Self-driving taxis are ferrying passengers across San Francisco and Phoenix, and they could be coming to a street near you very soon.

The two leading robotaxi companies, GM’s Cruise and Alphabet’s Waymo, are expanding commercial services to cities across the country, including Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City. They’re scaling up fast, and a third company, Amazon’s Zoox, is playing catch-up.

On August 10, the California Public Utilities Commission handed Cruise and Waymo a victory by allowing them to operate across San Francisco at all hours and charge fares. During a six-and-a-half-hour hearing, hundreds of residents testified for and against the robotaxis. Supporters claimed they were safer and more reliable than human-driven vehicles, and disabled people said they were more accessible, especially for service animals. Opponents, including transit and fire officials, argued that the taxis had repeatedly gotten in the way of emergency responders and had become a nuisance.

The very next day, Cruise cars snarled traffic in the city’s North Beach neighborhood after the Outside Lands Music Festival being held in the western part of the city caused wireless service problems and the cars lost contact with their central office. The traffic meltdown was proof to many that the cars were not ready for a larger rollout.

Then, on Wednesday, August 16 — less than a week after California regulators lifted restrictions on Cruise and Waymo — San Francisco officials asked for that approval to be halted, arguing the city “will suffer serious harm” with the services expanded to daytime hours.

Liz Lindqwister, a data journalist at the nonprofit news startup the San Francisco Standard, has been documenting the bumpy expansion of robotaxis — while using them herself to commute around town.

“People like to say that San Francisco is at the heart of the robotaxi revolution. And they’re practically everywhere in the city now. You can see them crawling on every single street,” Lindqwister said.

To learn more about riding in cars with robots, Today, Explained host Sean Rameswaram spoke to Lindqwister on Vox’s daily news explainer podcast. Read on for a partial transcript of the conversation, edited and condensed for length and clarity, and listen to the full conversation wherever you find podcasts.

This isn’t an experiment. This is the future. This is reality.

It’s very real. And it’s happening right in my backyard. You’ll see them every single day when you’re going to work. I’ve taken them out to go get drinks with friends and stuff, and they’ve become about as ubiquitous as an Uber or a Lyft.

I did not know it was so ubiquitous that people were just taking them out to go get drinks with their friends on a Friday night or whatever. What was the experience like?

It’s very surreal because in a lot of ways the experience of riding in a robotaxi is just like an Uber. It’s a normal car. When you’re in a Waymo, it’ll be a Jaguar …

A Jaguar robot car?!

Yeah, it’s very bougie. It feels very fancy and luxurious. But you’ll just be riding through town, and it just doesn’t have a driver. You’ll see the wheel moving and spinning and the pedals going, but there won’t be any driver up front.

Do you tip the robot taxi?

I have never tipped a robot taxi. Maybe that makes me a stingy rider, but I don’t really feel the need to tip the technology.

Does it ask you to tip the robot driver?

No, it doesn’t. And in the case of Waymo, it wasn’t able to even charge me for rides up until literally Thursday of last week. Basically, this robotaxi revolution really got kicked into high gear last Thursday because of this big state vote by the California Public Utilities Commission.

There were dozens of people who lined up outside of the meeting on Thursday, and they gave six hours of public comment to say how much they really dislike these cars or how much they love them. Waymo and Cruise, they had a pretty big contingent there and support. Mothers Against Drunk Driving like to support Cruise because they like to plug that these robotaxis are safer than the average driver.

On the flip side, there’s just a whole slew of people that have seen how they’ve really disrupted life in San Francisco. There’s been a lot of pushback from city officials, from the fire department, and from local activists who really don’t want to see more cars on the street. But it still passed. They basically granted these robotaxis the ability to expand, unlimited, through all parts of the city and drive all hours of the day and charge money for it, basically making them like taxis.

So these rides were free for a time. How much are they now that they’re not free?

It depends on the company, because until now, Cruise was actually able to charge for its rides. The confusing part about this is that different companies had different rules. But basically Waymo hasn’t released its pricing model. They say that there’s going to be a base fee, and that there’s going to be cost per mile, cost per time. And the same thing with Cruise, except Cruise has been more public about their base fee of $5 and the additional costs on top of it.

