Thats because the suspects all know that northern station has four cops standing on a two corners 24/7. that will cut in half the number of cops on patrol. and with the new added foots beats theres even less in cars. the risk of getting caught goes way down when the cops on the beat have to take muni to the scene of crimes. This is what you get when politicains run the Police dept.

Chestnut had foot patrols long before any legislation.

because the suspects know that the witnesses there will talk to the police.

so I guess the whole "with foot beats there will be less crime " thing doesnt work

Please tell me no Lacoste shirts or True Religion jeans were frayed, scuffed, or otherwise damaged.

There's no point in robbing people in Bayview. (On the other hand, there is a point in shooting people in Bayview if it involves getting control over a drug corner.)

On the other hand, there no street drug markets in the Marina, but there are lots of people walking around with real money and valuables in their pocket.

Sadly, this is what happens when you combine (a) politicization of running the SFPD with (b) left wing activists more concerned about the SFPOA and complaints about police harassment than fighting violent crime with (c) fulfilling the right racial/gender quota for a police chief than hiring a real cop with (d) a D.A. more concerned about what her next elected job will be than prosecuting thugs with (e) a public that prefers hugs and programs over beating criminals with the long end of a nightstick.

Giuliani may have been a complete asshole, but he got the thugs off the streets.

ChinaNob, that is one of the more asinine posts I've ever read. And I read a lot of these things! Congrats!

You drained a complex and sensitive problem of all its nuance and repainted it in black and white. It's quite an accomplishment. Few people could so succinctly convey their own stunted worldview.

If you count pheremones as drugs, then there is a whole lotta "hot" being dealt on the streets of the Marina every night.

This is a very real issue and those who frequent the Union St. and Chestnut area should be on alert. There have been a total of 5 attacks over the last 2 months alone, typically after 10:30PM, but this masked attack of two couples did occur in June, but this is certainly a crime wave.

I did have the opportunity to attend the meeting. As the actual distribution of police is now dictated by the District Supervisors passage of legislation that requires that beat officers be allocated into specific areas by law, the northern district police department cannot reallocate those officers to the Marina and Cow Hollow area. Given the shortage of officers (over 200 less than mandated), that does not allow for patrolling of this area. Discussion of safe watch and private patrols were discussed. My take is that pressure in the Western Addition and elsewhere (Mission, BV Hunters Point) has probably interrupted the drug trade, and has forced some to look to other crime.
Therefore, if you are approached please just provide your wallet, money, purse without a fight, avoid eye contact, as the level of violence has increased, and your possessions are not worth your life. There is discussion of an evaluation of this legislation to see what the effects have been, as this "pilot" program had no metrics for early evaluation or assessment.

So basically there is no manpower to address this crimewave due to the restrictions outlined in the Mirkarimi legislation, no manpower resources, etc. so welcome to my neighborhood.

The supes overroad the Mayor's veto, so expect this in your neighborhood shortly. We are looking into hiring private security with our neighbors currently.

Here is an article in the Chronicle on this wonderful piece of legislation. Maybe the supes can go on foot patrol themselves to test the waters.

cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/04/BAGH0M68B81.DTL&hw=police+supervisors+beat&sn=006&sc=468

It really has little relationship to this issue. The Marina has a history of robbery crews driving around looking for rich victims. The cops usually deploy the plainclothes squad in unmarked cars to look for the crew circling around, and marked units look for the vehicle on its way out of the area if a robbery report comes in with a description.

"Out of the area" usually means back to the Addition, so the cops have most of the escape routes pretty well covered. This robbery string is only surprising for its duration.

Foot beats might actually help since cops in marked units are easy to avoid. I recently read how foot patrols made a number of drug busts that were probably due to them being less obvious from a distance.

Alioto-Pier bitch slaps the Western Addition.
"foot patrols on loan" to W.A.

yes the 24/7 cops are standing on the corner of freindship ct, and the other two are at Laguna and Eddy. Cant leave , must stand. so there are four cops that cant go elsewhere in the district.

I know in the Tenderloin there are no plainclothes. they have all been taken to staff the foot beats. They say they increased footbeats in the Tenderloin by 18 what they dont tell you is that they just transferred out 11 people.

great post chinanob. guiliani also got the homeless out of manhattan. he used to bus them out in the middle of the night to the shelters and rehabs located in the bronx and queens and told them to never come back. i don't see any way for us to do the same as long as all of our shelters and rehab locations are within the city limits.

I got curious, so I went into crime maps and got every robbery within a half mile of Chestnut and Fillmore, in the last 60 days. Barring the possibility that crime maps is crap, I'm not seeing a big crime wave here. Only two listed here involve guns. Look at the times, too: 2:15 am, 3:15 am, etc.

Detailed Offense Report (Sorted Ascending By Offense Cat.)
# Inc. # Date Time Offense Cat. Offense Sub-Cat. Offense
1 070563129 20070604 0050 ROBBERY ROBBERY ON THE STREET, STRONGARM
2 070571263 20070606 0150 ROBBERY ROBBERY, BODILY FORCE
3 070607711 20070616 0215 ROBBERY ROBBERY ON THE STREET WITH A GUN
4 070630825 20070622 1640 ROBBERY ROBBERY OF A CHAIN STORE WITH A KNIFE
5 070642927 20070626 0315 ROBBERY ROBBERY ON THE STREET WITH A DANGEROUS WEAPON
6 070673455 20070705 0218 ROBBERY ATTEMPTED ROBBERY ON THE STREET WITH BODILY FORCE
7 070691394 20070709 2235 ROBBERY ROBBERY ON THE STREET WITH A GUN

Surprisingly low numbers, given all the low-income and public housing in the Marina.

exactly suckafree.....they put the infstructure in the Tl them expect the homeless to commute. Its pretty bad when even the homeless coalition calls the PD to move the carts away from the front of their building.

no .they are both the same

Why dont we just hire enough cops to stand on every corner. Couldnt cost too much. but we would still have to worry about mid- block areas

Dearest Suckafree [26],

You almost got it right. No need to make criminals out of the homeless but rather the professional bums and beggars, drunks and druggies. They are sucking the life out of our city and making it look like a garbage dump/ toilet.

