Savannah Hulsey Pointer, FISM News
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San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D) backed away from her previous opinion about defunding the police earlier this week, calling for “aggressive policing” in the face of skyrocketing crime in her city.
The Daily Wire reported Tuesday that the mayor had reversed course on the progressive policies that she backed in the summer of last year.
“It’s time that the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end,” Breed said, keeping a stern tone. “And it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement, more aggressive with the changes in our policies, and less tolerant of all the bulls**t that has destroyed our city, we are going to turn this around.”
Breed pointed out that in a city with a population of less than a million and a $12 billion government budget, residents should reasonably expect that their civic leaders have the funds necessary to “make a difference.”
“And now the priorities we need to make must be to protect them, must be to turn things around in their neighborhoods,” Breed went on. “When you are in a room full of people, I would say probably anywhere between 90-95% of folks could raise their hand and say that either their car has been broken into or they’ve been a victim in some capacity or another. That is not okay. That is not acceptable.”
This reversal is in opposition to what the mayor said just last summer about the role of policing in her city. Breed said in a July 31, 2020, statement, that she wanted to divert over $100 million from the San Francisco Police Department to social justice programs when the nation was at the height of the turmoil over the death of George Floyd:
“The Mayor’s proposed budget acknowledges the structural inequities impacting the city’s African American community, resulting from generations of disinvestment,” last year’s statement from the San Francisco mayor’s office said. “The proposed budget reinvests $120 million in funds over two years, predominately from the City’s law enforcement departments, towards efforts to repair the legacy of racially disparate policies on health, housing, and economic outcomes for African Americans.
“Mayor Breed’s budget is informed by that process and recognizes that the African American community must continue to be involved in determining the specific allocations of the funding. Therefore, the Human Rights Commission will continue leading a community process to determine how the $120 million will be allocated.”
San Francisco isn’t alone, however. The Washington Free Beacon reported just days ago that 12 Democrat-run cities hit an all-time high in yearly homicide rates this year as of early this month.
Former law enforcement officers have pointed to the sinking number of police officers as the heart of the problem, saying that a decline in arrests, as well as the coronavirus pandemic, also contribute. The Beacon reported that law enforcement retirements rose 45 percent from 2020 to 2021 and the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that arrests in 2020 were at their lowest level in 25 years.
“Nobody’s getting arrested anymore,” Robert Boyce, a retired chief of detectives for the NYPD, told ABC News. “People are getting picked up for gun possession and they’re just let out over and over again.”
The 12 cities that saw record-high homicides according to the Beacon are Philadelphia; Rochester, N.Y.; Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis; Louisville, Ky.; St. Paul, Minn.; Portland, Ore.; Tucson, Ariz.; Toledo, Ohio; Baton Rouge, La.; Austin, Texas; and Albuquerque, N.M.