You may have noticed a trend among Democrats, particularly in Washington, suggesting that they really do want to fundamentally change how the world works. (And not for the better.) It boils down to the establishment of a “new normal” and how you are supposed to view the world and set your expectations. We’ve seen that recently when people complaining about rising crime rates and a crisis on the southern border were waved away by liberals assuring them that “it’s always been this way.” Now the Free Beacon has documented yet another instance of this. Out in San Francisco, the tech CEO of Horizon3, Snehal Antani, tweeted about how two of his staffers were distressed when they were robbed on the street of thousands of dollars of computer equipment, presumably by the usual homeless drug addicts that populate the city. In response, John Hamasaki, the Democrat who tried (and failed) to replace Chesa Boudin, told Hamasaki that he had lived in the suburbs for too long and was unable to handle a “basic city life experience.”

What’s happening: Democrats are beginning to lash out at people who think crime is bad by insisting that having your car burglarized and riding the subway next to a fentanyl-smoking vagrant are “basic city life experiences.”

Wait, seriously? Yes. John Hamasaki, a former San Francisco police commissioner and the failed Democratic Party-endorsed candidate for district attorney following the successful recall of Chesa Boudin, recently lashed out at a tech CEO who lamented that two of his colleagues will be “scarred forever” after having their laptops and passports stolen from their parked car.

“Is this what the suburbs do to you?” Hamasaki wrote on Twitter. “Shelter you from basic city life experiences so that when they happen you are broken to the core?”

Wow, that’s deranged. Yes, it is. The same day Hamasaki posted his dumb tweet, a mob of teens took part in a massive brawl at a popular shopping mall—one of several “incidents of mob violence among school-age kids” resulting in “physical injuries” at the location. In other words, just another basic city life experience.

Interesting. Would getting your car window broken and some stuff stolen leave you “scarred forever”?

Is this what the suburbs do to you? Shelter you from basic city life experiences so that when they happen you are broken to the core? https://t.co/OcHD4qJwtm

— John Hamasaki (@HamasakiLaw) March 19, 2023

This is just a textbook example of the phenomenon I was describing above. If you live in a Democrat-run blue city and you are one of the more than 50% of residents (at least in San Francisco) who have been impacted by crime, you’re supposed to simply shrug it off. That’s just a basic fact of city life. It’s always been this way.

Spoiler alert: It has not always been this way. Crime rates have traditionally been higher in the cities than in the suburbs or rural areas simply because there are more people packed in more densely. But there was still a basic expectation that you could walk down the street in broad daylight and not immediately be accosted. There were police on the beat and aspiring criminals were wary of being locked up.

That reality has been steadily changing in very recent years, however. The problems may have started with the BLM riots and the defund the police movement, but the issues have spread much further. An epidemic of homelessness and open-air drug markets has fostered an “anything goes” atmosphere. Bail reform and decriminalization have made far too many of the thieves fearless since they know there will be little or no repercussions for their crimes. None of this is happening by accident. The new normal was created by failed government policies, but the creatures responsible for all of this choose to insist that your memory is faulty and you just didn’t notice all of this before.

As the linked report goes on to note, when municipal officials aren’t blaming you for your negative experiences, they are finding someone else to blame. Amazingly, California attorney general Rob Bonta (D.) recently blamed car manufacturers for the spike in vehicle thefts. He demanded that Kia and Hyundai stop making vehicles that are too easy to steal. It’s all really too much to be believed, but here we are.