bureaucracybusters

BUMS APPEAR AS DRUGSTORES DISAPPEAR: PART TWO (END)

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on September 20, 2022 at 12:17 am

Current estimates peg the “homeless” population of San Francisco at about 8,000.

In 2019, a survey found that an estimated 2,831 members of this population were sheltered. Another 5,180 were unsheltered. This made for a total of 8,011.

The vast majority of them fall into four groups:

  • Druggies
  • Drunks
  • Mentally ill
  • Bums.

Or, to put it more discretely: DDMBs.

Many DDMBs refuse to enter the city’s available shelters. Some claim these places are dangerous—understandably so, since they’re peopled with drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and outright bums. 

But another reason why many of these shelters go unused is: They don’t allow their guests to drink up or drug up.

Huge areas of the city are covered in feces, urine, trash and used hypodermic needles. Hospitals overflow with patients that have fallen ill due to the contamination.

The city spent about $852 million in 2020-21 on DDMBs. Dividing that amount by about 8,000 DDMBs provides the figure of $106,500 per DDMB per year.

In February, 2018, NBC News surveyed 153 blocks of the city—an area more than 20 miles. That area includes popular tourist spots like Union Square and the cable car turnaround. It’s bordered by Van Ness Avenue, Market Street, Post Street and Grant Avenue. And it’s also home to City Hall, schools, playgrounds and a police station.

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Most of the trash found consisted of heaps of garbage, food, and discarded junk—including 100 drug needles and more than 300 piles of feces throughout downtown. And once fecal matter dries, it can become airborne and release deadly viruses, such as the rotavirus.

Another danger posed by DDMBs: Their rampant shoplifting has led to the closing of many Walgreens drug stores in San Francisco.

Walgreens 2020 primary logo.svg

The Walgreens at 30th Street and Mission Street reported 16 shoplifting incidents between November 2020 and February 2021. Just six blocks away, Walgreens’ products were being sold at an outdoor market.

And there’s no point in expecting help from the police or district attorney’s office. 

The website Only in Your State cites “the eight most dangerous places in San Francisco” as:

  • The Tenderloin
  • Hunter’s Point
  • Bayview
  • Mission District
  • Outer Mission
  • Western Addition
  • South of Market and
  • Golden Gate Park. 

Those areas encompass the major parts of the city—which is only 46 square miles. That alone tells you how ineffective the SFPD is at preventing crime.

From 2019 until June 7, 2022, District Attorney Chesa Boudin refused to hold such criminals accountable. Instead, he blamed “society” for the crimes they had committed.

Elected in 2019, Boudin is the son of Weather Underground parents convicted of murdering two police officers and a Brink’s security guard in 1981. Boudin was raised by two more Weather members—Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers.

On June 7, San Francisco voters, furious about crime, recalled Boudin.

Low-income and disabled seniors who depend on these disappearing drug stores for prescriptions are especially at risk. 

Walgreens is not the only pharmacy to be victimized by DDMBs. A CVS location a few blocks away, at 995 Market Street, also closed due to shoplifting. 

The latest wrinkle in San Francisco’s “be kind to Untermenschen” campaign is the creation of “Navigation Centers.” These are essentially holding pens for DDMBs until they can be “navigated” to permanent housing.

But housing is in short supply in San Francisco, and there is no telling how long many of these drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally disabled and bums will stay in them. Or what harm they will wreak on the neighborhoods warehousing them.

Hundreds—if not thousands—of them are heroin addicts. Such people will commit virtually any crime to support their habit. And their crimes of choice are burglary and robbery. 

Thus, pouring large numbers of them into San Francisco neighborhoods via “Navigation Centers” guarantees that countless decent citizens will become targets for desperate criminals.

Navigation Centers boast that they ban drug-abuse or drug-dealing on their own premises. But they allow DDMBs to come and go at will. Which means they are free to engage in drug-abuse and/or drug-dealing in the neighborhoods where these centers exist. 

Most politicians set their priorities on how popular their programs will be among voters. But San Francisco’s politicians reject practicality for allegiance to Uber liberal ideology. 

Drug addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and those who refuse to work are not reliable voters. Those who are productive, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens do vote.

And many of these people have voted—to not visit San Francisco again.

Hosting conventions is a lucrative business for San Francisco, bringing in about $2 billion each year. In 2019, the city hosted 40 large-scale conventions at the Moscone Center. This year, the number may reach 20. 

“One of the things [international clients] are looking at is the conditions on the streets,” said Joe D’Alessandro, the president and CEO of SF Travel. “We need to be able to walk down the streets and not feel harassed.”

A quarter of all tourists visiting San Francisco in 2019 were international travelers—and comprised 63% of all tourism spending. 

“Our numbers will not be what they were in 2019 until we see those markets return,” said D’Alessandro. 

San Francisco’s embrace of DDMBs threatens not only its residents but the tourism industry on which it depends for its economic survival. 

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