The effects of San Francisco ignoring crime under District Attorney Chesa Boudin are still being felt throughout the city. It is minorities who feel those effects most acutely.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “Some residents still feel afraid to walk home alone or lock their bikes downtown.” A poll commissioned by the Chronicle found that 54% of black residents had something stolen from them over the past five years, as had 55% of mixed-race residents. That is higher than Hispanics (50%), Asians (43%), and white residents (43%).
The poll also found that 36% of Hispanics and 36% of mixed-race residents had been threatened or physically attacked over the last five years — the highest of any racial group. Asian residents, who have been dealing with an escalation of high-profile anti-Asian attacks in the city, felt the most pessimistic about the city’s future, with 44% believing it will get worse and just 14% believing it will improve.
The poll also found that 58% of residents gave the police excellent, good, or fair grades for “making San Francisco a better place to live and work during the last three years.” That includes 63% of Asians, 58% of black residents, and 54% of Hispanics. Naturally, the outlet asked Tinisch Hollins, the executive director of a criminal justice reform organization, what this means.
“Hollins views the poll data as evidence that the traditional legal system has failed to create a safe environment, and that San Francisco should invest in alternatives, such as substance abuse treatment or civilian responders for low-level crimes,” Chronicle reporter Rachel Swan wrote. “The city was among many that tried a series of reforms after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, though it seemed to retreat two years later, most notably with the recall of progressive district attorney Chesa Boudin.”
Ah yes — the big takeaway from these results is that residents need the city to be softer on crime. This is what happens when the journalistic class kowtows to activists who, as the poll shows, are completely out of touch with opinion in the city.
The residents, who overwhelmingly voted to throw Boudin to the curb in June, want exactly the opposite of what Hollins wants. Why? Because a large plurality of them have experienced thefts or assaults in the last few years.
San Francisco residents rejected the opinions of people like Hollins, who should not be quoted in newspapers or listened to because their ideas have failed. Boudin’s soft-on-crime policies helped crime to run out of control in the city. San Franciscans — especially the nonwhite ones — have had to live on the edge, knowing that criminals were emboldened to do whatever they wanted, knowing that Boudin would put them right back on the street as quickly as he could to victimize still more people.
Criminal justice reform activists may not care, but crime almost always hurts minorities the most. That is true in San Francisco, as the Chronicle’s poll showed. As it turns out, residents want crime to be prevented and criminals sent to jail — not coddled and emboldened the way idiot activists want.
