San Francisco deploys National Guard in fight against drug zombies — but deals are still happening in the streets
San Francisco brought in the National Guard and California Highway Patrol this week to combat trafficking and drug-addled zombies in the city — but four days later, sources told The Post deals are still going down on the streets.
The struggling city finally announced it would take a tougher stance on crime after an exodus of retailers plagued by theft, dwindling tourism and 200 overdose deaths in three months which sources claim have put the city in a “doom loop.”
Mayor London Breed said using CHP officers and the National Guard as support to curb drug trafficking is the “aggressive step” the city needed to take.
However, the initial deployment consisted of just six CHP officers and 14 National Guardsmen.
The traffic officers were deployed to the Tenderloin and South Market districts, where open drug use has become rampant while the National Guard are providing “analytical support” to track drug deals that involve cartels.
With CHP handling traffic, beat cops are then able to focus on patrolling the streets and making arrests, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said.
However, Lt. Tracy McCray, vice president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, thinks it will make little difference.
“To be perfectly and brutally honest, do you think [drug abusers] are really counting the number of officers in the street,” she told The Post.
“That’s not happening and they don’t care. Right now, I see blocks in San Francisco where people are just using out in the open and there is no one telling them, ‘Hey, you shouldn’t be doing this.’
“That’s why they keep coming back day after day.”
Scott said some drugs arrests have been made since the CHP rollout but declined to give exact numbers at a police commission meeting on Wednesday, where he also clarified the National Guard’s support role.
“They are not going to be ‘boots on the ground’ … in the streets of San Francisco, no military equipment or anything. They are analytical and administrative support … and this is going to be an ongoing partnership,” Scott said.
JJ Smith, a long-time Tenderloin resident, agreed, saying a handful of extra officers won’t help address the drug crisis, which he claims is fueled by South American cartels.
Drug deals go down every day at all hours and even across the street from the federal building, Smith said.
“The city has invested millions of dollars into the homeless and drug crisis but none of it is working,” Smith said.
“I’m out here in the streets, talking to them every day. They tell me that there are no social workers or case managers coming up to them.”
Billionaire Michael Moritz also slammed the affect drug abuse was having on the city in February, saying “Fentanyl … has turned many blocks of the city into zombie zones.”
McCray said the city has an uphill battle, largely because drug abusers are sent right back to the streets after arrests.
She pointed to the 2014 passage of Proposition 47, which decriminalized simple drug possession offenses into misdemeanors and has had a lasting effect on San Francisco’s overdose and crime rates.
“This is the doom loop,” McCray said.
“At some point, we have to have these hard conversations
“We [the police] don’t really have the experience to deal with mental health issues you see happening.
“People who want to commit serious crimes against other human beings are having mental breakdowns and it kind of falls back on us [to deal with them].”
Since January, SFPD made more than 300 arrests for possession with intent to sell in the Tenderloin and SoMa districts.
Skeptics of the plan to use CHP officers say the city is just wasting even more money, pointing to the failed $22 million Tenderloin Linkage Center project, which shuttered 11 months after it opened in January 2022.
The Linkage Center was designed to address the spike in overdose deaths in the city by providing a place for the unhoused and drug-addicted to obtain services. However, in reality, addicts simply began openly using drugs inside the fenced area of the center.
In the first five months of its operation, more than 49,000 people used the center but only a 53 agreed to seek substance abuse treatment, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Overwhelmed by the number of people stealing and using drugs, flagship businesses like Whole Foods, Nordstrom, CVS and Amazon have left downtown San Francisco or announced their impending departure.
A total of 568 emergency calls were made to one Whole Foods location on Market Street over the 13 months it was open.
The calls varied from vagrants throwing food, fighting and even defecating on the floor.
More than 30 businesses have left or plan to leave the downtown corridor and San Francisco’s population fell by 6.3% to the lowest it’s been since 2010, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Businesses are leaving because they have to protect their customers and employees, so they have no choice,” said Smith, who himself was attacked in August by drug dealers.
“When you defund the police and politicize arrests, this is what happens.
“If you want it, fentanyl addicts know the place you can get it is in the Tenderloin.
“Since the pandemic started, the floodgates have been open and it hasn’t stopped.”
