The $700-a-month Mint Plaza Pods downtown, currently occupied by a group of AI founders, techies and other budget-conscious tenants, appear to violate San Francisco's building code on several counts.

A week after proceedings were opened against the company, the Mint Plaza capsule hotel received a summons from the building inspection authority on Tuesday.

The installation of the sleeping pods on the top floor of the building violates building codes as it is “an illegal change” from a commercial and office building with a maximum capacity of 50 people to a residential building. The building was previously a location of the San Francisco Fire Credit Union.

Inspectors also found that a bathroom in the basement had been converted from a toilet to a shower stall – another violation.

In addition, the Mint Plaza complex violated a safety clause in the city's building code, requiring a key to exit the front door of the condominium, which city inspectors said poses “a life safety risk.”

Brownstone Shared Housing, which manages the facility, or owner Elsey Partners must file a change of use permit, building permit and plumbing permit to ensure the pods and converted shower are above ground. Alternatively, the pods can be removed and the shower converted back to a toilet.

To comply, the lock must be replaced within five days with one that does not require a key to open, the permit must be submitted within 30 days, and all work to correct the violations must be completed within 90 days. If the problems are not corrected, fines that increase over time may be imposed in addition to an existing fine based on the amount of work done without a permit.

Last year, Palo Alto authorities issued citations to a similar housing complex operated by Brownstone. In a recent interview with the Mountain View Voice, Brownstone co-founders Christina Lennox and James Stallworth said they had corrected the violations and expected city action against their unit.

“We're not trying to break any laws or anything like that,” Stallworth said. “We're just trying to give people a home.”

A representative for Brownstone did not respond to a request for comment.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the nature of the violations cited against the building.

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All-Star Mechanical is more than your average HVAC company. Aside from promoting its heating and cooling services, the Lansing-based company’s social media presence is also dedicated to promoting civil rights, social justice, and dismantling systemic racism. The company recently went viral on Twitter when someone posted a picture of an ad they published in a local paper.

“I can’t pretend like everything is ok,” the ad reads. “Gun fetishes are being prioritized, women are no longer in control of their own bodies. The earth is heating up. Black and Brown people are still being killed, brutalized, or otherwise harassed. Honestly, at this point, who gives a SH*T about HVAC. But if you’re hot, give us a call.”

All Star Mechanical more like No Fucks Mechanical pic.twitter.com/aIHY23IzMF

— Biblically Accurate Hard Seltzer (@VernorsHerzog) June 30, 2022

Metro Times caught up with owner Larry Kirchoff, who explains how All-Star Mechanical became a “company with a conscience.” Kirchoff says he went into business in 2007 with no other intentions other than providing homeowners with care. In 2012 though, that all changed.

“I lived without having any real knowledge of what privilege was, up until Trayvon Martin was [shot],” he tells Metro Times. “It wasn’t even necessarily that he was killed. It was more the reaction when he was killed, and how they labeled him as a thug or labeled him as, you know, some sort of — it just was a stereotype. And then the people that sort of lifted George Zimmerman up as some sort of vigilante hero — so that was the first point at which I ever thought, ‘This isn’t right.’”

From that moment, Kirchoff says he dedicated himself to learning more about systemic racism, civil rights, and social justice, using his business’s social media pages as a catalyst for discussion, and educating others.

When NFL player Colin Kapernick was criticized for kneeling to protest police brutality, Kirchoff was inspired to go to a Black Lives Matter rally. “That was the moment at which I said to myself, ‘I’ve got to do something,'” he says. “I can’t sit here in silence and watch people grieve, and you know, the next person and the next hashtag.”

Kirchoff’s world expanded as he studied the nuances of politics and the systems in place used to oppress marginalized communities.

In 2020, when the pandemic was changing the fabric of society, not only because of the deadly virus but also the BLM protests sweeping the nation, Kirchoff took to the streets of Lansing and offered aid to those who needed repairs done on their home. Kirchoff was working for free, and asking that clients donate to a cause they felt was making a positive impact.

