The people of San Francisco deserve better. They need real solutions for the city’s crime problem, not political posturing from their elected officials. Unfortunately, it seems like Supervisor Hillary Ronen is more interested in saving face than actually working to make San Francisco safer.
Ronen, a Democrat and the Supervisor for District 9, recently made an impassioned plea to add more officers to the Mission District – despite advocating to defund the police in 2020. In a Budget and Appropriations Committee meeting, she attacked San Francisco’s police chief for spending a large amount of overtime on an anti-retail theft program instead of prioritizing police presence in her district.
“I’ve been begging this department to give the Mission what it deserves in terms of police presence all year long,” Ronen said.
Yet, this is the same person who in 2020 tweeted that she believes “strongly” that San Francisco’s police force needs to be reduced. That same year, Mayor London Breed redirected $120 million from law enforcement to fund other city initiatives.
The consequences of this decision are now painfully clear. Crime in San Francisco has been steadily rising over the past year and homicides increased 17% in 2021 compared to the previous year. In February, officers responded to a burglary more than 15 hours after the 911 call was made.
Yet, despite the obvious need for more police officers and the poor state of law enforcement in the city, Ronen is singing a different tune. She wants more police in her district despite having voted to defund them. It’s a classic case of political opportunism, and it is doing nothing to help the people of San Francisco.
It’s time for Supervisor Hillary Ronen to stop playing politics and actually do something to make San Francisco safer. The people of San Francisco deserve better. We need law and order, and we need leaders who are willing to put their money where their mouth is to fight crime.
I want to make it clear that I believe strongly in defunding the police and reducing the number of officers on our force. For decades we’ve had an imbalance in our city’s budget, with hundreds of millions of dollars going to SFPD to have them do work they are not qualified to do.
— Hillary Ronen (@HillaryRonen) August 17, 2020
We can’t allow the Democrats and their defund the police movement to take away our safety and security. We need to stand up and demand law and order.
. We need to show our elected officials that we won’t stand for their hypocrisy and political posturing any longer. It’s time for real solutions, not empty promises. The people have to start voting these clowns out of office.