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Happening "primarily on Chestnut Street [with a some attacks happening] near Fillmore and Greenwich, two to three [persons] dressed in all black wearing Halloween skeleton masks" and brandishing guns, it seems, committed at least 11 attacks on men and women over the past three weeks. Grabbed while walking on the sidewalk -- including one woman who was reportedly forced into her apartment -- the victims were all robbed of their personal belongings (i.e., backpacks, purses, phones, sunglasses, sense of security, etc.) during the violent encounters.
We called Michela Alioto-Pier's office, and they confirmed the report of the attacks. (If you want to contact her office for more information, call: 415-554-7752.) Much of the neighborhood patrol, we hear, has been "lent...to the Western Addition" as of late. We'll update/link as soon as we know more.
And please -- please! -- be careful out there.
Thanks to our tipster for sending us the info.
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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.
Why do the Marina attacks get to be more stylish and theatrical than the ones happening all over the city? Skeleton masks, I ask you!
Chestnut had foot patrols long before any legislation.
Pease ELABORATE. TIME of Day, height, weight, build, pink, brown,yellow--a mask doesn't cover everything.
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
Not even the Marina is safe! Hold on to your Tom Ford sunglasses, girls!
Please tell me no Lacoste shirts or True Religion jeans were frayed, scuffed, or otherwise damaged.
The supervisor & police dept. reps had a neigboorhood meeting on Tuesday night - anything come out of it?
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.
Sorry for the victims... but now maybe Pier will have a reason to show up at meetings and not obsess so much about being against things like Healthy Saturdays in the Park. She has something of use to resolve in her own district. Maybe foot patrols? Less worrying about Chris Daly and a code of conduct for him? Now we get to see her in real problem solving action?
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.
But Chinanob is pretty much right
If you count pheremones as drugs, then there is a whole lotta "hot" being dealt on the streets of the Marina every night.
Could someone please explain to me how having beat cops on Chesnut/Filmore/Grenwich would actual increase crime in the area?
If I were a criminal dressed in a halloween costume, and I saw a cop walking down the street I was trying to "work" on, I'd find some place where there aren't any cops walking around.
I could draw an assumption that guest#1 is referring to 24/7 posting of cops somewhere else, then the issue becomes there are not enough Constables on Patrol.
Part of the whole beat cop thing is that it should be a deterrent and prevent crimes from happening. Cops in cars don't have the same visibility as cops on the foot beat.
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
Another issue, J, is that SFPD is notoriously bad at solving crime, not just preventing it. Perhaps if they spent more time out hob-nobbing with neighborhooders they'd build up a little trust and be able to get better information about the people committing these crimes.
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.
To me Chinanob's description of the local police chief and DA is mostly accurate (and Giuliani is an asshole). Though I can't say that I'd rather have criminals beaten than rehabilitated, but whichever convinces them that violent crime is bad idea, is a good idea to me.
But I'm not sure that a worthless DA and chickenhearted chief are the most prominent factors in the Marina attacks. I think cowinhollow is onto something in that there's too media and police attention in other districts, not to mention a brewing turf war, which is pushing perps into other neighborhoods.
Alioto-Pier bitch slaps the Western Addition.
"foot patrols on loan" to W.A.
Crime is up all over the city, call me Archie Bunker for this, but that's what you get when you have people in authority who are soft on crime.
Having a Chinese-American woman as Chief of Police and an African-American district attorney who continually pisses off the SFPD has hurt San Francisco badly.
Criminals are not afraid to do business in San Francisco. Watch. It's going to to get worse..
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.
Its going to get much worse.......
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.
Right now the Mayor drives through the Tenderloin and calls the chief and tells her "move those homeless people off of Hyde St ( or Turk,Golden Gate) " And as teh saying goes s--t rolls downhill. Thing is when the lowly Beat cops gets the complaint for moving the homeless no one remembers telling him to do it.
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.
we have two choices:
move all the infrastructure to support the homeless outside of the city or criminalize being homeless and arrest them all so we can actually start seperating the ones that need help from the true criminals. i'm ok either way, as long as we make a decision.
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.