It was not only through acts of service that Kirchoff worked to unify his community. Starting in 2021, he anonymously took out full-page ads to advertise his business and make social commentary on the current political and national climate, signing the ads with “BMF” — Bad MotherFucker. The ads would read something like “Black Lives Matter.” Kirchoff would change them weekly throughout the year, and as time went on, Kirchoff decided that he would create these ads with All-Star fully backing the messages.

This change caused Kirchoff’s business to gain more attention, as readers began to share and post the ads, gaining traction over the internet during the Fourth of July weekend.

Throughout his journey, Kirchoff cites Kaepernick as the force that has inspired him the most.

“I have the number seven on all of my trucks. I have the number seven on my work attire,” he says, a reference to Kaepernick’s jersey number. “Colin Kaepernick is the single most influential person in my path. He knew what was going to happen if he took a knee, and he did it anyway. And I really, I can’t think of another person living in my lifetime that has made such a huge impact, and is still largely criticized.”

The most important work Kirchoff says he did was investigating his internal biases, and learning how to address them. This process literally changed his mindset to be more aware of the ideas taught to the youth, and the stereotypes and rumors that continue to spread.

Kirchoff hopes what others take away from his messages is that education is the pillar of the motivation for change and growth.

“We have to get critical race theory into schools and into young children,” he says. “I mean, children are resilient, and they will see what is the truth, unless we deny them that. And that’s what we’ve done, we’ve really just denied the truth to generations of children in this country. I’m one of them. I mean, what I know now, if I had known then, I probably would have spoken out much sooner. If [more people] knew then what I know now, maybe we wouldn’t be in this position. Maybe Colin Kaepernick wouldn’t have had to take a knee. I mean, he’s not saying anything different than Muhammad Ali said. My hope is that there’ll be some policy change, so that we can make these corrections at the root of the problem, and then people will come together, I’m sure of it. But the other part of that is for people now who see what’s happening, but don’t say anything. I think the silence is deafening.”

Kirchoff is determined to help give a voice to those who are often spoken over and ignored, and want to see people grow and learn how to address their behaviors and strive to create equality across the board. However, along with his activism, he’s still promoting his HVAC business. Currently, All-Star Mechanic only serves the Lansing area, but you can follow their social media platforms, where Kirchoff continues to create important discourse around social issues. You can follow their Facebook page where Kirchoff posts regularly.

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When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many hospitals struggled to find negative pressure rooms approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the sudden influx of COVID-19 patients. However, many hospital systems had a very limited number of negative pressure rooms (Table). One of the main considerations was the recirculation of air. If the air used is not 100% outside air, would the air being recirculated transport viral-containing particles from one patient room to the next?

A recent study, “Requirements to Reduce Viral Pathogen Transmission in Health Care HVAC Systems,” presented at the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Spring conference, held April 12-14 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, explained that the viral-containing Particles can be transported through the HVAC system even with high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters. The study was presented by Werner Bischoff, MD, MS, PHD, MS, the medical director of infection prevention and health system epidemiology at the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital System and a professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine.

“CDC sets [a limited] risk of transmission of pathogens that are emitted from one patient inside a patient room that is then transferred through a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system back to maybe an adjacent patient room or an entire unit,” Bishoff told Infection Control Today ® (ICT®) in an exclusive interview. “What you don’t want is to have a tone of transmissions and in a very closed-up area through the HVAC system.”

For the first time, this study demonstrates that “viral containing particles can be transported via a hospital HVAC system from one patient room to the next,” Bishoff wrote in the study. “Taking into account the loss of virus within the HVAC system, the combination of MERV8+MERV16 filters reduces the virus burden reaching an adjacent room to levels well below the human infectious dosages for influenza and other highly infective viruses. Our findings indicate that MERV8+MERV16 filters provide protection against virus transmission through HVAC systems and are a cost-conscious alternative to HEPA filters.”

Considering future investigations, Bishoff said to ICT®, “I think it would be nice to look at the more novel technologies that are coming out [like] neurons that are highly promoted, especially by industry—that is ionization…Mechanical ventilation isn’t established [with] These newer technologies, we need a lot more data to say that [air filtration systems] are really safe and do what they promised to do.” Previously, ICT® has reported on this topic here, here, and here.

