Adding Insult to Injury in San Francisco

AP Photo/Ben Margot, File

What happens in San Francisco if your insurance drops you because crime is out of control and your store is broken into for the fourth time?

You get a notice from the city that you better fix up your store before they come after you. 

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Robbed by the criminals and financially raped by the city. It's a perfect example of how the government prefers to police the law-abiding and ignore the criminals. After all, criminals are dangerous and will fight back

"How many times do we have to go through this? I get it (if it's) once or twice, but it just continues to happen," Bashir said. "I think we're at the verge to just completely close our shop because the profit is not that great. All we're trying to do is maintain. Everything's expensive. The rent is up, employee (costs) are high, and on top, (we have) to deal with this."

The store is walled with interior fencing because of previous break-ins, but Bashier said the thieves used a car to ram through it by driving "back and forth four times."

"If we cover (the entire store), what are they going (to do), come from the ceiling next?" Bashir said.

Costs are estimated to be in the tens of thousands from stolen items, such as boxes of cigarettes, and the damage to the storefront.

How many times? As many as you will tolerate. You can always leave your business behind and get the hell out of Dodge, because the City of San Francisco has made abundantly clear that they don't care about law-abiding citizens. 

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Besides, criminals only stole those cigarettes because they needed to eat, right? We hear that excuse all the time, but I am pretty sure that 8 guys didn't drive through the door of a cigarette store in a stolen Lexus to find some vittles. 

I continue to have a lot of sympathy for ordinary people who live in Blue cities for a number of reasons: it's not really that easy to pick up and move, for one thing. And it's hard to go up against the powers that be in elections because an inordinate number of voters are in the government or nonprofit sectors, and they have the money and organization. Add to them the wealthy people who are largely insulated from the consequences of high crime and you have a tough voting bloc to fight. 

Of course my sympathy doesn't mean a damn thing to the victims. I would still recommend they pick up and leave, even if it means abandoning a substantial sunk cost, such as a small business you built up over the years. Things aren't going to get any better; they are almost certain to get worse.

You may not have caught it but the owner said something telling: this all started in 2020, around the time of the pandemic and the George Floyd riots. As with so much, things went off the rails in 2020. San Francisco was not great before, but things went to hell when the establishment declared open season on ordinary people. 

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As for the argument that "property is insured," that is no longer true for many businesses in San Francisco. Insurers are pulling out in some areas because the costs are too high to bear. You can't just keep writing checks forever. 

Liberals ruin everything they touch. 

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David Strom 6:00 PM | December 06, 2024
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