So having a D.A. that pisses off the cops is okay as long as the D.A. is an Irish man? Right-o.
no .they are both the same
So why make an issue out of Harris's race? Oh, right. You're just enjoying being a tool.
::shakes head::
In the same vein, standing at a corner is not walking a beat. With that same logic, why don't we just park police cars on a few corners. That'll cut down on crime.
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
guest 20,
Are ya'll from Mississippi or someplace where women still wear petticoats and serve their men, speak when spoken to?
What in f&@# does race and gender of our leaders have to do with this issue outside of twisted thinking on your part?
Feel free to move on down to Talahachie county and join the rest of the good ole boys. We'll miss you!
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.
I think it interesting how the perps in the masks became homeless druggies. They could be bored private school kids. I can't tell from the post. Maybe cowinhollow can tell us more.
How's about we get surrounding counties to stop dumping their homeless in San Francisco?
surrounding counties.....surrounding states......so many people have warrants from wa and or but the wont extradite from ca.
it changed because the city uses its police force to try and solve a non police issue like homelessness instead of fighting crime. they have cops driving homeless people to work across town. they could hire college kids or homeless people to do this
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.
not only do the cops drive the homeless to work theres about four or five at each of the station assigned to homeless only duites. getting them services and such. again not a police problem. downtown the cops follow dpw around to pick up shopping carts. waste of police services
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.
Guiliani is a prick and should never be president. New York City in a Suburb sucks after what he's done with it. And I fully understand the beauty of New Yorkers, and I'm also being honest. And I certainly don't need some San Franciscan speak for me. Screw Rudy -- he made Manhattan accessible for bridge and tunnelers, and no one else. The same can, and likely will, happen here in SF.
That's not to say I don't agree with everything else ChinaNob noted, especially the DA and Fong stuff.
And at least no one has died in the Marina, so really, it's just an up tick in crime, not a full-fledged crime wave. Unfortunate, yes. Epic disaster? hardly. Rich people are just a lot louder when something foreign -- crime, drugs, additional stop signs, anything -- creeps into their sacred neighborhoods. The people on Friendship Ct. and Eddy and Buchanan have been singing this tune for a while, but I guess that doesn't matter as much. I guess they're ALL homeless junkies and gun-toting thugs who have the nerve to barrow some police presence from Cow Hallow. Cry me a river.
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!
Dillon has been transferred out. I'm not surprised. Drawing a direct connection between South of Geary and North of Geary is spinning the numbers somewhat, especially since few of these 11 robberies in three months (that's like one week South of Geary) appear to be connected.
I thought it was one of those robbery sprees where the kids get together and rob a half dozen people in one night. You know, like the rest of Northern District.
I just need to take issue with a couple of remarks made by cowinhollow above:
Possibly an accurate analysis, except for the word "forced." I strongly doubt that anybody is truly "forced" into committing armed robbery at gunpoint.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.
Don't know if you're quoting / paraphrasing what was said at the meeting or those are your own words but my reaction: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)
van - I never said guliani should be president. and if you want to hate on him for making nyc safe enough to "attract" bridge and tunnelers, well you better get on hating david dinkins who started community policing (and actaully saw a crime reduction during his administration, not that anyone actually remembers that inconvenient fact). and you better really get on hating bloomberg, b/c he's overseen a continuation of keeping crime in check.
you remind of one of those pseudo intellectual trustafarian hipsters who romanticize the ghetto and complain about how city life was oh so much more interesting and better when the pimps & hookers and drug dealers ran wild in the streets like coyotes in GG Park.
finally, i'm not a native or even long time san franciscan - i'm from back east and remember what nyc was like before AND after dinkins/giuliani/bloomberg made is safe for bridge and tunnelers. i'll take me and my friends NOT getting mugged coming off the subway or on the way home from work any day of the week.
Alex,
The advice on how to deal with a robbery that I provided was that of the Deputy Chief of Police, not my own.
I think that it is great that Kevin Dillon was "reassigned" to night watch supervisor. Guess it does not pay to deal with an issue truthfully. Better to follow the politicos and kow-tow to the brass who would rather not hear about this issue. What a crock. Let's not meet with constituency I guess Fong is saying. Let's tow the company line. Everything is great with this beat cop program. But the next time one of you get mugged in the marina, send your thank you to Ross.
