{"id":41554,"date":"2025-05-30T13:06:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T20:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=41554"},"modified":"2025-05-30T13:06:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T20:06:28","slug":"cops-admit-they-just-move-drug-problem-from-one-neighborhood-to-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/05\/30\/cops-admit-they-just-move-drug-problem-from-one-neighborhood-to-another\/","title":{"rendered":"Cops admit they just move drug problem from one neighborhood to another"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A hearing on alternatives drug policies offers detailed solutions; Supervisor Bilal Mahmood was too busy at the new Nintendo store to show up.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Redmond<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

17 May 2025\u00a0\u2014\u00a048hills.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Woman
Sup. Jackie Fielder asked why the city\u2019s drug strategies are not working. Photo by Eddy Hernandez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The San Francisco Police Department admitted Thursday that its drug interdiction efforts are displacing dealing from one neighborhood to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commander Derrick Lew, who oversees the city\u2019s drug task force, said at a public hearing that moving users from one neighborhood to another\u2014say, from the Tenderloin to 16th and Mission\u2014is \u201ca known symptom of the plain fact that we don\u2019t have the resources to blanket the entire city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He talked about, for example, blanketing Union Square with cops, but said that \u201csuccess in that area will mean displacement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under questioning from Sup. Jackie Fielder, Lew said there is no solution to displacement (\u201cwe can\u2019t arrest everyone\u201d), but that \u201cdispersal,\u201d which means sending drug problems to a wider area, is \u201ceasier to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fielder noted that Assistant Chief David Lazar had earlier said that if treatment is not available, the police would arrest people, but not hold them; that is, they would be headed right back to the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you think it\u2019s an effective use of limited resources to just arrest people,\u201d Fielder asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do,\u201d Lew said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a remarkable hearing, one focused on Fielder\u2019s efforts to get the city to adopt the \u201cFour Pillars\u201d strategy<\/a> that has been so successful in other places, including Zurich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upshot of the hearing was that the city\u2019s current strategy isn\u2019t working\u2014and according to several public-health experts who testified, isn\u2019t going to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Programs that might work, including drug-use sites, are off the table right now, several members of the Drug Market Agency Coordination Center acknowledged. Some of that is because of threats from the Trump Administration, but it\u2019s also the result of Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoing legislation that would have allowed that effective alternative.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the city continues to try to arrest its way out of the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as numerous speakers noted, using the police to address addiction problems is counterproductive, since it tends to drive people away from the services they need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, since Mayor Daniel Lurie took office and moved to a police-first approach, the number of fentanyl deaths is up 50 percent<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government Audit and Oversight Committee hearing lasted several hours, and provided elected officials and the public a detailed discussion of one of the city\u2019s most pressing crises. As Fielder said in a press statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

This is about saving lives. Neither displacement nor dispersal is a strategy. This is responding to the reality<\/em> on our streets and about restoring dignity.  <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Sup. Bilal Mahmood, who was a co-sponsor of the hearing and whose district faces some of the most serious substance problems in the city, wasn\u2019t in the room. He was, however, available for the opening of a new Nintendo Store at Union Square, which was happening at the same time as the hearing. Sup. Danny Sauter, who is on the committee, left to go to that event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A hearing on alternatives drug policies offers detailed solutions; Supervisor Bilal Mahmood was too busy at the new Nintendo store to show up. Tim Redmond 17 May 2025\u00a0\u2014\u00a048hills.org The San Francisco Police Department admitted Thursday that its drug interdiction efforts are displacing dealing from one neighborhood to another. Commander Derrick… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41555,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41554\/revisions\/41555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}