SF Mayor London Breed Announces Crackdown on Crime in Tenderloin District
Critics note that Breed is mostly fixing a problem that she and the city helped create
By Evan Symon, December 14, 2021 3:50 pm
Amid a large number of arrests and drug seizures in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco last week, Mayor London Breed announced on Tuesday that emergency police intervention there would be launched as soon as possible.
Over the last several years, San Francisco has seen crime skyrocket in the city. Last month, a string of flash-mob, smash-and-grab robberies at luxury stores in Union Square, as well as elsewhere in the city, thrust the city’s crime problems back into the national spotlight. Despite the SFPD ramping up efforts, the latest bump in crime persisted.
Last week, the SFPD in the Tenderloin exemplified this continued rise by being swept in a series of arrests and seizures. In only a few days, the SFPD seized 950 grams of drugs (600 of which were fentanyl), over $3,400 in drug money, numerous weapons, and arrested 17 dealers. Of the 17 arrested, 14 had previous arrests and 6 had outstanding arrest warrants.
Last week, drug enforcement in the TL:
-seized over 950 grams of drugs (more than 600 grams fentanyl)
-seized over $3,400 in drug money
-seized 3 knives and 1 taser
-arrested 17 dealers (14 had previous SF arrests, 5 violating stay away orders, 6 outstanding arrest warrants)— SFPD Tenderloin (@SFPDTenderloin) December 14, 2021
In response, Mayor Breed announced her four part plan to combat the crime surge, especially in the hard hit Tenderloin district. Specifically, she outlined a police crackdown in the Tenderloin, getting more police funding for the area, amending the surveillance ordinance to bring back police cameras to high-crime areas, and disrupting the sale of stolen goods, especially those from retail stores. The Mayor also acknowledged the high crime levels in the city, something she had been reluctant to do in the past.
“It’s time the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it come to an end,” said Mayor Breed in an impassioned speech on Tuesday. “And it comes to an end when we take the steps to more aggressive with law enforcement. More aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerate of all the bullshit that has destroyed our city.”
“In recent months we’ve not only seen a number of high-profile incidents of brazen robberies and car break-ins but also street behavior and criminal activity especially in the Tenderloin that has become far too normal and cannot continue to be tolerated All of our residents, our workers and everyone who visits our city should feel safe no matter what part of town they are in. I know San Francisco is a compassionate city. We are a city that prides ourselves on second chances and rehabilitation. But we’re not a city where anything goes. Our compassion should not be mistaken for weakness or indifference.”
“The problems plaguing the Tenderloin are plainly visible to anyone walking through the neighborhood. We need to be aggressive in countering these problems.”
Continued problems in the Tenderloin
Mayor Breed also recounted her time spent talking with families and those hit hard by the crime wave in the district last week.
“Hearing their stories was hard,” added the Mayor. “Hearing their stories was heartbreaking. Just imagine if you had to walk your kids down the streets of the Tenderloin every single day with people shooting up 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.”
“You got these brand new playgrounds where you don’t even feel comfortable walking your kids to play in them because of everything you see around them so you don’t feel safe.”
“To be clear, what I’m proposing today and what I will be proposing in the future will make a lot of people uncomfortable and I don’t care. 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.”
Crime and safety experts, while applauding Mayor Breed for finally ramping up law enforcement presence and actions in the city, said that this should not have happened if the city had not reduced police funds and power over the last several years.
“San Francisco is finding out just what those longer-term effects of slashing the police presence in the city is and what the consequences are of weakening them and laws of prosecuting criminals,” explained Frank Ma, a former law enforcement official who now works as a security advisor for businesses in San Francisco and cities in the Peninsula, to the Globe on Tuesday. “Post-George Floyd, a lot of activists wanted less police, they wanted to defund the police, they wanted to shift a lot of the power there, all that. San Francisco did a lot of that.”
