San Francisco a no-go because of mass crime. What affects us affects our cats.

I see a parallel between San Francisco, USA and UK. The end result is similar.  An opinion piece in The Times (author Rohan Silver) reports that the radical Left running San Francisco has basically decriminalised crime and underfunded the police. 

San Francisco is now lawless and crime-ridden thanks to policies that decriminalised theft and the push to defund police.

This was the Left's reaction to way that Republicans managed the city which resulted, arguably, in the police being too heavy-handed and too many people being prosecuted, convicted, and sent to jail. America has a very high jail population.

San Francisco a no-go because of mass crime. What affects us affects our cats. Image: MikeB.

The city administrators, started in 2014 with a radical law known as Proposition 47 which in effect decriminalised thefts up to $950. This meant that most robberies and shoplifting incidents weren't investigated.

My mind goes to the police in the UK about 10 years ago saying that they wouldn't bother to come out to investigate shop thefts of the value of £200. Same difference. When you decriminalise minor crime, you promote crime generally.

Also, legislation in America granted early parole to violent offenders which reduced the sentences for serious crimes. This also encourages crime. In the UK, imprisonment as a punishment for crime is underused and the sentences are too short. Same difference again.

"So many stores shuttered in downtown SF. Feels post-apocalyptic" - Elon Musk

San Francisco is becoming 'post-apocalyptic' according to Alan Musk. This is because so many stores are shuttered in downtown San Francisco. The city's population has fallen by a quarter of a million people since 2020. The current population of San Francisco is 830,000. This is the biggest percentage decline of any American city.

Affluent residents are leaving for the suburbs or other states. Those who are staying and who can afford it are paying for private security. There are lower tax revenues, "dead end streets and fewer jobs, all making life even harder for those at the bottom". The idea was to try and improve their lives.

It seems that the Left running San Francisco overreacted to heavy-handed law enforcement and police brutality combined with "appallingly high incarceration rates".

One shop owned by the business 'Target' which is located in downtown San Francisco is robbed at least 10 times a day! Many companies owning a number of retail outfits are closing those shops or planning to do so. This is due to incessant thieving.

Where I live, there is mass shoplifting in supermarkets when customers use self-checkout machines. I watch them do it as I am scanning and paying for my purchases. Same difference.

When you hollow out a beautiful city like San Francisco through bad management you affect people generally and you affect their domestic cat companions. That is the relevancy of this article to this website.