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Well-composed aerial photographs of San Francisco, notably those with the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park featured as central subjects, are known to garner literally tens of thousands of likes and comments and shares across social media. (Our The Bay Area Snapshot series contains more than a handful of profiles of such images.) But on occasion, one of them tends to stick out above the proverbial fray. It sits differently on our eyes; it lands in our souls with perfect form. These specific stills remind us — in the flicker of a scrolling LED screen — just how fortunate we are to call the Bay Area home.

A recent snap of this grade, which was taken 5,000-feet above the Golden Gate Bridge and about three miles offshore, made rounds on Twitter and Instagram for its awe-inspiring nature.

“It’s amazing the response and amount of kind words I’ve gotten about this photo,” Oren Rubinstein, the photographer behind the still, told The Bold Italic in an email. “It reminds me of just how much a picture can mean to so many people — and take you completely by surprise.”

A Bay Area local for over thirty years, Rubinstein says that he’s been shooting pictures on an almost daily basis for many years now. His subjects? The region’s cornucopia of natural wonders and urban fixations.

“I’m intrigued by the natural beauty of the Bay Area, and how the urban/suburban landscape integrates within the canvas of the land, ocean, and bay waters,” he says. “Having lived on the coast-side for the past 20-years, the natural focus for me has been looking west towards the sea and northwest to the Gulf of the Farallones.”

With regards to this specific shot, Rubinstein (as well as TBI) like that the picture completely ignores downtown and SoMa, trading towering metropolitan sprawl for San Francisco’s more leveled, greener neighborhoods, like the Sunset District. There’s an uncanny feeling of unchanged-ness in this image — Golden Gate Park sitting largely as it has been for over 150 years; the Golden Gate Bridge still wearing its iconic red hues coming up for now 90 years — even though so much has shifted in SF.

“The ‘small towns’ of the Richmond and Sunset districts, feel connected and ‘bridged’ to that golden beauty of the Bay and beyond by the Golden Gate Bridge,” he adds in closing, before waxing on a bit more gratitude for how widely admired the picture has been.

When asked if we would like to have a more high-resolution photo of the image to use, Rubinstein noted that he actually preferred the more “paint-like” quality of the original photo. We’d have to agree with him, as we imagine other fans of the still—who’ve collectively liked and shared this photograph tens of thousands of times on Twitter, alone—do, too.

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — It’s Sept. 13, 2020, and San Francisco 49ers left tackle Trent Williams hasn’t played a meaningful snap of football in 623 days.

Getting through the opener against the visiting Arizona Cardinals without incident would be cause for celebration for Williams, who was diagnosed with a rare cancerous growth on his head in January 2019.

For as quiet as Williams can be, his game has always spoken much louder, and he showed that 18 snaps into his emotional return. Williams threw a block on Arizona linebacker Jordan Hicks so jarring that social media and the internet immediately exploded in a way normally reserved for a Kardashian or, at least, a Mahomes.

In San Francisco’s locker room, Williams’ phone blew up. The texts came in waves as his block made the rounds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and everything in between. A version of the block on “The Checkdown” Twitter account garnered 1.8 million views.

By the time Williams looked at it, he had played 62 snaps in a loss and had almost forgotten what happened. The 100-plus text messages offered a reminder. What he saw in his Twitter mentions ensured he wouldn’t forget.

“It went crazy,” Williams said. “Social media and all that s— went to a whole different level. I was surprised to kind of see the reaction by it.”

I felt this Trent Williams block from here @TrentW71 @49ers

(h/t @geoffschwartz) pic.twitter.com/OkK5pmdsP5

— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) September 13, 2020

Traditionally, offensive linemen only grab attention for the wrong reasons. But when the 49ers visit the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs (4:30 p.m. ET, CBS), Williams, who the Niners are optimistic will return from a sprained elbow for his first playoff game since 2016, will be one of the stars.

Joe Staley, the left tackle who preceded Williams with the Niners, went to six Pro Bowls, but ask Staley his most buzzworthy moment and he will instantly bring up the 2014 game against the Denver Broncos in which DeMarcus Ware beat him with a fake spin move.

