Just saw this posted by a lady on another site.. Can't say I'm surprised.

February 22 at 1:07 AM

This afternoon I was walking down Mission St taking a work call when a guy in his 20's ran up from behind me and robbed me.

I struggled with him as he ripped my phone out of my hand. I started screaming immediately, asking for help. It was broad daylight and a lot of people were nearby. No one did anything.

As he ran off he bumped into a 40yr old woman, an immigrant from India, she was in his way so he punched her IN THE FACE.

A minute after we lost him a cop appeared who took our report. He was like, "That is horrible but very common. You're lucky he didn't pull out a knife or gun when you fought back. You shouldn't struggle with a guy like that. A phone isn't worth it. He'd shoot you in a second."

While we stood there talking, the cop told us:

• Phones / laptops that get stolen in SF are almost immediately sold around 7th & Market in the Tenderloin for about $100 each (about 10mins later I pulled up Find My Phone to see it was in that exact area)
• The police are well aware of the 2 groups that strip the phones and then ship them overseas to be resold

My natural next question was, "If you guys know that then WHY DON'T YOU GO BUST THEM?"

He said the police don't actually go after the groups for political reasons. This is a summary of his explanation:

• The police have been told the city doesn't want to round up and prosecute the people involved because it'd be terrible political and social optics for SF
• The 2 groups are from Latin America and involve a lot of undocumented immigrants, and since we're a sanctuary city there is zero political will to go do raids in those communities because of how it'd be perceived, so, they just look the other way
• There were cameras everywhere so the guy's face will likely be visibly seen; if so, he can be caught (as he is likely to already be known to police as a thief) but not much will happen to him -- "in SF we give non-violent robberies a slap on the wrist because the guys are usually poor, homeless and/or drug addicts"

I was like WHAT THE WHAT?! ?

He said, "Trust me. I don't like it either but it's just way it is in SF right now."

sigh

I'm all for caring for people. But I am also for living in a civil society.

I do not believe you have to give up safety to honor human dignity.

Political and social optics be damned.