San Francisco’s Democrat Mayor London Breed called the alarming crime in her city, "noise" in a public address last week.
During her "State of the City" speech on March 9, Breed acknowledged the progressive city had been plagued by rampant vandalism, car and home break-ins, drug use and gun violence.
"Too many people across the city, don’t feel safe," Breed admitted. Yet, she went on to downplay crime as "noise" from "right wing media" outlets.
"You know, there’s a lot of noise about what’s happening in our city. You see it in the headlines, often in the right-wing media. They love to talk about San Francisco, don't they? You see it on social media. You see one video take off as if it's telling the whole truth about who we are. I know it’s challenging with all that noise to really understand what’s happening," the mayor said.
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She continued,. "It's easy to fixate on the problems and to be clear, I'm definitely focused on the problems, but today I really want to talk about what's possible. Hope for a better future for our city."
Breed argued the solution to crime was programs for housing, mental health, education, and job training. She also advocated for San Francisco to be a leader for the country in providing "alternatives" in solving crime.
Before suggesting media reports and viral videos showing shocking criminal activity were just a right-wing narrative, the Democrat blamed the crime on poverty and "systemic racism."
"The root causes of crime are driven by poverty," Breed said. "By decades of disinvestment, by systemic racism."
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Many critics blamed San Francisco's brazen looting and shoplifting problems on a law passed by voters in 2014. Proposition 47 downgraded property thefts up to $950 from a felony to a misdemeanor. The law also reclassified personal illegal drug use as a misdemeanor.
But both Republicans and Democrats are taking measures to change that.
Republican lawmakers in the state have proposed a solution, Assembly Bill 1599, which would repeal Prop 47 and "make crime illegal again," state Assemblyman Kevin Kiley told Fox.
Meanwhile, Democrat Assemblyman Rudy Salas proposed his own bill, AB 1603, in January. That bill would put make petty thefts up to $400 a misdemeanor instead of $950.