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Comment by ethotool | Hacker News Reader

America spends hundreds of billions on foreign policy while blatantly ignoring domestic issue like these that are detrimental to our way of life. It’s sad to see America turn into a cesspool of crime.

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Foreign policy is a national issue handled by the federal government. Small crime like this is handled by the local government.

San Francisco and other progressive cities are getting the crime they voted for with defund the police politicians and lax district attorneys. Not all cities are experiencing these issues. Its a local issue from mid-guided policy.

spot on

While true that it’s ignored, America was a “cesspool of crime” many times in the past. It’s still much better than 1980s.

I think statistics bear that out.

Does it seem though that specific locales are disproportionately slipping back into crime "cesspools"? Could it be something like the "broken window" theory of crime or might it be areas of heightened homelessness where this is a problem?

I have no idea.

True. But this just shows that we do know how to bring crime under control. Just a question of political will at this point. The recipe is there, if we look to history.

America is a federal union. The policy and spending of the federal government can't and shouldn't be applied to these hyper local issues. San Franciscans are probably the highest taxed individuals on the planet and the San Francisco government was flush with cash. Blame local government policy and politics for these issues. This is what happens when you elect literal communist terrorists (see Weather underground) into government.

There are parts of this country that can be considered paradise in comparison to San Francisco.

It’s not up to the federal Government to police the state of California or to force them to enforce sane laws.

San Francisco is strongly affected by foreign countries though, through organized crime drug and stolen property smuggling.

https://cis.org/Arthur/Honduran-Migrants-and-San-Francisco-D...

https://www.singletracks.com/community/how-bike-index-used-f...

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/alleged-internatio...

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco/sf-milk-...

I think it's insane to expect the SFPD to have the power to stand up alone to the kind of forces it's up against.

You barely ever hear local politicians talk about it even, I think they're afraid for their lives.

There is no tradition of American elites joining government for public service, other than a small group who joins the State Dept to control foreign policy.

There is no American nobility who joins government consistently to make a positive impact in America for Americans.

This is a strange claim. The Ivy League is wildly over represented in upper echelons of all three branches of government.

Anyone can join an Ivy League school though. Thousands join every year. Not just anyone can join the nobility.

Sure some of those are legacies, but many are not as well. Every Harvard class has nobodies from nowhere.

You just don’t see the same mobility in other systems. England likes their story about random boys drawing swords from stones and becoming kings, but that just doesn’t happen. Sure maybe our system is not 100% egalitarian, but it’s an improvement I think.

I was interpreting “nobility” in a way that made the dig at Foggy Bottom make sense.

I completely agree that even an imperfect meritocracy of elites beats a hereditary one.

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