CALIFORNIA GETS ECONOMIC RUDE AWAKENING, BUSINESS EXODUS = LOST TAXES, ELECTRIC CARS NEED GAS
Gavin Newsom Wants DeSantis Arrested for ‘Kidnapping’; Bused Homeless People Out of San Francisco
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) demanded that the Department of Justice investigate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for “kidnapping” for flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard — but Newsom bused homeless people from San Francisco elsewhere.
As National Public Radio reported in 2006, then-San Francisco Mayor Newsom launched the “Homeward Bound” program in an unsuccessful effort to rid the city of homeless people who were attracted by generous welfare and relatively warm weather.
Under the voluntary program, homeless people who applied were given a same-day one-way bus ticket to their cities of origin, “where friends and family may help them,” NPR noted.
NPR reported at the time that Newsom saw the program as a way to save money on public services as well as to remove some of the city’s homeless population:
Send the homeless back home, back to where they’ve come from, where friends and family may help them. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom calls his Homeward Bound program a major success, but as NPR’s Richard Gonzales reports, critics say San Francisco is dumping its problems on others.
…
The Homeward Bound program is a brainchild of Mayor Gavin Newsom. He says he was inspired by a media report of a Florida family who rescued their homeless sister from the San Francisco streets.
…
Mayor Newsom says Homeward Bound has cost the city less than 100,000 dollars. Compared to the millions of dollars it costs to house the homeless, Newsom says the financial return is obvious.
Last week, Newsom called DeSantis “cruel” for flying migrants out of Florida — where they had already been brought by federal authorities, who have bused and flown tens of thousands of migrants around the country over the past several years.
According to Fox News, Newsom continued to defend the Homeward Bound program as recently as 2019 — claiming, falsely, that the “vast majority” of homeless people in San Francisco came from Texas. The city still has a large homeless population.
“There is no comparison between the two,” a spokesperson for Newsom told Fox News, when asked about the apparent hypocrisy. “SF helped people get home to their families. GOP Republicans kidnapped people for a political stunt.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
San Fran patrol special officer rips Pelosi's inaction over BLACK crime surge: She doesn't care
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SewBXWKj2g
Small-business owners have been hit Petty
Thieves Plague San Francisco. ‘These Last Two
Years Have Been Insane.’
https://www.wsj.com/articles/crime-san-francisco-petty-thieves-small-businesses-11647797642
By Zusha Elinson
SAN FRANCISCO— Terry Asten Bennett’s family has been running Cliff’s Variety Store since 1936. In all that time, they’ve never experienced the amount of burglaries and property damage that they have recently, Ms. Bennett said.
Thieves smashed a display window and broke down a door to steal items as small as spray paint, and people shattered glass doors on two occasions for no apparent reason.
“These last two years have been insane,” she said. “It used to be a rare occurrence.”
Although violent crime in San Francisco is lower than in many other major U.S. cities, business owners, residents and visitors here are dealing with a rash of thefts, burglaries and car break-ins.
Among the 25 largest U.S. cities, San Francisco has had the highest property-crime rate in four of the most recent six years for which data is available, bucking the long-term national decline in such crimes that began in the 1990s. Property crimes declined in San Francisco during the first year of the pandemic, but rose 13% in 2021. Burglaries in the city are at their highest levels since the mid-1990s. There were 20,663 thefts from vehicles last year—almost 57 a day—a 39% increase from the prior year, although still below the record of 31,398 in 2017, according to the police.
Smashed storefronts are so common that the city launched a program to fix them with public money. Car owners leave notes declaring there is nothing of value in their vehicles, or leave their windows open to save themselves from broken glass. Videos of shoplifters hauling goods out of drugstores such as Walgreens have gone viral, and a smash-and-grab robbery by 20 to 40 people at a Louis Vuitton store last November made the national news.
Owners of small businesses say the costs of security and repairs are eating into profits already diminished by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the Castro, the neighborhood where Cliff’s is located, shops have recorded nearly 100 instances of smashed windows and doors that cost $170,000 to repair since the beginning of 2020, according to the neighborhood’s merchant association.
Criminologists say San Francisco’s high density of retail stores and its mix of tourists, commuters and wealthy residents have made it an inviting target for thieves. Locals point to a host of other factors that may be exacerbating the problem, including the tactics of the police and prosecutors, statewide changes intended to reduce the number of people behind bars, and the city’s dual crises of drug use and homelessness. There has been no end of finger-pointing.
Despite the city’s long history of progressive politics, some business owners and residents are demanding that political leaders shift to a more law-and-order approach.
San Francisco’s mix of retail stores, tourists, commuters and wealthy residents have made it an inviting target. The Union Square retail district, top, and the Chinatown neighborhood.
District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who took office in 2020 as part of the national “progressive prosecutor” movement and has de-emphasized the prosecution of low-level offenses, will face a recall election in June.
“Nothing is more important than to make sure that people who live in this city, people who work in the city, people who visit San Francisco, feel safe,” Democratic Mayor London Breed said at a news conference last month. “The fact is, that does require police officers.”