Yes, even the best tackles get beat, but the hope is to avoid having the GIF vultures and meme leeches take notice.

Unless, of course, you’re Williams, a 6-foot-5, 320-pound tackle who has been clocked running 19.9 mph in a game, casually bench presses 400-plus pounds and has earned a reputation as such a dominant offensive tackle that he has brought linemen out of anonymity and into the spotlight.

“The things that Trent does, they are truly special,” Niners left guard Laken Tomlinson said. “Not hearing your name called, I think, is a good thing when it comes to offensive linemen. Obviously not for Trent, because he’s a superstar.”

‘That man has a family’

Illustration by ESPN

On a recent fall afternoon, Williams sits down and walks ESPN through the block on Hicks, step by step.

The play is a simple gap scheme run in which the right guard, Williams and Tomlinson are going to each take one of three defenders. Before the snap, Williams notes what is called a “guard bubble” in which nobody is lined up over Tomlinson. That alerts Williams to the fact that there’s nobody in his “gap,” which means he might have the chance to run free at Hicks, who is lined up about 7 yards away.

Williams’ hopes aren’t up just yet, though, as he is waiting to see if pre-snap motion will cause a defensive realignment. As Williams drops to a three-point stance, he realizes that isn’t happening.

Although Williams knows he is going to get a head of steam before the snap, he’s still expecting Hicks to see him in time to evade a clean shot. At the snap, Williams sees Hicks peeking at right guard Daniel Brunskill pulling from the opposite side.

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As Williams strides toward Hicks, Williams still expects to be noticed before he can make contact. It’s not until he is about 2 yards away that Williams realizes he’s going to get the kind of free block linemen dream about. He runs clean through Hicks, planting him just inside the 15-yard line.

“He looked at me like, ‘What the hell?'” Williams said. “I just got on him so quick. He’s not used to that.”

Chad Orzel, an associate professor of physics at New York’s Union College, broke down the block from the perspective of Hicks, who is listed at 6-foot-1, 237 pounds.

According to Orzel’s frame-by-frame breakdown of the play, Williams fires out of his stance and gets up to around 5 meters in 1.2 seconds and is in contact with Hicks for roughly 0.2 seconds, during which he drives Hicks backward by just more than a yard from more or less a standing start. That’s an acceleration rate of about 25 meters per second squared or almost 2.6 times the acceleration of gravity.

For a point of comparison, Orzel said that level of acceleration is a bit like what you’d feel if you were running at a wall at about 10 mph and stopped yourself with your arms or if you stopped something moving at 20 mph over a distance of about 10 feet.

“This is a nice illustration of the usual advice about big guys in football, namely that you don’t want to let them get up a head of steam,” Orzel said. “It’s a lot easier to keep them from getting started than to stop them once they’re moving.”

Or if you’d prefer your explanation in viral terms, Williams points to his favorite social media response to the block.

“People kept saying, ‘That man has a family,'” Williams said, laughing.

The evolution of the viral block

“When I saw Walter Jones, I just became obsessed with him,” Trent Williams said. “I just watched the Seahawks every time I could.” AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Long before social media existed, the only way for a young offensive lineman to watch and learn from those who came before him was to locate a VHS instructional tape, use a VCR and hope to pick up some pointers.

For an aspiring offensive tackle named Walter Jones in Aliceville, Alabama, a copy of “The Fundamental of Offensive Line Play,” starring then future Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive tackle Anthony Munoz, was the only option.

Jones watched the tape repeatedly, studying everything from footwork to stances to hand placement. He watched it until the tape fell apart. The tape meant so much to Jones, who would go on to the Hall of Fame himself after nine Pro Bowls playing left tackle for the Seattle Seahawks, he is still searching for a copy.

“Every time I see Anthony Munoz, I say, ‘I know you’ve got that VHS somewhere in your garage or your basement or somewhere,'” Jones said. “That’s something I would love to have to put in my trophy case.”

Such relics are a product of a bygone era in which offensive linemen were rarely seen and heard even less. Until Jones and his contemporaries came along. Drafted over a two-year period starting in 1996, Jonathan Ogden, Orlando Pace and Jones introduced the world to a new breed of offensive tackle.