Was anyone else at the meeting Cowinhollow talked about? Because he is dead wrong about the Board of Supervisors' foot patrol legislation.
#1: Cowinhollow is perpetuating the lie Gavin and his gang came up with to try to sabotage the foot patrol legislation. They want us to think that the Supervisors tied the hands of the police, but the ordinance clearly gives the Station Captains the discretion to set the foot patrol routes. Here's a PDF of the ordinance. From page 5, 2nd paragraph:
#2: Cowinhollow says "this 'pilot' program had no metrics for early evaluation or assessment." Wrong again. See pages 6-8 for the mandated Citywide study about the effectiveness of foot patrols. From the top of page 7:The Controller's office and Mayors Office of Criminal Justice are also studying the foot patrols. The detailed reporting requirements of the ordinance are probably the main reason the SFPD brass pressured Gavin into vetoing it. That's the main difference between the Supervisors foot patrol plan and Gavin's bait-and-switch. The SFPD doesn't seem to like taking the time to analyze the effectiveness of its policing, and they definitely don't like taking the time to tell the public about it.Did the cops and Alioto-Pier really misunderstand this legislation at that meeting, or did Cowinhollow misunderstand it, or is he peddling lies? Was Cowinhollow the tipster who started this story? This was his first post on SFist.
The Examiner has an article today about Captain Kevin Dillion leaving Northern Station. Notice how Gary Delagnes (the head of the Police Officers Association) blatantly repeats Gavin Lie #1, and it sounds like Alioto-Pier will be doing the same. But as Mirkarimi says in the article, it was Chief Fong who ordered the four cops to stand at Laguna and Eddy and Friendship Court. A week ago Gavin had a photo-op to announce 37 new foot patrol officers. But none of them went to Northern Station and there was no mention of any Marina crime wave.
The SFPD has a budget of $400 million, up from $360 last year. They've sandbagged on hiring more officers to keep their overtime high. The SFPD has the money, they have the officers, they just don't have the willpower or know-how to make this City safe. In general, the problems with the SFPD aren't with the station captains. They're with Chief Fong, her command staff, and ultimately Gavin Newsom.
GavinWatch
First of all, I am not the tipster as you so nicely imply.
Second, this is my first post as registered. I thought that a guest post on such a critical issue to me would be cowardly.
To address your more specific points.
1. The supervisors mandated that the beat cops are assigned to certain northern district neighborhoods, not including the marina. They have discretion within those neighborhoods as far as their routes, but not to reassign these beat cops to the marina, cow hollow or elsewhere. Why was the Northern district assigned specific neighborhoods, and not others? Would it be that Ross' district is the Western Addition???
2. Early Assessment: I think that we have assessed it in the community meeting in the marina. It is clearly not working. We want it changed. Nothing in the ordinance provides for it to be addressed, changed, revised during the period. So we must suffer with our problems to wait for the pilot program to end. I am sorry but the reports are not good, but you seem to say that simple community meetings where they share with us the fact that people are getting mugged and robbed, that this is evaluation. In a pilot project you set up your goals, with measurements such as reduction in violent crime by X%, let's say 5% per quarter, and if it meets this hurdle we go on, if not, it is not working. This is measurement and assessment, not let's see how many more muggings/robberies there were this month.
3. As was reported in the Chronicle, new beat cops are coming out of the academy, unfortunately none for the Northern District...funny how that happens. Since academy classes have been delayed in the past, according to now night watchman Dillon, we do not have sufficient cops on patrol. I think that the chronicle agrees with this statement.
Police Academy 2
Where do you get this sandbagging issue? They do not have the officers. Do you really think that there is a conscious effort to not hire police so that they can keep overtime high. Are the conviction rates as good as other counties such as Alameda, Contra Costa??? Case in point, if a station chief were to deviate from the beat proposal, they need to file a report with the Chief of Police to explain why they are deviating. How about people being held up at gunpoint? Guess that is not really an important reason.
