RIGHT SPEAK: Losing the Super Bowl is the least of San Francisco’s problems

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The San Francisco 49ers were well on their way to winning the Lombardi trophy more than halfway through the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, but they gave the game away and wound up losing big. In many ways, the Super Bowl is a metaphor for how San Franciso politicians are taking a beautiful city with a lot of potential and running it into the ground … a ground full of feces.

Thanks to the suspension of law enforcement and downgrading of many crimes, there’s a breakdown of public order in the Bay Area with theft, vagrancy, homelessness, and drugs becoming rampant. Last week, police announced there was a 300 percent increase in car thefts last year in the Diamond Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. At a town hall event, one victim described a break-in while he and his family were sitting in the actual car.

Who says crime doesn’t pay? In San Francisco, it certainly does pay for criminals. Who’s paying for it? Non-criminal taxpayers. Say what you want about criminals, but like any market force, they are very logical and respond to the incentives and disincentives placed before them. In San Francisco, they understand that they simply will not face prison time, even for repeat offenses.

The theft epidemic is also taking a toll on local businesses, as shoplifting becomes rampant. San Francisco also leads the nation in “porch piracy,” with burglars stealing packages off home porches. The number two and three cities for porch piracy are Los Angeles and Sacramento, respectively. A California coincidence?

In addition to the black market gangs that openly steal retail merchandise and sell it on the black market knowing that there will be no consequences, there are now “sophisticated network of international dealers who cross the border to buy stolen goods.”