As a freshman at Longview (Texas) High School in 2003, Williams was just beginning to wrap his mind around playing offensive line. In pee wee football, he had started out as a running back but quickly grew too heavy. In middle school, he harbored dreams of playing tight end like his father, but Williams was bigger than most of the other kids, and his coach suggested tackle.

Your daily reminder that Trent Williams is a BEAST @TrentW71 @49ers

: #LVvsSF on @nflnetwork (or check local listings) pic.twitter.com/rLBMFDcOfl

— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) August 29, 2021

By the time he reached high school, the Longview coaching staff told Williams he could be a rotational tight end or a starting tackle. The choice was easy once Williams understood how the likes of Pace and Ogden were changing the game.

But when Williams watched the top tackles, it was Jones he couldn’t stop watching. Williams saw that Jones was a few inches shorter than Ogden and Pace but a dynamic athlete. At the time, Williams wore No. 70 because his brother also wore it and his mom wanted to buy only one shirt she could wear to the varsity and JV or freshman games.

“Then when I saw Walter Jones, I just became obsessed with him,” Williams said. “I just watched the Seahawks every time I could. Then I switched my number to 71, kind of like wanting to be my own self and get up out of my brothers’ footsteps but then also paying tribute to my idol. That’s kind of how I learned it. When they told me that’s where I’d be, that’s who I wanted to learn from.”

Finding Seahawks games wasn’t always easy, but whenever he could, Williams would study Jones.

One game that wasn’t hard to find: the 2005 NFC Championship Game. It was the day Jones’ Seahawks advanced to their first Super Bowl, but it was also the day Jones delivered the biggest block of his career, one that undoubtedly would have had him trending had it taken place a decade later.

Like Williams, Jones’ biggest block also happened to come on the final play of the first quarter, a handoff to running back Shaun Alexander designed to go around the left side. After engaging the Carolina Panthers’ Mike Rucker, a 6-foot-5, 275-pound lineman who had a solid, nine-year career, Jones got to Rucker’s outside shoulder and exploded forward, driving Rucker from Carolina’s 18-yard line to the 3-yard line before putting him on his back as Alexander gained 15 yards.

“That’s one of those blocks that you take with you forever,” Jones said. “I played 13 years, and that’s the only one that really stands out, so that just tells you how tough it is to do that in the NFL.”

Of course, while Jones might only really remember that one, there were plenty of others. The difference is he played in an era when such blocks weren’t quickly clipped and posted for the world to consume.

The first viral block Williams even remembers seeing was Dallas Cowboys guard La’el Collins wiping out multiple Seahawks in 2015.

“It just sort of happened recently where people are paying attention to the trenches and how physical it can get in there and how much we can affect the outcome of the game,” Williams said.

Redefining the position

“Trent is a very unique player at his position in that he’s been probably the best athlete for about a decade at the position,” 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel said. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

When the 49ers signed Williams to a record-setting deal averaging more than $23 million a year in March, coach Kyle Shanahan said one of the things he was most excited about was all the ways they could use Williams in the offense.

That’s not something you often hear about an offensive tackle, but it’s something Shanahan and offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel don’t shy away from because it challenges them to think about what Williams makes possible.

“Trent is a very unique player at his position in that he’s been probably the best athlete for about a decade at the position,” McDaniel said. “What people don’t realize is that Trent is very mindful about his craft. … Unparalleled talent in conjunction with a guy that it means a lot to, that is trying to be the best of the best each and every day. That’s meant a lot for our team and allowed us to do a lot of cool things with him this season and we’ll hopefully continue to do.”

While the Arizona block remains Williams’ career favorite, he has made a habit of going viral. There was the big block to free quarterback Trey Lance at the goal line for a touchdown in Week 3 this season. And the many times Williams has taken a grown man and tossed him to the ground.

TREY LANCE.@49ers | #FTTB

NBC and @peacockTV pic.twitter.com/4mZhKMAuId

— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) September 27, 2021

The easy assumption is Williams uses his size and strength to make that happen, but as he tells it, none of those viral blocks would even have been possible without doing the mental legwork first. On any given play, Williams said his primary concern is getting to his assignment and that he’s never thinking in advance about leveling a defender with a crushing block.

