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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

#421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

My response was "only half?". Seriously, isn't this true everywhere? I've jad things stolen in small towns and in big cities that are "tough on crime" and have citizens that vote for that. Theft is just part of life right? If I've just lived in bad places, where would one suggest that most people don't experience theft?

Living in low crime areas can be quite a shock. I grew up in a area where my bike was stolen out of our shed a few times. I'm in an area now where children leave their bikes on the front lawn and sidewalk overnight. It's a completely different world. I hope you get a chance to move somewhere without the acceptance of random theft some day.

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

#422
post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 evi…

"to ultimately deter more serious crimes"

I'd say it's pretty serious when it's to the point that places are going our of business because of it. Any business can expect some shrinkage, but when that number surpasses rhe already low margins in most industries...

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

#423

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…

You can replace the police force, nothing will change. When cops feel unwanted and disrespected they act accordingly. There's a reason we have a history of unwarranted respect for cops and military members. It's not because they always deserve it, but because you want them to feel like they do.

> When cops feel unwanted and disrespected they act accordingly.

Strange, when service workers act that way, they either start pretending that they are helpful and respected, or they get fired.

And as for cops, they've been useless for a very long time, certainly prior to the events of the past few years. The tantrum they throw every time they are subjected to any oversight is purely performative.

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

#424

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?

We don't elect police officers here.

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

#425

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…

> telling people not to leave anything visible in their cars

I effing hate that attitude. We shouldn't have to live in a society where every moment you have to be vigilant against the bad guys.

It keeps piling on. I suspect if we keep this up there will be signs "don't use your phone in public" (because people will steal phones from your hands). "don't eat in public" (because people will steal food from you). "don't drive a car" (because your car will be wrecked/stolen). "Don't leave your house" (because outside you're likely to be mugged).

The whole point of having police instead of having to walk around with your own armor and armed guards is so we can not have to put up with this stuff. But nearly everyone, at least on the west, takes it for granted that "it's just the way it is". It's not. It's the way we let it be. Not every place/country has this issue. We let it get there by both by encouraging it ("looking for a partner in crime") and by letting it slide (see police response above)

This isn't just SF. In Berlin I was told not to put my bag between my legs because someone would steal it from behind. In Paris a friend had her wallet stolen from her purse in ~15 seconds. She reached into her purse for her camera, took a picture, looked back into her purse, saw her wallet was gone.

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

#426
post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can replace the police force, nothing will change. When cops feel unwanted and disrespected they act accordingly. There's a reason we have a history of unwarranted respect for cops and military members. It's not because they always deserve it, but because you want them to feel like they do.

Cops have been useless for a long time. It is why everyone currently hates them. They don't work for us. They don't protect us. They extract money from us to justify their existence. Truly useless.

You'd find out very quickly how truly heinous humans can be without a police force.

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

#427

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…

You can replace the police force, nothing will change. When cops feel unwanted and disrespected they act accordingly. There's a reason we have a history of unwarranted respect for cops and military members. It's not because they always deserve it, but because you want them to feel like they do.

Didn't they want a new DA? Didn't they get a new DA?

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

#428

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…

> I had a dispatcher refuse to send an officer for a theft crew that I'd stopped in the middle of breaking into a car before they waved a gun at me and drove at me and my son over the sidewalk.

That encounter with the thieves sounds awful, and then being unable to get police help sounds doubly awful.

I hope your son wasn't traumatized by it.

FWIW, not all cities are like that. The couple times someone pulled a gun on me on the sidewalk in Cambridge (Mass.), a large number of police cruisers responded, and started a very professional-seeming search. The time that I called police before I got home, after they got a description and then statement from me, one of the officers gave me a ride home. Cambridge isn't as great as it could be for founders (not as much action as the Bay Area, and the bottom-end apartments might be $2K+ and still have peeling lead paint and the occasional mold or rat), but you do get good police.

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

#429
post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 evi…

Good. It's pathetic that private companies have to take the law into their own hands. Thiefs should go to jail. Crime is bad for society.

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

#430
post #107
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still cheaper than incarceration, which apparently costs $64K in 2015[0]. [0] https://www.vera.org/publications/price-of-prisons-2015-stat...

It costs as much in California, because of activism that deliberately makes it more expensive than necessary and then claims that it is too expensive to make sense. California could strike a deal with Kentucky, Oklahoma, or Nevada to send their prisoners there at half the price it costs to incarcerate them in California, and save billions while allowing the destination states to make very nice profit as well. Of cour…

Do you have any cites for this claim? Honest ask, it sounds very "california" but CA is also an expensive state in general.
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