Some former police officials and business owners blame Mr. Boudin’s focus on keeping people who commit small-scale crimes out of prison. His office, for example, discourages filing charges in cases where suspects are pulled over for traffic infractions and officers find small amounts of drugs. Others point the finger at the police, who cleared just 6% of the city’s property crimes in 2020, more than 8 percentage points lower than the national average. A case is considered cleared if a suspect is arrested, charged and turned over to a court for prosecution, or is identified with sufficient evidence for a charge but can’t be taken into custody for circumstances beyond police control.
Some business owners say the city’s large population of people living on the streets and using drugs such as fentanyl is a big factor in the small-scale thefts. Law-enforcement officials, though, say they suspect organized crews of petty criminals are carrying out a large portion of them.
Police Chief Bill Scott has deployed more officers to tourist spots such as Fisherman’s Wharf to stop car break ins, and to retail shopping districts to stop thefts and burglaries. He has beefed up his retail theft investigations unit.
Businesses have been affected in every corner of San Francisco, even traditionally low-crime areas such as the Sunset District, where commercial and residential burglaries rose 80% in between 2019 and 2021.
Michael Hsu’s Footprint shoe store got broken into for the first time in February 2021. The thief used a blowtorch to crack the glass door without setting off the alarm and took tens of thousands of dollars worth of high-end North Face jackets. More people arrived soon after, taking whatever they could grab before they set off the alarm.
Mr. Hsu, who grew up in the Sunset, said he recalled thinking: “Oh, they finally got me.”
Michael Hsu's shoe store in the Sunset neighborhood has been burglarized repeatedly.
He now keeps some merchandise locked with security cables.
He turned to a grant program for small businesses to fix his shattered storefront.
Security footage shows a thief using a blowtorch to crack the glass door at Footprint.
Michael Hsu
Mr. Hsu was the first recipient in the new grant program for small businesses to fix their storefronts. Three weeks later, his store was hit again, this time by a thief who climbed up scaffolding, broke in through a second-story window and made off with several boxes of shoes.
He now equips his employees with pepper spray and a key fob that calls the police directly. He upgraded his security system and is putting money aside for other antitheft measures.
The grant program has distributed more than $500,000 to nearly 400 businesses to fix their storefronts.
Sharky Laguana, who is president of the city’s small business commission and runs the van-rental company Bandago, said thieves frequently smash his vehicles’ windows and steal his customers’ belongings. “It gives customers a bad experience, it costs them a lot of money and it costs us a lot of money,” he said.
Police and prosecutors say the majority of car break-ins are committed by organized crews. Mr. Laguana grew so frustrated he launched a reward program for information that leads to busts of big fencing operations that buy merchandise from such thieves. He thought he would be able to raise tens of thousands of dollars at best; he got $250,000 in pledges from rental-car companies and other businesses.
The day after the Louis Vuitton smash-and-grab robbery, San Francisco police deployed a mobile command center that still sits across the street from the luxury-goods store. The department sent more foot patrols to the Union Square retail district, pulling officers from all over the city, said Captain Julian Ng who oversees the area.
“It’s a resource drain, but if I had my way, we’d do this forever because it’s such an important area for the city,” said Capt. Ng.
Police Capt. Julian Ng, top, on the street in Chinatown. Shattered auto glass in the parking lot of a popular tourist destination.
Five people were arrested in connection with the Louis Vuitton incident. Captain Ng said there are many reasons for the city’s overall low rate of clearing property-crime cases, including the department’s no-chase policy for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, which aims to reduce unnecessary accidents. Car break-in crews can easily zip away in their own vehicles without police cars chasing them, he said.
Some former police officials said in interviews that officers don’t feel it is worth making an arrest in low-level cases because they assume the district attorney won’t file charges. They also point to a statewide ballot measure passed in 2014—Proposition 47—that raised the dollar amount at which theft can be prosecuted as a felony from $400 to $950.
Mr. Boudin, a former public defender, said his office hasn’t changed the way it prosecutes property crimes from the previous district attorney, George Gascon, who is now district attorney in Los Angeles and facing his own recall campaign. The office’s rate of filing charges against people arrested for burglaries and thefts dipped to 41% in Mr. Boudin’s first year in office, but increased to 58% in 2021, similar to the rate during Mr. Gascon’s tenure.
Mr. Boudin has pointed the finger back at the police, arguing that the certainty of arrest is low in San Francisco compared with other cities. More consistent arrests of criminals, he has said, would be a more powerful deterrent than the length of prison sentences.
Last November, officers were caught on a surveillance camera sitting in a squad car, watching as burglars made off with stolen product from a cannabis dispensary. The department is investigating the incident.
Lt. Scott Ryan, who heads a unit that investigates property crimes, said clearance rates aren’t a good measure because police often nab serial offenders who they believe to be responsible for far more burglaries or thefts than they can prove.
He said consequences aren’t severe enough for repeat offenders. Police investigators have a list of 48 people arrested five or more times for burglaries in recent years, he said, and more than half of them are no longer behind bars. “There’s got to be a line in the sand,” he said.