How is this changing the experience of calling a cab? Are people doing different things in the car now that they’re alone?

In some of my reporting, we found that people are starting to do debaucherous things or unseemly things in the car. We found a handful of people who had either had sex or hooked up in the back of a robotaxi because there’s just no driver to tell you you can’t do that. And I’d imagine the same goes for alcohol or drugs. The companies obviously don’t plug this as something that you should do in their vehicles.

Why not?! Is sex illegal in San Francisco?

Definitely not in robotaxis, according to some of our more adventurous readers.

Well, have there been any problems yet with these robocars?

That’s an understatement, honestly. It’s pretty crazy. These cars will just get caught. Let’s say there are 10 fire trucks coming down to stop a blaze in San Francisco. The Cruise cars don’t know what to do. They’ll just brick up on the street and not move. The issue with that is that they’ll be blocking traffic. They’ll be blocking the emergency vehicles.

So they crumble under pressure.

They definitely crumble under pressure. And they were put to the test this Friday. San Francisco has this pretty famous music festival called Outside Lands. Tens of thousands of people attend. It’s a really big event for the city. And Cruise and Waymo were still operating around the park where the festival was held.

This was day one of the new world that we were living in in San Francisco.

Day one of the new world. And they had a meltdown. As many as a dozen stalled Cruise cars blocked the streets in a neighborhood in the north part of the city. The company said that it was because all of the people at Outside Lands disrupted the cellphone signal or the signal that the Cruise cars use to operate.

The robots blamed the people.

Yeah, the robots blamed the people. A lot of people said that the robotaxis just couldn’t handle the floods of people walking on the street. They’ll just stop. And it’s kind of funny to see because the cars kind of look clueless. And there’s no driver in them either. So you really can’t yell at them to move or honk at them either. I think something that people don’t talk enough about too, with Cruise, is that they’re such cute little cars, that it really, truly is comical when they mess up.

But of course, it’s all cute and fun until someone gets hurt. And hearing that these cars just have a meltdown when there’s emergency vehicles flying through a crowded street or when there’s lots of people around is concerning.

Yeah. Having driven in so many robotaxis at this point, it’s most interesting to see humans’ relationships to these robot cars and not necessarily the robot cars themselves. When I’m inside them, I’ll see people flipping me off or just glaring or yelling at me because they feel so strongly about it. They’re so frustrated with these dinky little robot cars.

They’re also coning the cars. It sounds funny, but it’s literally traffic cones that activists are placing on top of robotaxi sensors so that they can’t move. The city has even taken it into their own hands where, a firefighter in an emergency situation, they coned a Cruise car because they didn’t want it to keep moving into an emergency situation.

Even the firefighters are getting in on it. So it hasn’t been a totally smooth transition. But that’s sort of to be expected, I imagine.

Yeah. And I think the big question now, too, is where this is going to fit in in the broader transportation landscape of not just San Francisco, but the state and the country. We have Ubers and Lyfts that still exist. But I imagine a lot of those drivers are frustrated that there are all these self-driving cars that might take their positions.

And then, of course, there are transit problems with funding in San Francisco and the Bay Area. Our public transportation system is really struggling. So for another car option, private option, to show up like this, that gets a lot of folks really frustrated. Like, is this the right use of our time, of our priorities, of our funding? I don’t know.

Right. Is the answer more cars?

Yeah, And that’s a lot of the criticism, is that San Francisco’s a dense city. It’s a small city. Does it really need thousands more of these robotaxis?

It sounds like what you’re saying is that people ought to get used to the idea of being driven around by robots.

I think the CPUC vote basically said that. Whether or not San Franciscans like it, robotaxis are here to stay. And now they have unlimited access to the city and can charge money for it. And there are a lot of people excited about it. Waymo likes to say that they have a wait list of over 100,000 people. That’s a lot of people that are excited to drive in their cars.

