Democrat San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s effort to dupe foreign media into thinking the city isn’t a feces-strewn, crime-ridden, homeless encampment hellhole was exposed Sunday when a Czech film crew was robbed of its camera equipment.
The camera crew was also robbed of the footage it took, depriving it of the ability to portray San Francisco to their viewers back home as a visitors’ paradise.
Mayor Breed and fellow Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom had been boasting of how they had quickly cleaned up the city ahead of the arrival of international journalists, delegates and world leaders, such Communist China’s President Xi Jinping, for the APEC event.
“Municipal workers have been power-washing sidewalks, moving homeless people, and sprucing up buildings in its downtown core, all in hopes that visitors will see a positive side of the city,” Fortune reports.
But, that’s not reality for those who live and work in San Francisco – or even for local television crews, who have resorted to traveling with armed guards.
Unfortunately, the Czech film crew must not have been aware of the local custom, so they didn’t employ a security detail while visiting San Francisco.
Thus, the robbery of a foreign film crew appears to have pulled back the curtain, exposing the Potemkin Village that Breed and Newsom had created to deceive media from other countries.
"We don’t want anyone in our city to be a victim of any crime, whether they are a visitor or a resident," Mayor Breed’s Communications Director Jeff Creta declared, in a statement responding to the incident.
"Our police department is actively investigating this case, and we know that when an arrest is made, our district attorney has taken a strong position of aggressively prosecuting crimes like these," Creta promised.
Creta’s “like these” qualifier is important.
Ironically, there actually is a chance that, if caught, the thieves will be aggressively prosecuted – because the $18,000 value of the equipment and footage stolen exceeds San Francisco’s $950 threshold for legitimate prosecution.
As NBC Bay Area explains, shoplifting has surged since a 2021 law basically decriminalized retail theft:
“Under current state law, shoplifting merchandise valued under $950 is considered a misdemeanor and often not investigated.”