"So whatever the heck is actually the problem, it's specifically a San Francisco thing. Unfortunately, since I don't think it really fits standard red/blue cult

"So whatever the heck is actually the problem, it's specifically a San Francisco thing. Unfortunately, since I don't think it really fits standard red/blue culture war narratives, no one is incentivized to figure out the real reason and do anything about it." One of my wife's classmates wrote a B-school paper on this (having a certain intimate acquaintance with it). It's corruption and dysfunction between the SFPD and the DA's office. The two organizations have a uniquely antagonistic relationship, such that the SFPD actively does poorly at their job to spite the DA's office, and then the DA's office actively refuses to charge to spite the SFPD. Uncertain what the set of incentives is that led to this, but I suspect it may have something to do with the DA being an elected official and hence responsible to the people of SF (who are fairly wary of the SFPD because of past history), while the SFPD are career civil servants who want to avoid taking any action that could endanger their life or job but aren't ultimately responsible to voters.