Or it’s just 100,000 people who are really excited about having sex in a robot car.

I mean, you said it, not me!

At the end of the day, it’s definitely a novelty to try out one of these cars. My parents are going to come visit in a month, and that’ll be the first thing I do, is show them the future in a robotaxi.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on.
First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy, which makes it hard to plan ahead. Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription.
It’s important that we have several ways we make money. That’s why, even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek reader support.
If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

The post San Francisco’s self-driving taxi experiment with Google and GM is inflicting some chaos appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Elon Musk became CEO of Twitter in October and made drastic changes in a matter of months. He fired scores of employees, including top executives and the team responsible for monitoring the service for inappropriate and abusive content or accounts. Employees who stayed with the company had to meet crazy schedules and, in some cases, cater to Musk’s whims, such as his desire to give his own tweets more visibility.

Twitter has experienced frequent technical glitches in recent weeks and has become a breeding ground for fake accounts and bots. The platform is also increasingly becoming the home of trolling and hateful content and “no one cares,” an engineer at the company told the BBC.

“For someone inside, it’s like a building with all parts on fire,” an unidentified BBC Twitter worker said as part of an investigation released on Monday.

The employee revealed that the San Francisco-based social media company is in a state of chaos and many of the people responsible for creating and maintaining its security features, which curbed 60% of Twitter’s trolling, have been fired.

“From the outside the facade looks good, but I can see that nothing is working. All the plumbing is broken, all the faucets, everything,” the clerk said. Because Twitter is understaffed, employees from other teams are forced to do extra work that isn’t their responsibility.

“A completely new person, without the expertise, is doing what more than 20 people used to do,” the BBC official said. “That leaves room for a lot more risk, a lot more opportunity for things to go wrong.”

Even on the content security front, many features designed to protect users no longer work the way they did before Musk became the “chief chump” because nobody’s assigned to them.

Lisa Jennings Young was Twitter’s head of content design and responsible for rolling out security features that protected users from hateful content when she was fired after Musk’s acquisition. Her team members, who have all been fired since Musk’s takeover, had developed the “Nudge” feature, which warns users if their posts contain trigger words or hateful language.

“Overall 60% of users deleted or edited their reply when given the nudge a chance,” Jennings Young told the BBC. But now things are different.

“Right now there’s nobody around to work on it,” she said.

Amid the disorderly environment, the Twitter worker who said the company was “on fire” told the BBC that when Musk is in the office he always has two bodyguards with him like in a “Hollywood movie”. They accompany him everywhere – even to the toilet.

Twitter did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment. Musk and Twitter did not respond to the BBC’s investigation, but Musk tweeted a response to the original story.

The story goes on

More from Fortuna:

The BBC investigation is the latest to shed light on Twitter’s internal workings since Musk bought the platform for $44 billion last year. Employees have said that Twitter’s culture has taken a hit since the acquisition, as the office turned into a “ghost town” and internal communications were absent. They’ve also complained about long hours and the elimination of office perks as part of Musk’s efforts to make the social media company profitable.

Twitter’s revenue reportedly fell 35% in the fourth quarter, and on one day in January, the service had 500 fewer advertisers than on the same day last year.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

More from Fortuna:

The post Twitter engineer says layoffs created chaos and Elon Musk works within the workplace with 2 bodyguards appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Twitter has seen dramatic changes under the leadership of Elon Musk. Dimitrios Kambouris—The Met Museum/Vogue/Getty Images

Elon Musk became CEO of Twitter in October and made drastic changes in a matter of months. He fired scores of employees, including top executives and the team responsible for monitoring the service for inappropriate and abusive content or accounts. Employees who stayed with the company had to meet crazy schedules and, in some cases, cater to Musk’s whims, such as his desire to give his own tweets more exposure.

Twitter has experienced frequent technical glitches in recent weeks and has become a breeding ground for fake accounts and bots. The platform is also increasingly becoming the home of trolling and hateful content and “no one cares,” an engineer at the company told the BBC.

