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Wealthy San Franciscans are panicked over crime. Others say it’s a symptom of a city that only serves the rich.
Crime in San Francisco is getting worse all the time — depending on who you ask.
Annual polls conducted by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce showed that the percentage of respondents who named crime as a “major issue” rose from 26% in 2020 to 46% in 2021 to 55% in 2022. This June, residents voted out former district attorney Chesa Boudin, with some of the city's most powerful residents railing against him for being too soft on crime.
The statistics, though, say otherwise: While the number of burglaries and auto thefts went up from 2019 to 2021, property crime overall dropped by 14% and was lower in 2021 than any year since 2012, according to city data. The number of homicides ticked up to match the 2017 rate, but overall violent crime in 2021 was at its lowest rate in over a decade.
If these fears about crime reflect anything, it’s the rising desperation among financially comfortable locals holding on to a city that drives out its most marginalized communities. One public attorney said that the clients he defends “are primarily people stealing things for basic needs they can’t afford.” Jordan Smith, a former restaurant worker who was charged with petty theft, explained he felt he had to steal because, "I’m hungry, I’m cold, I’m just trying to make ends meet.”
“The city’s changed a lot since I first started coming here,” Smith told BuzzFeed News. “But it’s still San Francisco. I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
At a UN meeting, peace seems far off for Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with the UN to negotiate peace. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for the end of conflict near the Zaporizhzhia power plant, which many are concerned could cause nuclear catastrophe, according to BBC.
Both Russia and Ukraine continue to accuse each other of being responsible for the nuclear plant attacks.
Snapshots
The woman who was 14 when R. Kelly allegedly sexually assaulted and urinated on her in a video testified against him on Thursday. This article contains details of sexual assault, child abuse, and grooming.
A Louisiana woman said she was denied an abortion even though her fetus won't survive. This is in spite of the fact that even under the state's highly restrictive new legislation the procedure should have been permitted.
A previously anonymous FBI lawsuit filed by Angelina Jolie has shed new light on the incident believed to have led to her divorce from Brad Pitt. Jolie and Pitt have been revealed as the subjects of an FBI lawsuit, in which an unnamed plaintiff claimed to have been assaulted by her “then-husband” in 2016.
Parents asked a Utah high school to investigate if a student-athlete was transgender after she "outclassed" their kids in sports.
A high school in Utah looked into a student athlete's school records dating back to kindergarten to find out if she was registered as female after the parents of two students she beat in a state-level competition filed a complaint questioning her assigned sex at birth.
A spokesperson for the Utah High School Activities Association revealed the investigation, which took place last year, during a state legislature meeting on Wednesday about HB11, which bans trans girls from competing in female school sports. Officials did not tell the student that they were looking into her records to confirm her assigned sex at birth. Other complaints that UHSAA has fielded about whether female students were eligible to compete in events amounted to, “that female athlete doesn’t look feminine enough,” the spokesperson said.
Lawmakers in several states have passed increasingly restrictive laws on LGBTQ students' rights, including trans students in particular, prohibiting them from playing school sports and barring them from accessing gender-affirming healthcare. HB11 was initially vetoed by Gov. Spencer Cox in March, but the Utah state legislature voted to override Cox's veto and the law went into effect in July.
Arts and entertainment
A timeline of the rumored feud between Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde. There are also rumors that Pugh was paid less than a third of what her costar Harry Styles was paid for the film Don't Worry Darling.
Jonah Hill revealed he'll no longer promote his films in order to protect his mental health. "I have come to the understanding that I have spent nearly 20 years experiencing anxiety attacks, which are exacerbated by media appearances and public-facing events.”
Kid Cudi has said it would take a "miracle" for him and Kanye West to be friends again. “I’m not one of your kids. I’m not Kim. It don’t matter if I’m friends with Pete or not friends with Pete. None of this shit had anything to do with me.”
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