San Francisco defies logic. On one hand, it’s one of the most upscale cities in the nation with an average home costing around $800,000. On the other hand, it ranks at the top in the nation for property crime. It’s also become known as a utopia for those who like to use the streets as a restroom and has more drug addicts on the streets that children in the public school system.
No city in the nation gives a clearer example of income disparity than San Francisco. The logic question should be, “How can this be?” Aren’t progressives supposed to be the champions of the poor? Aren’t they the ones fighting to get free stuff to the people, to make the rich pay their fair share? Hasn’t San Francisco been recently shown to be the shining example of what radical progressives want for the rest of the country?
To answer these questions, we have to debunk a premise that’s widespread despite clear evidence against it. Far-left progressives are not truly interested in helping the poor. They need the poor. They need people who will continue to vote for failed policies that are designed to keep the poor down because if they were ever allowed to improve their economic position, they’d realize that fiscal conservatism makes more sense. They would be more inclined to vote for Republicans, which is why the Democrats have been continuous in their attempts to appear to be helping the poor by putting out policies that directly harm them.
One needs only look at the provisions of Prop 47 to see the lies at work. It was intended to “help” the poor by removing the stigma and penalties surrounding “low level crimes.” Carrying drugs for personal use or stealing less than $950 worth of someone else’s property are no longer felonies. This keeps police from arresting, pursuing, or investigating incidents that do not break the misdemeanor threshold.
This was meant to “help” the poor by making it less likely they will go to jail for their crimes. Stop and think about that for a moment. They are “helping” the poor by making it more likely they will be victims of crimes committed by others who are poor. This is progressive logic at its finest.
As a result, crime is on the rise. But by their newly manipulated numbers, felonies are going down. Why? Because it’s not harder to commit what can be considered a felony.
San Francisco is the nation’s leader in property crime. Burglary, larceny, shoplifting, and vandalism are included under this ugly umbrella. In 2017 over 30,000 reports of car break-ins were filed, and the current average is 51 per day. https://t.co/XE5Gs0iyh3
— City Journal (@CityJournal) May 24, 2019
My daughter experienced this firsthand a couple of years ago. Her purse with $400 was stolen from her at the beach. She put it down next to her friend’s purse less than 10 feet from them. When they went to retrieve their purses, they were gone. The police came and apologized for not being able to do anything about it. Unfortunately, it was only a misdemeanor and not worthy of their efforts to try to find the criminals responsible.
Thankfully, my daughter was in a position to not be too hurt by the theft, but it made her concerned about others. What if it was a single-mother who had her purse stolen? What if that $400 was all she had and now she needed to figure out how to get food and diapers for the rest of the month. What if this single “low level crime” event started a chain reaction of events that eventually led to her either committing crimes of her own or getting desperate for the sake of her family? All of this is conceivable.
The problem is the elites in the progressive left see things differently. They look at the numbers of incarcerated people, many of whom would be Democratic voters if they didn’t commit their crimes, and realize they need to do what they can to keep criminals from going to jail. It’s not just about the votes. It’s about the perception of crime. As it rises, they look terrible. Their policies look terrible. Their actions look horrible. They get exposed as frauds and elitists when crime is high, so they react by changing the math.
Felonies are down in San Francisco… a progressive victory! But the reality is that crimes are up, and the crimes that were once considered to be felonies are way, way up. One need only walk the streets of San Francisco in broad daylight (walking at night is not advised) to see the reality of progressive elites who see $950 of stolen property as no big deal. They see drug users on the streets shooting up with their own personal stash and they feel they are being compassionate by allowing this to continue. The see feces on every street and think, “at least they’re not dirtying up my local Starbucks.”
The elite progressives are the very reason San Francisco has become a hellhole. They show us manipulated numbers proving success while a quick stroll in downtown tells a very different truth. And they want this for the whole country.
We are currently forming the American Conservative Movement. If you are interested in learning more, we will be sending out information in a few weeks.
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