It’s absolutely outrageous. Obviously, it cannot continue. But the fact is that there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from I don’t know where.
San Francisco Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
Bill de Blasio (nut job) and Jen Psaki (serial obfuscater) might be the only Democrats not worried about being called “soft on crime” in November 2022. It was just a week ago when twenty CEOs from big box retailers wrote Congress, asking for federal aid to stop rampant looting during business hours. The message is clear: business elites are now more frightened of profit-minded investors than woke-minded protestors. Thus, Nancy Pelosi had no choice but to talk the talk.
Pelosi won’t admit the “attitude of lawlessness” sprung from her party’s ideas about social justice, but she knows Republicans will cite FBI crime data showing Detroit, Baltimore, Memphis and St. Louis are still America’s four most dangerous cities. It is no secret Democrat mayors, councils, and district attorneys run those cities – plus New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Francisco, where rising crime has voters (of every race) worried.
San Francisco exemplifies how bad government in the pursuit of “social justice” has put Democrats in the hot seat. Chesa Boudin, the district attorney, faces a recall election in June. London Breed, the mayor, now tells voters she is outraged by “the bullsh*t that has destroyed our city.” Pelosi, the member of Congress, now agrees the video evidence on TV is “absolutely outrageous.” They have only themselves to blame, after their progressive policies invited more crime and shuttered businesses.
Right now, the SFPD dashboard shows assault up 9.4%, homicide up 15.2%, and larceny theft up 18.3% over last year. But, it’s smash-and-grab looting and public drug use that has CEOs and shoppers fed up with Pelosi’s party, who have no choice but to talk the talk to distract voters from past comments and failed policies.
Start with the district attorney, who freed 25% of local-jail inmates and pressured prosecutors to “lighten up” on crime, resulting in 16% fewer theft arrests and 23% fewer petty-theft arrests from two years ago. When local businesses complained of public drug-dealing, Boudin defended street-level drug dealers by describing them as “victims of human trafficking.” Conservatives blame today’s smash-and-grab sprees on his raising the felony-crime threshold and ending cash-bail demands.
Don’t excuse the now-tough mayor, who responded to GOP support for enforcing US immigration laws by promising voters she’d “go to jail to protect sanctuary city policies.” After pressure from Black Lives Matter, she cut $120 million from police budgets, despite police warnings of less “ability to respond to emergencies.” When citizen groups opposed Boudin’s inmate releases, Breed crowed about “giving people second chances.” Perhaps her charity begins at her home.
Breed’s sister is dead from illegal drug overdose and her brother is in jail for armed robbery. Boudin’s dad, David Gilbert, was a violent radical (SDS) in the 60s, who’d been in prison since the early 80s for robbery and triple homicide – until his son successfully lobbied Andrew Cuomo to commute the sentence (before the disgraced New York governor left office). When “giving people second chances” means using one’s office to help kith and kin, it should be an election issue.
Nobody expects a 2022 GOP sweep in San Francisco, where many voters don’t even know about Boudin’s dad. Just don’t dismiss the car-jackers, smash-and-grab mobs, and drug deals going down on city streets, because voters see that aired on local TV stations. The best hope for San Franciscans is they have the next Eric Adams (NYC’s new mayor) waiting in the wings.
As I watch Democrats like Breed and Pelosi tough-talking on camera, I recall the blunt observation of Frank Rizzo, the Democrat mayor of Philadelphia who became a Republican in 1986: “A liberal is a conservative who hasn’t been mugged yet.” That is ha-ha funny, but it cuts to how everyday people react to photos and videos of mob violence. It’s folly to believe San Franciscans can be placated by talk the talk pols. It’s the same in many other big US cities.
The politics have changed. Ipsos finds 69% of all Americans now “trust the police to promote justice and equal treatment for people of all races” – up from 56% in 2020. YouGov finds 86% of Americans aged 18-29 now view crime as a major issue, only 27% approve of Biden, and a whopping 63% say they are not Democrats – a big change from November 2020. This begs the question: why the big shift?
Hard to say for sure, but the hunch here is that most 18-29-year-old Americans live in big cities or college towns, where they see rampant lawlessness and Liberals still waging the Trump Resistance – after Biden promised “competence” and “normalcy.” I’m pretty sure hell hath no fury like debs stepping over hobos and dudes denied Happy Hour in crowded singles bars.
You can bet law and order will be on the ballot in 2022, because Ipsos reports most Republicans (63%) want law and order even if it limits peaceful protests, compared to 38% of Democrats. That difference of opinion will be argued in mid-term debates. The guess here is law-and-order Republicans prevail…by holding up San Francisco as an example of soft-on-crime Democrats.