Michael As newsletter readers, you know that San Francisco has recently been struggling to get a grip on its skyrocketing crime rate. No one with a modicum of sanity doubts that the astronomical increase in car and home burglaries in San Francisco is due to the fact that perpetrators know they will go unpunished. District Attorney Boudin, who, following a completely broken political ideology, refuses to press charges even in cases with clear evidence, blames the police for allegedly not arresting enough thieves. However, the police blame Boudin, who immediately releases arrested criminals.

To make matters worse, Boudin brazenly claims in press conferences that the number of burglaries is declining, which is naturally because no citizen wastes their time sitting around at the police station to report a burglary. But when the upscale Louis Vuitton store in the city center was recently looted in broad daylight by an organized mob, videos of itwere circulating on Twitter and traditional news outlets.

As the news flashed around the world, Boudin was scared stiff. He promised on television to prosecute the looters, which actually happened in nine cases, but for the past four weeks, there has been dead silence in the press about what became of it. It is suspected that all the suspects are already back at large.

And no one who is clear-headed is surprised why San Francisco had more drug-related deaths than Covid deaths in 2020. There were 697 cases in San Franciscoof people who died of drug overdoses. 257 people died from Covid.

Why the high number of drug deaths? This is because in rundown neighborhoods like the Tenderloin, drug dealers can sell fentanyl, a cheap drug similar to crack with devastating effects, without facing any consequences thanks to our inactive district attorney.

Despite this devastating record, Boudin's followers still follow their guru like sheep and continue to double down, even though the game has long been lost. I regularly rub my eyes in astonishment when I look at the almost cult-like stubbornness of these followers, who spring up like mushrooms in online forums whenever someone says something against Boudin, and recite the party program as if brainwashed.

However, the overwhelmed Mayor London Breed recently had a complete meltdown on television, likely because elections are coming up in a little over a year, to point out the devastating conditions in the city, and announced that she would no longer tolerate them. She even used the actually forbidden word "bullshit" to categorize the events that (delicately under her leadership) had led to the complete breakdown of law and order in the city! Although she did not mention Boudin by name, she indicated that his political group could brace themselves for unpleasant measures.

To top it all off, she also declared a State of Emergency" in the Tenderloin district, probably to get government funding to increase police presence. And that, even though it has been less than six months since they were advocating to shrink the police budget with the then-popular slogan 'Defund the Police', to supposedly benefit black minorities with the proceeds. Imagine, now she wants more money from the state to turn back the clock! The right-wing press is laughing its head off.

AngelikaI wanted to add a bit more to what Michael wrote about the Tenderloin district, as I worked at the Tenderloin Childcare Center there for many years. The neighborhood has always had an exceptionally high crime rate in San Francisco and is notorious for drug deals, prostitution, and strip clubs. Since it is located right between City Hall and Union Square, the downtown shopping area, we have always advised visitors against taking a shortcut through the district. Even when I worked there many years ago, drugs were dealt openly on the streets, and mentally ill individuals would sometimes throw bottles at you. Shootings were also a daily occurrence.

With the children I worked with, we could only visit playgrounds that were fenced and staffed, like the Tenderloin Recreation Center on Ellis St., which is managed by the city. The other open playgrounds were overrun with drug dealers or needles. However, when we walked through the neighborhood with the children, there was still something like an honor code, and the drug addicts would quickly hide their needles when we passed by with the children.

The neighborhood has traditionally also had many immigrants who have just arrived in the US and often share a small one-room apartment with their entire family. The district also has a high concentration of buildings where single individuals can rent a single room. Many seniors without family connections and with low pensions therefore live in the Tenderloin district. We often had older volunteer helpers at the facility where I worked at the time, who enjoyed taking on the role of grandparents for the children. There are also many charitable and social organizations in the Tenderloin, such as "Glide Memorial" and "St. Anthony's.

The new drug "Fentanyl" now seems to be finishing off the neighborhood, much like the crack-cocaine crisis did in the 80s. Fentanyl is actually a powerful painkiller often used in pain management for cancer therapy, but it quickly leads to strong dependency. If overdosed, death occurs within a few minutes, whereas the window for heroin overdose, for example, is 1-2 hours. In San Francisco, the strategy for a long time was to distribute clean needles and the antidote Naloxone, which helps in the case of a Fentanyl overdose. However, this has not alleviated the crisis, and the number of drug deaths in the Tenderloin continued to rise in 2021.

By now, many people living with their families in the Tenderloin have had enough. They recently marched to City Hall to speak with our mayor, London Breed, and to express their frustration. Even former drug addicts from the Tenderloin say they would never have gotten off the drug if they hadn't eventually been given the choice between rehab or prison. Many in the neighborhood would be satisfied if at least the drug dealers were held accountable.

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• More topics you might be interested in:

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  	Komoot, the hiking and cycling app
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