In February, Ms. Bennett, the owner of Cliff’s Variety, received an email alert that angered her. The burglar who broke into her store to steal spray paint and gloves was being released from jail, it said.
Charles Andrews, who was convicted in the burglary, was getting out of jail after 244 days. It was the second time that Mr. Andrews had been arrested for breaking into Cliff’s, the first coming in 2017.
The other burglar, who smashed a $4,500 display window to steal a $200 emergency kit, was never caught.
Terry Asten Bennett, right, in front of her family-owned store, Cliff's Variety Store.
She said the store has been burglarized more than once by the same person.
Security footage shows a break-in at Cliff's Variety.
Terry Asten Bennett
A large TV displays the many security cameras throughout the store.
Sylvia Cediel, a public defender who represented Mr. Andrews, said his repeated arrests “reflect the circumstances of his life—primarily extreme poverty.” Mr. Andrews has been homeless since he came to the Bay Area more than a decade ago, she said, and his time in jail has been the only time he has spent off the streets. Ms Cediel said the city needs to do a better job addressing poverty and lack of housing.
Ms. Bennett said she believes the worsening drug problem within San Francisco’s homeless population has led to thefts and some of the property damage at Cliff’s. Last year, Mayor Breed declared a state of emergency because of overdoses in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood.
In an effort to deter shoplifters, Ms. Bennett now stations employees at the door to greet customers. She installed a camera system and gave employees walkie-talkies so they could monitor shoplifters and confront them before they leave the store. Shoplifting losses have since dropped from 2% to 1% percent of annual sales, she said.
The increase in burglaries, which often involves breaking into closed shops, may be driven in part by emptier streets during the pandemic, police and criminologists say.
Ms. Bennett, whose great-great-grandfather Hilario DeBaca started the business, said the increase in crime hasn’t made her consider closing Cliff’s, which she said is woven into the neighborhood. But the break-ins are eating into the store’s bottom line.
New metal gates to protect the entrances plus repairs from the two burglaries and shattered door totaled about $22,000, less than half of which was covered by insurance, she said. She is applying to the city grant program to fix the most recently shattered door.
“When you’re a small-business owner, you spend more hours at work than at home, so you take it very personally when someone attacks you,” she said. “Whether it’s an attack on you or just your building, it really doesn’t matter. It feels the same.”
Signs warn visitors to remove valuables from vehicles at the tourist destination of Twin Peaks.
REALITY: DEM POLS SPEND TOO MUCH TIME SUCKING OFF BRIBES THEY SIPHON THROUGH FAMILY MEMBERS, SERVICING BANKSTERS AND BILLIONAIRES FOR OPEN BORDERS. THE REST OF US ARE FUCKED BIG TIME.
PHOTO: Grandma Accused in San Francisco $1 Million Looting Spree
Beyond these issues, the impact of uncontrolled migration is cultural, which can hardly be gauged because the change is gradual.
The migrants may originate from cultures that have anachronistic values and practices from what is found in the U.S. Instead of adapting to their surroundings, quite a few expect everyone else to adapt to their values. Among other things, their refusal to conform results in ‘honor' killings, incestuous marriages, child marriages, foot baths, and 'press 1 for English.’
MARK LEVINE OUTLINES JOE BIDEN'S CATASTROPHIC FAILURES
What if America gave away highest technologies to its enemies?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C00OcRojFT8
Gov. Abbott working to 'secure the sovereignty' of America with border wall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3MFaL2Rz9o
“Joe Biden is great on immigration. I guess depends on your perspective. If you’re a human trafficker, or drug dealer, or all those migrants wearing the Biden let us in shirts, you’d give him an A-plus, plus, but the American people would give him an F. The crisis we said our border was not only entirely predictable. It was predicted. I predicted it last fall that if you campaign all year long on open borders, amnesty, and health care for illegals, you’re going to get more migrants at the border. That’s exactly what’s happened every month since the election.” SEN. TOM COTTON
There is also an impact on wages.
If impoverished migrants agree to work for less than minimum wages without benefits, the working-class citizens either suffers job redundancy or depression in wages. If they work under the table and send their untaxed remittances home, communities go underdeveloped and get a run-down look.
When some among the migrants commit violent crimes -- through car break-ins, burglaries, vandalism, fentanyl dealing, identity theft, strongarm robberies, rapes, and other violent crimes, it is the working class citizen who suffers. At times, they pay with their lives.
Holding the open-borders Democrats accountable.
The U.S. is currently in the midst of a serious border crisis since Joe Biden took over.
More than 1.7 million migrant encounters occurred in FY 2021, and more than 2 million in FY 2022. The actual number of individuals who managed to cross the border and are inside the U.S. has to be considerably higher.
So what usually occurs after these migrants are apprehended?
The Biden administration transports these migrants, including the underaged migrants, via night flights, from Texas to New York, late at night.
So what happens after they land?
The New York Post reported that the migrants are then bussed to various other states or cities such as New Jersey or Philadelphia. It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that these migrants are dropped into swing states.