Here is what the Chronicle says:
"...the agency is falling short of the 1,971 sworn officers required to be on active duty in the city; currently, 1,879 sworn officers are on full duty. Meanwhile, a significant number of officers will be eligible for retirement in the coming years, and the department has been scrambling to add more academy classes so the shortfall doesn't grow."
GavinWatch-
I applaud you actually bringing some facts to this discussion.
Here's my question, after reading the ordinance you helpfully linked to, it appears to me that the discretion which the station officers in charge of Northern Station have in terms of who walks where has is limited to the routes the officers take on patrols within the specifically delimited patrol zones. My quick read, and I'll admit it was a quick read, led me to conclude that none of these patrol zones were north of Geary Blvd.
OK, I just read it again. And I think we're both right. The patrols are supposed to be in the zones as specifically delimited and none of them are north of Geary or Fulton depending upon where you are, east or west. So, although I guess it's true that the chief of Northern station could move patrols up from Geary and Divis to say Chestnut and Divis. But wouldn't this eviscerate the whole purpose of the pilot program, which was to target these specific neighborhoods? I don't think it's fair to say call those who say that the Ordinance restricts the use of manpower in places like the Marina liars. It does. It's its whole purpose. If the Chief of Northern Station said "forget the foot patrol zones in the ordinance, I want to put my cops back in the Marina," all of the folks who originally backed the ordinance would surely cry foul and I think they'd be right to do so.
Seems pretty obvious to me that surging foot patrol cops back into the Marina would defeat the purpose of the program. Now, I can also see why some of the foot patrol proponents are uncomfortable with the idea that a crime uptick in other non-covered neighborhoods might upset their plans, but I think this goes to broader issues of crime in the city. We can have our cake and eat it too. We should be able to attack crime in the neighborhoods covered by ordinance and not leave the folks in the Marina with the ever-so-helpful advice of "just give up your stuff, you can buy more."
More cops as GavinWatch suggests strikes me as a pretty darn good place to start.
bullshit!
we have 2300 officers in a city of 800k people
you want to stop crime like they did in nyc? easy, match their ratio of cops to citizens
1:229
they have 36k
we are 1100 officers short!
next your going to tell me to give up my car in the hope that muni and the taxi commission will eventually get their shit together
give me a fucking break!
ChinaNob:
My Guiliani comments were more of a rant, not directed entirely at you. For the record, though, I'm well aware that Dinkins helped reduce crime in NYC, and that Bloomberg is continuing with the tough-on-crime stance. My issue with Rudy is that he was far from the only factor in curbing crime in NYC, yet everyone looks at him like a super hero. The fact is the crack epidemic and the resultant violence peaked in the mid 1990s, and fell steadily during Rudy's reign. There's a number of reasons why crime went down in NYC, but I'll save that for the Gothamist board.
Secondly, I was pretty much in agreement with you otherwise, but you remind me of those condescending Upper West side libs who see an up tick in crime, then blame everything on the ghetto, and the out-of-area influences, then lump anyone who disagrees with you into the young, "trustafarian hipster" category.
Believe me, sweetheart, there's nothing romantic about the ghetto; there's nothing romantic about a kid getting shot in the head 40 yards from your front door; there's nothing romantic about getting hit in the face with a 2x4; there's nothing romantic about having a homeless guy defecate in front of your house for a year. It's tragic and it takes a toll on the entire neighborhood. And if I had a trust fund, do you think I would voluntarily endure such living conditions? I like my neighborhood, but things would be better if the kids stopped shooting each other.
So stop making such broad generalizations from a throw-away comment about your holiness, Rudy.
A little perspective never hurt anyone, and that's basically what I was trying to convey to the concerned Marina folks. Every tax-paying citizen deserves to be safe in their neighborhoods, and the muggings in the Marina are unfortunate. But just remember, ChinaNob and others, it could be MUCH worse. If the worst thing to happen to you in a major city is losing 40 bucks, it's not so bad. I know that's a low expectation, but that's where you enter the DA and an inept Police Chief.