“For someone inside, it’s like a building with all parts on fire,” an unidentified BBC Twitter worker said as part of an investigation released on Monday.

The employee revealed that the San Francisco-based social media company is in a state of chaos and many of the people responsible for creating and maintaining its security features, which curbed 60% of Twitter’s trolling, have been fired.

“If you look at it from the outside, the facade looks good, but I can see that nothing is working. All the plumbing is broken, all the faucets, everything,” the clerk said. Because Twitter is understaffed, employees from other teams are forced to do extra work that isn’t their responsibility.

“A completely new person without the expertise is doing what used to be done by 20+ people,” the staffer told the BBC. “That leaves room for a lot more risk, a lot more opportunity for things to go wrong.”

Even on the content security front, many features designed to protect users no longer work the way they did before Musk became the “chief chump” because nobody’s assigned to them.

Lisa Jennings Young was Twitter’s head of content design and responsible for rolling out security features that protected users from hateful content when she was fired after Musk’s acquisition. Her team members, who have all been fired since Musk’s takeover, had developed the “Nudge” feature, which warns users if their posts contain trigger words or hateful language.

“Overall 60% of users deleted or edited their reply when given the nudge a chance,” Jennings Young told the BBC. But now things are different.

“Right now there’s nobody around to work on it,” she said.

Amid the disordered environment, the Twitter worker who said the company was on fire told the BBC that when Musk is in the office he always has two bodyguards with him like in a “Hollywood movie”. They accompany him everywhere – even to the toilet.

Twitter did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment. Musk and Twitter did not respond to the BBC’s investigation, but Musk tweeted a response to the original story.

Subscribe to unlock this article and get full access to Fortune.com

Try it for $1

Already a member?
Registration

Elon Musk became CEO of Twitter in October and made drastic changes in a matter of months. He fired scores of employees, including top executives and the team responsible for monitoring the service for inappropriate and abusive content or accounts. Employees who stayed with the company had to meet crazy schedules and, in some cases, cater to Musk’s whims, such as his desire to give his own tweets more visibility.

Twitter has experienced frequent technical glitches in recent weeks and has become a breeding ground for fake accounts and bots. The platform is also increasingly becoming the home of trolling and hateful content and “no one cares,” an engineer at the company told the BBC.

“For someone inside, it’s like a building with all parts on fire,” an unidentified BBC Twitter worker said as part of an investigation released on Monday.

The employee revealed that the San Francisco-based social media company is in a state of chaos and many of the people responsible for creating and maintaining its security features, which curbed 60% of Twitter’s trolling, have been fired.

“If you look at it from the outside, the facade looks good, but I can see that nothing is working. All the plumbing is broken, all the faucets, everything,” the clerk said. Because Twitter is understaffed, employees from other teams are forced to do extra work that isn’t their responsibility.

“A completely new person without the expertise is doing what used to be done by 20+ people,” the staffer told the BBC. “That leaves room for a lot more risk, a lot more opportunity for things to go wrong.”

Even on the content security front, many features designed to protect users no longer work the way they did before Musk became the “chief chump” because nobody’s assigned to them.

Lisa Jennings Young was Twitter’s head of content design and responsible for rolling out security features that protected users from hateful content when she was fired after Musk’s acquisition. Her team members, who have all been fired since Musk’s takeover, had developed the “Nudge” feature, which warns users if their posts contain trigger words or hateful language.

“Overall 60% of users deleted or edited their reply when given the nudge a chance,” Jennings Young told the BBC. But now things are different.

“Right now there’s nobody around to work on it,” she said.

Amid the disordered environment, the Twitter worker who said the company was on fire told the BBC that when Musk is in the office he always has two bodyguards with him like in a “Hollywood movie”. They accompany him everywhere – even to the toilet.

Twitter did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment. Musk and Twitter did not respond to the BBC’s investigation, but Musk tweeted a response to the original story.

