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Nearly Half of San Franciscans Have Been Victims of Theft, New Poll Says

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Re: Nearly Half of San Franciscans Have Been Victims of Theft, New Poll Says

#301

Post by stevenwoo »

cr4nberry wrote: post #249

The weirdest thing I noticed moving to the bay area wasn't SF (have been there a couple times and only saw a little bit of the craziness), it was how different South Bay/Peninsula are from the city I expected the same SF problems you hear about to be issues in that area, and they really aren't (at least where I live) Idk if I would ever move into the city tbh, it just seems like a shithole. I'm sure it's less boring,…

Almost everyone I know who drove from Peninsula 10-15 years ago into city had stories about smash and grabs in the city, but nowadays my Nextdoor on the Peninsula (Mountain View/Los Altos) the top three stories are suspicious person walking around the neighborhood, someone getting their catalytic converter stolen, someone getting everything taken from their car locked or unlocked. It could just be the algorithm driving these stories to the top, though. I have had my unlocked car rifled through multiple times. I lived inside the loop in Houston for five years in the 1990s and had my car broken into multiple times as well (even inside apartment complex gated garage) so it's just an easy crime to commit and multiple targets in very small area in urban places.

Re: Nearly Half of San Franciscans Have Been Victims of Theft, New Poll Says

#302

Post by glenda »

lxe wrote: post #166

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 agencies in the US are infamous for stealing billions of dollars of cash from innocent people using civil asset forfeiture.

Re: Nearly Half of San Franciscans Have Been Victims of Theft, New Poll Says

#303

Post by ColonelTrick »

nullc wrote: post #277
lxe wrote: post #166

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 loc…

I think this is much harder in practice. These “honeypots” are often considered entrapment and cause the case to get thrown out.

Re: Nearly Half of San Franciscans Have Been Victims of Theft, New Poll Says

#304

Post by bombcar »

tomcam wrote: post #190
barbariangrunge wrote: post #37

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 think we can all agree that lawn gnome theft is a hugely important problem that needs far more attention from law enforcement.

If someone steals my car I understand what has happened.

Someone stealing a lawn gnome would weird me out a bit.

Re: Nearly Half of San Franciscans Have Been Victims of Theft, New Poll Says

#305

Post by irrational »

alex_young wrote: post #284

I’ve been burglarized 4 times, in 4 different cities, in 2 US states, and once in Europe. I’ve lived in SF twice and in a few other Bay Area cities, and I honestly can’t tell you that my personal experience with crime in SF is all that different from the norm in most urban areas. There are places I’ve lived which seem devoid of crime, but these places seem to have more community in common than leadership or laws. Alt…

I’m 50 and have lived in 11+ cities over my lifetime. I’ve never been robbed. How is it that one person can get robbed 4 times and another no times? It’s not like I’ve ever lived in a gated community or anything like that.

Re: Nearly Half of San Franciscans Have Been Victims of Theft, New Poll Says

#306

Post by jacobolus »

ratsmack wrote: post #178
jacobolus wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion blaming the DA was always a lazy excuse. Now that he has been recalled in favor of a “tough” replacement who fired all of the progressive city prosecutors, how do you explain their continuing non-responsiveness? Recently my plumber neighbors had their truck stolen with their tools in it and told the police precisely where it was but the police wouldn’t do anything, so my neighbors found the thief and be…

>Now that he has been recalled in favor of a “tough” replacement... That was in June of this year. Do you really believe that the change will happen that fast?

There has not been and I do not believe there will be any appreciable change in police behavior any time in the foreseeable future, without a much more significant reform effort. They’ve been unresponsive to property crime for many years. They started blaming Boudin for their unresponsiveness before he was even elected, and they’ll still be blaming him for their unresponsiveness long into the future.

Re: Nearly Half of San Franciscans Have Been Victims of Theft, New Poll Says

#307

Post by nkozyra »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #215
testfrequency wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“I live in a wealthy suburb outside a major city and it’s safe here compared to an entire major city” fixed it for you

You seem to be implying that it's right and proper for cities to have high crime. Why is that?

> You seem to be implying that it's right and proper for cities to have high crime.

That's a really odd reading. From my vantage point it looks more like anecdotal evidence from within an area with usually lower crime rates and attempting to extrapolate to the larger city/ies.

I don't see a value judgment at all.

Re: Nearly Half of San Franciscans Have Been Victims of Theft, New Poll Says

#308

Post by zerocrates »

aabaker99 wrote: post #109
loeg wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think I’ve had any theft incidents in many years in Seattle.

I’ve been in Seattle for a mere 8 months and I’ve been robbed already.

Robbery is pretty rare most places but theft writ large is much more common: stolen bikes, stolen packages, rifling through open cars and/or breaking windows to take things from inside, things like that. My understanding is that San Francisco's crime problem has been mostly those property crimes rather than violent crime like robbery.

Re: Nearly Half of San Franciscans Have Been Victims of Theft, New Poll Says

#309

Post by bombcar »

ben174 wrote: post #245
tchaffee wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I would suspect that people who have been a victim of theft once are much more likely to be a victim again.

Re: Nearly Half of San Franciscans Have Been Victims of Theft, New Poll Says

#310

Post by vineyardmike »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #215
testfrequency wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“I live in a wealthy suburb outside a major city and it’s safe here compared to an entire major city” fixed it for you

You seem to be implying that it's right and proper for cities to have high crime. Why is that?

I'm not the OP but I personally would imply that a wealthy and low density area would have a lower rate of petty theft than a dense and urban environment full of a diverse group of people (with diverse incomes and diverse needs).

Not that it should have, but that it can be expected.

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