None of this is reported by the mainstream news media, obviously.
The migrants are resettled into working-class neighborhoods of these states.
Any locality has facilities and resources that are directly proportional to the number of residents, i.e., citizens, living there.
What happens when migrants inundate these localities?
They occupy parks, pavements, and other free spaces, and once again the citizens whose tax money funds the construction and maintenance of these places, suffers.
When the sanitation and waste management facilities are overwhelmed, it results in the surroundings becoming unhygienic, which will become a health hazard causing the spread of diseases.
If the migrants have highly contagious infections such as COVID-19, Monkeypox, tuberculosis, measles, leishmanosis, or any other infectious diseases, once again the citizen suffers, first in the risk of being infected, and second as health facilities meant for citizens are overwhelmed, causing them to have no option but to ignore citizens.
When some among the migrants commit violent crimes -- through car break-ins, burglaries, vandalism, fentanyl dealing, identity theft, strongarm robberies, rapes, and other violent crimes, it is the working class citizen who suffers. At times, they pay with their lives.
"Why just blame migrants, even citizens could be infected with diseases and be criminals?" is what the open border proponent will say in retaliation as they accuse you of bigotry.
Well, the problems that could emanate from citizens are the nation's problems, that doesn't mean we should import more problems.
There is also an impact on wages.
If impoverished migrants agree to work for less than minimum wages without benefits, the working-class citizens either suffers job redundancy or depression in wages. If they work under the table and send their untaxed remittances home, communities go underdeveloped and get a run-down look.
Beyond these issues, the impact of uncontrolled migration is cultural, which can hardly be gauged because the change is gradual.
The migrants may originate from cultures that have anachronistic values and practices from what is found in the U.S. Instead of adapting to their surroundings, quite a few expect everyone else to adapt to their values. Among other things, their refusal to conform results in ‘honor' killings, incestuous marriages, child marriages, foot baths, and 'press 1 for English.’
In addition to the violence and regressive practices, culture and values are the core identity of a nation and a locality that sees its erosion will soon be a lost community.
This uncontrolled influx is a long-term project of the Democrats – to inundate swing states with these migrants who, they think, will be Democrat voters. The hope is this new Democrat voter base will overwhelm the impact of existing Republican voters.
Soon elections are rendered meaningless.
The Democrats have successfully implemented this in states such as New York and California, where even a potted plant, or worse, the likes of AOC, with the letter ‘D’ after its name, is certain to win elections. In California, there are districts so packed with illegal aliens that voter turnout only amounts to about 10% of the number of people present to create the district. These are known as "dead" zones and Democrats know all about them. Large numbers of illegal immigrants also pad congressional seats for Democrats so that even if the illegals do not vote, their presence makes Democrat congressional seats possible that wouldn't otherwise be there. The contests in these states with these arrangements are not between left and right, but left, far left, and socialists.
This open border isn’t due to Biden’s misgovernance, this is an intentional and malicious act to ensure a permanence of power, both nationally, and in key states.
The Democratic leaders who support open borders never suffer the consequences of the policies they advocate.
They live in affluent localities. Their properties are surrounded by imposing walls. They also have armed bodyguards. The migrants will not be allowed even near these localities, except as maids and gardeners.
That changed in April, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott led a unique practical experiment by transporting immigrants on a voluntary basis to "sanctuary" states run by open borders advocates. The goal was to make them accept the consequences of their words and actions.
These migrants were transported to cities such as New York, Chicago, and Washington. Some were even dropped outside the Washington D.C. home of Kamala Harris, Joe Biden's border czar who had just advised the country that the border was "secure."
The governor of Arizona also followed this move, as so did Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis, who flew some 50 migrants in to tony Martha’s Vineyard.
As expected, the migrants haven’t been welcomed with open arms. The mayors of the cities have complained and attacked Republican governors while the wealthy liberals of Martha’s Vineyard haven’t actually opened their homes to the migrants they claim to love. Some authorities have called the National Guard.
In doing this, the governors have revealed the Democrats to be hypocrites and elitists.
But we already knew that.
So what happens next?
Doubtlessly, at least some of these migrants will be transported to detention centers away from the local mansions where they will then be re-released back to swing or Republican states.
If there has to be any long-term impact from this amusing exercise, all GOP governors much join in and keep dispatching migrants, to liberal states for as long as they can.
In time, the Democrats may block the busses at their city borders and prevent migrants from disembarking from planes.
It will be chaotic.
The only hope is that the chaos will cause local authorities compel the upper echelons of the Democrat party to fix the borders.
But the exercise in holding the open-border proponents accountable must not stop here.
When the GOP wins back the House and the Senate, they must author a bill that does the following:
- Mandates the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to resume construction of a border barrier wall along the U.S.-Mexico border that President Trump began.
- Mandates DHS to deploy tactical infrastructure and technology across all borders beginning with the southern border.
- Mandates U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to increase the number of border security agents and officers.
Now for the most crucial aspect of all this, the funding:
Yes, the taxpayers will be paying.