See more

Sorry I turned Twitter from a nurturing paradise to a place that…has trolls pic.twitter.com/HaWl1jPfOm

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2023

The BBC investigation is the latest to shed light on Twitter’s internal workings since Musk bought the platform for $44 billion last year. Employees have said that Twitter’s culture has taken a hit since the acquisition, as the office turned into a “ghost town” and with no internal communications. They’ve also complained about long hours and the elimination of office perks as part of Musk’s efforts to make the social media company profitable.

Twitter’s revenue reportedly fell 35% in the fourth quarter, and on one day in January, the service had 500 fewer advertisers than on the same day last year.

The post Elon Musk works at Twitter with 2 bodyguards and layoffs have created chaos, Twitter engineer says appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

As San Francisco focused much of its attention in recent months on drug sales and homelessness in the Tenderloin, street conditions in the nearby Mission District continued to deteriorate.

The neighborhood’s number of tents and other inhabited street structures has grown from a little more than 70 last June to about 100 now, according to periodic counts conducted by the city. Sidewalks along Mission Street, particularly near its BART stations, have become flourishing markets for unregulated merchandise sales. Residents are also concerned about trash and a series of fires, one of which recently displaced 22 people and damaged a popular taqueria.

Now, community leaders in the mission and local officials are attempting to help the neighborhood’s growing unhoused population while placing tighter controls on street vending and garbage, among other efforts.

“This is the overall feeling of a neighborhood in chaos,” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the Mission and recently crafted a plan to address what she has called “unacceptable” street conditions.

Ronen said she was, in part, trying to redirect some of the San Francisco government’s attention from the Tenderloin, where Mayor London Breed declared a 90-day state of emergency that expired this month. Though Ronen supported that declaration, she wants to do what she can to prevent the Mission from following in the Tenderloin’s footsteps.

The encampments in Ronen’s district are not as numerous as they were when she first took her seat on the Board of Supervisors five years ago, she said. But the population of those living on the streets has grown recently, as have the ranks of street vendors. In her view, the problem was compounded when San Francisco directed much of its focus squarely on the tenderloin and its long-running crises of homelessness, public drug sales and opioid overdoses.

The confluence of all those events “made the Mission a disaster again,” Ronen said.

“I just feel so much sympathy and so much anger for all of my constituents: the businesses, the housed residents and the unhoused residents,” Ronen said. “We are failing the people of the mission. It’s unacceptable.”

Ronen’s plan for the mission includes recently passed legislation on street vending as well as various objectives to move more unhoused people inside, increase trash pickups and prevent street fires.

After talking to Ronen’s office, the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing in April plans to reopen 53 shelter beds in the Mission that were previously closed due to COVID-19. The Healthy Streets Operations Center, a citywide effort to address encampments, has started visiting Mission encampments weekly, trying to get unhoused people placed into shelter or a long-term home.

Public Works is stepping up its power-washing of trash cans around Mission Street BART plazas and educating merchants about how to properly dispose of cardboard so it doesn’t litter streets and become a fire hazard. Ronen’s office is also talking to Recology about how to keep the streets cleaner and working with public safety officials on other ways to prevent fires.

Another issue affecting the neighborhood is street vending. People have long set up on the neighborhood’s sidewalks to sell flowers, fruit and other things to passersby. But community leaders say the scene grew much more crowded after the COVID-19 economic blow that was hardest on low-wage workers who lost jobs.

Dennis Romero (l to r), makes a purchase from Jerome Allen, El; who is navigating homelessness, along the sidewalk on Mission at 24th Street on Thursday, March 24, 2022 in San Francisco, Calif.Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

Some people who felt like they had no other options may have turned to street vending. Rising homelessness contributed to the problem.

But while many sellers are legitimate, others may be hawking stolen goods. And merchants say the rampant amount of unregulated vending has been hurting their businesses. The city recently passed an ordinance to require vendors to get a permit and maintain proof of ownership or other authorization to sell goods.

“Vending in our community is part of its makeup. It’s part of the flavor that we’ve always had,” said Susana Rojas, executive director of the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District. “Because of the pandemic and the economic downturn, we have people who are vending other items and who are not necessarily fully connected to the community.”

