Following a sharp increase in violent and property crime, the city of San Francisco is asking the federal government for law enforcement assistance. The effort follows years of what many conservative critics see as selective law enforcement by city and state officials.
The effort to reverse the increase in criminal activity is a difficult one, especially as San Francisco either reduced charges regarding or did not prosecute a number of crimes in the recent past.
San Francisco has launched an effort to reduce crime in the city and is demanding assistance from the federal government.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D) wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey, stating that the city faced an “unprecedented police staffing shortage.”
The mayor’s letter cited a number of concerns that have been addressed by conservatives for years.
Breed wrote about “multiple serious public safety challenges locally, from a fentanyl-driven overdose epidemic, open-air drug dealing, property crime in our commercial and residential neighborhoods, increasing gun violence and prejudiced fueled incidents.”
The mayor requested “additional and ongoing support from the Department of Justice to arrest and prosecute drug dealers.”
There has been considerable pushback against the increasing rate of crime. Last year, voters ousted District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who was seen as being soft on crime.
The city has become one of the most dangerous in the country, with the average citizen facing a 1-in-16 chance of being a victim every year.
San Francisco has seen one of the worst increases in crime since the 2020 protests following the death of George Floyd.
The city implemented a number of policies that conservatives viewed as being friendly to criminal suspects rather than the victims of crime.
One common complaint regarding the bay city is the large amounts of feces and hypodermic needles on the city’s streets. In the last several years, all but one of the city’s neighborhoods saw increases in human waste complaints. One neighborhood saw the complaints increase five-fold.
Since the launch of the waste hotline, the city has logged more than 200,000 calls.
San Francisco was among the first locales to adopt sanctuary policies for illegal aliens. Now, after the spike in crime, the city is considering reducing its commitment to shield illegal immigrants from law enforcement.
San Francisco Gets Tough on Crime https://t.co/mZaghN7lHo
— PJ Media (@PJMedia_com) March 27, 2023
One city supervisor is proposing dropping San Francisco’s sanctuary status for fentanyl dealers.
