{"id":28704,"date":"2023-09-23T12:49:09","date_gmt":"2023-09-23T19:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=28704"},"modified":"2023-09-23T12:49:12","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T19:49:12","slug":"drug-crackdown-has-sparked-violent-turf-warfare-in-central-san-francisco-supervisor-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/09\/23\/drug-crackdown-has-sparked-violent-turf-warfare-in-central-san-francisco-supervisor-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug\u00a0Crackdown Has Sparked Violent Turf Warfare in Central San Francisco, Supervisor Says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sylvie Sturm\/San Francisco Public Press<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harm reduction advocates, addiction experts, lawmakers, drug users and supporters rally at San Francisco City Hall on Aug. 31, international drug overdose awareness day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

09.18.2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0|\u00a0by\u00a0SYLVIE STURM<\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0|\u00a0<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is adapted from an episode of our podcast \u201c<\/em>Civic<\/em><\/a>.\u201d<\/em> Click the audio player below to hear the full story.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A drug crackdown in the Tenderloin and South of Market has resulted in more than 600 arrests, with authorities seizing more than 200 pounds of fentanyl since the initiative launched in May, Mayor London Breed told the Board of Supervisors during a public meeting on Sept 12. But not all board members were impressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coordinated effort, involving city and state law enforcement agents, appears to be leading to violent clashes, said Supervisor Dean Preston, whose district includes the Tenderloin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re poking a hornet\u2019s nest,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cThere are increased turf wars that are occurring because you have a raid here, and another group moves in. I mean, we\u2019ve had gunfire and a murder during the middle of the day.\u201d 
https:\/\/player.simplecast.com\/8444777f-c385-4f28-82d6-6d61dff2ee02?dark=false<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Episode 3 of the podcast series, \u201cCriminalizing Drug Use: San Francisco and the Overdose Crisis,\u201d we take a look at the long, ignominious history and impact of drug criminalization in San Francisco and across the country. <\/em>Read our previous coverage<\/a> on this storyline.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Preston pointed to a report of a nonfatal shooting at Golden Gate Avenue and Leavenworth Street at 1 p.m. on July 18, and a fatal shooting at Golden Gate and Hyde Street at 6 p.m. on July 21. The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to questions regarding drug turf wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police effort also seems to be making little headway in its reported goals of reducing street-level drug activity, enrolling people with substance use disorder into drug treatment and mitigating overdose deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the chief medical examiner\u2019s office September report, 84 people died of accidental overdose in August for a total of 563 deaths so far this year. If the current pace of fatalities persists, the city could surpass its highest recorded number of overdose deaths in a calendar year \u2014 725 in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, people who openly sell drugs appear undeterred, said Alexandra Pray, an attorney for the Public Defender\u2019s Office and a Tenderloin resident. She said she would rather see more patrols rather than arrests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI walk to work every day, and I walked through just groups of young men huddled around, and I know what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Pray said. \u201cAnd I just don\u2019t know where the police are. It feels like the police are allowing this to happen, and then when they feel like it, they swoop in and pick people up, and we\u2019re not really solving the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with increased arrests of drug dealers, police have also been arresting people who use drugs under the new Intoxication Detention Pilot Program. The effort is meant to encourage people with substance use disorder to accept drug treatment. But the strategy has been ineffective so far, according to Police Chief Bill Scott. At a Sept. 3 Police Commission meeting, Scott said only two people arrested at that point had accepted treatment. When asked by Police Commissioner Max Carter-Oberston how long the \u201cexperiment\u201d of arresting people for drug use would continue, Scott suggested it was the only option available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUntil some other entity, other than the police department, deals with this issue, it really doesn\u2019t leave us with much of a choice,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carter-Oberston countered that the San Francisco Department of Public Health published a 2022 Overdose Prevention Plan with other ideas, but it is \u201cjust collecting dust.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI\u2019ve read it,\u201d Scott said. \u201cIt\u2019s a nice report.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"San
Sylvie Sturm \/ San Francisco Public PressThe San Francisco Police Department Tenderloin District Station on Eddy Street is in the heart of one of two neighborhoods targeted for a multi-agency drug crackdown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shannon Knox, director of the San Francisco Drug Users Union \u2014 an organization of drug users campaigning to de-stigmatize and improve the well-being of drug users \u2014 said it is no surprise that the police strategy has not worked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy and large, drug users are scared of the cops because the cops put them in jail and they remove them from their community,\u201d Knox said. \u201cSo, I don\u2019t think that they\u2019re a trusted presence for entering treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Street-level outreach workers are having more success. During her Sept. 12 discussion with supervisors, Breed said nine people who use drugs accepted treatment offered by outreach workers since the coordinated crackdown began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city and state\u2019s stepped-up law enforcement has raised comparisons with the War on Drugs, which began in 1971 under the Nixon administration and ramped up under presidents Reagan and Clinton, until it became widely denounced as ineffective and unjust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics say San Francisco\u2019s law enforcement approach to drugs disproportionately targets communities of color. While Black people are 5% of the city\u2019s population, they made up about one-third of arrests and a quarter of police stops in the first three months of this year, according to a police report<\/a>. According to last year\u2019s report<\/a>, Black people were 25 times more likely than white people to be handled by force. And Black people make up 43% of the county jail population, according to recent data from the San Francisco Sheriff Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update Sept. 19:<\/strong> This article was updated on Sept. 19 to reflect the latest preliminary data on accidental overdose deaths from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Series<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As San Francisco continues to search for solutions for homelessness and overdose deaths, the Public Press\u2019 \u201cCivic\u201d audio team is exploring the origins of these crises, what has been done to help and what might be making things worse.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout our six-episode series, we are exploring what influenced rampant opioid addiction and its connection to homelessness, the 150-year history of policing and prosecuting drugs in San Francisco, the long battle to open a safe consumption site in the city and grassroots efforts to curb the tide of deaths.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PART 1: San Francisco\u2019s Fatal Overdose Crisis Was Decades in the Making<\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
PART 2: SF \u2018Failing\u2019 on Housing as Overdose Solution, Health Expert Says<\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
PART 3: Drug Crackdown Has Sparked Violent Turf Warfare in Central San Francisco, Supervisor Says<\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

This series is underwritten by a California Health Equity Fellowship grant from the Annenberg <\/em>Center for Health Journalism<\/em><\/a> at the University of Southern California.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Interviewed in this episode<\/strong>:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n