Rampant crime and corruption. A deadly drug crisis. Unprecedented homelessness. Grossly overwhelmed and underfunded police departments. If that is not convincing enough, add a diminishing population that is all but powerless against a crime-infested city.
Comic book fans might suggest these conditions are hauntingly reminiscent of Gotham City—a fictitious city in the all-American classic, Batman.
To see Gotham City in real time, look no further than San Francisco, a place that was once considered “the Golden City.” A place that was governed by law and order.
I faced Gotham City in real time last month when my car was broken into in the heart of San Francisco’s most affluent area, the financial district.
Making a quick stop at my law office after a long day in court, I decided to park my vehicle in front of the 345 California Street Building. Cheerfully greeted by the security guard on duty, I knew I had nothing to worry about as I made my way up in the elevator.
Exiting the building 10 minutes later, I stopped short of bidding farewell to the nice young man who had greeted me. I was far too astounded by what I could see through the glass front doors of the building: shattered glass and fragments around my vehicle.
At a closer distance, I noticed that someone had not only broken into my vehicle in broad daylight, but managed to steal my dry cleaning and my five-year-old’s car seat.
Looking to my left and right, I hoped to spot the culprit fleeing the scene. With no success, I reached for my phone and started to contact the local police department. Just before completing the “9-1-1” dial, I chuckled to myself and stopped the call. I knew the police would not take the matter seriously.
To be fair, anyone who has been on the unfortunate end of a robbery or theft in San Francisco knows there are far too many similar reports for the underfunded police department to handle. These reports are shelved while police attend to more serious crimes. Criminals understand this and are no doubt emboldened by it.
The reality is that, unlike in Gotham City, you won’t find a savior in Bruce Wayne’s billionaire gadgets or Batmobile. We are left to rely on an unsupported police department, district attorneys who have cared far more about social justice and “woke” policies than maintaining law and order, and elected leaders who care more about reelection than safeguarding communities and victims.
Today, San Francisco ranks high among the nation’s most crime-infested cities—just shy of other cities controlled by leftist politics, like Chicago. Don’t take my word for it. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, San Francisco has 30 percent more occurrences of burglary, theft, and robbery than the average city.
Beyond this, residents face a 1-in-16 chance of being victim to property or violent crimes. That makes the city more dangerous than nearly 99 percent of cities in the nation.
A combination of political motives, relaxed sentencing laws, a refusal to prosecute, and unregulated early release programs have contributed to the daunting increase in crime.
The results are unnerving. There are now more drug users in the city than high school students, according to the Hoover Institute. Beyond that, about 1,000 will die this year from a drug overdose, only to be replaced by 1,000 new addicts.
Residents are not oblivious to this. In fact, more than 125,000 residents left the city of San Francisco from 2020 to 2021, according to the latest available census data.
The Left will tell you that these conditions are the natural result of population growth, changing demographics, and a host of other factors that bear no direct relevance to the unmanageable crime crisis.
Of course, not all residents are leaving. You won’t find San Francisco residents like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-S.F.), television personality Ellen DeGeneres, or bestselling novelist Danielle Steele leaving the city.
They also don’t have a 1-in-16 chance of being robbed. That is because they live in San Francisco’s most prestigious and wealthy communities such as Presidio Heights, where the average home price is $2.5 million. You won’t find a drug or homelessness crisis there either. It is a clear demonstration that money buys you protection in this city, not elected officials.
To no one’s surprise, last year, San Francisco Mayor London Breed decided it was time to “crack down on crime,” assuring the public that the rampant crime would no longer be tolerated.
The reason behind this sudden shift in law and order went unspoken, but it was all too clear. For years, small businesses and larger economic institutions have urged San Francisco’s elected officials to do something to address the resurgent crime. For years, these small businesses, chain stores, and institutions were relentlessly burglarized, robbed, and vandalized without consequences for the criminals.
With last year’s questionable economic outlook, I suspect those institutions finally applied just enough pressure to convince San Francisco’s leaders to act. Indeed, the old axiom “money talks” still rings loud and true for San Francisco. For years, the working poor, impoverished, and middle class were powerless to convince San Francisco to address crime.
Until our elected leaders in San Francisco truly put the interests of working families first, the city will continue to breed a Gotham-like environment, completely devoid of big comic-book heroes. In San Francisco, big heroes have been replaced with big money.