But the bill must have any or ideally both of the following clauses:
- Mandate the transportation of migrants to liberal states whose governors, senators, representatives, and mayors advocate open borders.
- All lawmakers who do not vote for the bill, i.e., who advocate open borders, must be compelled to pay an additional tax to fund infrastructure in these liberal cities that will accommodate the newly arrived migrants.
- In addition to accommodation, these lawmakers must also contribute to funds for law enforcement, hospitals, and schools for migrants.
- This tax must not be restricted to lawmakers, but also to governors, mayors, and presidents who are proponents of open borders.
This will be an ideal way for the Democrats to show they really care for the migrants.
The Democrats will have two choices, either vote for border security and pay nothing, or not vote for border security and fund the costs of migrants.
Let’s see how they vote.
Will a bill such as this ever be authored?
Very unlikely.
But one sincerely hopes some among the lawmakers at least try.
VISUALIZE IMPEACHMENT
AND DEPORTATION TO GITMO
Other policies include a shift away from prioritizing the deportation of illegal immigrants. The Free Beacon last year reported on deportations plummeting by 90 percent under the Biden administration, meaning fewer illegal immigrants are now removed from the country than at any point in decades.
Gavin Newsom Challenges Ron DeSantis to a Debate on CNN
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday challenged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to a debate after months of hurling attacks at Gov. DeSantis.
Newsom’s proposal for a debate is the latest move in a brewing feud between him and DeSantis.
After months of name-calling and running negative ads in Florida, Newsom asked the feds on Thursday to intervene and investigate DeSantis for “kidnapping” after DeSantis sent 50 illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, an elite vacation spot where former President Barack Obama owns a $15 million home.
Immigrants gather with their belongings outside St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, in Edgartown, MA, on Martha’s Vineyard. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday flew two planes of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, escalating a tactic by Republican governors to draw attention to what they consider to be the Biden administration’s failed border policies. (Ray Ewing/Vineyard Gazette via AP)
“In particular, I urge US DOJ to investigate whether the alleged fraudulent inducement would support charges of kidnapping under relevant state laws, which could serve as a predicate offense for charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) provisions of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970,” Newsom wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
DeSantis commented Friday on Newsom’s letter to Garland, saying, “I think his hair gel is interfering with his brain function.”
“So the governor of California sent a letter to the Department of Justice saying, ‘You need to prosecute Texas and Florida governors.’ And all I can say is, I think his hair gel is interfering with his brain function,” DeSantis said.
Later on Friday, Newsom responded to DeSantis’s hair gel quip by proposing the two debate each other before the midterm elections in November.
“Hey @GovRonDeSantis, clearly you’re struggling, distracted, and busy playing politics with people’s lives,” Newsom tweeted. “Since you have only one overriding need — attention –let’s take this up & debate. I’ll bring my hair gel. You bring your hairspray. Name the time before Election Day.”
The California governor also tagged CNN’s Twitter account, possibly suggesting them as a moderator.
Newsom’s debate proposal seems to be inspired by Dan Rather, who tweeted about the idea of a debate between the two governors last month.
“Here’s an idea for Chris Licht, the new head of @CNN. Set up a debate — one-on-one — between @GavinNewsom and @RonDeSantisFL,” Rather tweeted. “Two governors of big states, potential presidential candidates. Prime time. Ratings I bet would be huge. Who would have the courage to show up?”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to supporters at a campaign stop on the Keep Florida Free Tour at the Horsepower Ranch in Geneva. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Although Newsom challenged DeSantis to a debate, he also recently agreed to debate his Republican challenger in California’s gubernatorial election, state Sen. Brian Dahle.
“Yeah, happy to do it and we’ll do it just as we did the last time I ran for office,” Newsom said when asked about the possibility of a debate with Dahle. “So, I look forward to it.”
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.
WE CAN LET THE NAFTA DEMOCRAT PARTY DESTROY AMERICA OR WE CAN SIMPLY PUT THEM OUT FOR GOOD!
GOP Campaign Chief Tom Emmer: ‘Crime Is Through the Roof’, Will Play ‘Huge’ Role in November
Watters: The Five (CRIME) Families of the Democrat Party
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBpvvHethg0
WHAT DID NANCY PELOSI DO FOR HER CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
OF MELTDOWN SAN FRANCISCO? - NADA! - BUT SHE SURE
RAKED IN THE MONEY BEING A FAILURE
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2022/03/what-did-nancy-pelosi-do-for-her.html
SAN FRANCISCO POPULATION IS ONLY 8% BACK, HOWEVER, BLACKS PERPETRATE 40% OF THE CRIME (these are pre-covid numbers).
San Fran patrol special officer rips Pelosi's inaction over BLACK crime surge: She doesn't care
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SewBXWKj2g
Small-business owners have been hit Petty
Thieves Plague San Francisco. ‘These Last Two
Years Have Been Insane.’
https://www.wsj.com/articles/crime-san-francisco-petty-thieves-small-businesses-11647797642
By Zusha Elinson
SAN FRANCISCO— Terry Asten Bennett’s family has been running Cliff’s Variety Store since 1936. In all that time, they’ve never experienced the amount of burglaries and property damage that they have recently, Ms. Bennett said.