William Ortiz-Cartagena, a San Francisco entrepreneur who was born and raised in the Mission, is planning to soon open a storefront on Mission Street where 20 to 30 vendors can come off the streets and sell their goods inside. Clecha, a nonprofit founded by Ortiz-Cartagena, already has an agreement with a vacant store’s owner to launch the project, he said.

He envisions it looking like an indoor flea market, filled with people selling their wares but also tables in the back that offer services for small businesses and local residents.

“It’s basically a garage sale,” Ortiz-Cartagena said. “In the suburbs, nobody is out there penalizing people for setting up shops in their driveway. If you want to look at it through that particular lens, we’re doing the same thing.”

One of numerous people selling goods next to the 24th Street BART station recently was Jerome Allen El, 54, to an unhoused man who said he was sleeping on the street about one block away.

Laid out on the sidewalk by his feet was a cornucopia of items: shoes, jeans, moisturizer, even a fan and a flashlight. Everything was available for purchase, much of it for as little as $1.

Allen El, a longtime San Francisco resident, usually leaves the plaza each day with about $20 or $30 in his pocket, after paying people who help him out. He said he typically buys the goods from others or receives donations, and his proceeds help him meet basic needs such as food and clothes washing.

“I’m not trying to get rich,” he said. “I’m just trying to get by.”

Rojas’ organization, Calle 24, has been trying to inform the community about the new city law on street vending. But she and other local leaders knowing the neighborhood won’t see enough improvement by focusing on street vending alone.

“We can give all of our vendors a permit, but what’s going to happen to the people who are struggling the most?” Rojas said. “We can’t just continue to punish them and forget that they’re humans and that they’re part of our community (too).”

The street-vending increase has been hard on some of the Mission’s stores. Ronen, the supervisor, has spoken about business owners who have called her in tears because the influx of street vendors were obstructing sidewalks, deterring customers and in some cases selling the same items for much cheaper prices.

Street vendors and customers crowd the sidewalk around the 24th St. Mission BART Station on March 24.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

Ryen Motzek, the president of the Mission Merchants Association, who has worked in the neighborhood for 20 years, said he’s never seen anything like the current street conditions.

“Every neighborhood has its challenges, but this is a whole other level,” Motzek said. “It’s really affecting the mom and pop businesses the hardest. It’s devastating.”

Capt. Gavin McEachern of the San Francisco Police Department’s Mission Station acknowledged that quality-of-life issues in the neighborhood are widespread, which he partly attributed to consequences of the pandemic.

“It’s pretty bad,” McEachern said. “Not only visually, but I just think the sheer volume of things that we’re seeing is pretty daunting … It doesn’t look comfortable in the district and it doesn’t feel comfortable.”

McEachern said his officers’ work in the Mission is hampered partly by low staffing levels — a problem throughout SFPD. The station is down about 12 officers since October, when McEachern took the helm temporarily before assuming the role permanently in January.

“Traditionally, Mission Station is one of the biggest-staffed stations,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s ever been this low.”

McEachern said he has also been sending some Mission-based police officers to the Tenderloin, often through voluntary overtime but sometimes using on-duty personnel if no one steps up. On Wednesdays, when Mission Station is at maximum staffing levels, a handful of officers go to the tenderloin as a matter of course.

As Ronen and her office push the city to shift more of its focus back to the mission, local community groups aren’t waiting for the government to fix everything. Rojas said Calle 24 plans to have quarterly trash cleanups within the district’s boundaries, set to the north and south by 22nd Street and Cesar Chavez Street and to the east and west by Potrero Avenue and Mission Street. The first cleanup is scheduled for May 7th.

To Rojas, it’s part of her belief in the interconnected nature of the issues facing the Mission and San Francisco overall.

“It all goes in a cycle,” she said. “If we really look at the root of what’s going on, we can address core issues and find better, sustainable solutions.”

JD Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris

The post San Francisco leaders fear over deteriorating situations within the Mission: ‘Neighborhood in chaos’ appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Zügellose Verbrechen in San Francisco seien „nicht neu“ und „das Chaos herrscht in der Stadt“, sagte Polizei-Lt. Tracy McCray am Mittwoch gegenüber Fox News.

