, and I'm sure many other people feel the same. These opportunities exist elsewhere.

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

#174

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%.

Yes, it's estimated to be 26.73% in 2019 [1].

[1] https://www.usich.gov/tools-for-action/map/#fn[]=1400&fn[]=2...

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

#175
post #6

I'm sure it's skewed because of the Internet, but between Twitter and Hacker News it sounds like San Francisco is basically Somalia now.

Never left the Palisades, have you? SF has tons of property crime but much less of the violence you'd find in hellholes like St. Louis, Missouri or Baltimore, Maryland.[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_murder_rate

Ok, so SF doesn't have the same amount of murder as the most rough and ugly ghettos in the Western World? That's good and true, but I'm not sure it helps make an argument.

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

#176
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've peed in a bush in SF. I didn't want to, but that's what happens when you have humans with bladders and zero public restrooms. I tried to not pee in the bush. I asked around, went to a few grab and go restaurants, a gas station, but none had a public bathroom. My only option was to wait in line and pay cover to get into a bar, wait in line at the high end restaurants in the area, drive across town to Denny's for…

The S.F bathroom problem is that heroin addicts go into bathrooms, they lock the door, they pass out, and die or have a psychotic break and break everything they can or smear shit all over the walls and then the store is liable for the wrongful death or they have to clean it up.

The bathroom problem is because there is a ban on charging for toilets, nothing more, nothing less.

Most businesses would be happy to have another (minor) profit center, and most people would be happy to pay. There used to be lots available for a small fee. Instead, we get no public toilets at all because it is illegal to charge, and businesses decline to operate them at a loss. Your description is of the symptom, not the cause.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_i...

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

#177
post #161

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…

As a foreigner, though a frequent watcher of American crime shows: what exactly is a misdemeanor, and why is it bad that stealing is one? What changed when it was reclassified?

The short answer is that misdemeanors are crimes that aren't that bad (e.g., trespassing), and felonies are crimes that are really bad (e.g., kidnapping). Felonies carry stricter sentences than misdemeanors. By saying that stealing up to $950 worth of product per day is only a misdemeanor, a lot of the deterrent effect goes away.

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

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

decarceration, even for repeat violent criminals and no penalties for property crime.

California already incarcerates 5x more people than any European country, and 10x more than the Nordics: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/CA.html There are many, many problems in CA, but putting more people in jail is not going to solve any of them.

> California already incarcerates 5x more people than any European country, and 10x more than the Nordics

Well, most European and Nordic countries don't have 13% of the population committing 52% of the violent crime. So this is kind of an unfair comparison.

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

#179
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.…

Walgreens has closed over 17 stores due to increased shoplifting. It is 400% higher than the national average in SF. It’s higher in SF because the repercussions are much lower because SFPD doesn’t even bother looking. Look at the reaction to the theft of the camera. The police said the DA need video evidence, eyewitnesses don’t matter anymore, even with a picture of the car. The criminals are free to commit crimes co…

While I'm sure shoplifting is a concern, where I lived (around Market/Van Ness) there were 4 or 5 Walgreens stores within a 3 block radius. And several CVS, Safeway, Whole Foods and many other smaller independent ones on top of that. And I (and everyone I know) still ordered everything on Amazon. A couple of them have since closed, and it was long overdue IMO. Shoplifting or not there was no way they were all profitable.

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

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

decarceration, even for repeat violent criminals and no penalties for property crime.

California already incarcerates 5x more people than any European country, and 10x more than the Nordics: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/CA.html There are many, many problems in CA, but putting more people in jail is not going to solve any of them.

Isn’t our crime 5x more? The only way to get the same incarceration rate would be to imprison criminals 1/5th as much as Europeans do.
Post reply on HN