English German

  Edition # 116  
San Francisco, 06-18-2016


Figure [1]: Another car with a broken window on city streets.

AngelikaSan Francisco has been in the news lately with one sad record after another. The out of control rent spiral has catapulted us past New York City, now San Francisco is the most expensive city in the United States. Along with that, we're also number one in property crime like burglaries and theft. Lucky for us, the murder rate is lower than in comparable American cities.

New Yorkers have been calling San Francisco "Smash-And-Grab-City" lately, because no other urban center has more car break ins: Burglars first smash the side window, then reach into the car an grab whatever's there. Victims are mostly tourists, who while going on city sightseeing tours, often leave valuables behind in their cars, unaware of the rampant property crime. The rude awakening usually comes very quickly. But even locals, who sometimes leave items in their parked cars need to be prepared to get their windows smashed. After all, thieves don't know if a backpack left in the car actually contains a laptop or just sweaty gym clothes, and steal it just in case. And there's even reports of break-ins into cars that didn't have anything of value inside at all.

It's quite common in San Francisco to see entire lines cars with smashed windows in the morning. Marauding bums are roaming the city streets during the night unencumbered, breaking into cars, rifling through the interior and stealing everything sellable, even low-value items. The official statistics report 70 break-ins per night on average within city limits, but the inofficial numbers are probably several times higher because most people have given up on reporting property crime altogether, because of general and blatent desinterest by San Francisco's police force (SFPD) in doing anything about it. That, and the antiquated and unnecessarily arduous reporting process that only under very rare circumstances leads to any arrests.

Figure [2]: This San Francisco Peacenik implores to marauding bums to not break into his Prius.

How did this car break in epidemic come about? Breaking into cars and stealing content from within is no doubt profitable for the thieves in the long run, simply because police hardly ever catches any of them in the act. Also, residents broadly agree that the so-called "Proposition 47", signed into law in 2014, has been the main driver of the steep rise of brazen breaking and entering crimes throughout California. The law dictates that non-violent crimes, such as posession of drugs or theft are to be treated as misdemeanors instead of felonies.

California prisons are overcrowded and cost vast amounts of tax dollars every year, so Proposition 47 was meant to reduce the number of inmates. Here's typical criminal offences covered under Prop 47: Shoplifting or burglary if items stolen are worth less than $950. Possession of stolen merchandize, if their value is less than $950. Check fraud if the value of the check is less than $950, and possession of drugs for personal use. And indeed, statistics showed that shortly after the law went in effect, the prison overcrowding problem seemed to go away. In Los Angeles, the number of inmates dropped from 18,601 to 17,285 in 2015. However, as a side effect, crimes like burglaries and thefts in major cities like San Francisco began to skyrocket.

Although burglars could still be charged under Proposition 47 and sentenced to up to one year in jail or to pay a fine, in practice it's up to the district attorney in San Francisco, who often doesn't care and simply won't even take the case. On top of that, police very rarely catch the perps in the first place, so residents have pretty much given up on reporting crimes, some even feel misdirected empathy for the burglars who they assume are poor. The situation has become completely hopeless.

The most worrying aspect of the car break-in frenzy in San Francisco is the rising number of stolen firearms. They're often used shortly after in criminal activities. Believe it or not, a total of 57 firearms have been reported stolen since 2015 from parked cars in San Francisco. It's already disturbing to find out how many people apparently are driving around with firearms in their vehicles. Some of the victims were law enforcement personel, who were armed as part of their function. Three weeks ago, an FBI agent had his gun stolen from his car while visiting the city. Some of the guns weren't even properly secured in a locked container, as required by law. Four murders were committed recently in San Francisco and the surrounding area, using guns previously stolen from parked vehicles. The Wild West, indeed.

RSS Feed
Mailing Liste
Impressum
Mike Schilli Monologues


Get announcements for new editions

New editions of this publication appear in somewhat random intervals. To receive a brief note when they're available in your mailbox (about once every two months on average), you can register your email on the 'usarundbrief' Google Groups list.

Your email address



All Editions:

 

Send us a comment
We'd like to hear from you, please send us feedback if you want to comment on the content or have suggestions for future topics.

Simply write your your message into the text box below. If you'd like a response from us, please also leave your email. If you want to stay anonymous, simply put 'anonymous' into the email field. This way we'll get the message, but we have no way to respond to you.

Your email address


Message

 
Contact the authors
Latest update: 25-Mar-2019