Thread by @Twolfrecovery

I'm going to go on a little rant about politics and ideology in #SanFrancisco as it pertains to crime, homelessness and drugs. Mind you, I'm a biracial middle class male who 4+ years ago found myself homeless and badly addicted to heroin. 🧵 sfchronicle.com/opinion/editor…

Prior to falling into my addiction, I guess I thought I was a Progressive. I voted Democrat in every election since 1988. My dad was an old Teamster and a "Kennedy Democrat" and I grew up being told Reagan was the worst President in history.

Then in my 40's I fell out. I made some bad financial decisions and found myself at a dead-end county job with CCSF. I was unhappy, worried all the time about money, my marriage was tanking. Enter Oxycodone and everything changed.

I found an escape through self medication. Over the course of a few years I found myself so badly addicted to Opioids, I was taking 560mg a day just to function. I switched to heroin because it was cheaper, but it made things worse. And in January 2018, I found myself homeless.

I lived on the streets of the Tenderloin and found I could survive through "the hustle." I was a shoplifter, I stole from anyone I could, held drugs for the Honduran dealers. And it worked for a few months until I caught the eye of the police and got arrested for the first time.

I went through the system 6 times. And finally, mercifully, I was held accountable and had to sit in county jail for 3 months. It was daycare for adults. I was a 48 year old biracial male and I did that time standing on my head. It was far less traumatic than the street.

I got clean, went to rehab, found recovery, and here I am. Back at being a middle class guy. Except, something changed. I realized that what I experienced on the street wasn't just suffering, it was pain, trauma and depravity. All together. Everyday. So I started speaking out.

What I found when I started talking about it is that most people had (have) no idea of what it's really like living with addiction while you're #Homeless.

The prevailing oversimplified narratives were (are)

"Housing is a Human Right"
"The War on Drugs Failed"
"It's because of poverty and racism"
"It's not a drug problem"

And on and on...

So I started looking at who was in charge in the city. Who was calling the shots. Yes, we have to look at the board of Supervisors. Made up of 4 Socialists, 5 Progressives and 2 regular Democrats. And the Mayor, a Progressive but who understands the streets.

Then I started looking at DPH. Led by a group of well meaning doctors who are caught up in these oversimplified narratives (and yes, medicine has been captured by radical ideology along with education in many circles.)

Then I started looking at the non profits that provide services to the addicted and homeless, who runs them and what their ideology is in SF. And I found most (not all) are controlled by a far left radical ideology whose narrative starts and stops with "Body Autonomy."

And then SF elected Chesa Boudin as DA. A radicalized Socialist who hates the police and the prison system and wanted to dismantle it. He did. Over his 2.5 year tenure, any remaining semblance of public safety was dismantled and left the city in shambles. So, he was removed.

But not without fallout. Everyone on the far left is out for revenge. A pound of flesh wherever they can get it. Using the homeless and the most marginalized as pawns. Playing the victim. Engaging in pretty ideological stunts like blocking market rate housing.

Or duping us into believing the Tenderloin Linkage Center was anything but a Safe Consumption Site (at a cost of $29 million) while villifying anyone that disagrees with them thru the use of bully tactics, doxxing and libel.

This is what radical ideology based on something called "presentism" has brought us. Instead of learning from the past, we have to atone for it. No matter the cost. Under this current ideology, 2,000 people have died of overdose. 500 organized drug dealers roam the streets.

30,000 cars get broken into every year. Property crime is up. Illegal street vendors have taken over the Mission selling goods boosted from Walgreens and Target. And yet, a loud group of people in the city defend this. They look at it as atonement for what happened 40 years ago.

Today, cops don't want to bust people for fear of being called racist. 1/3 of the police force has left. Our last industry, Tech, has taken their ball and gone home. Tourism is down 50% The financial district has cratered. All to the cheers of the far left.

Yet, the city has a $13 billion annual budget. More than New York City. It's not about the money. It's about ideology. The school board, the previous DA, the Democratic Party in SF accusing me and others of being anti-choice because we supported the recall.

I think it's safe to say that myself and many other Democrats feel alienated and unwelcome in our own big tent that we helped build. Imagine being demonized for saying something as basic as "Open Drug Scenes harm the community." That's our reality.

I'm a Democrat because I believe in fighting for the little guy. Because I'm a little guy. But these rich white savior radicals only want to help so long as we stay down here. Away from their neighborhoods, away from their homes on Russian Hill & Alamo Square. I'm tired of you.

I'm tired of ideology winning out over logic. I'm tired of being told that I'm a bad person and racist, and right-wing and a prohibitionist. And guess what? I'm not gonna stop anything. Instead I'm gonna help take back the narrative from you. It's already happening. <end>