“Sometimes, you have got the perfect angle to take advantage and be physical,” Williams said. “Sometimes, you have got to kind of approach it with white gloves so that you don’t miss.”

It’s not until Williams is engaged and on top of his assignment that he can flip the switch and do something that might set the internet abuzz.

“For offensive line, I know the pancake blocks and s— are real thrilling. But for me, I never go in looking to annihilate somebody; it just has to happen in the context of the play,” Williams said.

And yet, Williams seems to find a way to provide those thrills more often than any lineman in the league. It’s why teammates find themselves marveling at what Williams does both in real time and when they relive previous games on film.

“Trent is one of one,” 49ers tight end George Kittle said. “On the football field, off the football field, everything he does, there’s no one else that can do what he does and play at the level he does. He’s an incredible monster.”

At 33, Williams seems to be at the top of his game. This season, he earned his ninth Pro Bowl selection, and he is on pace to become the highest-graded player regardless of position in the history of Pro Football Focus. He already has set a new bar for other tackles to reach financially, and he has no designs on slowing down any time soon.

All of which is why the man Williams grew up idolizing believes he’ll one day welcome Williams to Canton, Ohio, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame as one of the best to ever do it.

“I love to see the guys who have swag, and I think Trent — it’s just a different swag when you see it on the film,” Jones said. “A lot of times with offensive linemen, we don’t want to be noticed at all. We want to go out and play football. But I tell people all the time that offensive lineman can be rock stars now.”

The post Why San Francisco 49ers deal with Trent Williams and his blocks went viral appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

HALEDON, NJ (CBSNewYork) – A new, destructive TikTok craze leads teenagers to steal and damage property in schools.

From stealing school supplies to devastating bathrooms, students across the country are jumping on a TikTok viral trend.

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Parents and teachers can also quickly get a crash course.

“This phenomenon was completely unknown to me. Lo and behold, the very next day we experienced some form of slight vandalism, ”said Chris Wacha, Headmaster of Haledon Public School.

Wacha said the day after his son warned him about a challenge called “Devious Licks” last week, someone caused $ 400 water damage in the boys’ bathroom.

“It’s not good. They have to close that. They need parents of the children who come in and explain. This is serious business,” said parent Florencio Hernandez.

“There is a reaction for every action. So if you do something that is not cool, something not cool is going to happen to you, ”added Machanga Blackmon, mother.

In Connecticut, some school administrators are taking drastic action, joining Senator Richard Blumenthal in the state capital on Monday to call for a ban on TikTok users who have participated in the trend.

CONTINUE READING: Neighbors drop charges of “harmful” nuisance at Napa County’s composting facility

“Theft and vandalism are literally glorified. The viral videos show the students who steal as heroes, ”said Blumenthal.

The social media site says it has already taken steps to stop the trend by removing content.

If you search for the hashtag “Devious Licks”, you will see a message saying “No results found”.

In Haledon, those responsible were disciplined. The superintendent said the key to preventing future vandalism lies in the children.

“I want them to go through the entire decision-making process, analyze and think independently,” said Wacha.

The process begins with parents talking to their children.

MORE NEWS: San Jose State University pays student-athletes $ 1.6 million for ignoring allegations of sexual assault and harassment

Blumenthal said there have been over 94,000 of these viral videos nationwide in the past few months.

The post TikTok Beneath Fireplace Over ‘Devious Licks’ Viral Problem Inspiring College students To Vandalize Faculty Bogs – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO – A barrage of masked and hooded shoplifters sprinted downtown getaway cars with armfuls of designer handbags from a Neiman Marcus downtown last week – a scene captured on video that raised fears that thieves’ rings were raiding retail stores.

The incident, which is still under investigation, was just the latest to give a sense of the lawlessness that is rampant in San Francisco stores, where people were caught on record openly wiping products with seemingly no effect.

But city guides are pushing that image back after a mid-year public safety report was released Monday. Police data shows total thefts decreased 9 percent in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2020 when the city was on lockdown and many businesses closed at the start of the pandemic.

