London Breed, the mayor of San Francisco, is fed up with the rash of robberies that have plagued the region.
“It’s time the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end,” Breed said at the end of a press conference Tuesday announcing the launch of emergency police intervention in the Tenderloin district, a neighborhood being plagued by a fentanyl crisis.
“And it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement. More aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerant of all the bulls–t that has destroyed our city.”
Breed and SFPD officers from Tenderloin Station announced an official “crime crackdown” across the entire city. It will include securing emergency police funding for needed resources, amending its surveillance ordinance so law enforcement can interrupt crime in real-time and disrupting the illegal street sales of stolen goods.
San Francisco has been the site of several brazen “smash-and-grab” robberies that, according to many reports, were organized on social media.
“All of our residents, our workers, and everyone who visits our city should feel safe no matter what part of town they are in. I know San Francisco is a compassionate city,” Breed continued during the fiery press address. “We are a city that prides ourselves on second chances and rehabilitation. But we’re not a city where anything goes. Our compassion should not be mistaken for weakness or indifference.”
According to local reporting, there have been 3,375 reports of larceny-theft in the tourist-friendly city. Hot spots like Fisherman’s Wharf and Chinatown saw increases of 876 reports last month — that’s almost 30 a day — compared with 442 last November.
“We need to be aggressive in countering these problems,” Breed said.
Last month, an estimated 90 people raided a Louis Vuitton store in the city and made off with more than $100,000 of merchandise before escaping in 25 separate cars that had their license plates removed or covered, according to prosecutors, per The Daily Mail.
Regarding the crime wave in her California district, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said, “It’s absolutely outrageous. Obviously, it cannot continue. But the fact is that there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from I don’t know where… and we cannot have that lawlessness become the norm.”
She added that there is legislation in the House of Representatives to address the crime of theft for profit.
“These people coordinate with each other, and they plan traffic patterns and the rest so they can reach their goal and depart very quickly,” Pelosi noted, per Fox News. “This isn’t like somebody stealing something to go home because they don’t have money to buy. This is about stealing for profit.”
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