San Francisco voters were afforded an opportunity Tuesday to begin slowly turning their filthy, crime-ridden city around — and they actually took it. Voters elected to make it easier for police to do their jobs and to cut off local welfare recipients who refused to undergo drug tests.
The backdrop
San Francisco has a 1-rating on Neighborhood Scout’s crime index, where 100 is safest. The chances of becoming a victim of a property crime or a violent crime are reportedly 1 in 17 and 1 in 148, respectively.
According to the San Francisco Police Department, the city saw 53 murders; 227 rapes; 2,741 robberies; 2,482 assaults; 5,658 burglaries; 6,723 car thefts; 285 arson incidents; and 32,411 reported instances of larceny theft last year.
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Adam Andrzejewski of Open the Books revealed in December that over 35,500 cases of human waste in public were reported last year.
Amidst the unchecked lawlessness, piling filth, and chronic homelessness, roughly 65,000 people left the city between 2020 and 2022. Including the Bay Area, the region saw an exodus of 249,389 people during that time.
It appears that some of those who remained would like to see a positive change.
The propositions
There were multiple ballot measures put before San Franciscans in the primary vote on March 5, including:
The results
Proposition B, which would have increased the number of full-duty sworn officers from 1,700 to 2,074 in the first five years, was defeated 67.41%-32.59%. San Francisco’s Democratic mayor, London Breed, opposed the proposition, calling it a “cop tax,” reported KTVU-TV.
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Mayor Breed said in a statement that Proposition E “will help us build on our work to make San Francisco a safer city for all. We are giving our @SFPD officers more tools to do their jobs and getting them out on the street to take care of our community.”
Breed, who is running for re-election, has not always felt so strongly about helping police do their jobs.
Amidst the 2020 BLM riots and in the face of demands to “defund the police,” Breed announced she would be slashing $120 million in funding to the San Francisco police and sheriff’s departments, and redirecting the funds to race-based initiatives.
Homicides reportedly spiked by 20% that year, compared with 2019, then spiked again by 17% in 2021.
One year after defunding the police, Breed reversed course and put in an emergency request to the city Board of Supervisors for more cash for the SFPD.
This week, Breed also thanked voters for passing Proposition F, claiming, “This is how we get more people the help they need and change what’s happening in our City.”
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The ACLU of Northern California suggested the way to improve community safety was not by enabling police to better do their jobs but instead with “affordable housing, mental health care, and substance use treatment.”
* Original Article:
https://www.theblaze.com/news/san-francisco-votes-to-screen-welfare-recipients-for-drugs-and-expand-police-powers