McCray machte diese Kommentare, nachdem ein Neiman Marcus in San Francisco von Ladendieben getroffen wurde, die mit Waren flohen. Unter Berufung auf Zeugen sagte die Verkaufsstelle, dass Vitrinen zertrümmert und Gegenstände aus den Regalen im Laden gehoben wurden, bevor die Verdächtigen entkommen konnten.

“In diesem Geschäft arbeiten Leute, die auf einen Gehaltsscheck angewiesen sind, und wenn sie schließen, gibt es keine Garantie, dass sie einen anderen Job finden”, sagte McCray, Vizepräsident der San Francisco Police Officers Association, gegenüber “America’s Newsroom”. “Das ist viel mehr als jemand, der eine Tasche stiehlt.”

SAN FRANCISCO NEIMAN MARCUS VON LADENHABERN GETROFFEN, DIE MIT WAREN FLUCHTEN

Darüber hinaus äußerte sich ein ehemaliger Polizeikommissar von San Francisco, Joe Alioto Veronese, über die Zunahme der Kriminalität in der Stadt.

“Wir sind hier in San Francisco in einem Zustand des Chaos und der Anarchie”, sagte Veronese. „Du siehst es jeden Tag… du erwartest es einfach und hoffst, dass du, wenn es passiert, nicht in der Schusslinie stehst.“

“America’s Newsroom”-Co-Moderatorin Dana Perino fragte McCray, wie die Reaktion sei, wenn sie einen Anruf wegen Diebstahl oder Einbruch erhalte.

„Es gibt keine Konsequenzen, Menschen zur Rechenschaft zu ziehen, weil Ausreden…[given] von bestimmten Politikern rausgeschmissen werden”, antwortete sie. “Sie sagen die idiotischsten Dinge, um schlechtes Benehmen zu rechtfertigen, und deshalb herrscht hier Chaos.”

SAN FRANCISCO OFFICER AUF VIRALEM VIDEO VON BRAZEN WALGREENS SHOPLIFTER: ‘GAUBER’ WISSEN, DASS ES KEINE KONSEQUENZEN GIBT

McCray verglich diese Vorfälle mit „Szenen aus einem Film“ und erwähnte, dass der Anstieg der Kriminalität in San Francisco ein „alltägliches Ereignis“ sei.

Unterdessen gaben Target-Geschäfte in der Golden City bekannt, dass sie ihre Betriebszeiten aufgrund eines erheblichen und alarmierenden Anstiegs von Diebstählen reduziert haben. Das Einzelhandelsunternehmen veröffentlichte folgendes Statement zum Anstieg der Kriminalität in San Francisco:

„Seit mehr als einem Monat erleben wir einen erheblichen und alarmierenden Anstieg von Diebstählen und Sicherheitsvorfällen in unseren Filialen in San Francisco, ähnlich den Berichten anderer Einzelhändler in der Region. Mit der Sicherheit unserer Gäste, Teammitglieder und Gemeinden als unsere oberste Priorität, haben wir unsere Betriebszeiten in sechs Geschäften in San Francisco vorübergehend reduziert.”

McCray sagte, Einzelhandelsunternehmen, die ihre Arbeitszeiten aufgrund von Kriminalität reduzieren, habe es in San Francisco noch nie gegeben.

KLICKEN SIE HIER, UM DIE FOX NEWS APP ZU ERHALTEN

„Jetzt gibt es Leute, deren Öffnungszeiten in diesen Geschäften gekürzt wurden. Sie werden Geld in ihrem Scheck für ihre täglichen Aktivitäten, Miete zahlen, Essen und Kleidung kaufen, verpassen“, schloss sie. “Ich bin davon nicht überrascht und niemand sollte es sein.”

Edmund DeMarche von Fox News hat zu diesem Bericht beigetragen.

The post San Francisco officer on rampant crimes: ‘Chaos reigns supreme’ appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.