[bigcorp-slave]

I don’t understand how on earth you could come to your conclusions if you actually live in SF. Large parts of San Francisco are a nightmare in large part because of a near total absence of law enforcement. I cannot imagine what cities you could be thinking of, unless you’re thinking of the gang warfare in parts of Chicago. Property crime in SF in particular is at a comically bad level. There is a widespread institutional unwillingness to do anything that might be perceived as hurting poor people, so instead we just let grifters and junkies clean out entire stores (not kidding, we don’t enforce laws against theft below $900), shit and piss everywhere, leave used needles on our sidewalks, and contaminate all our public spaces with tent cities. And don’t forget the constant and unceasing drumbeat of car breakins! Everyone I know here has a story of crime or horror that has happened to them because of the hands-off attitude toward crime here.

When I was a kid, people told me, it’s important to have an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out. SF attitude toward street crime is well past that point.

[ryan_lane]

I've lived in SF for the past 10 years. Yes, there's car break-ins and bike thefts. There's homeless people in parts of the mission, and the tenderloin.

Most of what you describe here isn't going to be helped by increase police presence (the areas you're describing have the highest police presence in the city, and it's been like this since forever). These things are primarily related to poverty and the hate of the homeless.

Want less shit on the streets? Give the homeless access to bathrooms. Want less needles on the streets? Implement needle exchanges. Want less car break-ins and bike theft? Have fewer poor people by making sure they're paid enough, the rents are low enough to pay, and by providing housing to the homeless (most homeless people in SF were living in SF and housed in the past).

Putting poor people and drug users in jail hasn't solved the problem in the past, and won't make them better in the future. The police spend all day taking all their shit away, making them even poorer.

[bigcorp-slave]

No one is entitled to live in SF. The problems you describe are not caused by hate of the homeless, but the opposite - bleeding heart tolerance of their destruction of this city.

[ryan_lane]

The police can't stop homeless people from living there. All they can do is force them to constantly move around the city and take their stuff away. If you dislike homeless people screaming at you because they're in a constant state of mental breakdown, this isn't the right way to solve it.

Also, get out of here with "destruction of this city". The city hasn't changed since I moved to it, and the locals I know say that in comparison to the past, the city is cleaner, and less violent than it ever has been. The crime stats in just the 10 years I've lived here have also dropped considerably.

Maybe the issue here is that you're a coward?

[bigcorp-slave]

I hope that you wake up and realize how much damage you’re doing, and how much people who hold beliefs like yours have already done.

I am one of these residents you claim say things are improving. They are not improving. I live in one of these benighted areas, have for many years, and in the last few it has been getting worse every year.

Maybe the issue is that you’re more concerned with the comfort of people who feel entitled do whatever they please - shit in the street, assault people, rob businesses, consume drugs in public - than with the safety of contributing members of society.

It is not cowardly to want to be able to walk down the street at night safely. It is not cowardly to want to not have my business robbed or my vehicle broken into. It is not cowardly to not want to step in human waste or to have to dodge used syringes on the sidewalk. It is not cowardly to want to not have to change my route to work almost every day to avoid a mentally ill person who is screaming and hitting themselves or passers-by in the head. This is not a high bar. Living without these travesties is the baseline in virtually every other city in the first world.

San Francisco is a city that spends tens of thousands of dollars per homeless person per year, a city that has shelters, needle exchanges, and one of the most liberal attitudes toward homelessness in the country. A city that has refused to enforce the law against street crime, and that has one of the highest per capita property crime rate in the nation. Anyone who can look at the abject failure of these policies and say, the problem is that we need to just give these people more free stuff and more services and less law enforcement is delusional.

[ryan_lane]

I'm saying that more policing doesn't help the problem, which you're kind of brushing past here.

I also want homeless people off the street, but the police can't do that. All they can do is move them around, which makes everyone's life worse. If you want them off the street, you need to put them into homes (not shelters).

Also, please show stats that prove your point, because historical data simply doesn't support your argument. You decided to move into a high crime area, and you're pissed that "the streets aren't being cleaned up". The area you're living in used to be a lot worse than it is, but if you're in the tenderloin, or SOMA, you need to realize those areas have always been bad, and the bar to make them better is extremely high.

Maybe chose the location of your next home more reasonably next time? The part of the city I'm in is really nice (the richmond neighborhoods), maybe take the commute hit and move?

[rkk3]

> Maybe chose the location of your next home more reasonably next time? The part of the city I'm in is really nice

So most of the city is not a reasonable location?

But you are so right, everyone should just live on top of a hill and have private security.

[rkk3]

> The police can't stop homeless people from living there. All they can do is force them to constantly move around the city and take their stuff away.

Only because they decided to decriminalize homelessness. That was a willful choice.

[rkk3]

Want the police to arrest someone for your home invasion? Your Office robbery? Your car theft?

Yes I do. And the most ridiculous thin is that they will not always arrest the perpetrator because the courts don't find these crimes a priority.

[ryan_lane]

I hate to break it to you, but the police don't do this anywhere. When I lived in New Orleans my apartment was robbed and when the police came, I asked when they'd followup and the officer literally laughed at me.

With the exception of select violent crimes, the police don't investigate crimes. For those select violent crimes, the percentage they solve is extremely low.

Also, please don't confuse home invasion for burglary. I know this is some weird propaganda point for you Chesa recallers, but there's a massive difference between the two, and the former the courts do care about. I think they should take burglary more seriously, but even if the courts did, the police still wouldn't.