After a string of violent and deadly attacks, some people have asked if San Francisco is still safe.
In a tense interview, Mayor London Breed of San Francisco defended her city after a tech executive was killed with a knife last week and a former fire commissioner was brutally attacked. Some people have said that the city is too dangerous because of its extreme policies.
Breed, a Democrat, told FOX San Francisco that the news about Cash App founder Bob Lee’s death was “inaccurate.”
“I think because of social media, cameras, and how quickly people can share what’s going on, it’s often taken out of context and used to show that the whole city is dangerous,” she said. “That’s not quite right.”
Breed was asked how people could be worried about the safety of the city after Lee’s death when he listed a few big events that happened there without any problems.
She said that leaders from the city, the state, and the federal government were talking about how to get help.
Gasia Mikaelian from KTVU asked, “How do you respond to critics who say that San Francisco is turning to state and federal authorities because, in part, it’s the fault of its own politicians and city leaders?” “Basically, what they’re saying is that the policies of the left are what got us here. Now, we need help from other people.”
“You know, it’s sad because I think San Francisco has been a target and an example for so long,” Breed said. “We are innovative, creative, and come up with ideas that are outside the box, among other things, to bring about change in our communities.” “I think it was a target when the previous president was in office, which is sad.”
“Some of our policies have been bad, and we will do everything we can to get rid of them. But for now, we have to keep going,” she said. “It will take some time for public safety to get better. But we won’t give up.”
Since Lee died, people have said bad things about the city. A few days later, Don Carmignani, who had been the head of the San Francisco Fire Department, was attacked in his own front yard. He was cut with a knife and hit in the head with a pipe.
Elon Musk, who used to live in Silicon Valley but now lives in Texas, sent out a tweet last week about crime in San Francisco.
“I know a lot of people who have been hurt badly. Even when attackers are caught, they are often let go right away,” Musk wrote.
Some people have said it’s because of the “starve the cops” trend.
The city says that there are 541 too few police officers in San Francisco.
In March, a story said that a check of state records showed that the Police Department had hired dozens of officers who weren’t qualified or didn’t have the right paperwork.
Even though some city crime data show that the number of major crimes has gone down since last year, the number of dangerous crimes has gone up.
From last year to this year, the number of murders is up 20% and the number of robberies is up more than 13%, according to the San Francisco Police Department.