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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

#411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Come to downtown San Jose and you will see a lot of the same issues I went there once for the library and it just seemed really sketch. I never thought I would say this but maybe the nimbys aren't all bad :/ also should have clarified original comment, but what I meant was the suburban stretch from like Burlingame to Sunnyvale

It’s a totally rational response that is also horribly selfish. You kind of see this sentiment any time discussion of San Francisco comes up. A bunch of people who have voted to consistently take funds out of the city will jump to attack it as if it were some hated foreign country. Meanwhile the voters of California restricted local taxation to be massively regressive. The voters or America consistently give handouts…

The problem is not lack of money. There is plenty of money and it's being wasted. The root of the problem is the political views of the people who run the city and the voters who put them there.

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

#412

I had a car broken into this last weekend. They broke into every rental car in the lot (by the ferry building). A police officer was rolling through, telling people not to leave anything visible in their cars (nothing was visible in mine). I asked him if I could file a report, and he told me I would have to go to the station. He told me he wasn't sticking around and refused to take a report. I had a similar experienc…

Who did you vote for?

No post body was provided.

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

#413
post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Come to downtown San Jose and you will see a lot of the same issues I went there once for the library and it just seemed really sketch. I never thought I would say this but maybe the nimbys aren't all bad :/ also should have clarified original comment, but what I meant was the suburban stretch from like Burlingame to Sunnyvale

It's an american disease, maybe even californian. Go to many other cities in the rest of the world and they have denser, better cities with none of the literal shit. IMO I would barely call most of the bay a city, just a semi-dense suburb for the most part beyond a few pockets.

There are very specific criminal justice reform and soft-on-crime policies that lead to this. If you go to Tokyo, you'll be put in jail for doing drugs. Most likely extremely tough prison sentence of a decade or more. It prevents people from doing drugs and getting trapped in the spiraling destruction of self. Here in America, we have NYC and SF opening clinics to comfortably allow people to shoot heroine in the comfort of a shelter: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/30/nyregion/supervised-injec...

Moral underlying reason? We don't want people to overdose. We're saving lives.

I'd say, Tokyo's policies are far more moral. They'd save thousands of lives vs. 2 overdose lives in a reactionary measure.

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

#414
post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is total nonsense. Wealthy professionals regularly get away with much more egregious thefts than petty shoplifting, the police do a lot more harassment of poor people than rich people, and lack of response to shoplifting is not about race.

What’s lack of response to shoplifting about? I would like it to end.

Resources, risk v reward. Unless you go with something like broken window theory and wish to use shoplifting to ultimately deter more serious crimes, it's not worth enforcing via government action.

If you want to know where shop lifting is taken seriously, it's Walmart. If you steal from Walmart, they know it, they know who you are and it goes in your file. They will bust you at a felony amount level with all the evidence documented and wait until you are somewhere in a jurisdiction they know will prosecute. They will trespass you and have their LPs hold you and the off duty cop they employ transport you.

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

#416
post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No post body was provided.

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

#417
post #333
post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been in Boston for 15 years. Never had a problem. I've crossed the city many times at 2am walking drunk from a bar, nothing. Not even a single package theft in 15 years.

As a male, I've done the same in Atlanta and in Seattle. In Atlanta, was so late coming home that the transit was closed and I walked 7ish miles to get home. Through downtown. I still don't claim it is a safer city than Seattle. Not by a long shot. Just as I don't recommend walking downtown Seattle super late. Though, of course, have done so many times. Similarly, we never had package theft in Seattle. I don't know h…

I'm a woman, and I walk through downtown Seattle super late. It's not actually a black hole of murder, even after midnight.

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

#418
post #24

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.

> Reading this headline I thought to myself, this can't be possible. But then I remembered It's funny, this is exactly what happens when I talk to my SF friends about crime. They have an immediate defensive reaction to insist it's not that bad, but then they slowly start recalling various crime experiences they've had in the past year . It's as if the constant background level of crime has reset their expectations of…

Isn't part of that the forced-positive culture of California? Combined with perhaps a dose of worry that complaining about crime might identify you with the wrong political party?

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

#419
post #125

Without comparing to other high density cities for basic theft, I don't really find this that useful. :( To wit, in Seattle we had our car broken into once. We also had a habit of forgetting the car keys /on top of the car/, such that we would have said we live in a very very safe place. Despite the time the car was broken into. When I lived in Atlanta, the general practice was not to lock your car, so that they woul…

If the surveying is accurate and representative, it's useful because it means that crime is unusually indiscriminate (high rates of anonymous crime.)

Crime more typically happens between people with connections to each other. For example, my city has a per capita crime rate similar to San Fransisco's, but most don't experience it unless they live or work in a few neighborhoods (or single intersections in some cases.) In my city, something like 5-10% of people would report having recently been a victim of a crime, despite the number of crimes per capita being similar.

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

#420
post #75

I am genuinely curious about what’s the appeal of SF?

Walkable, amazing weather, tons of beauty, interesting people, 15 minute bike ride from some of the most beautiful spots in the entire world.

Who wants to take a 15 minute bicycle ride in a city full of junkies?

Schwalbe make some great commuting tires but I doubt they can withstand discarded needles.

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