Posted on 06/20/2023 8:44:14 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last month San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced the city would begin to crack down on the open-air drug markets that plague downtown. As I pointed out here, Breed’s planned announcement of the new approach was turned into a circus thanks to Democratic Socialist City Supervisor Dean Preston. Before the meeting was cut off by protesters shouting (and one throwing a brick) Breed said it was time for a change.
“We have tried over and over again,” Breed said at U.N. Plaza. “And what we are doing is not working. And in fact, our local resources have increased. But it has not dealt with the problem based on the magnitude of what we are experiencing. I run into people day in and day out in the Tenderloin, and they say, ‘London, we would have never been allowed to get away with this stuff back in the day.’ And the fact is, it’s time for a change. We want to get people help, but we will not continue to allow things to just occur as they have been.”
The battle between the mayor and the city supervisor continued. Last week, Preston challenged Breed to fund “wellness centers” another place for drug users similar to the linkage center which shut down last December. The linkage center was so named because it was supposed to link drug addicts to city services but after a year and $22 million spent, the experiment had accomplished very little. Staffers were able to reverse 300 overdoses of people who came to do drugs inside the linkage center but only 1% of visitors were referred for drug or mental health treatment. Breed responded to Preston’s demands by essentially calling him a white savior.
WATCH: SF Mayor @LondonBreed exchanged fiery words with Tenderloin Supe @DeanPreston at Tuesday’s @sfbos meeting as she defended the city’s arrests of drug users.
"Here we go, another white man talking about Black and brown people as if you’re the savior," Breed said. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/itqZe4jqJK
— The San Francisco Standard (@sfstandard) June 14, 2023
Over the weekend this story took another interesting turn. As police started arresting people using drugs on the street for the first time in a long time they noticed an unexpected pattern. Nearly all of the people they arrested were from out of town.
Nearly 95% of people arrested for drug use in San Francisco since May 30 are from out of town, Police Chief Bill Scott said at a public hearing this week, corroborating perceptions that many residents already have — that their city has become a magnet for the narcotics trade.
“Only three out of 45 list San Francisco as their address,” Scott said during a Police Commission meeting Wednesday, referring to arrests made by an eight-officer patrol unit in the Tenderloin and South of Market. While Scott said he was not surprised that so many people hailed from other cities, he said it’s a demographic figure his staff is “paying attention to.
The data, which fluctuates constantly, seems to capture a trend that many San Franciscans have long complained about, of people flocking to the Tenderloin to use drugs. Yet, the picture that Scott presented was stark enough to rattle some city officials.
City Supervisor Matt Dorsey published video of the police chief’s statement and called the information stunning. He added, “We should *not* be a destination for public drug use.”
I’d expect many of those who use drugs publicly to be from out of town, but I’m stunned by what @SFPDChief Scott reported here — only 3 of the 45 people arrested so far for public drug use have a San Francisco address.
We should *not* be a destination city for public drug use. pic.twitter.com/FQ42oAETdu
— Matt Dorsey (@mattdorsey) June 16, 2023
The story notes there is concern among those who object to the arrests of drug users (for public intoxication) that these numbers will add to the impetus to crack down on public drug use.
“There’s this theory of ‘drug tourism’ that’s been taking hold lately,” said Sara Shortt, coordinator of the Treatment on Demand Coalition, which has pushed back against city drug crackdowns. Shortt questioned San Francisco’s “immediate” fixation on the out-of-town demographic — one of many that police could have chosen to highlight, she said.
“I think it’s clear they’re trying to produce certain conclusions,” Shortt added.
The activists may not like it but the numbers are what they are. What they show is that people from out of town are coming to downtown San Francisco to buy drugs and use drugs. Why is that happening? Probably because the word has gone out over the past several years that no one is ever arrested for buying or using drugs downtown. In short, because the city’s policies have made it an attractive place for drug tourism.
The activists can’t have it both ways. If on the one hand they want to immediately put an end to these arrests and set up supervised drug consumption centers, then they can’t also pretend to be surprised to learn that people are coming into to town to use those services. If you subsidize “safe” drug consumption, you will get more of it.
It is, apparently, of immense importance whether these drug addicts who are making the streets unsafe are native San Franciscans or "out-of-towners."
Regards,
There is a republican, somewhere, anywhere, to blame for this.
“I don’t believe that 95% are from out of town.”
I’m in S.F., and I actually do believe it. The local media has been reporting on the so-called homeless for years, and they interview them for TV and radio quite often about their stories of ending up on the street. I’ve yet to hear one declare himself/herself to be an S.F. native. Invariably the stories are about people from Modesto or Stockton or Fresno or Winnemucca who came to S.F. to score cheap and easy-to-find drugs, and they found just what they were looking for.
How do you institute “tough love” for people who already live in a state of constant fear/violence in squalor among other insane people like rats? Jail ,by comparison, is like a vacation by nearly all metrics and drugs are still easily available.
We already have some of the highest incarceration rates in the world and there is no room in many areas to jail even all the violent homeless. Jailing everyone for drug use is simply impossible and the homeless will just enjoy the free bed and shelter if we try. Jail costs several times more than housing and nothing the state can do is worse punishment than what they already experience on a daily basis...
Wow, they arrested a whole 15 people per week. Quite the dragnet for this operation.
They need to hire Captain Renault: “Round up the usual suspects!”
Arresting drug users not supplying cartels and gangs coming across the border. Just like guns are the problem not the people behind them. Mental illness thrives
San Fran as much as “invited” them there, by its lax policing of everything.
Stoner states find out it’s a magnet for drug users.
And they expected what?.
THEA ACTUAL size of San Francisco proper is ONLY 7 square miles.
It is very small by other city standards.
This is a word game by Mayor Breed.
This is what happens when you elect a George Soros stooge as DA.
I like the part where it said 0% of the perps who were arrested agreed to free treatment.
None of these people want to kick their drug habits, they just want to get the next fix, which they can do in SF.
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