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San Francisco: We're Totally Surprised That Failure to Enforce Laws Leads to Lawlessness

Someone1234 4y ago
I've lived in several cities, and they all share in common police's complete unwillingness to investigate petty theft. Businesses seem to have no problem, but private citizens just aren't a high priority. I realize San Francisco has wider issues with crime enforcement, but petty theft is under-investigated and enforced in many places unfortunately.
- truncate 4y ago
  I think the annoying thing about SF is you'd find way more people OK with the idea to not pursue non-violent crimes, defund the police, or reduce police presence because the relationship with community is bad and mass-incarceration is a problem. And they are real problems, but also they are not going to get fixed in a year or even five years. There are certainly good number of people who are balanced in terms of supporting a trade-off between long term and short term solutions, but the voices in the extreme are definitely more heard. You often can't even casually rant about this, without getting a whole debate in response just for sake of having a debate and being woke.
  - koolba 4y ago
    > And they are real problems, but also they are not going to get fixed in a year or even five years. SF could easily be fixed in a year. Zero tolerance policing, locking up drug abusing vagrants, and broken windows style follow up would work wonders. The problem is that the sheer force of will to get it done simply does not exist. Nobody in power is willing to step up and take the inevitable heat for the action that is sorely needed.
    - truncate 4y ago
      I think at risk of sounding like the people I was criticizing, I think extreme measures in short amount of time is probably not practical, at-least not without unintended negative consequences. I wont pretend to understand how the whole system works, but I think one thing I understand well is that its all fucking complicated. And it's not as simple as "lock everyone" or "abolish the police". But I agree, nobody in power is willing to step up and take action.

I've lived in several cities, and they all share in common police's complete unwillingness to investigate petty theft. Businesses seem to have no problem, but private citizens just aren't a high priority. I realize San Francisco has wider issues with crime enforcement, but petty theft is under-investigated and enforced in many places unfortunately.

truncate 4y ago
I think the annoying thing about SF is you'd find way more people OK with the idea to not pursue non-violent crimes, defund the police, or reduce police presence because the relationship with community is bad and mass-incarceration is a problem. And they are real problems, but also they are not going to get fixed in a year or even five years. There are certainly good number of people who are balanced in terms of supporting a trade-off between long term and short term solutions, but the voices in the extreme are definitely more heard. You often can't even casually rant about this, without getting a whole debate in response just for sake of having a debate and being woke.
- koolba 4y ago
  > And they are real problems, but also they are not going to get fixed in a year or even five years. SF could easily be fixed in a year. Zero tolerance policing, locking up drug abusing vagrants, and broken windows style follow up would work wonders. The problem is that the sheer force of will to get it done simply does not exist. Nobody in power is willing to step up and take the inevitable heat for the action that is sorely needed.
  - truncate 4y ago
    I think at risk of sounding like the people I was criticizing, I think extreme measures in short amount of time is probably not practical, at-least not without unintended negative consequences. I wont pretend to understand how the whole system works, but I think one thing I understand well is that its all fucking complicated. And it's not as simple as "lock everyone" or "abolish the police". But I agree, nobody in power is willing to step up and take action.