OPINION:
Dean Preston, a Democrat-socialist supervisor for San Francisco’s District 5, said the scores of homeless camped about his city’s streets are victims of capitalism and that it is futile to arrest those who openly do drugs. Then he called on those who wanted to clean up the streets of homeless drug addicts to simply shut their eyes, like he does, and voila, they’re gone!
Not really.
But it was implied.
“I think what you’re seeing in the Tenderloin [District] is absolutely the result of capitalism and what happens in capitalism to the people at the bottom rungs,” he said in a documentary by UnHerd, as quoted in the New York Post. “The biggest driver of why folks are on the street is because they lost their jobs, income or were evicted from their homes, usually for not being able to pay the rent.”
[Maybe because they spent their money on illegal drugs?]
No. Because they were evicted, Preston said.
[Maybe because they didn’t pay the rent on time?]
No. Because the landlord was a fat cat capitalist with zero compassion for humans, Preston said.
[Maybe because the landlord didn’t want his place devastated by illegal drug users who didn’t pay rent?]
No. Because the free market allowed these landlords to cruelly toss these poor victims onto the streets, Preston said.
“So you have major landlords literally causing folks to lose their homes,” Preston said, “and real estate speculation making it impossible for folks to find an affordable place to live.”
San Francisco’s cost-of-living is one of the highest in the nation, due in large part to government taxation, government regulation, government controls.
From Bankrate: “Typical living costs in San Francisco are not for the faint of heart. … [T]he city is 28 percent more expensive than the average cost of living in California and a steep 79 percent higher than the national average.”
Hmm.
“Some of the day-to-day expenses contributing to San Francisco’s pricey lifestyle include utility bills that are 32 percent higher than the rest of the country, food costs three are 31 percent higher and transportation costs that are 38 percent higher.”
Between 2020 and 2022, according to U.S. Census data, the city has lost about 7.5 percent of its population — due in large part to costs.
But the homeless can’t leave?
They can’t relocate to an area where there are jobs and affordable costs-of-living?
It’s worth noting that San Francisco is a sanctuary city that lets in illegals, shields illegals from deportation, and cares more about the rights of illegals — some-many-many, many, many of whom could be felons — than about the rights of law-abiding, tax-paying, hard-working residents.
San Francisco’s also a Democrat-controlled community, filled with government officials like Preston who say that sweeping away the homeless encampments so that law-abiding, tax-paying, hard-working residents can walk freely about, free of fear of being mugged or accosted by the drug addicts who make up the homeless population — that clearing the streets of these fine homeless people and arresting these poor drug users is “completely counterproductive” and only makes things worse.
“It increases overdoses,” Preston said.
“It’s actually made [streets] less safe,” Preston said.
And then this: “I don’t think every instance of poverty or addiction or behavioral health issue is a safety threat to someone walking by. I mean, there’s a lot of people who are doing things that are very harmful to themselves on the streets, who aren’t necessarily a safety threat.”
Yes. Let’s introduce them to Preston’s daughters and arrange dates — shall we?
The reason San Francisco has so many homeless is that the local governing authorities allow the homeless to set up camps in the middle of city streets. The reason San Francisco has become a dump is because of Democrats — that’s it, in a word, Democrats.
Preston is a Democrat Socialist, which means he’s a socialist, which means he’s a communist who wants to transform America into a nation of good obedient citizens who live for the state and who pay for the state and who give all money to the state for proper redistribution. He also wants to defund the police.
“I think we have a very, very bloated police budget,” Preston also said. “All kinds of waste in the police department. I could cut $100 million out of the department.”
It doesn’t take much thought to see the double whammy danger of allowing drug-addicted homeless to camp openly on streets while removing police from the force and decreasing their presence.
And who consistently calls for such nonsense? Democrats.
The streets of San Francisco are not filled with capitalistic hard-working American citizens, fallen on tough times. They’re filled with the victims of Democrat policies — drug addicts, despondent, mentally ill and entitlement-minded. They’re filled with the very kind Preston and his socialist comrades create.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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