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

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

#181

Post by babesh » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:45 AM UTC

Gimpei wrote: post #88

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…

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 was born and raised in SF as well. SF is beginning to look and feel like late 80’s/early 90’s SF. Increase in hate crimes against Asians. Car break-ins. Burglaries. Fewer people on the streets.

I think part of what is happening is that criminals refocused on residents because there aren’t tourists around to prey on anymore.

Chesa Boudin made it worse. No more bail so people accused of crime are free to sometimes commit more crime. $950 and below shoplifting is now a misdemeanor.

Walgreens doesn’t even report the shoplifting anymore. They just closed stores. 13 and counting.

SF does look a little cleaner now than a few months ago. The tent city at City Hall is hidden behind a fence. The tents in other parts of town tend to be clustered in alleys instead of along main streets. Still far fewer people walking around than before. Interestingly, the Marina looks as rich and lively as ever unlike many other parts of SF.

The City feels dead. SF Chinatown looks and sounds more like Oakland Chinatown now. Quieter. Far less car traffic and traffic noise. Easier to find parking. Few tourists. Mostly locals.

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

#182

Post by imgabe » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:45 AM UTC

narrator wrote: post #105

Cookingboy wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh he absolutely knows it's bad policy, however he also knows it wins votes from people in San Francisco. The problem is a large numbers of voters in SF don't realize it's bad policy, and maybe a bigger problem would be why are district attorneys elected positions in the first place?

Can someone who lives in SF chime in and tell us why you voted for Mr. Boudin? Knowing what I know about bay area politics, I bet half the people who voted for him will say that crime in San Francisco is not the district attorney's fault and blame Regan for closing down the mental hospitals in the 70s. I live just outside San Francisco city limits and everything is peaceful, because the criminals know that the laws a…

I think it's partially a positive feedback loop. I'm not sure how to solve the problem.

But it probably goes: SF spends a lot of money on services for the homeless, so lots of homeless people keep going there to get those services. Other places don't spend any money on services for the homeless, so the homeless people leave.

If every place spent a little bit on services for the homeless, there would be just a few homeless everywhere instead of lots of homeless in a few places and no homeless in other places. But that would require coordination to ensure nobody free-rides and just lets other places take on the homeless.

$300 million is a lot though. I've worked on construction projects building ~250 unit apartment buildings that had budgets of $25 million. It seems like you could just build actual housing for most of the homeless with that kind of budget. (Of course that would require SF to allow housing to be built).

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

#183

Post by dude187 » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:45 AM UTC

psychomugs wrote: post #65

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…

Doing god's work! It's crazy that people can be so deluded to think that actually having enforcement against such victimization is somehow negative.

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

#184

Post by narrator » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:46 AM UTC

sneak wrote: post #176

narrator wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, no…

If they had a charge for using the toilets, that would keep severely mentally ill homeless people and junkies from using them, so you are partially right.

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

#185

Post by JumpCrisscross » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:47 AM UTC

pvg wrote: post #96

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…

half US homeless are in California with migrants arriving daily crime in SF has absolutely exploded These don't seem to be reflected in easily googleable stats https://www.usich.gov/tools-for-action/map/#fn[]=1400&fn[]=2... https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/stay-safe/crime-data/crim...

Devil’s advocate: a lot of crime in San Francisco isn’t reported. For example, the case mentioned in the article.

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

#186

Post by dheera » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:47 AM UTC

sneak wrote: post #166

dheera wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yes, the first two are right from those. Add some more nasty stuff, productize it, install it in cars.

Booby traps are mostly illegal. The macro solution to widespread poverty and petty theft is not found in doing petty mean things to impoverished thieves, despite the fun youtube videos that result.

I wouldn't call it a booby trap. It's just spraying them with some stuff. They can run. They'll just look ridiculous and smell nasty and hopefully learn a lesson.

A micro solution to protect my own property would be nice until the macro solution people get their act together.

Also, same for tow trucks. They should call the number on the dashboard -- which does the least damage to the car and saves the most peoples' time, and is therefore the optimal solution -- before attempting to tow or they're in for a nice fart.

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

#187

Post by dragonwriter » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:47 AM UTC

fuzxi wrote: post #147

narrator wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Pepper spray, whose purpose is to cause bodily harm, was included in the list of ingredients, so the described booby trap would, indeed, be a prohibited “intended to cause bodily harm” one. (Actually, not only do the general laws on booby traps come into play, but using pepper spray other than in immediate self-defense in California is a crime.)

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

#188

Post by wearywanderer » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:47 AM UTC

asdff wrote: post #160

olivermarks wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

It's baffling how short we are on the services we need in the richest state in the richest nation. LA county alone is anticipated to have over 100,000 homeless in the next few years. That's the population of Burbank. They aren't exactly sure how much over as they couldn't do the annual count this year, but COVID related job loss and expiring benefits should be of no help.

Californian politicians are all embezzling criminals. How else can the discrepancy between the money supposedly going to these programs and these programs actually receiving next to nothing be explained?

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

#189

Post by jollybean » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:47 AM UTC

ajmurmann wrote: post #63

almost_usual wrote: post #31

SF is a weird city crime wise, lots of property crime and theft. Occasional shootings but nothing like a rust belt war zone city. San Francisco’s crime is mostly inconvenient for rich people, that’s why it’s in the news. St. Louis is the 13th most dangerous city in the world but you won’t hear about it. https://www.statista.com/statistics/243797/ranking-of-the-mo...

The NIMBY cost of living problem is definitely huge add little annoys me more. I do wonder though if that's truly the cause for the high homelessness. Where are the homeless from? Are the from SF or other parts of CA or even came there from other states because of good weather and comparatively soft treatment they receive in SF? Genuine question. I've on several occasions tried to find statistics on this, but failed.

"The NIMBY cost of living problem is definitely huge add little annoys me more." it's not hugely relevant to the problem. California is massive, and 99.5% of it's land is available for most kinds of development. Citizens of a community have every right to decide how it should be managed.

Most 'high income / high property prices' places in the US in the world do not have this kind of crime problem - generally it's the other way around.

Gentrification for all it's good/bad elements generally leads to a reduction in crime.

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

#190

Post by wespiser_2018 » Tue, May 25, 2021, 5:47 AM UTC

cyphertruck wrote: post #21

imgabe wrote: 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.

I’m not taking offense wt your statement, but do want to say: You are being unkind to Somalia. I’m serious. The perception of Somalia is skewed heavily by western news for the simple reason that the Somali people rebuffed the attempted invasion by US & UK proxy forces. (Guessing you most Americans don’t know that even happened.) Somaliland isn't somewhere I would want to live, but I would pick it over the Bay Area. W…

A US Service member was dragged dead through the streets in '94 in celebration of defeating a UN peace keeping mission to ease an on-going famine, and those images were broadcast all over the world.

It's easy to underestimate just how powerful that image is in shaping perceptions, and rightfully so: a lot of violence has been done to us citizens by thugs and pirates using the the lawlessness in Somalia as cover.