San Francisco recorded a 753 percent rise in car burglaries compared to May 2020

Ah. Classic lying with data. Cherry pick an outlier and imply a general pattern. This is absolutely shameful journalism.<p>* 2020 was clearly a minimum outlier because of the pandemic.<p>* Citywide, May is down 10% from 2019.<p>* Central District, is up from both 2019 and 2020.<p>* This is a single month. Why not include April and June (months during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021).<p>* Why has the author not also included the other districts? Is it because they paint a different story? That they&#x27;re also down?<p>The author clearly decided on a narrative, then cherry picked only the data that supported the narrative.

The title as written is clickbait, and false. Only the central district saw that increase, not “San Francisco,” and it was because there was a sharp drop from 2019 due to lockdown.<p>Citywide car burglaries are actually down even from the much lower 2020 numbers despite easing of restrictions. From the article:<p><i>“Citywide, however, the number of thefts from cars remains lower compared with last year, when shelter-in-place restrictions pushed car break-ins to record lows.”</i>

SF has sadly experienced a pretty meteoric rise in crime but one of the problems is the DA&#x27;s office is underreporting so the actual number is much higher.<p>A big part of the rise is California&#x27;s Prop47, it passed and basically made any crime that cost less than $950 impossible to prosecute. Then SF&#x27;s DA has also refused to prosecute a variety of other crimes that were previously prosecuted leading to SF becoming a hotspot. The joke is that &quot;crime is legal in SF&quot;, and sadly thats basically true.<p>I&#x27;m an SF native and I&#x27;ve never seen it this bad, its really awful.

I lived in SF for 15 years. The worst area was near the tenderloin. The strangest day was street sweeping day. All the cars would be moved by 7am so you had a clear view down bush street. You could look down bush street and see 3-4 piles of glass on the ground from the previous night. Without street sweeping you would see just a few people crying by their hole in the window.<p>Smash and grabs are truly the perfect crime in SF. The odds of finding a laptop in the trunk are quite high due to the techies. I, like most residents, cannot hear a car alarm anymore - at this point they help me sleep. It is impossible to get caught - even if you were - the odds of the DA prosecuting you are low. In someways I agree: what is the point of processing a person with a misdemeanor and letting them out in 2 hours without followup.<p>Ironically, without smash and grabs things would be much worse. I would fear criminals would start hitting apartments. My apartment neighbor was violently assaulted and had her apartment ransacked (for a LAPTOP!). Every office I worked in SF was robbed at least once - no one was ever caught despite clear video. Thankfully, the DA <i>does</i> care about home invasions [I had detective interviews]. So my unpopular opinion is: if they are going to let the city decay into a crime ridden dystopia - leave smash and grabs alone. Let them break into cars. Insurance will cover the window - you can buy a new macbook pro. The next step of home invasions is much more terrifying. AND! With each smash and grab the victim will start voting correctly.

<i>&quot;They are up only 75% compared to 2019.&quot;</i><p>Here lies buried: The lede.

A quote from the article: “It was pretty shocking,” she said, “because I don’t think of high crime in San Francisco, especially in a touristy area.”<p>Every touristy part of SF -- Twin Peeks, Lands End, Hawk Hill, and on and on -- has signs warning that it&#x27;s a &quot;High Crime Area.&quot; These signs have existed forever. You&#x27;d have to be pretty ignorant of your surroundings to not know this fact.

Seattle also has this problem:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kiro7.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;local&#x2F;caught-camera-seattle-store-burglarized-12-times-18-months&#x2F;MORGDYO2UFGBVAVJXZ2LN3E3DY&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kiro7.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;local&#x2F;caught-camera-seattle-store...</a><p>and a few months back, Nordstrom had their store windows smashed out, windows that cost $50,000 each.<p>What we&#x27;ll see is a slow evolution of street level shops into fortresses with smaller windows with bars over them. Perhaps also locked doors with a gatekeeper who decides who gets in and who doesn&#x27;t.

Even if the car burglaries are down, it doesn&#x27;t do anything to alleviate the experience of people who have had their car broken into.<p>There&#x27;s clearly a problem.<p>Not sure how you solve it though.