Department of Health & Human Services Advised Its S.F. Employees to Work from Home Because of Crime

So reported the S.F. Chronicle (Megan Cassidy) on Friday:

Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advised hundreds of employees in San Francisco to work remotely for the foreseeable future due to public safety concerns outside the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building on Seventh Street…. The area is … home to one of the city's most brazen open-air drug markets, where dozens of dealers and users congregate on a daily basis….

"In light of the conditions at the (Federal Building) we recommend employees … maximize the use of telework for the foreseeable future," [HHS Assistant Secretary for Administration Cheryl R. Campbell] wrote in [an Aug. 4] memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Chronicle.

There's a similar paywall-free story yesterday in SFGate (Alec Regimbal):

Comments

[BravoCharlieDelta]

That's weird. Isn't San Francisco flourishing from all of that progressive Democrat governance?

[Frank Drackman]

Certainly, brought to you by the DemoKKKrat Party's Great White Hope, Governor Calvin Loathsome!

[Mr. Bumble]

See the open letter from the Chairman of Gump's department store at the link:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/08/blue-cities-getting-it-good-and-hard.php
165 years old. Survived the earthquakes but might not last another year.

[Dan Schiavetta]

If they were all armed would it be safer for them to get to work?

[Bored Lawyer]

Safer for the workers? Yes.

For the criminals, not in the short run. But in the long run, yes.

[Kazinski]

Yep. However most work places don't allow guns in the work place and leaving a gun unattended in a car in a high crime neighborhood isn't advisable. Besides the gun isn't going to do any good in the car when they are coming or going.

The proper remedy is for aggressive policing and arrests for drug use, sales, littering, etc., and make it clear that criminal activity in the neighborhood won't be tolerated. Which will never happen.

[MatthewSlyfield]

"leaving a gun unattended in a car in a high crime neighborhood isn’t advisable."
If California, San Francisco, and the US Federal government had sensible gun policies, the US Federal agency at issue in the Article could provide a secure gun check for it's employees.

[I Callahan]

The governments don't have to do anything but get out of the way. Individual employers could make this happen all by themselves.

[MatthewSlyfield]

In the specific case discussed in the article, the "individual employer" is a US federal agency.

[Stephen Goldstein]

"Provide a secure gun check . . . ."

To be sure that solves the gun-in-the-car and to-and-from-the-office problems but it creates another . . . .

Want to know who's carrying? Just watch and take note of, for better or worse, who gets in line for the gun check counter twice a day. "Charlie! WTF!? Are you some kind of MAGA, 2nd Amendment freakazoid!!??"

[Armchair Lawyer]

Yes

[Michael P]

Getting to work, yes. Except San Francisco police would probably arrest them for having unlocked guns in the main cabin of their vehicles. If they escape that, the federal government's anti-gun policies would mean they have to leave their guns in their vehicles to get stolen. London Breed and Joe Biden would have blood on their hands. Why do you hate federal government employees?

[Dan Schiavetta]

Safer for the workers only if they pre arranged to walk there in groups.

Otherwise two druggies could easily surround one and mug him/her, stealing their guns. One unarmed social worker, and now criminals with three guns.

This is madness.

[VinniUSMC]

There is madness. That the throngs of drug-addled muggers are left unmolested. If CA wouldn't be more likely to throw the book at gun-owners, a few dead attempted muggers would clear the area up.

I mean, if the police aren't going to do anything. Why shouldn't the people?

[I Callahan]

You liberals really don't understand human nature. The "druggie" may not be the smartest person in the world, but 99/100 times that person would AVOID going after anyone, knowing that some of them are armed.

[grb]

Here's the essential fact: The Nancy Pelosi Federal Building is an excellent building design by the firm Morphosis and its lead architect Thom Mayne. It was one of the things I made sure to see when I visited San Francisco - along with the SFMOMA (designed by Mario Botta), the de Young Museum (designed by Herzog and de Meuron), the Asian Art Museum, the waterfront, Lombard Street, Haight Ashbury, Coit Tower, the little shop designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (then a crafts gallery), Ghirardelli Square, and (after Prairie Avenue in Chicago shut down), the best architectural bookstore in the entire country - William Stout.

Just walking the streets was a joy. I went from Coit Tower to the waterfront by a twisting labyrinth of stairs that clung to a steep hillside. The route to Haight Ashbury by the map looked simple enough, but it had me climbing this miniature mountain of a park that rose above the city. The Ex was on some kind of garden writers conference and they (with me) rode a chartered bus out to Muir Woods National Park, to stroll among the redwoods.

https://larryspeck.com/photography/san-francisco-federal-building

[Bwaaah]

Wow. There's a mass of human suffering going on around that building, and in that context, all you can reflect upon is a sanitized story with sanitized pictures that ignore and hide that suffering. You think your commentary addresses the concerns around that building? Is that deafness? Denial? What?

