You say we have “kicked this can down the road for decades” as if billions and billions haven’t been poured into social services and charities and social justice initiatives of various types. I’ve no idea if you’re oblivious or disingenuous, but the way you have characterized the problem is not congruent with the reality I’ve witnessed over those same decades.

This idea that social services (community centers, at-risk youth outreach programs, etc) can do the work instead of police is tempting, but it's very unlikely.

Yes, that doesn't mean they are unnecessary. (Quite the opposite, as police also does too much. And similarly the prison system is also so laughably underfunded compared to its size that it almost makes things worse.)

But. And that's the real issue that many people just don't want to see, it's still chronically underfunded (and mismanaged, but getting better management is not going to be cheap).

Of those billions, have they been spent wisely? Spending feel-good dollars that are politically appealing and spending those same billions on bitter medicine (read: shelters that nobody wants to build, making more public toilets, etc.) that will not get you reelected are two very different things. Anyone can piss away a few billion and give themselves a gold star and a press conference for doing it.

I think the idea is that those are expensive but ineffectual feel good measures that constitute kicking the can.

The problems have done nothing but grow. Yes, there have been services. No, there haven't been solutions. That is kicking the can down the road, despite how well-meaing people may be.

> volunteering at a soup kitchen

Great on you if you are... but doesn't exactly solve issues of people being attacked with metal pipes, no?

My point is simply that talk is cheap – and this problem exists because that's all anyone does about it.

Knowing the issues is half the problem.

Witness the people of SF straight up ignoring knifed up Bob (the CEO of cash app) as he begs for help.

https://www.usasupreme.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/cahs-a...

https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/23040707552...

Point of action: if you see a knifed up man bleeding out, at least stop and call 911 rather than let him spend his last dying moment desperately trying to get someone, anyone's attention.

I think the problem is that folks in SF have become too desensitized to crazy things like this.

It’s a special sort of crazy in the U.S. where on the right, you’ve got folks who seem okay not setting hard boundaries on not-okay levels of violence because it conflicts with their political ideology, and… on the left you also have folks not setting hard boundaries on not-okay levels of crime and violence because doing so would conflict with their narrative of things.

I worked in a soup kitchen as a teen. This ain’t a soup kitchen problem.

peer comment has it backwards, sf has half the population of miami

The Cash App guy moved to Miami from SF.

In 2022, Miami recorded 47 murders, and SF recorded 55 murders.

Yet SF has twice the population of Miami.

So why is every murder in SF hyped up as if the city is hopelessly broken, while you never hear about murders in Miami?

Even though Miami's murder rate is much higher?

The easy assumption is that in cities like Miami, LA, Chicago, St. Louis, and (previously) NYC the violence was confined to particular pockets of the city e.g. those rife with gang violence. It was easy for ordinary people to avoid by staying out of those areas.

In cities like SF and Seattle there is widespread and visible chaos and disorder, even in the large shopping districts and tourist areas. This is perpetuated by their residents' indifference and acceptance of utter lawlessness as normal.

You could likely leave your car parked on the street during a night out in the aforementioned "murderous" cities and not worry.

In SF and Seattle there is a very good chance you will have your windows broken.

Because SF is dense and not particularly segregated (as far as US cities go) so wealthy white people are more likely to witness first hand or be victimized than in in many other places.

Are those links working for anyone else?

links are fixed above. My bad!

The description of the video is horrific. I can't bring myself to watch. I got one of these for the car and one for my backpack in case https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KQS2NGK?th=1

I was 2 h and one block away in spacetime. Wish I'd been there and I hope if a chance arises I will be able to help. Many times strangers have stopped to help me when I was injured. It is sad none like that crossed paths with this poor man.

Tough video.

Like arrest the 3 people that kicked his head in and stick them in jail for a while? I don’t think there’s a lot of ambiguity here.

I think kicking of the head should be treated as attempted murder. It’s insane that people are even slightly ok with that. Same with throwing a brick.

> but unless you're doing something about it

Explaining that SF is not safe is actually doing something. Because believe it or not, many people still think this violence and crime is no big deal.

Doing something like realizing this is unacceptable and leaving the city?

Bad take. NOT being able to speak about this publicly is precisely what got us here in the first place. We NEED to start expressing that we’re not okay with this before anything will change.

Your comment reeks of “stop whining, I didn’t even hit you that hard”.

Are we moving from denial to bargaining now?

How long until acceptance of what was once one of the most beautiful cities on earth becoming a cyberpunk opium den? You people are doing your city such a disservice. Fix it sooner, not later.

Complaining about people who are saying its broken is the opposite of fixing it.