All San Francisco Target locations reducing operating hours due to recent spike in crime

[brooklynite]

KGO

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Target says it's closing all five of its San Francisco stores early because of crime specifically thefts and shoplifting.

All the stores in the city are now operating from 9 a.m. until just 6 p.m.

The company says that for more than a month their stores have experienced an alarming rise in theft and security incidents.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed says cutting hours is not the answer.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. "San Francisco Mayor London Breed says cutting hours is not the answer."

And.......?

[ProfessorGAC]

2. Something About Holding Perps Accountable

Seems like an empty solution put forth by Breed.
I'd think if had a solid solution, the KGO story would have quoted it.

[Thomas Hurt]

3. Whatever governing body decided to lower the dollar value on felony theft...

should probably reassess that move as this looks like a failed policy change.

[subterranean]

4. California voters did that by passing Proposition 47 in 2014.

Prop. 47 raised the threshold for felony theft to $950. But in many states, the amount is even higher than that. In Texas, for example, the stolen property has to be worth at least $2500 to be charged with a felony. So I think it's unclear how much this has contributed to the recent spike in property crime in SF and some other cities.

[MichMan]

5. How aggressively are they prosecuting those who steal over $950?

[clementine613]

6. Once again, Rethug thieves and looters are preventing the rest of us from having nice things.

[gldstwmn]

7. Here's some interesting information along with a lot of links:

Opinion | The bogus backlash against progressive prosecutors - The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/14/bogus-backlash-against-progressive-prosecutors/?outputType=comment&no_nav=true

Boudin is a former public defender who was elected in 2019 as part of a surge of reformist prosecutors into DA’s offices in recent years. He’s also among the more radical of the crop. Boudin’s parents were part of the Weather Underground (his father is still in prison for a fatal armored truck robbery in 1981), and he comes from a long lineage of leftist activism. Boudin himself served as an interpreter in the presidential palace of former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez.

Any wave inevitably produces backlash, and the recent success of progressive prosecutors is no exception. Law-and-order groups such as the Heritage Foundation, which at times have fashionably flirted with criminal justice reform, now run projects firmly opposed to prosecutorial reform around the country.

Boudin himself has already been targeted by a recall campaign, funded by several Silicon Valley financiers. His critics claim crime has soared since he took office, and they blame Boudin’s policies such as abolishing cash bail, compassionate release during the covid-19 pandemic and his refusal to seek sentencing enhancements.


Yet the case against Boudin’s record plays out a bit like Lim’s story: It’s compelling at first blush, but it ultimately collapses with some scrutiny. It’s true, for example, that San Francisco saw a considerable increase in car thefts and home burglaries last year. But violent crime in the city was down in 2020. Overall crime was down 25 percent from 2019. And all major categories of crime remained well below their five-year average. Murders did increase in 2020, but only by 14 percent (from 41 to 47) from a 56-year low in 2019. By comparison, murders nationwide were up about 25 percent in 2020. So far in 2021, murders in San Francisco are down 20 percent from last year.

Another criticism of Boudin is that his office failed to bring enough cases to trial last year. But the pandemic closed courtrooms across the country, including in San Francisco. Most jurisdictions in the United States saw only a fraction of the trials they typically hold each year. Boudin’s charging rates for both violent and property crimes are similar to that of his predecessor, according to Mission Local. And as Boudin points out, San Francisco police made arrests in only about 10 percent of burglaries last year. A DA can’t file charges if the police don’t make arrests.

Ultimately, the case against Boudin rests on two assumptions: that crime in the city has exploded and that Boudin isn’t charging people at the rate his predecessors did. And neither of those assumptions is true. There’s also little evidence that progressive policies such as ending cash bail or refusing to charge low-level offenses have anything to do with the spike in violence nationwide. The 2020 figures are expected to show a homicide surge coast to coast, in rural areas and urban areas, in jurisdictions with both reform-minded radicals and law-and-order stalwarts in the DA’s chair.

[gldstwmn]

8. The truth about Chesa Boudin and San Francisco crime

https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Chesa-Boudin-San-Francisco-crime-statistics-recall-16268178.php

In his defense of Boudin, Balko writes that the notion that crime exploded under Boudin is largely untrue. That much is generally fair, according to an SFGATE data analysis of figures from the San Francisco Police Department. Homicides have remained mostly flat under Boudin (though there was a noticeable uptick in the back half of 2020), and violent crime actually decreased in 2020, Boudin's first year in office.
Snip

Boudin's critics have blamed the increase on his policies, which include the elimination of cash bail and the reduction of pretrial incarceration, the latter of which his opponents refer to as "catch and release." Boudin has argued that the aforementioned surge is attributable to economic conditions brought on by the pandemic, while also blaming San Francisco police for only solving 10% of reported crimes.

"There is no way we are going to lock up our way out of a problem when police are only clearing 10% of reported crimes," he said.
Snip
While the burglary rate increased over its baseline, San Francisco's total crime rate was down in 2020, as was the case in most cities. The dip in total incident reports is largely attributable to the early months of the pandemic bringing life to a near standstill. However, some have argued that using homicide rates is the best way to measure general crime levels in a city, since homicides are the least likely to go unreported.

And as it turns out, San Francisco's homicide increase in 2020 was nowhere near as pronounced as the increases in other cities that are also frequent subjects of rising crime stories such as Minneapolis, Portland and Seattle.

Beyond crime rates, defenders of Boudin — including Balko — often point to the fact that the district attorney has filed charges at a rate similar to his predecessor George Gascón. That much is true, as Boudin and Gascón both filed charges in 45-55% of cases, while "taking action" — which the DA's office defines as additional measures beyond prosecution of a suspect including the revocation of parole or probation — occurs in 60-68% percent of cases.