Can you provide any... yaknow... evidence that crime is going up on average? Just a quick Google implies that this is a complete fabrication https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/San-Francisco-crime-Che... https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/stay-safe/crime-data/crim... https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/san-francisco-crime-r... >Ideology gets the best of people and they don't want to believe. The irony of saying t…
Just like what the old saying says, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions," SF is living it.
This is likely still lower than a lot lot lot lot lot of jurisdictions where prosecutors and cops don't even make any sort of effort at theft cases until the facts of the case allows for a more serious charge to stick and the theft is irrelevant. I had two bikes stolen from me, while I was personally at the Public Defender's Office, working in Spokane. Nobody called the police for that kind of stuff, and if you did, the police wouldn't do anything. It's compounded by the fact that the elements of Burglary - which is trespass + felony, no actual stealing needed, in WA - covers the really serious thefts that are seldom solved anyway, but counting burglaries would be overbroad, but reporting a theft can be yelling into the wind even with a police force that's funded by the government AND reality TV show money. Since the same poll wasn't conducted in multiple cities, there's no frame of reference. This could be very bad, or could just be a lack of points of reference when it comes to actual acts of criminal conduct that happens but never gets reported. So, without more data, the road paved with good intentions leads to a place to be named later.
What is the rate for other big cities? Is this a lot higher than usual, or only a little higher? The thing is that people steal things everywhere. Bikes. Cigarette lighters. Money left out. Scam items off Amazon or eBay is a form of theft. Your beer at parties. Lawn gnomes. I don’t know many people anywhere who haven’t had something stolen from them at some point, so I’m not sure what this is saying
I don’t think I’ve had any theft incidents in many years in Seattle.
Law enforcement is useless if they pick and choose which laws to enforce. Laws themselves are pointless if they are not enforced (or even worse: selectively enforced)
Prosecutor's office has a large role here. No reason for cops to investigate crimes that won't be tried.
That's true. But cops also do not get to decide what they investigate based on their own beliefs and biases.
Got a $1500 bike stolen from the inside of my locked apartment in Potrero Hill back in 2015 or 16. Was very bitter about that -- it was one of the few things I brought with me to SF. Police ignored it. For weeks after I was walking through all the homeless chop shops looking for it. About a month after the theft, I received a call from someone who bought a frame (just the frame) with my serial number at a San Jose fl…
Law enforcement is useless if they pick and choose which laws to enforce. Laws themselves are pointless if they are not enforced (or even worse: selectively enforced)
I'm guessing that if a rich, white or Asian tech worker decided to loot a Walgreens, they would get the book thrown at them. Look at the small business owners in New York who get arrested and charged with everything possible by the DA's office for defending themselves (until public pressure forces them to back down). That's where we are. This is what the people voted for, though.
Half the people in SF can say the same. Anecdotal data doesn't mean much.
Do the 50% who do claim they are victims of theft say it only happened to them a single time? In my experience, the people who admit they are the victims of theft have countless stories of it happening to them.
> In my experience, the people who admit...
Again, one person's anecdote is not a reliable way of measuring these things.
Got a $1500 bike stolen from the inside of my locked apartment in Potrero Hill back in 2015 or 16. Was very bitter about that -- it was one of the few things I brought with me to SF. Police ignored it. For weeks after I was walking through all the homeless chop shops looking for it. About a month after the theft, I received a call from someone who bought a frame (just the frame) with my serial number at a San Jose fl…
The rampant organized bike theft is particularly obnoxious not only is the theft disproportionately impactful relative to the value since you needed the bike for transportation-- but it's particularly easy to do something about it because its so organized and large scale: Put out bait bikes with trackers and/or surveillance.
(and plus, when you bust a big operation and now have a ton of bikes whos owners can't be located you now have an endless supply of bait)
Reading this headline I thought to myself, this can't be possible. But then I remembered I got two packages stolen in two different neighborhood of the city, and during NYE someone broke the door of the backyard to probably see what they could steal there.
As someone that's never been a victim of theft, that's wild and I feel like it would just ruin things for quite awhile.
I had what I assume was a drunk person, try to get into my apartment once. Not something that should be too scary but I felt uneasy for some time after that.
I'd be out wiring the house like ft. knox the next day, if that happened to me haha.
Since folks are sharing stories.. I lived in the Mission for about 10 years (2003-2012). My apartment was broken into, my car was broken into multiple times, my roommate was mugged at knifepoint and stabbed (she was fine), my bike was stripped for parts (they stole the handlebars / shifters and seat while it was locked up), and my car was stolen, driven around the neighborhood in broad daylight when I spotted it at 1…
San Francisco: We're Totally Surprised That Failure to Enforce Laws Leads to Lawlessness
I've lived in several cities, and they all share in common police's complete unwillingness to investigate petty theft. Businesses seem to have no problem, but private citizens just aren't a high priority. I realize San Francisco has wider issues with crime enforcement, but petty theft is under-investigated and enforced in many places unfortunately.
I think the annoying thing about SF is you'd find way more people OK with the idea to not pursue non-violent crimes, defund the police, or reduce police presence because the relationship with community is bad and mass-incarceration is a problem. And they are real problems, but also they are not going to get fixed in a year or even five years. There are certainly good number of people who are balanced in terms of supporting a trade-off between long term and short term solutions, but the voices in the extreme are definitely more heard.
You often can't even casually rant about this, without getting a whole debate in response just for sake of having a debate and being woke.