[Dr. Ed 2]

The worst part is the Dept of Health & Human Services -- the very people whose job it is to help the downtrodden & homeless...

These are the social workers and case workers and health inspectors and addition specialists and the other such folks who are supposed to be dealing with what surrounds their building.

[grb]

Dr. Ed 2 speaks for downtrodden & homeless!

You people made such a ludicrous spectacle of yourselves......

[Social Justice is neither]

And odds are high that every last one of them voted for the things that got them there.

[grb]

Bwaaah : Wow

Wow indeed! For the record, my account is equally valid as your hyperventilating hysteria – even more so I expect. Ya know, I live in a city that’s also renowned for its crime. Yet I walk a mile back and forth between work & home right thru the heart of it – at all hours of the night & without a care in the world. Normalcy is usually pretty easy to find if you go searching for it.

I bet that’s true even in San Francisco, pearl-clutching histrionics notwithstanding. As for the “mass of human suffering”, the concern you evince would be more touching absent your lusty cheering. Personally, I doubt you give the slightest shit about said “human suffering”, despite all your posturing.

But – hey – excuse me if I interrupted your fun. I do hope they sort the problem out. It really is a sweet piece of design.

[Bwaaah]

As if the comments about the problem are the problem.

[Kazinski]

Well there is no doubt that there are still joys to be found in San Francisco, the contrast between what it was and what it is now are heart rending to those who remember it during its glory years.

I still have memories of when I was living in my Grandmother's flat in the Richmond district in the late 5Os. At 4 I was allowed to run around the streets of the neighborhood as far as King Normans toys on Clement and buy a plastic Sheriff's badge and handcuffs for dime and get change.

[jb]

It is a cool building, but that area is also one of the seediest in San Francisco. I can imagine people being very concerned about their safety and find it pretty shocking that San Francisco isn't doing more to get things under control.

I say this as someone who visits SF regularly and generally have no problem walking around the city. I think a lot of the "concerns" about crime are overhyped and overly partisan, but we also should acknowledge that there has been a meaningful increase in crime in many places, and it's particularly acute in some.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Here’s the essential fact: The Nancy Pelosi Federal Building is an excellent building design

This is one of those statements that I will never be able to understand. The building looks like absolute garbage to me, to the point where I can’t conceive of how anyone could like it.

[Ben_]

Democrats bring about the end of civilization, one city at a time.

When no one in government does government’s job, the fire department won’t do theirs either. Look for San Francisco to start burning down in a year or three. It’ll probably be a block or two at a time.

It’s coming to your city too. Maybe you have a few years left.

[grb]

Ben_ : “Democrats bring about the end of civilization, one city at a time.”

If I had the mindset of a Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland, this might be just the place for a long diatribe about alternate locals (very much Red state) that are mired in poverty, ignorance, violence, and grotesque dysfunction by every possible metric.

Hell, maybe we can convince Professor Volokh to give us a fresh news story each day highlighting just how hopeless these Red states are. It would be very easy to do.

Then we could all gather and be shocked (shocked!) at the how bad things are. How embarrassing the situation is! In true Louis Renault-fashion, our emotions would run free.

I don’t see why Professor Volokh wouldn’t. He seems to have a taste for these kind of games…

[Heedless]

It turns out it's oddly difficult to find a major city with a Republican mayor. Sometimes you have to go all the way back to the 1930s defined the last time a Republican was in charge of, say, Chicago.

Republicans have their dysfunctions, but they haven't managed to turn Detroit into a ghost town or the flagship city of Silicon Alley into a crumbling, crime ridden disaster. Two cities at the heart their eras' dominant industries, and yet one collapsed and one is well on its way (flagships abandoning downtown, and now even federal workers afraid to come in to work).

[Ben_]

San Francisco is one of the wealthiest cities in the US. It was a great place to live and work for at least a hundred years. It has more advantages than any other place in the US.

Get rid of the leftists and it becomes great again.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Get rid of the leftists and it becomes great again.

Where great = West Virginia, western Virginia, Idaho, backwater Ohio, Alabama, Wyoming, Mississippi, Montana, South Carolina, upstate New York, Arkansas, Kansas, eastern Oregon, Tennessee, Kentucky, Pennsyltucky, Indiana, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, the Florida panhandle, west Texas, and every other half-educated, parasitic, can't-keep-up conservative jurisdiction.

[Magister]

So, is San Francisco the most dangerous city in the country, or is there some other reason to highlight this event?

[Michael P]

Would this news story be more concerning if San Francisco is the most dangerous city in the country? Or would it be more concerning if some other city holds that distinction, and at least one other place should be recommending people WFH to avoid unsafe downtown areas?