Thieves smashed a display window and broke down a door to steal items as small as spray paint, and people shattered glass doors on two occasions for no apparent reason.
“These last two years have been insane,” she said. “It used to be a rare occurrence.”
Although violent crime in San Francisco is lower than in many other major U.S. cities, business owners, residents and visitors here are dealing with a rash of thefts, burglaries and car break-ins.
Among the 25 largest U.S. cities, San Francisco has had the highest property-crime rate in four of the most recent six years for which data is available, bucking the long-term national decline in such crimes that began in the 1990s. Property crimes declined in San Francisco during the first year of the pandemic, but rose 13% in 2021. Burglaries in the city are at their highest levels since the mid-1990s. There were 20,663 thefts from vehicles last year—almost 57 a day—a 39% increase from the prior year, although still below the record of 31,398 in 2017, according to the police.
Smashed storefronts are so common that the city launched a program to fix them with public money. Car owners leave notes declaring there is nothing of value in their vehicles, or leave their windows open to save themselves from broken glass. Videos of shoplifters hauling goods out of drugstores such as Walgreens have gone viral, and a smash-and-grab robbery by 20 to 40 people at a Louis Vuitton store last November made the national news.
Owners of small businesses say the costs of security and repairs are eating into profits already diminished by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the Castro, the neighborhood where Cliff’s is located, shops have recorded nearly 100 instances of smashed windows and doors that cost $170,000 to repair since the beginning of 2020, according to the neighborhood’s merchant association.
Criminologists say San Francisco’s high density of retail stores and its mix of tourists, commuters and wealthy residents have made it an inviting target for thieves. Locals point to a host of other factors that may be exacerbating the problem, including the tactics of the police and prosecutors, statewide changes intended to reduce the number of people behind bars, and the city’s dual crises of drug use and homelessness. There has been no end of finger-pointing.
Despite the city’s long history of progressive politics, some business owners and residents are demanding that political leaders shift to a more law-and-order approach.
San Francisco’s mix of retail stores, tourists, commuters and wealthy residents have made it an inviting target. The Union Square retail district, top, and the Chinatown neighborhood.
District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who took office in 2020 as part of the national “progressive prosecutor” movement and has de-emphasized the prosecution of low-level offenses, will face a recall election in June.
“Nothing is more important than to make sure that people who live in this city, people who work in the city, people who visit San Francisco, feel safe,” Democratic Mayor London Breed said at a news conference last month. “The fact is, that does require police officers.”
Some former police officials and business owners blame Mr. Boudin’s focus on keeping people who commit small-scale crimes out of prison. His office, for example, discourages filing charges in cases where suspects are pulled over for traffic infractions and officers find small amounts of drugs. Others point the finger at the police, who cleared just 6% of the city’s property crimes in 2020, more than 8 percentage points lower than the national average. A case is considered cleared if a suspect is arrested, charged and turned over to a court for prosecution, or is identified with sufficient evidence for a charge but can’t be taken into custody for circumstances beyond police control.
Some business owners say the city’s large population of people living on the streets and using drugs such as fentanyl is a big factor in the small-scale thefts. Law-enforcement officials, though, say they suspect organized crews of petty criminals are carrying out a large portion of them.
Police Chief Bill Scott has deployed more officers to tourist spots such as Fisherman’s Wharf to stop car break ins, and to retail shopping districts to stop thefts and burglaries. He has beefed up his retail theft investigations unit.
Businesses have been affected in every corner of San Francisco, even traditionally low-crime areas such as the Sunset District, where commercial and residential burglaries rose 80% in between 2019 and 2021.
Michael Hsu’s Footprint shoe store got broken into for the first time in February 2021. The thief used a blowtorch to crack the glass door without setting off the alarm and took tens of thousands of dollars worth of high-end North Face jackets. More people arrived soon after, taking whatever they could grab before they set off the alarm.
Mr. Hsu, who grew up in the Sunset, said he recalled thinking: “Oh, they finally got me.”
Michael Hsu's shoe store in the Sunset neighborhood has been burglarized repeatedly.
He now keeps some merchandise locked with security cables.
He turned to a grant program for small businesses to fix his shattered storefront.
Security footage shows a thief using a blowtorch to crack the glass door at Footprint.
Michael Hsu
Mr. Hsu was the first recipient in the new grant program for small businesses to fix their storefronts. Three weeks later, his store was hit again, this time by a thief who climbed up scaffolding, broke in through a second-story window and made off with several boxes of shoes.
He now equips his employees with pepper spray and a key fob that calls the police directly. He upgraded his security system and is putting money aside for other antitheft measures.
The grant program has distributed more than $500,000 to nearly 400 businesses to fix their storefronts.
Sharky Laguana, who is president of the city’s small business commission and runs the van-rental company Bandago, said thieves frequently smash his vehicles’ windows and steal his customers’ belongings. “It gives customers a bad experience, it costs them a lot of money and it costs us a lot of money,” he said.
