<story><title>Why San Francisco’s city government is so dysfunctional</title><url>https://www.economist.com/united-states/2021/08/28/why-san-franciscos-city-government-is-so-dysfunctional</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Talanes</author><text>&amp;gt;But that isn&amp;#x27;t on the police - they don&amp;#x27;t arrest anyone because the DA doesn&amp;#x27;t prosecute anyone.&lt;p&gt;This always struck me as a BS excuse, because if you&amp;#x27;re trying to demonstrate that the DA is the problem, wouldn&amp;#x27;t you want to be making arrests and creating a paper trail to prove your point? Apathy by the police just makes them look bad to anyone who&amp;#x27;s on the receiving end of it.&lt;p&gt;And getting arrested is still a deterrent without charges. Hell, even &amp;quot;A cop might begin asking me some questions&amp;quot; is a mild deterrent.</text></item><item><author>lubujackson</author><text>Low because they don&amp;#x27;t arrest anyone. But that isn&amp;#x27;t on the police - they don&amp;#x27;t arrest anyone because the DA doesn&amp;#x27;t prosecute anyone.&lt;p&gt;Property crime is sky high... if you happen to get caught breaking into a car the penalty is a warning. That is the policy. You have to break into many cars and be caught (which is hard to do) many times for any action.&lt;p&gt;Boudin has indefensibly ignored violent criminals, too. Like a woman being assaulted while trying to open the door to here condo, fully on video and there was no prosecution. Even a few cases of murder from repeat offenders who were let go repeatedly after violent assault.&lt;p&gt;If you live in SF, try the Citizen phone app for alerts near you. There is some crazy stuff happening all around the city. Lately, cars keep inexplicably flipping over on city streets.&lt;p&gt;The craziest update I&amp;#x27;ve seen was an alert about man dressed like a clown wielding a sword-cane.</text></item><item><author>ecf</author><text>Are incarceration rates low because people behave or are they low because SF police don’t bother to arrest people?</text></item><item><author>LordDragonfang</author><text>&amp;gt;One City Hall insider suggests that San Francisco overreacts to issues that are in the national news, and designs solutions to the country’s problems rather than its own. For example, when Mr Boudin ran on his platform of less punitive justice, San Francisco already had one of the lowest incarceration rates in the country. In 2019, 106 adults were in prison for every 100,000 people, one-fifth the rate in California and the nation. If the rest of the country behaved like San Francisco, the prison population would decline by 80%, says James Austin of the jfa Institute, a think-tank that evaluates criminal-justice policies.&lt;p&gt;This seems like a very reasonable hypothesis</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ViViDboarder</author><text>It’s also demonstrably false. You can look at clearance and prosecution stats from both the PD and DA and you’ll see little too no change from pre and post Chesa.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sanfranciscopolice.org&amp;#x2F;stay-safe&amp;#x2F;crime-data&amp;#x2F;clearance-rates-dashboard&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sanfranciscopolice.org&amp;#x2F;stay-safe&amp;#x2F;crime-data&amp;#x2F;clea...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;sfdistrictattorney.org&amp;#x2F;policy&amp;#x2F;da-stat&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;sfdistrictattorney.org&amp;#x2F;policy&amp;#x2F;da-stat&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some court activity dropped in 2020, but filing rates are higher in 2021 already, highlighting the impact closed and reduced court capacity has had. Filings, even in 2020, though lower that 2021, were not out of the norm of the last decade. This year, rates are at 2018&amp;#x2F;2019 levels and close to a high for the decade.&lt;p&gt;Lots of people come out and like to point a finger at our new DA when the data just doesn’t support it. If there is a problem with prosecutors in SF, it’s existed before Chesa.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why San Francisco’s city government is so dysfunctional</title><url>https://www.economist.com/united-states/2021/08/28/why-san-franciscos-city-government-is-so-dysfunctional</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Talanes</author><text>&amp;gt;But that isn&amp;#x27;t on the police - they don&amp;#x27;t arrest anyone because the DA doesn&amp;#x27;t prosecute anyone.&lt;p&gt;This always struck me as a BS excuse, because if you&amp;#x27;re trying to demonstrate that the DA is the problem, wouldn&amp;#x27;t you want to be making arrests and creating a paper trail to prove your point? Apathy by the police just makes them look bad to anyone who&amp;#x27;s on the receiving end of it.&lt;p&gt;And getting arrested is still a deterrent without charges. Hell, even &amp;quot;A cop might begin asking me some questions&amp;quot; is a mild deterrent.</text></item><item><author>lubujackson</author><text>Low because they don&amp;#x27;t arrest anyone. But that isn&amp;#x27;t on the police - they don&amp;#x27;t arrest anyone because the DA doesn&amp;#x27;t prosecute anyone.&lt;p&gt;Property crime is sky high... if you happen to get caught breaking into a car the penalty is a warning. That is the policy. You have to break into many cars and be caught (which is hard to do) many times for any action.&lt;p&gt;Boudin has indefensibly ignored violent criminals, too. Like a woman being assaulted while trying to open the door to here condo, fully on video and there was no prosecution. Even a few cases of murder from repeat offenders who were let go repeatedly after violent assault.&lt;p&gt;If you live in SF, try the Citizen phone app for alerts near you. There is some crazy stuff happening all around the city. Lately, cars keep inexplicably flipping over on city streets.&lt;p&gt;The craziest update I&amp;#x27;ve seen was an alert about man dressed like a clown wielding a sword-cane.</text></item><item><author>ecf</author><text>Are incarceration rates low because people behave or are they low because SF police don’t bother to arrest people?</text></item><item><author>LordDragonfang</author><text>&amp;gt;One City Hall insider suggests that San Francisco overreacts to issues that are in the national news, and designs solutions to the country’s problems rather than its own. For example, when Mr Boudin ran on his platform of less punitive justice, San Francisco already had one of the lowest incarceration rates in the country. In 2019, 106 adults were in prison for every 100,000 people, one-fifth the rate in California and the nation. If the rest of the country behaved like San Francisco, the prison population would decline by 80%, says James Austin of the jfa Institute, a think-tank that evaluates criminal-justice policies.&lt;p&gt;This seems like a very reasonable hypothesis</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>spoonjim</author><text>Making an arrest is not risk free for a cop, the career lowlifes who have been arrested dozens of times aren’t afraid of anything (including incarceration), and burnout affects even tech workers, of course it affects cops who want to make arrests to get people in jail, and can’t find the motivation when it’s to “create a paper trail.”</text></comment>