San Francisco Mayor London Breed Calls B.S. On Left-Wing Policies

Democratic Mayor London Breed started an emergency police intervention on Tuesday aimed at San Francisco’s rising crime and drug problem and called “bullshit” on left-wing policies such as defunding the police.

Breed described San Francisco as a city that prides itself on compassion and rehabilitation but warned that its compassion should not be mistaken for weakness or indifference. “We are not a city where anything goes,” she said.

Breed’s “tough love” program includes an emergency intervention plan for the Tenderloin district, providing emergency police funding, amending surveillance ordinances so law enforcement can prevent and stop crime in real-time and hinder the illegal sales of stolen goods.

Recently, retailers such as Walgreens and Safeway have been forced to close stores in San Francisco due to rampant and brazen theft.

Under Proposition 47, a California ballot initiative passed in 2014, theft of less than $950 in goods is treated as a nonviolent misdemeanor and rarely prosecuted. Retail establishments often instruct employees and security guards not to intervene when they witness a crime, due to fear of lawsuits and personal safety.

There were 3,375 reports of larceny-theft citywide in November, the majority of them were car break-ins. Tourist hotspots have seen 876 reports of smash-and-grabs in November, that number is up from 442 last year.

San Francisco is not alone in the fight against surging crime, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia have seen a drastic surge in violence and crime since the push from Democratic lawmakers to defund the police following the George Floyd protests.

Although Breed is hoping to rein in crime all over San Francisco, the Tenderloin district has “obvious problems” she said.

“Just imagine if you had to walk your kids down the streets of the Tenderloin every single day with people shooting up (on drugs), selling drugs and because the sidewalks were so packed with people, you had to walk out into the streets in incoming traffic on a regular basis,” she said.

“At the end of the day, the safety of the people of San Francisco is the most important thing to me. We are past the point where what we see is even remotely acceptable,” Breed concluded.