[Davy C]

Federal employees are being advised to not come into the office because of the crime outside the building. That's not exactly common. Usually police would break up the crime in such an area even if they can't do so for the whole city.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Isn't there a Federal Protective Service that polices these buildings? Where are they?

[Armchair Lawyer]

FPS doesn't protect them on the way to and from the building.

[Kazinski]

Its news because it was the most beautiful city in America, and by far the favorite place to visit in the US both domestically and Internationally.

And now its changing into a shithole, and it didn't have to happen.

[Heedless]

It is also at the center of America's computer industry. The city should be rolling in money. It's parks should be paradises, it's streets should be clean and safe, and it's downtown should be home to outraged newspaper articles about ungodly rent hikes, not to vacant buildings and drug addicts.

We are fascinated by San Francisco's collapse because it is entirely policy driven and entirely preventable.

[bevis the lumberjack]

No. It’s been my understanding that St Louis and Memphis are bouncing that title back and forth for a while now.

San Francisco is more of a decline problem. It used to be relatively safe to visit.

And that’s not even considering the exodus of retail and hotels and so on. The governing entities and their philosophies have substantially harmed the city.

[TwelveInchPianist]

San Francisco is more of a decline problem.

I hear Mike has a trick for that.

[grb]

Magister : “So, is San Francisco the most dangerous city in the country, or is there some other reason to highlight this event?”

Well, let’s look at the rates of murder, rape and burglary per 100,000 people.
By that yardstick, San Francisco is safer than :

1. Columbus, Ohio
2. Albuquerque, New Mexico
3. St Petersburg, Florida
4. Minneapolis, Minnesota
5. Tulsa, Oklahoma
6. Lexington, Kentucky

Often by substantial margins….

[I Callahan]

So your response is to ignore the problem completely. Ignore all that stuff about it being one of the richest cities, one of the most beautiful, and one of the most visited by tourists.

I'm assuming you haven't commented about the cities you list because you plan on ignoring their problems too.

[I Callahan]

We should only highlight the most dangerous city in America? We should ignore the rest?

[Frank Drackman]

How's Paul Pelosi doing anyway? Haven't heard much about the prosecution of his boyfriend, I mean attacker.

[DRM]

DePape's attorneys tried for a change of venue, which the judge denied on July 19th. The defense team is going to inspect the Pelosi home as part of their forming a defense, per an agreement with the prosecution entered as a court order a week ago.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I thought you had to be dead (or at least out of office) before they could name a Federal Building after you...

[Magister]

You are frequently incorrect, so you shouldn't be surprised.

Turns out there's also a Mitch McConnell Park in Bowling Green, KY; probably the site of the infamous Bowling Green massacre.

[zztop8970]

McConnell Park is a city park, not a Federal building. Do you understand the distinction between the Federal government and local government?

[Magister]

The renaming of the HHS building is fairly recent, but others have been named for sitting politicians more than a decade ago, and for living politicians much longer ago than that. The park is just an amusing bit of trivia, paid for with federal money.

[Heedless]

Pretty much everything in West Virginia is named for Robert Byrd.

[Drewski]

And USCIS nationwide requires employees coming or going after dark to have a security escort, because of crime. And the McDonald's near me doesn't allow the night shift to take out the trash, because of crime.

Employers are beciming increasingly cautious, in this case perhaps because of the increased harassment of and attacks on health officials driven by MAGA hysteria.

[Michael P]

Or perhaps it’s because they are not blind morons, and they can see the druggies and gang members on the streets outside their building.

No matter how strongly you believe melodramatic actors, there are not feral bands of red-hatted conservatives roaming the Tenderloin and Presidio screaming “This is MAGA country!”

[bevis the lumberjack]

MAGA terrorists? In SF? Are you serious?

[Dr. Ed 2]

Employers concerned about harassment of health inspectors?!?!?

That's like speeders being concerned about harassment of state troopers running radar...

[I Callahan]

You had this completely right until your last two words.

[DWB]

At least they still got buggery and baby-killing.

You know ... the important stuff.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Prof. Volokh seems interested in crime today . . . other than the un-American, RICO-style criminal enterprise masterminded by disgraced, discredited, indicted, un-American crackpot John Eastman.

What’s the problem, professor . . . Trump got your tongue?

#ConservativeCowards

#PartisanHacks

#Un-AmericanLosers

[Scooter]

NPC Alert

[Sarcastr0]

Awesome comments brought on by a great initial post.

What was the point of this again, other than to suggest tendentious partisan shittiness?

[TwelveInchPianist]

Talking about crime is partisan now? Someone's a little defensive.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Speaking of defensive, what do you think of Prof. Volokh’s silence concerning Trump, Eastman, Clark, their co-defendants, and that interstate crime spree?

