As San Francisco faces crises of crime, homelessness, and fleeing businesses under Democratic leadership, three videos went viral online this week showing just how real the consequences are.
The first clip is a CNN segment at a Walgreens in San Francisco. The store claims the title as the most shoplifted among the more than 8,000 Walgreens locations in the nation. CNN correspondent Kyung Lah paid a visit to investigate the store’s tactic of chaining the freezers shut, putting ice cream behind padlocks.
Throughout the broadcast, Lah herself witnessed three robberies. “Did that guy pay? Did that guy pay?” Lah asked a cashier at one point. Lah said the store faces more than a dozen robberies per day. The store also locks up products including nail polish and mustard.
The second clip is another TV report of a car flying over an embankment in the city and landing on its hood. Three suspects got out of the car and fled the scene, two of whom have been arrested. The car was carjacked moments before the crash, and police recovered alcohol and a gun at the scene.
The last video was shot by motorists on Interstate 80 and shows a naked woman firing a gun in the air and at passing vehicles.
The woman was reportedly brandished a knife at other drivers before exiting her car naked and firing a gun. Police later arrested her and took her away in an ambulance.
The viral clips highlight the struggles the city is facing. Homicides in San Francisco have increased nearly 40 percent from 2020 to 2022, and deaths from fentanyl have spiked.
Office vacancies in San Francisco hit a record-high rate in the second quarter this year. Among the companies trying to ditch their office space in the struggling city that quarter were Uber, Airbnb, and Salesforce.
Old Navy announced in May it will close its flagship store. Whole Foods and Nordstrom have shuttered businesses in the city over safety concerns. The downtown area of the city has lost half of its businesses since the start of the pandemic.
London Breed, the city’s Democratic mayor, is facing early opposition in her reelection campaign from a former ally who is building a tough-on-crime platform.
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