8.13.2007
This Ain't No Glass Ceiling...
Other than open-air drug dealing/use, public urination/defecation, the biggest complaint most people in SF would probably have regarding "antisocial" behaviors would the overabundance of car break-ins. Perhaps once a day I see a window of a parked car shattered, and several times a day you'll see a pile of glass where it has recently occurred. We've learned that if you leave ANYthing visible in a car, it will probably get broken into.
The smash-and-grab syndrome has gotten so bad, Dudley said, that people are leaving their cars unlocked with cards on the dashboard that read, "Nothing to steal.'' Source.
Until now, nothing much has been done. The DA says that it is impossible to charge these people, as they are hardly ever caught, and even if they are then the thief will claim that they "found" the stolen goods. But I wonder if this may change--for once, the government got stung by this crime (in quite a ballsy heist).
In San Francisco, even the state's top lawman is not immune to getting his car broken into - even when it's parked next to City Hall.
Just ask Attorney General Jerry Brown, who had his official state car broken into while it was left briefly in front of the State Building at Civic Center.
"Right across from City Hall, in plain view of the mayor's office," Brown said. "He could have seen it from his office window."
Brown said he and his driver hadn't been in the building more than 10 minutes when they came back to find someone had smashed the passenger-side window of his 6-year-old Lincoln Town Car.
...
According to police statistics, so far this year, thieves have broken into cars in San Francisco an average of 32 times a day. "That's unacceptable," said mayoral spokesman Nathan Ballard, "but it does show a 28 percent drop from last year," when cars were being busted into 43 times a day.
As for former Oakland Mayor Brown, he's seen enough: "I'm going back to Oakland. I've never had my car broken into there."
I hope something gets done, but I'm not holding my breath.
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