“Then there was the power to jail those that did wrong. The DA, Chesa Boudin, essentially reduced the number of criminals being prosecuted while increasing the number of police officers being prosecuted. Combined together in a liberal city like San Francisco and it is no wonder that crime is rampant here, especially in poorer areas like the Tenderloin.”
“It is good that Mayor Breed is doing something big now, but she’s fixing a problem that she and the city helped create. They’ve made the police an enemy to many and got rid of a bunch, and they’re now surprised there are major problems.”
The crackdown in the Tenderloin is expected to continue for several weeks, with the end goal of bringing crime back down to normal levels and removing drug dealers and those selling stolen goods from the area.
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October 18, 2021
????The goal is to bring back crime own to normal levels!
Ha, what is normal for the Tenderloin? In my lifetime it has always been a dangerous drug den.
Such a shame she sets such low expectations.
So will they reduce the number of stoned out of their mind humans to 3 per square feet from 10 per square feet? Decades of escalating crime and she is going to continue the “crackdown” for several weeks. Sounds like a solid plan Mayor Breed.
Good Luck Mayor as long as you are not willing to see the whole picture and not address the root cause, it will continue to be riddled with crime.
You mailed, they never look at the root cause and address it which is why things don’t improve!
Vlad Lenin: “One step forward, two steps back.” In other words, throw the masses a crumb. Raise hopes then dash those hopes.
Assuming this is true, what it really means is that extant laws will begin to be enforced more in a particular part of the city. BFD!!! This DOES NOT require a press conference or any other publicity stunt, JUST FCKIN DO IT!!! That’s what SHOULD have been happening all along. Why an “announcement” as if this was a big deal or something? The answer is that it is a really big deal in a city that couldn’t care less about neighborhoods and laws and crime unless and until it starts to reflect poorly on the city. PITIFUL, SHAMEFUL, COMICAL! “Hey, y’all, LOOK AT ME, I’m going to start doing my job…at least a little more than I have been!!! How’s that photo angle, good for a publicity shot?”
Won’t the DA just let them back out on the street?
“Mayor Breed included the tune ‘Fight Song’ in the background, reportedly to seem ‘extra fierce’.”
Crime got so notoriously bad people are leaving their trunks open.
https://abc7.com/trunk-open-car-break-in-why-not-to-leave-your/11344070/
I detect a political scam. Breed knows that the Soros DA will let them back out on the street within minutes. This way she looks tough for the next election or other political appointment but actually accomplishes nothing.
Hopeless London Breed is full of the expletive she blasted at her press conference. Looks like she is trying to protect Chesa Boudin from certain recall, apparently, without once referring to him specifically, by slamming down the metaphorical sledgehammer on crime. As if. Nothing will change, there will be no improvement. Soooooo SICK of these people. Makes me tired just to think of them. You too?
This is all fake. Back in 1993 there was a psyop involving the SFPD after the ERAF shift – it was a staged mass shooting called 101 California. The State had cut the city’s property tax budget and it caused 91 police officers to be laid off – but to replace them, they had to pass Prop A in June and Prop 172 in October, raising the sales tax by 3/4 of a cent. SF wasn’t going to support this – so they staged an incident and rigged the vote. To get the SFPD to agree, Annamarie Conroy and John Hinkle agreed to a charter amendment setting minimum staffing levels of 1711 officers, and Supervisor Bill Maher (a former Coke addict and aide to DiFi) agreed to it if his concubine Diane Walsh was re-hired.
Fast forward to 2020, and the city removes the minimum staffing amendment (which was not based on anything) to give it budget flexibility, and the SFPD gets scared there will be layoffs – so they stage a fake crime wave. This can be done through selective enforcement, turning people free, etc, and blaming it on Chesa Boudin. The SFPD then uses its media resources to push the fake crime wave – and this creates the political pretext for the Mayor to not cut the police budget. Have you looked at these officer’s salaries at transparentcalifornia? It’s obscene.
You’ll also always see Broken Car Windows right before SF elections so that the police-friendly candidates get elected.