Our apologies, Cowinhollow, for casting aspersions on you. We got a little paranoid for a second there, but we believe you that you're just a concerned citizen. We wrote that comment before we saw today's Chron article, which makes it pretty clear that Gavin, Alioto-Pier, Delagnes, and Fong are attacking the foot patrol ordinance. This whole thing is pretty confusing and convoluted. Is this the first time Alioto-Pier has ever disagreed with Gavin??? She supports Captain Dillon, while Gavin is 100% behind canning him. Crazy!
We agree that District Attorney Harris' pathetic prosecution record deserves a lot of the blame for this mess. It's insane that she's running unopposed for reelection.
We'll have to do some more research on SFPD overtime, but it's not a secret that the POA considers overtime to be one of the cops biggest perks. We can shed some light on where the specific neighborhood beats came from for Northern and Park Stations. Those beats were designed to cover the areas with the most crime. The initial version of the ordinance covered just those two stations. When the ordinance became so popular, it was expanded to include all the other stations, and it was modified so that the station captains had discretion over the beats. But they left in the descriptions of the Northern and Park beats as guidelines.
Like guest#48 points out, the language is a little confusing, but it seems like the bottom line is that the Captain has the authority to modify the foot patrol routes or eliminate foot patrols if they're short officers. Like Cowinhollow said, Cpt. Dillon could have ordered Marina foot patrols if he reported it to the Chief. But apparently he didn't do that. And Chief Fong ordered him to keep the four cops on stationary patrol in the Western Addition. In that Chron article, Mirkarimi says Northern station wasn't embracing the foot patrols like the other stations were. This is all pretty confusing, but it seems like we can all agree that we're not getting $400 million worth of policing in SF.
And if the police are only telling the community that people are getting mugged and robbed, they're not following the law. The ordinance requires them to report "data on the incidence of crime, the staffing of foot beats, and response times to calls for service." The Controller is also working on a more thorough evaluation. If the ordinance needs modifying, the Supervisors can modify it.
We just got this information on how many patrol officers each station will have once the new cops are assigned (not including supervisors):
Bayview: 117
Central: 90
Ingleside: 112
Mission: 129
Northern: 122
Park: 69
Richmond: 69
Southern: 132
Taraval: 77
Tenderloin: 81
Total: 998
So it seems likely that none of the new cops were assigned to Northern because it's already well staffed.
But frankly, calling the Foot Patrol program a failure because of a few muggings in the Marina is losing perspective. There have been more than 60 murders this year, and things are out of control in the Western Addition, Bayview, Mission, and Tenderloin. There must be a way to balance the needs of all the various neighborhoods, but the top priority has to be stopping people from killing each other.
But at least Gavin is yucking it up and having a great time at his foot patrol photo-op. The murder rate is out of control, but hey look! Gavin brought his new iPhone to the press conference!
Okay. the homeless gets into because of things like this. today after two people were killed in the city the chief calls tenderloin station and tells the on duty lt. that the mayors office called and wants the homeless people moved out of civic center plaza. thats what they are worried about. homeless not crime.
since these new foot beats that went into affect there have been no new classes that have graduated. so all these new beats come out of cars. no big deal, just dont expect us to get there too fast.
The mayor wants these new beats so he can one up mikaremi.
the brass has told all supervisor not to talk about the foot beats.
and i wont log in as a guest cause i like where i work.
Thanks for the insight, Offcier Guest53. We'd love to do an anonymous email interview with you. If you're interested, you can contact us at gavinwatch@gmail.com.
Gavinwatch,
It gets confuseing beacuse from what I understand is Mirkarimi started it with the crime in his district and it went from there. Gavin and Co started out opposing it and when they found out how much people liked it the jumped on board but want to be able to say they did it better than Mirkarimi. No thats where I think the problem is. too many cops walking theres not a good (safe) balance. you can get to know the people in the neighborhoods by talking to them and treating them right. You can do that in a car or on foot. I jknow several officers that have neverwalked a footbeat but when something goes down thier phones start ringing with who did it. Now these people my not want it to be known that they snitched and thats why its never prosacuted. but thats a different rant.
Everybody needs to have another double mocha chai skim latte, be quiet and look the other way. It's an election year and His Holiness Gavin the First is a shoo in, which means his pal Heather "Leather" Fong gets another re-up.
Which means...4 more years of San Francisco deteriorating into a crime plagued sewer. Hooray!
