October 22, 2007
Sorry, Crackheads: Weeklong Crackdown in the TL
Wondering why you can't get your dealer on the phone? Well, last week 103 (suspected) drug retailers were pinched in a good old-fashion crackdown in the TL and Mission/Market Street areas.
Similar to the one that happened in July, these crackdowns mean that the price of poisons are going up, and so is drug-related crime. The Chronicle reports that "the narcotics unit seized $1.5 million in methamphetamine in the first six months of the year, and the price on the street has gone from $12,000 a pound to $17,000 a pound," going on to say, "with a price increase...more dealers are coming from out of town and drug-related violence has increased as dealers fight over turf."
Such gaiety, really! Disco dust prices soar while violence on the streets increases!
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Thank God!
It's a little odd that a crackdown has made conditions so much more favorable to dealing that out-of-towners are now showing up. As long as we're arresting some other town's dealers, shouldn't we sending those towns the bill?
Soooo....basically, probably at the proding of Gavin "Relect Me Now Biatches" Newsom, SFPD engaged in a few weeks of buy-busts, drove up the street price of crackulated fun, which, as any student of economics will tell, will just encourage more suppliers to enter the market. Which, in this case, is apparently thugs bearing guns from the East Bay, who then proceed to commute to our fair city and shoot people.
Yay! In exchange for a few less street dealers we get more murder and gun violence! That, as Gavin Newsom would surely say, is a clear "win-win".
Oh, so it's better not to arrest dealers, keep the price low and everyone happy? The logic here is that if the price is high in SF, then our speedy and cracky friends will bugger off somewhere cheaper. Which solves nine problems in one.
SF rarely prosecutes people for drug crimes including moderate level dealing
I know for a fact that people who are residents of San Mateo country grow pot here for this very reason. Get caught with a house full of pot in San Mateo and you are in for some hard time. Turn an apartment in Lakeview into a growing spot and nobody gives a shit
same thing in the 'Loin. these guys will be back on the street in no time. I know a detective who has told me these guy laugh at him sometimes when he is arresting them because they both know the truth
The hard truth that SF needs to face is this will always be a problem as long as we have some many residence hotels and programs. This isn't low income housing its housing for drug addicts. These people need to be dispersed to other cities
I am sick of SF being the dumping ground for the nations ills
I feel like there is a conservative backlash rising up in this city. This is one reason "Progressives" hate TICs and condos. The tide will turn when there are more homeowners invested in the community long term
"It's like a farmer's market out there.."
That's the most delightful, laugh-out-loud cop remark I've ever heard about narcotics dealing.
Right, DJT? Had I known that there were free samples for the taking...
God Damn it! No meth?
How the hell am I supposed to clean out my closets and vacuum this weekend?
Increasing price is obviously not driving away all the buyers - otherwise suppliers wouldn't be drawn over here from farther out in the East Bay to attempt to establish territory or "corners" in the territory of existing dealers. Overall demand might be surpressed, but - much like the market for Macbook Pros - the profit margin is greater on a per transaction basis.
Look, no less an arch-conservative than William F. Buckley support drug legalization. Market forces are just too powerful for a handful of cops doing buy-busts to overcome.
I have a friend who's a U.S. Navy pilot. Flys mainly reconaissance planes. In the downtime after Bosnia/Kosovo and before Afghanistan/Iraq, he flew missions down in South America in cooperation with the DEA and the Columbian government. He'd fly for miles and miles and miles over uninterrupted jungle and then - BOOM - a circular clearing with giant military-grade satellite dishes pointed straight up and then - BOOM, back to endless jungle. And these were NOT the Colombian governments satellite dishes.
Do we really think a week's worth of pathetic buy-busts around election time are really going to make a dent? As long as the market for drugs remains illegal, the money in the game will be just far too enticing to Just Say No.
Zig, maybe you overstate the case. Maybe if there were more kids here, and more second and third generations born and raised in SF, then I could begin to understand your essential argument, but it's full of holes really.
If you think that the people who live in residential hotels or suckle on other forms of city/state/federal teat drippings can sustain an active drug market, then you've sorely misjudged the profit motive of the thugs you disdain.
There are a lot of interesting articles and books written about the economics of drug markets, the drug wars, and the way in which tax dollars are used to reward and punish, thereby creating the society we (secretly want) have. Read any of them.
Frankly, any society so in denial about humanity's fundamental need to avoid and escape suffering that it sends cops out to bust corner dealers as a solution to the drug problem deserves shit on its sidewalks.
Lots of homeowners abuse drugs, and most humans want and/or need drugs at some point in their lives. Criminalization increases the harm of drugs. (Yes, books: Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed, and Drug Heresies are two used in Econ Criminal Justice classes - one's written by a conservative judge.)
Also, there are a lot of ways to dissuade drug use without criminalizing it. For example, having sterile safe injection/smoke sites. Nohing like a health clinic full of addicts to attract new users looking for a cool late night
activity, eh?
The sad part is that those of you who condemn the attempts to get tough on the dealers are the ones helping keep the down-and-out down-and-out. You are really not doing those poor bastards in the TL any favors by condoning this shit. It must be hard enough to kick such a debilitating habit without walking out your front door and having it held under your nose before you've walked two feet. If you truly gave a rat's ass about the less fortunate you would be applauding any effort to get these East Bay scumbags back over the bridge.
You seem to have missed the point, Chris. "Any effort" isn't enough. Some of us believe that SF is capable of long-term strategic planning and action.
If by long-term strategic planning you mean sanctioned shooting galleries, how in the hell does that dissuade drug use? It just sends out (again) the message that SF is a safe place to be an addict, and by inference a dealer. We have tried the compassionate approach and it has failed miserably, causing nothing but more despair and ruined neighborhoods. When will you understand that you are enabling the destruction of life? Only, I am afraid, if it afflicts someone close to you. When the City and its well meaning but naive progressives make it easy, sterile, and even PC to destroy your own life and the lives of others something needs to change.
No crack in the Tenderloin? This, after no homeless South of Market?
What's next, no drunk girls in the Marina?
Um, actually I have been affected by addicts close to me, and SF is not a safe place to be an addict. Check the ED stats if you want proof. Speaking of proof, I'd love to hear more from Chris about the compassionate approach we have taken. To what programs are you referring. The "look the other way" but keep it illegal and unsafe, or get the herionmethadone is almost as bad as heroin folks on methadone, which is probably more dangerous physically than herion (if it were administered by medical folks). But, I'll keep an open, Chris. Go ahead and share some facts, why don't you?