What about the Volokh Conspiracy’s loving endorsement of John Eastman, which stands despite the revelations concerning Eastman’s un-American, disgusting conduct and related disciplinary proceedings?

Please elaborate on your thoughts concerning partisanship (and cowardice) in this context.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"what do you think of Prof. Volokh’s silence concerning Trump, Eastman, Clark, their co-defendants, and that interstate crime spree?"

I have no idea why he don't have anything to say about it. But as they say, it would be irresponsible not to speculate.

[Davy C]

"silence" to Arthur is six posts in a week.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Prof. Volokh knows precisely what he is doing.

Chickenshit to the core.

Until replacement.

[Heedless]

San Francisco is the vanguard of the urban decay movement. Ending enforcement of petty (and sometimes not so petty) crime, adoption of "harm reduction" as the only public policy response to addiction and homelessness, and and a refusal to disperse persistent camps of lawlessness, vagrancy, and mental illness.

A large swath of American cities have adopted these policies, and so we point to the consequences as they happen to San Francisco in the hopes that people will come to their senses before the same thing happens to Chicago, New York, and Houston.

[Sarcastr0]

Urban decay movement. Except if you look at the numbers.

We are safe, except the rural right thinks cities are war ones out of some 1990s dystopian action flick.
And the urban right sometimes as well. I’ve talked to conservatives living in DC talking about how the energy is meaner now.

This is the next GOP issue - law and order. And like so much it’ll be broadly more about harsh policies and cruelty to outgroups than solving a real problem.
And Prof. Volokh seems kinda along for the ride?

[Michael P]

Republicans pounce!

The urban decay movement is all about denying that conditions like those around the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building are "a real problem".

[Heedless]

I live in NYC.

The changes in the urban landscape are easily visible to anyone who walks through the streets. Vagrants sleeping in little nests on the sidewalks and in the subway, more and more products behind glass at the drugstore, even in the nicer neighborhoods, and being accosted by a high, mentally ill screamer has gone from something that happens once every few years to once every two months.

Law and order becomes a political issue when it breaks down severely enough that it can't be hidden anymore. It happened in the 70s and 80s, and it's happening now for the exact same reason: permissive policies in the big cities led to spikes in crime and disorder (the fact that there has been a small decrease this year doesn't change the fact that crime is up massively since 10 years ago).

The numbers bear me out, but all you need to do is walk around a city with your eyes open.

[Sarcastr0]

Again, the stats say it isn’t breaking down. They also say people think it is breaking down.

I visit NYC regularly having relatives there. Main change I see is the weed trucks.
NYC also has a bug law and order mayor with a mandate for same. So far, no real results.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"Again, the stats say it isn’t breaking down. They also say people think it is breaking down."

How do you know the "stats" are more reliable than the subjective view of actual people?

[I Callahan]

No, you're not safe. That is either a complete delusion, or a bald-faced lie.

[Sarcastr0]

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/10/31/violent-crime-is-a-key-midterm-voting-issue-but-what-does-the-data-say/

[I Callahan]

I've never seen anyone whine about partisanship as much as you. Here's the unvarnished truth: there are usually two solutions to every problem, and they're always partisan. Always.

[Sarcastr0]

I suppose you save a lot of brainpower being that simple.

[Doug Heffernan]

Why aren't more libertarians here applauding this pure free market paradise? And with government getting totally out of the way. A completely hands-off approach. Allowing people to conduct private transactions without government interference. It's like ayn rand's wettest wet dream. The complete separation of government and economics. Are you against an open air market? Would you prefer that it all be underground?

[I Callahan]

Well, libertarianism is an unattainable utopia; even conservatives know that.

[Krayt]

Cnn is currently doing an interview with a mob defense lawyer, sorry, "mafia boss" lawyer, who is helping them express joy at Giuliani being charged with RICO like he charged the guy's clients.

I haven't seen anything like this from CNN since Trump whacked a terrorist boss, and CNN ran around gathering sob stories about people who missed him.

"This is just honest political opposition...wait...whaaaaat?"

[Sarcastr0]

The irony of Rudy with his history catching a RICO, even if just state level is a pretty good angle imo.

[SimonP]

You're going to need a bigger boat, Eugene.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

That’s First Mate Eugene.

First Mate to Captain John Eastman aboard the USS Clinger.

[Social Justice is neither]

Odds are they all voted for the people and policies that created this situation so of all people they should be in the office dealing with the consequences their "smart policy" has wrought.

[Internet sloth]

Who needs fentanyl when there’s the Volokh conspiracy?

[y81]

I don't understand this. San Francisco is sanctuary city which has defunded its police. It should be a paradise, if you listen to Profs. Kerr, Somin, Bernstein et al. What went wrong?