There is no need to address this glaringly obvious problem because addressing the problem is not something worthy of a photo op.
And for the love of all that is holy, stop reporting where the least amount of cops are going to be at any given time. Why not just report when the cops are taking their lunch breaks, you know, to maximize the criminal effectiveness rate.
Finally, I say we rise up and vote the entire Board of Supes out and get some fresh and intelligent blood in there. These clowns are lifers who have no vested interest in fixing anything. Hey guys, let's pass another meaningless resolution condemning or protesting something.
Useless, the whole bunch.
We need a revolution in this city or nothing will ever get accomplished. As for me, I'm buying a gun and carrying it with me at night. I'm not getting mugged, beaten or shot because our useless so-called "leaders" cannot fix simple problems like crime.
Bobby
If locking everyone up works so well, why is it failing for California? We're shipping our state inmates elsewhere because we can't build prisons fast enough.
Simply locking people up, and not treating the root is not only short sighted, but it'll guarantee that havoc is wreaked on this city.
Oh, and one more thing. Why is the SFPD doing so much traffic control, visiting dignitary escorts and other such bullshit pseudo police work?
I regularly see 8-10 motorcycle cops escorting some super important person through the city. With crime being what it is, why can't they contract this type of non law enforcement crap to a security company?
Such unbelievable bullshit in this city...
Bobby
Theres been about four or five people killed in the last few days. One of which was even dropped of to the station so the cops didnt have to go to far. Where was city hall? We kept gettign calls from them to move the homeless people out of UN plaza. I am not harping on the homeless just showing where the Mayors priorites are.
While your at it why is the SFPD paying for cops to be at the Giants games where they are a for profit buisness?
I was attacked at 2:30am on NEW YEARS morning of 2006 (1/1/06). Basically I was with 3 women waiting to hail a taxi on Lombard St. standing in front of the Wells Fargo bank across from Mel's Diner. Some crack head idiots in a car decided they would drive the wrong direction out of the bank driveway and attempted to run over myself and one other girl as we were trying to wabe down a cab. I must have looked like an innocent victim because 3 guys got out of the car (while their Hoochie mama stood and watched)as one of them blind sided me with punches to the face, the other 2 stomped and kicked me in the head while one of them held me down. These were young 20-somethings from San Bruno who come to party near the "Triangle" because most of your blonde hoochie slut daughters are living the "THUG LIFE" and they seem to be attracted to these wanna be gangstas. Yep thats right, these dirt bags know where to find your underage sluts , who use fake ID's to get in the clubs that these P.O.S's hang out at. If you don't believe me, just go check out any of the bars/clubs that are bumpin' and you'll see the lovely diversity hanging out waiting like lions for their prey. I guess these guys didn't get to take one of your daughters home that night and decided they'd have their fun curb stomping my head and changing my hard working life , forever. I am lucky that there were witnesses, otherwise, I'd have to take justice into my own hands. BUT WAIT! I can't do that, I'd be just like those scum bags who go around thinking they are ABOVE THE LAW?? I have a suggestion, we need more community action. I mean start kicking BACK! If the "authorities" are going to continue to let these slime balls go free, WE as a society need to fight back. I mean those of us who WORK for a living , and don't take advantage of what society has to offer. These scambags need a reality check and it won't be long before they are staring down the barrel of my LOADED REALITY CHECK !!!
Take that homies.
According to the ex-Northern district captain, the first to be pull for events (or demonstrations) which I believe are the dignitary functions, etc. are the beat cops, except for the mandated ones. Since there is already a paucity of officers, this further limits the available officers in the districts.
As far as the partying in the Cow Hollow/Marina area, I have seen a noticeable change in the crowd to more Bridge and Tunnel. Perhaps it is me just getting older, but I do not remember people hanging out by their cars drinking openly, but having grown up in the city and living in the city for the last 20 years, I do not remember doing this, so maybe this was always happening. The crowd outside of my place, which is ground zero, has gotten noticeably more threatening. I do not remember gunfire or regular fights every weekend and some weekdays at 2AM around Buchanan and Union, but this is what we are experiencing, so the lack of police presence has to be noticeable to criminals.