Before he was governor of California, Gavin Newsom (D) served as the Mayor of San Francisco between 2004 and 2011 – with none other than Kamala Harris (D) serving as his Attorney General. While one might encounter Bush Man or Escape Man during the journey to Ghirardelli Square back then, it was nothing like the San Francisco of today.
Gavin and Kamala set in motion a legacy of poo-covered streets, rampant crime, and an explosion in homelessness and addiction that was further facilitated by Kamala’s successor, ‘Soros’ DA George Gascón (2011 – 2019). Gascón is currently ‘working his magic’ as Los Angeles District Attorney – having survived a recall attempt (in which observers weren’t allowed to view the counting of the votes), with results we’ve noted many times over the years. In fact, last month San Francisco was ranked the worst-run city in America.
Now that we’re up to speed, and Newsom might be the Democrats’ secret weapon against Trump (or Ron DeSantis) in 2024 – and therefore in dire need of talking points, he’s finally doing something about the fentanyl crisis affecting San Francisco.
On Thursday Newsom announced that the state will bolster its existing efforts to tackle the fentanyl crisis in the city, with a promise to double the number of California Highway Patrol officers dedicated to the issue in a joint task-force coordinated with the California National Guard that was first announced in May.
“Today, I’m authorizing a 100% increase in personnel to bolster the impact of this proven operation, as well as authorizing targeted surges to crack down on crime in the city,” said Newsom in a press release. “Working alongside our local, state, and federal partners, we’re committed to cleaning up San Francisco’s streets.”
As of today, the operation has seized over 8.1 kilograms of fentanyl, enough to kill more than 4 million people.
“CHP’s recent results in San Francisco are nothing short of extraordinary — in just six weeks, the agency’s hardworking officers seized enough fentanyl to potentially kill the city nearly three times over, multiple firearms, and stolen goods,” said Newsom.
The operation, designed to assist city patrol officers, includes a team of analysts dedicated to monitoring and tracking organized crime and providing advanced metrics to aid investigations, the Epoch Times reports.
“Our residents, business owners, and visitors to our city deserve to feel safe, and we are making progress in disrupting the drug markets that are causing so much misery on our streets,” said Police chief Bill Scott, who welcomed the support of the state. “Working collaboratively with the CHP, we’ve seized an unprecedented amount of fentanyl and other deadly narcotics in recent weeks, and I look forward to building on our success.”
As The Epoch Times notes further;
San Francisco Fire Department spokespersons reported to the California Assembly’s newly formed Select Committee on Fentanyl, Opioid Addiction, and Overdose Prevention during its first gathering in May about having to respond to multiple overdose emergency calls every day, with an average of two deaths occurring on the streets every 24 hours.
“I don’t even bring my family into the city anymore, and we used to love to come over and eat and shop, just enjoy the area,” Jesse Garcia—an electrician living in the East Bay and working in San Francisco—told The Epoch Times. “I don’t want my young kids seeing the people out here looking like zombies. It’s disgusting, and it’s not safe for families.”
Faced with several dilemmas stemming from the public’s perceived lack of public safety in the city stemming from homelessness, open-air drug use, and high levels of theft—including retail stores fleeing the downtown area and record levels of office space vacancy impacting the economy—Mayor London Breed voiced her appreciation for the state’s help.
“Over the last several weeks, we’ve welcomed the California Highway Patrol and National Guard working collaboratively alongside our local agencies to disrupt the drug trafficking and drug markets harming our neighborhoods,” Breed said in the joint press release. “To be successful in the long term, we need to sustain and expand this work at the local, state, and federal levels.”
Federal courts have proven more effective than state and local ones in terms of convicting distributors and some dealers linked to the deaths of individuals, based on court filings this year, levying multi-year sentences on numerous occasions.
Seemingly fed up with a lack of action from leaders, voters recalled Chesa Boudin—formerly the city’s progressive district attorney—in 2022 by a wide margin.
Meanwhile, several district attorney’s offices throughout the state report feeling hampered by what they say are limited options for prosecuting those caught with less than one kilogram of the drug.
Resistance in the Legislature to entertain proposals related to fentanyl sentencing enhancements is an issue that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have taken exception to, as multiple bipartisan efforts to bolster prosecutorial playbooks were denied earlier this year.
One measure that is currently still being considered, Assembly Bill 701—a bipartisan bill introduced by Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez (D-Pomona) enhancing penalties for possession of at least one kilogram of fentanyl—passed the Senate Public Safety Committee June 27, but members reserved their right to oppose the legislation on the floor, as some said they believe increasing prison sentences will not improve the overdose epidemic.
Complicating matters are the cheap and easy fentanyl manufacturing methods criminal organizations have mastered and the lethality of the substance, with 2 milligrams—only a few grains—potentially deadly, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, also known as the DEA.
The drug is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.
Nearly 29,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized in California in 2022, representing an amount that could kill most of the people on the planet—approximately 6.5 billion, based on DEA calculations.
According to the most recent statistics from the California Department of Public Health, approximately 115 people die every week in the state as a result of the synthetic opioid.
Investigators report that many victims are unknowingly poisoned, as the drug is odorless, tasteless, and is often found hidden in counterfeit pharmaceutical products and in street drugs.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 07/01/2023 – 19:00
