[newbie789]

That sounds pretty awful. About a decade ago I spent some time in The Tenderloin in San Francisco (Turk and Hyde) and they had the most astounding open air drug market. It was constantly full of police but my friends were always able to purchase drugs. And violence was common. Unavoidable, even as perceived by those that spent more time there than I did.

Maybe the police cruising down the street two or three times more often might've changed that. That's an interesting point.

Edit: To clarify, no person I've ever met that lived in that area ever expressed a desire for more police. It was mostly things about housing and mental health care with that particular issue. I am specifically talking about my experience in the Tenderloin in this case.

[opportune]

2-3x as many police not enforcing laws doesn’t really change anything

[yodsanklai]

> It was constantly full of police but my friends were always able to purchase drugs.

Personal anecdote. A while ago I was mugged while I was walking at 2am in Manhattan (around Union Square). I thought it was particularly safe as I always saw many cops everywhere (even just before I was mugged, and right after).

Not saying police are useless, but retrospectively, I realize that seeing many cops doesn't mean a place is safe but rather the opposite.