Force the mentally ill who obviously are so zoned that they can't care for themselves into treatment.

How's about we get surrounding counties to stop dumping their homeless in San Francisco?

we spend 160 million a year on the homeless! we have 1100 fewer officers for a city our size should have. stop the madness. call your supervisor and tell them enough is enough.

Well - that took all of ten minutes to take the serious issue of out of control crime in SF and turn it into a mindless rant about the city's homeless issues. Some of you people should be ashamed of yourselves - for reals.

My original post was intentionally snarky. But it also was intentionally truth-y. Our D.A. IS more concerned about her political career than actually prosecuting criminals. Its open knowledge that Willie Brown's ex-girlfriend has made it policy to NOT bring cases to trial unless they are lock solid assured of conviction. Now why would she do this? Obviously, to keep her official conviction rate high - you can't lose a case if you never bring it to trial.

As for Heather Fong, I couldn't care less if she was Heather Fong or Heather Garcia or Heather O'Sullivan. However, its pretty clear that she is in WAY over her head in dealing with crime in this city, and its WAY clear that the only reason the Mayor hasn't shitcanned her has to do with bullshit P.C. politics. I don't care about the color or gender of our top cop - I just want a real cop who takes no prisoners and runs the thugs against the wall. Contrary to Guardianista belief, if you hug a mugger, it doesn't stop him from mugging. On the other hand, if you arrest him and lock him up for a long time, he doesnt have the opportunity to mug anyone.

As for the muggers in the Marina, only a complete PC paintywaist could fail to see the obvious. Namely, the muggers are targeting the Marina because its completely rational, if you are a mugger, to target areas where you are more likely to find victims who have money. Namely, the Marina is far more likely to have worthwhile targets than Bayview. Only a PC idiot would attempt to ignore that blindingly obvious fact. In addition, yes, the reason shootings are concentrated in places like Bayview, Western Addition, certains areas of the 'Loin and Lower Haight is absolutely about drug corners and drug related turf wars. Likewise, you don't see street shootings in the Marina or Pac Heights or Inner Sunset because those areas do not have (a) lots of poor folks and (b) open air drug markets. Its sad, its an indictment of our society, but its still true: poor neighborhoods have more street drug sales and more drug dealing and thus more drug-related violence. I'm sorry if this is somehow news to people.

And finally, yes, Rudy is an asshole. But whatever his treatment of the homeless in NYC (and much of that is urban myth), it has absolutely nothing to do with a simple fact: he got the shitbirds and thugs off the streets. Ask any honest New Yorker today (and I know quite a few) if they would prefer living in pre-Giuliani crime ridden NYC or post-Giuliani very safe big city NYC, and their answers will be nearly unanimous: We prefer NOT getting shot at or mugged, thank you very much. But they'll still call Rudy an asshole. If you can't understand how both things can co-exist at the same time (Guiliani is great for cleaning up NYC and he is also an asshole), then you don't understand the beauty of New York and New Yorkers.

more great point china and van. if we actually got affective at dealing with the homeless and crime here like they did in nyc, i doubt many of us could afford to live here anymore. property values would go through an additional roof. i guess we should all thank the green part for keeping crime and homelessness a central part of their supportive policy which is keeping this town as affordable as it is.

thanks chris!

I just need to take issue with a couple of remarks made by cowinhollow above:

pressure in the Western Addition and elsewhere (Mission, BV Hunters Point) has probably interrupted the drug trade, and has forced some to look to other crime.

I know what you probably meant, but this kind of sloppy semantics (see also Theodore Dalrymple's discussion of an imprisoned murderer telling him that "the knife went in" (as though it had a mind of its own)) just enables the increasing trend of overlooking criminals' personal responsibility for their actions.

Therefore, if you are approached please just provide your wallet, money, purse without a fight, avoid eye contact, as the level of violence has increased, and your possessions are not worth your life.

In other words, be good little victims, and let the criminals know that there's plenty of nice easy pickings in the Marina who won't put up resistance. Oh, but you can make a report to our wonderfully effective DA and police department -- who'll add you to the statistics but never charge anybody, because you couldn't pick someone who was wearing a skeleton mask out of a lineup anyway.

And when the crooks eventually get emboldened enough by the lack of resistance to not just settle for your wallet, but decide they can also get away with a little sexual assault after forcing a later victim into her apartment, maybe the cops can provide her with a referral to a post-traumatic stress counselor.

Well, if there's three of them and one of you and they've got guns and you don't, I guess you don't have much of a choice, do you? But I wish people would be encouraged to take more responsibility for their own self-defense and the defense of others rather than just looking to the government after the fact to take ineffectual steps. If the cops can't redeploy to make the street safer, the neighborhood ought to be mobilizing as well -- citizen foot patrols, people watching out for one another, etc. -- and should be able and willing to assist someone in danger if the victim has the presence of mind to yell for help.

- Alex

(sorry, I'd rather not register for yet another website; too many passwords to keep track of as it is)