
Only 13 arrests in 7 years of SF online auto break-in reports, DA says - kevinyen
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Only-13-arrests-in-7-years-of-SF-online-auto-12526601.php
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istorical
When I interned in San Francisco in 2012, living on Harrison St between 3rd
and 4th streets, the auto break-ins were so bad and happened so regularly that
every single Friday and Saturday night if I passed someone getting out of
their car as they parked on my street, I'd slow down and try to tell them that
every single car on our street would have it's windows broken and anything in
sight stolen by the time they got back from the club at 2 or 3. And every
Sunday and Monday morning I'd see the piles of broken glass on the street
where each car had been parked. I think it would have been better if that
broken glass hadn't been swept away, so that people parking there the next
week might have noticed and decided to park elsewhere. And multiple times I
saw groups of people crying outside of their car after returning to find their
purses and laptops stolen, I saw multiple people have their work and lives
thrown into chaos. Thesis papers lost or possessions they couldn't afford to
replace gone. And yet I never saw a single police officer on my street, ever.

I often thought about how fun it would be to get a paintball gun with a scope
and camp out on a roof some night, knowing that there'd be someone who I could
reap some karma with.

Oh and we also had a homeless guy who literally slept on our buildings
doorstep. So there were mornings where we literally had to step _over_ him to
get outside.

May have been a factor in my decision to not move there after graduating.

Now I live in NYC where I can live in a working class neighborhood with
project buildings scattered all around Brooklyn, and yet I don't ever notice
any auto break-ins. And you see NYPD everywhere.

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ggg9990
This all stems from the residents themselves. They vote against policing and
for people who basically take the view that we should feel bad for the
criminals because they have turned to a life of crime. There’s only a Rudy
Giuliani between here and there but SF will never elect him or her.

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dmitrygr
My car was broken into in SF near a school. The school had a camera pointing
at it, and when I asked they said they'll happily share the footage with
police.

What did police do? Told me "it was probably a homeless person and the
homeless have it bad enough" so they'll do nothing!

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acct1771
The homeless in California have it so awful...they can sleep on the fuckin
beach almost every night. Sounds better than what I've got cooking.

~~~
dang
Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News? We're
trying for better here.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html)

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tomohawk
If professionals are committing 80% of the crimes, then investigating a few
would make a big dent.

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masonic
SFPD can investigate all they want; getting the D.A. to actually prosecute is
another story.

~~~
Gibbon1
SFPD and the DA just do not care about car break ins. That despite that auto
break ins are the #1 crime issue that people in the city care about.

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Bitcoin_McPonzi
The majority of the people in San Francisco just don't see auto break-ins as a
priority. In fact, they sympathize with the people who break into cars, as
they seem them as an underclass that is forced to do this to survive.

~~~
lallysingh
You gotta make that $3,000 rent somehow

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brazzledazzle
How hard would it be to plant a car with a camera and mic in it with police in
an unmarked van a couple blocks away? It almost seems like they’re taking
advantage of a lack of police effort in this area.

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mullen
Not only put a plant car out there, but put 20 of them out there with SMS
notifications in them when the windows get broken.

Wire camera's all over the thing and call the cops when the window gets
broken.

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closeparen
Identifying the offenders doesn’t matter if you aren’t willing to punish them.
The voters of SF aren’t. A DA who correctly represents the people of SF
doesn’t go after indigent defendants for minor property crime. A police chief
or mayor who shares his constituents’ values doesn’t spend resources on
arresting them.

~~~
acct1771
Hundreds of dollars of damage and possibly thousands of dollars in theft is
now minor property crime.

Top shelf.

~~~
closeparen
Stealing items worth under $950 is petty theft in California.

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doug1001
the number of SWAT unit deploys probably exceeds this number by some absurd
ratio