Police and prosecutors say the majority of car break-ins are committed by organized crews. Mr. Laguana grew so frustrated he launched a reward program for information that leads to busts of big fencing operations that buy merchandise from such thieves. He thought he would be able to raise tens of thousands of dollars at best; he got $250,000 in pledges from rental-car companies and other businesses.
The day after the Louis Vuitton smash-and-grab robbery, San Francisco police deployed a mobile command center that still sits across the street from the luxury-goods store. The department sent more foot patrols to the Union Square retail district, pulling officers from all over the city, said Captain Julian Ng who oversees the area.
“It’s a resource drain, but if I had my way, we’d do this forever because it’s such an important area for the city,” said Capt. Ng.
Police Capt. Julian Ng, top, on the street in Chinatown. Shattered auto glass in the parking lot of a popular tourist destination.
Five people were arrested in connection with the Louis Vuitton incident. Captain Ng said there are many reasons for the city’s overall low rate of clearing property-crime cases, including the department’s no-chase policy for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, which aims to reduce unnecessary accidents. Car break-in crews can easily zip away in their own vehicles without police cars chasing them, he said.
Some former police officials said in interviews that officers don’t feel it is worth making an arrest in low-level cases because they assume the district attorney won’t file charges. They also point to a statewide ballot measure passed in 2014—Proposition 47—that raised the dollar amount at which theft can be prosecuted as a felony from $400 to $950.
Mr. Boudin, a former public defender, said his office hasn’t changed the way it prosecutes property crimes from the previous district attorney, George Gascon, who is now district attorney in Los Angeles and facing his own recall campaign. The office’s rate of filing charges against people arrested for burglaries and thefts dipped to 41% in Mr. Boudin’s first year in office, but increased to 58% in 2021, similar to the rate during Mr. Gascon’s tenure.
Mr. Boudin has pointed the finger back at the police, arguing that the certainty of arrest is low in San Francisco compared with other cities. More consistent arrests of criminals, he has said, would be a more powerful deterrent than the length of prison sentences.
Last November, officers were caught on a surveillance camera sitting in a squad car, watching as burglars made off with stolen product from a cannabis dispensary. The department is investigating the incident.
Lt. Scott Ryan, who heads a unit that investigates property crimes, said clearance rates aren’t a good measure because police often nab serial offenders who they believe to be responsible for far more burglaries or thefts than they can prove.
He said consequences aren’t severe enough for repeat offenders. Police investigators have a list of 48 people arrested five or more times for burglaries in recent years, he said, and more than half of them are no longer behind bars. “There’s got to be a line in the sand,” he said.
In February, Ms. Bennett, the owner of Cliff’s Variety, received an email alert that angered her. The burglar who broke into her store to steal spray paint and gloves was being released from jail, it said.
Charles Andrews, who was convicted in the burglary, was getting out of jail after 244 days. It was the second time that Mr. Andrews had been arrested for breaking into Cliff’s, the first coming in 2017.
The other burglar, who smashed a $4,500 display window to steal a $200 emergency kit, was never caught.
Terry Asten Bennett, right, in front of her family-owned store, Cliff's Variety Store.
She said the store has been burglarized more than once by the same person.
Security footage shows a break-in at Cliff's Variety.
Terry Asten Bennett
A large TV displays the many security cameras throughout the store.
Sylvia Cediel, a public defender who represented Mr. Andrews, said his repeated arrests “reflect the circumstances of his life—primarily extreme poverty.” Mr. Andrews has been homeless since he came to the Bay Area more than a decade ago, she said, and his time in jail has been the only time he has spent off the streets. Ms Cediel said the city needs to do a better job addressing poverty and lack of housing.
Ms. Bennett said she believes the worsening drug problem within San Francisco’s homeless population has led to thefts and some of the property damage at Cliff’s. Last year, Mayor Breed declared a state of emergency because of overdoses in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood.
In an effort to deter shoplifters, Ms. Bennett now stations employees at the door to greet customers. She installed a camera system and gave employees walkie-talkies so they could monitor shoplifters and confront them before they leave the store. Shoplifting losses have since dropped from 2% to 1% percent of annual sales, she said.
The increase in burglaries, which often involves breaking into closed shops, may be driven in part by emptier streets during the pandemic, police and criminologists say.
Ms. Bennett, whose great-great-grandfather Hilario DeBaca started the business, said the increase in crime hasn’t made her consider closing Cliff’s, which she said is woven into the neighborhood. But the break-ins are eating into the store’s bottom line.
New metal gates to protect the entrances plus repairs from the two burglaries and shattered door totaled about $22,000, less than half of which was covered by insurance, she said. She is applying to the city grant program to fix the most recently shattered door.
“When you’re a small-business owner, you spend more hours at work than at home, so you take it very personally when someone attacks you,” she said. “Whether it’s an attack on you or just your building, it really doesn’t matter. It feels the same.”
Signs warn visitors to remove valuables from vehicles at the tourist destination of Twin Peaks.
