Recently the Honorable Chris Daly (San Francisco Board of Supervisors, District 6) proposed a charter amendment that INCLUDED NO MONEY for police or law enforcement activities to combat an ever escalating tide of violence that has resulted in a 10 year high murder rate. His proposal, originally an 80 million dollar set aside, subsequently reduced to 30 million dollars, would create an 11 member homicide task force.
This is exactly the wrong direction from which to approach the problem. It is a wasteful expenditure of resources for a program that would do little, or nothing, to acutally stop violence. Violence in cities is not a new phenomenon. This problem has been studied and tackled, successfully before. Why do we need 11 people to sit around and think about this problem, instead of doing what we all ready know works.
"Latest figures show New York's violent crime rate dropped by 2.8 per cent in 2005, almost six times the national average. In Manhattan the annual murder rate has dipped below 100 for the first time since the 19th century. New York is now the safest of America's 25 largest cities, ahead of places such as San Diego and Dallas. Out of America's 227 cities with a population of at least 100,000, New York's crime rate ranks 211.
Many experts believe the strongest reason for the transformation is also the most obvious: better policing. Dubbed 'zero tolerance' by the media and politicians, police embarked on a strategy in the Nineties aimed at cutting big crime by stamping out small crime. It was a theory summed up in the idea that, if you refused to tolerate vandalism and breaking windows, you could improve a neighbourhood and discourage more serious criminals from operating. By the end of the decade this concept was being mimicked across America and the rest of the world, including parts of Britain." -
Guardian Unlimitted (January 15, 2006)We need intelligent, effective progressive solutions to our city's problems. Unfortunately, Supervisor Daly isn't traveling that path.