San Francisco Police Chief William Scott and the Mayor of London Breed admitted that the total number of violent and property crimes has decreased, although some crimes have increased, including serious assaults, murders and incidents involving guns.

“The statistics contradict the story,” Scott said at a press conference, admitting that some crimes may go unreported.

“Unfortunately, we have received a lot of negative attention when it comes to crime,” added Breed. “What doesn’t attract attention is that if you come to San Francisco and commit a crime, you will be arrested by this department.”

Retail thefts have attracted the most attention on social media due to the series of videos. But San Francisco isn’t the only city grappling with the problem: in Seattle, police last month said they had more than 50 arrests related to coordinated thefts at nine major retailers and grocery stores, as well as in Albuquerque, New Mexico The top of the state, prosecutors, police and wholesalers announced this month a partnership to fight “organized retail crime”.

In recent years, some retail stores have placed not only high-end items but also everyday items like toothpaste and shampoo behind security locks. But chains say even more drastic measures are needed.

Target said earlier this month that six San Francisco locations had closed four hours early after a “significant and alarming increase in theft and security incidents in these stores,” NBC Bay Area reported.

Both CVS and Walgreens say shoplifting in San Francisco outperforms thefts in their stores across the country. In October, California’s attorney general announced the disbanding of a large theft ring in the Bay Area that allegedly stole $ 8 million worth of goods from Target, CVS and Walgreens and then sold them in other countries and washed the proceeds back to the United States became states.

In an interview with NBC News last week, Scott suggested that California Proposition 47, passed by voters in 2014 lowering the penalties for certain non-violent crimes, such as shoplifting and check forgery, is being exploited by those trying to commit theft. The initiative set a $ 950 shoplifting threshold, which is considered a misdemeanor that does not induce law enforcement to arrest, rather than a crime that could result in harsh penalties such as jail time.

“Some people say, ‘Hey, you know, I don’t want to go over $ 950 so let me steal $ 949 worth of property,'” said Scott.

“If it is a crime, our officials can take action,” he added. “But if it’s an offense, that arrest has to be the arrest of a private individual. And that makes a difference because you have to be ready to do it.”

Store workers are often uncomfortable meddling, and some retailers have an increased security presence but with limited results.

“Think of these people in these stores who are witnessing these crimes. They are also affected,” said Rachel Michelin, president and CEO of the California Retailers Association, a trade group.

connected

She said retailers are doing their best but are concerned that some city guides have been gentler on arrests.

City prosecutor Chesa Boudin, who took office in January 2020 on a progressive platform pledging to fight incarceration rates and support diversion programs, was the focus of a recall following complaints about the city’s rising crime rate.

Rachel Marshall, a prosecutor’s spokeswoman, said in an email Monday that it was serious about destroying “shameless” networks of organized thieves and working with the California Highway Patrol’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force to stop the rings.

Bill, through state law and endorsed by the California Retailers Association, would renew and fund the Organized Retail Crime Task Force through the end of 2025 and focus on “ringleaders and conspirators of these criminal networks, not the low-level petty thief ” focus. One company that was dissolved was valued at $ 50 million.

“The balance here is to provide a level of public safety to ensure consumers don’t get caught in the middle of an ongoing theft by providing law enforcement with adequate resources to resolve organized retail crime before planning a crime series Rep. Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Democrat representing parts of Los Angeles, said.

Criminal justice experts say if California officials agree that moving away from mass incarceration and toward decriminalizing low-level crime is imperative, then it is important to track down the bosses and co-conspirators rather than focus on the shoplifters themselves who may paid youth and homeless, officials said.

Charis Kubrin, a professor of criminology, law, and society at the University of California, Irvine who studied the effects of Proposition 47, noted that the initiative had no impact on most crimes in the course of the year after it was passed and while it was still The whole country had a modest increase in thefts and car thefts, it was too small to draw any significant conclusions.

A similar study in the Journal of Criminal Justice published this month found that Proposition 47 and another related reform bill have successfully helped reduce the number of state prisons and that the increase in crime that the initiatives may be involved in the Los Angeles area were “generally small”.