REALITY: DEM POLS SPEND TOO MUCH TIME SUCKING OFF BRIBES THEY SIPHON THROUGH FAMILY MEMBERS, SERVICING BANKSTERS AND BILLIONAIRES FOR OPEN BORDERS. THE REST OF US ARE FUCKED BIG TIME.
PHOTO: Grandma Accused in San Francisco $1 Million Looting Spree
AMERICAN THE FAILED NATION!
BLACK GHETTOS IN AMERICA
The 10 WORST (MOSTLY BLACK) Neighborhoods in America. It's Shocking and Terrifying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12vnzZSw9f8&t=77s
ONLY 8% OF S.F. IS BLACK. THEY PERPETRATE MORE THAN 40% OF THE CRIMES.
17,000 CARE BREAK-INS
SF Suffers Highest Rate of Car Break-Ins Compared to Atlanta, DC, Dallas, LA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTLPISB7xig
It's your message, Democrats
Yesterday, House speaker Nancy Pelosi said she does not understand where the lawlessness is coming from. She was talking about all of those attack on shops in San Francisco.
Maybe Mrs. Pelosi finally noticed when the mob attacked her favorite places!
The mayor of San Francisco noticed the looting, too. This is the story:
The mayor's plan includes a series of initiatives to implement a 180-degree reversal from blind compassion to "tough love." Outlined in a Medium post, Breed's proposals take aim at illegal drug sales and restore funding for police with targeted resources dedicated to the low-income Tenderloin neighborhood. The mayor calls for:
Executing an Emergency Intervention Plan in the Tenderloin neighborhood
Securing emergency police funding to ensure we have the resources to combat major safety problems over the next several
Amending our surveillance ordinance so law enforcement can prevent and interrupt crime in real time — something they're effectively barred from doing now — to better protect our homes and businesses
Disrupting the illegal street sales of stolen goods that have become a clear public safety issue and are contributing to retail theft
Well, at least the strategy is changing. Let's hope it goes beyond talking points.
Why are Democrats suddenly talking about crime?
The answer is twofold:
First, this level of "lawlessness," as the speaker would say, is driving taxpayers away. My guess is that it keeps a lot of people from driving downtown for dinner on a Saturday. I was in a city in Maryland last summer and asked about Little Italy, a once-charming neighborhood for eating Italian food. My friend said it was still there, but many people were afraid of going down in this atmosphere.
Second, the violence must be hurting Democrats with African-Americans and Hispanics, or the people who live in those areas, which may be both. Check out Chicago and the weekend shootings. It's hard to blame Trump when everyone running the city is a liberal Democrat.
Memo to Democrats: Let the police do their job, and you will see how quickly the "lawlessness" will disappear.
GOP Campaign Chief Tom Emmer: ‘Crime Is Through the Roof’, Will Play ‘Huge’ Role in November
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), declared that “crime is through the roof” and that it will play a “huge” role in the upcoming midterm elections during his recent appearance on Breitbart News Saturday.
“At the end of the day, I’ll put it in terms like this. You don’t know what the jury — the voters — are going to decide [in] November,” Emmer explained. “I do know that they’re going to return the majority to Republicans, but how broad and how deep that is, we’ll leave that for them to tell us.”
The NRCC chair noted that the “Democrats just passed a bill so they can hire an army of IRS agents to harass conservatives and the middle class” and that the Republicans will win by pointing out the Democrats’ pro-crime agenda.
“We’re gonna win with our candidates by highlighting… Democrats’ pro-criminal policies that have created chaos and violence in our communities, and we’re gonna win by reminding voters that Democrats have prioritized open borders and given drug cartels a free pass to terrorize American citizens,” Emmer added.
He also clarified that the House races across the country are the “largest local race on the ballot” this year and how they are looking to localize the elections to a specific geography and demographic areas for the candidates as much as possible.
“You’ll see us continue to tailor our message to specific areas,” he said, explaining how the Republicans are looking to localize the elections. “In New York, expect crime to continue to be a key theme highlighting Democrats’ pro-criminal policies. I mentioned the cashless bail earlier. I mean, where, where does it make sense, let murderers and thieves and people committing assaults right back out on the street within hours after they’re picked up.”
Expanding on New York, Emmer stated that Republicans’ opportunities to pick up Democrat-held seats look “extremely promising” since crime is a significant issue in the state.
“It’s driven largely by that violent crime wave the Democrats policy should create it,” he added. “Every one of these Democrats in New York has supported cashless bail, which puts criminals before… it puts criminals ahead of the actual citizens that were supposed to be law-abiding citizens were supposed to be protected.”
In addition to fixing crime, Emmer added that “A vote for a Republican is a vote to get a cost of living back under control and restore American energy independence” and would be “for safety and security in our communities, in our states, in our country, and around the world,” for a “secure border,” and “putting parents back in charge of the decisions they believe are most important when it comes to their children and their own personal lives.”
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Eastern.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss and Truth Social @JacobBliss.
No comments:
Post a Comment