San Francisco’s liberal mayor declared a “state of emergency” to try to deal with the city’s “nasty streets.”
How did it get so bad?
Journalist Michael Shellenberger’s new book, “San Fransicko,” argues it happened because of progressive ideas.
“The town I love is sick,” Shellenberger said in my new video.
He came to San Francisco when he was in his 20s to support social justice causes. He still supports those ideas, but “it just went too far.”
In 2014, California politicians decided to end mass incarceration.
It’s a noble goal. America locks up a higher percentage of its people than any other country. Jails are overcrowded. People in jail are more likely to learn to be better criminals than to be rehabilitated.
So California converted many nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors. People who steal less than $950 worth of items are no longer jailed. Proponents said this would divert money from prisons that could go to mental health and drug treatment programs.
But not jailing people who break laws had nasty unintended consequences.
Shoplifters steal right in front of security guards. Police look the other way. They know if they make an arrest, they’ll face hours of paperwork and the person arrested will just return to the street. Cars are broken into 74 times a day.
“None of us want mass incarceration,” said Shellenberger, who voted for the law to stop jailing people. “But that was a recipe for disaster.”
Because no one is arrested for camping on the street, San Francisco is…
