Thread by @ShellenbergerMD

As prominent progressives deny any or significant crime increase in California, and any relationship between the addiction epidemic & homelessness, the state’s progressive fmr Sen. @BarbaraBoxer has been assaulted — one month after Gov @GavinNewsom was — randomly

https://twitter.com/mallorymoench/status/1419808718531686401

Progressives have been insisting that any perception of crime by people in California is all in our heads.

And yet crime is up. The king of crime, homicide, is up. Retail theft is up. People have stopped reporting crimes to police bc there’s nothing the police can do because stealing $950 of stuff is effectively legal, and the DA was elected on a platform of not enforcing shoplifting

https://twitter.com/steveadams80182/status/1419839445231042561

I would ask progressives what they hope to get out of gas-lighting the people of Calif. about crime. We’re not stupid. We believe our concerns are legitimate & calling us racist, uncaring right-wingers for expressing upset at rising assaults, thefts, and murders is insulting.

The data do in fact show an increase in homicide and larceny. And to the extent they don’t show as large of a one in shoplifting as we experience can be explained by less reporting and less enforcement.

Everyone — including the gas-lighters — know this perfectly well.

This is the ultimate in gas-lighting. Like rent didn’t rise in Miami and other warm cities as homelessness there declined. Like we’re not in an opioid epidemic. Like drug deaths didn’t rise from 18k in 2000 to 71k in 2019 to 93k in 2020

Gov @GavinNewsom was attacked by a mentally ill homeless man.

Progressives say it’s bc the state lacks money to house people like him.

But how could that be?

“There’s a shitload of money,” acknowledged the governor’s top mental health advisor to me

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-californ…

I would ask Democrats and progressives, including most journalists: how’s the strategy of denying crime, addiction, and mental illness working out for you? Do you think it’s endearing you to the public? Do you think denying, patronizing, & insulting people will work long-term?

If crime is down, then why are the politicians being assaulted, and spending much more on security?

San Francisco’s mayor is spending nearly 50% more, over 2014 levels, even as police are under-staffed and having their budget cut.

“Police for me but not for thee?”

That fair?

https://twitter.com/michelletandler/status/1419837115928653826

Progressives who live on hills here — Beverly Hills, Hollywood Hills, Laurel Canyon, Berkeley Hills, Marin — can escape it

When asked, they say, “I just try to avoid downtown these days” & “I don’t take public transit”

They plant their BLM signs & hope for the best

Naturally, it’s poorer, less white, and more working-class Californians who suffer from the rising crime that well-meaning but cocooned upper income and mostly white progressive Californians created over the last 50 years, and particularly the last 10

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-californ…

Here is the reality of what’s happening

https://twitter.com/shellenbergermd/status/1404597048901476357

No crime wave?

All just a moral panic?
Really?

“The attack took place just hours after Oakland’s top federal & local law enforcement representatives pledged to take a tougher stance against criminals to deter violence at a Monday news conference”

sfchronicle.com/bayarea/articl…

Who assaulted @GavinNewsom ?

“A homeless man who suffers from mental illness.”

The allegations were "consistent with his past behavior," his sister told told Associated Press.

nbcnews.com/news/us-news/m…

But if you dare mention a relationship between mental illness, homelessness and violence in California, progressives accuse you of hating mentally ill people and wishing violence against them.

That remains the case even today, weeks after the attack on our weak governor

“We’ve simply come to accept a level of violence in this country that much of the rest of the world can’t even imagine. Ignoring that level of human suffering is hardly progressive, and it isn’t hysterical to say so.”

@ZaidJilani

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…