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It's coming to Seattle, too. Thieves smashed several of Nordstrom's windows at $50,000 apiece. Small businesses are simply giving up and leaving. I expect it won't be long before storefronts sprout rollup steel shields that extend from the pavement up and cover the complete storefront. That's what businesses do in Brazil. Amazon is abandoning one of its downtown buildings because the employees don't feel safe there a…
> Some former police officials said in interviews that officers don’t feel it is worth making an arrest in low-level cases because they assume the district attorney won’t file charges. They also point to a statewide ballot measure passed in 2014—Proposition 47—that raised the dollar amount at which theft can be prosecuted as a felony from $400 to $950. https://archive.fo/WlnP3
I read that as "I'm not going to do my job, because this other group isn't doing their job." I guess any city gets roughly the government they want/deserve/tolerate.
> Property crimes declined in San Francisco during the first year of the pandemic, but rose 13% in 2021. There is an ongoing national narrative about how shoplifting and petty theft has been out of control and yet the numbers rarely back up this narrative. A two year stretch in which the numbers dropped then bounced back up by 13% is not "insane" by any stretch of the imagination.
the sf city government is a failed-state kleptocracy beholden to the inertia of the political machine and rich landowners who shortsightedly vote against their own interests, in a massive region with no regional governance, in a state kneecapped by antitax demagogues abusing the initiative process, in a nation whose already rickety performance under decades of neoliberal austerity and privatization was then intentionally reduced to rubble by a TV star, and his replacement has pudding brain.
> Property crimes declined in San Francisco during the first year of the pandemic, but rose 13% in 2021. There is an ongoing national narrative about how shoplifting and petty theft has been out of control and yet the numbers rarely back up this narrative. A two year stretch in which the numbers dropped then bounced back up by 13% is not "insane" by any stretch of the imagination.
I don't believe the data is accurate simply because most crime of this level is not reported because the victims accurately believe nothing will happen.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't believe the data is accurate simply because most crime of this level is not reported because the victims accurately believe nothing will happen.
Do businesses not have insurance? Does this insurance not ask for a police report?
when the collective no longer seems interested in providing basic guarantees, the individuals will turn on each other. not because of a moral failing, but rather morality is a function of incentives. the sf city government is a failed-state kleptocracy beholden to the inertia of the political machine and rich landowners who shortsightedly vote against their own interests, in a massive region with no regional governan…
Is California known for low taxes or being anti-tax? I don’t live there, but as an outsider, I have the exact opposite impression.
This puts it at the 10th highest overall tax burden: https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-bur...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not really - as the article says, the cops are discouraged and it's not like there's a bounty per arrest. Overstating the numbers is a waste of time not accomplishing anything if true.
Cops outright make shit up to win political points. For example: https://www.businessinsider.com/nypds-shake-shack-hoax-stop-...
I don't find that argument convincing.
> Property crimes declined in San Francisco during the first year of the pandemic, but rose 13% in 2021. There is an ongoing national narrative about how shoplifting and petty theft has been out of control and yet the numbers rarely back up this narrative. A two year stretch in which the numbers dropped then bounced back up by 13% is not "insane" by any stretch of the imagination.
Is it really 13%, or... A. The city has incentive to hide the actual numbers[1], and B. Most business owners don't bother anymore with reporting, because what's the point? I'd say it's probably a combination of the above. Edit: [1]Because it is an election year. High crime looks bad.
If your local prosecutor will not prosecute low-level crimes then the threshold for acceptable behaviour deteriorates further and further. See Cook County’s failed experiment with bail reform and electronic monitoring of violent offenders.