Last year, San Francisco Mayor London Breed publicly vowed to "fundamentally change the nature of policing in San Francisco" by way of "ending the use of police in response to non-criminal activity; addressing police bias and strengthening accountability; demilitarizing the police; and promoting economic justice."
These days, her feelings about police seem to have, well, shifted slightly:
Mayor London Breed wants to significantly boost the police presence in the Tenderloin over the next few months as part of a public safety blitz, which includes a crackdown on those who are selling drugs — and those who are using them — in the long-troubled neighborhood.
On Tuesday, Breed called for increased funding for police overtime to help pay for the move, which includes tackling the resale of stolen goods. She told residents last week that she believes policing is an "important tool" to address some of the neighborhood's woes, which include widespread drug dealing, a surge in fatal overdoses and a spike in gun violence.
"It's time that the reign of criminals who are destroying our city ... come(s) to an end," Breed said at a news conference in City Hall on Tuesday, flanked by department heads and Supervisors Catherine Stefani and Ahsha Safaí. "It comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement, more aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerant of all the bulls — that destroyed our city."
That's quite a reversal in tone. Last year she said the San Francisco Police Department had "significant work to do," and now she's calling for the city to be "more aggressive with law enforcement." That's a level of flip-flopping you usually only see in big-budget movies!
