Ahoy, matey: utter social decay astern!
In the latest sign public safety has completely broken down in San Francisco and Oakland, pirates — yes, you read that right — are now terrorizing and plundering the cities’ coastline.
Boats are being cut adrift, stolen outright or ransacked and sunk.
Owners are defending themselves, including with guns.
A community center running a sailing school for kids has had four of its boats taken.
The response from the Alameda County cops?
Nothing we can do. But don’t confront the perpetrators.
Oh, plus a favorite chestnut from police brass in lefty cities: “Crime is both the perception of crime and the actual presence of crime.”
That lame attempt at gaslighting comes courtesy of Alameda PD chief Nishant Joshi.
Nobody’s fooled, of course.
Residents see — reasonably enough — a likely link between the massive homeless encampments of Oakland’s Union Point Park and the rising maritime crime.
Especially since a suspicious number of small craft have been spotted at anchor near the encampments.
Hmmmm. Turns out illegal, semi-permanent tent cities where drug use and violence run rampant actually have bad consequences. Who’d have guessed?
It’s ugly, but not shocking, to see that the disorder amplified by San Francisco and Oakland’s woke policies has spread from land to sea.
Murders were up in San Francisco more than 36% in 2022 over 2019; for Oakland that figure was a 60% increase. Burglaries have trended massively upward there as well for all of the past three years, and2023 looks set to keep that trend going.
Retailers like Whole Foods are fleeing ‘Frisco. Businesses staged a strike for public safety in Oakland.
That’s not “perception.”
Yet Joshi’s mostly false words do contain an important truth.
Perception does play a huge role in public safety.
I.e., if crooks see that there are no consequences for their actions, they grow ever bolder and more dangerous.
If Joshi and the rest of California’s progressive overclass refuse to admit that, Mad-Max style piracy will be only the beginning.