“Evidence seems to be mounting that Prop 47 is not the culprit, or at least not the main culprit,” said Kubrin, adding that criminal justice reforms have become “a scapegoat” to accuse high crime perceptions.

California, she added, has seen its property and violent crime drop to historic lows in some cases in recent years when the state reformed. However, more research is needed, Kubrin said, to see the impact something like Proposition 47 has on San Francisco and other local communities.

“Nobody cares about big, comprehensive statistics,” she said. “They care what happens in their backyard.”

On Monday, Scott said officials in San Francisco were being deployed to even more crime-ridden neighborhoods. However, he also admitted that it was difficult to recruit new police officers for the city department, which is still short of hundreds of officers in a climate where policing continues to be scrutinized.

“Robbery is one of the categories that police officers play a role in on the street,” he told reporters.

Ambrosio Rodriguez, a criminal defense attorney and former assistant district attorney in Los Angeles, said cities like San Francisco, battling over policing amid appeals amid rising crime rates, are facing the need to see the public at large in relation to smaller, “victimless” individuals is willing to tolerate “Crime over the general quality of life is an issue.

“I think no one is going to have a lot of empathy for Neiman Marcus, but that doesn’t matter,” said Rodriguez. “There are shops there too. So when people stop going to Neiman Marcus and closing the stores in the area, it will have a greater impact on other businesses and the perception of whether a place is safe to visit. “

“The San Franciscans have to choose what to endure,” he added.

Erik Ortiz reported from New York and Jacob Ward from San Francisco.

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Elon Musk confirmed that he is now selling his last house in San Francisco, although it is a very special place for him.

“I’ve decided to sell my last house. I just have to live with a big family that will live there. It’s a special place,” said Elon Musk on his official Twitter account.

(Photo: Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
Spacex founder Elon Musk celebrates after the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the manned space probe Crew Dragon on May 30, 2020 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Earlier in the day, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley took off on a maiden flight and will be the first humans since the space shuttle program ended in 2011.

Some of his fans were very happy as he kept the promise he made back in May 2020. It all started with him saying that he was already planning to remove all of his physical possessions, including his homes.

Although this is the case, some have criticized his decision, especially since he already has a son with Grimes, who has been Elon Musk’s girlfriend for around three years.

“Where will Grimes & X Æ A-12 live if you don’t own houses?” said @ KaylaHungerfor2 in the comment section.

“It seems a little early to sell your house (s) if you plan to move to Mars. Don’t ask for an address, just be curious,” added the Twitter user.

Why does Elon Musk want to sell all of his properties?

According to the latest report from The US Sun, Elon Musk explained in an interview the reason he wanted to sell all of his possessions. SpaceX’s CEO said he believes physical properties are only weighing on his income.

(Photo: Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk leaves federal court on April 4, 2019 in New York City. A federal judge heard oral arguments this afternoon in a lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to convict Musk of violating a settlement agreement.

Also Read: Elon Musk: Tesla Allows Leading Cryptocurrency Transactions When Mining Is 50% Clean Energy, Only Confirms 10% Sale

Musk even referred to these things as an attack vector. Based on his belief, he has previously stated that two of his California homes are already on the market.

That said, Tesla’s CEO sold his Bel-Air mansion back in 2020, which cost more than $ 29 million. Meanwhile, Elon Musk estimated he was able to sell six of his properties in the past 13 months, for a total of $ 114 million.

Because of this, the tech giant’s CEO decided to move to Texas into a house costing about $ 50,000. This is exactly in Boca, Chica, Texas.

Other activities by Musk

In addition to selling his real estate, Elon Musk also participates in the rise and fall of cryptocurrencies. Fortune reported that one of its bitcoin tweets increased Tesla’s holdings to around $ 143 million.

This is not surprising as it has already increased the value of Dogecoin with just one SpaceX tweet. Who knows what will happen in the next few days.

For more news on Elon Musk and other activities that surround him, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related article: Tesla’s Elon Musk mocks “anonymous” hacktivists, reveals Miley Cyrus’ “real identity” [UPDATE]

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