Judge Allows Lawsuit Against San Francisco For Enabling Drug Use, Crime

Judge Allows Lawsuit Against Dem City For Enabling Drug Use, Crime

In a Tuesday ruling, a federal judge allowed a lawsuit against San Francisco to proceed, which accuses the deep-blue city of enabling drug use and crime.

The lawsuit, filed by residents and businesses in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, accuses city and county lawmakers of turning the district into a “containment zone” for drug use and crime.

San Francisco lawmakers are alleged to have created a lawless living environment via enabling drug addicts and dealers to move to the Tenderloin District — as they provided housing, free drug paraphernalia, and other support.

The judge declined the city’s demand for the lawsuit to be dismissed, shooting down their obviously false claims that the city’s policies could not be linked to the horrific conditions in the Tenderloin District.

The lawsuit also accuses San Francisco of permitting using and selling drugs inside city-run shelters, as well as operating a now-closed supervised drug use lounge where addicts were given free drug paraphernalia and a place to get high.

Tenderloin residents and businesses are arguing in the complaint that San Francisco’s enabling of drug use has effectively destroyed the neighborhood by increasing petty crime and even violent crime in the district — leading to a major decline in the area’s living conditions and business operations.

“The policy of the City has been to corral and confine illegal drug dealing and usage, and the associated injurious behaviors, to the Tenderloin. Addicts living on the Tenderloin’s streets foreseeably support their habit by stealing (e.g. shoplifting, car break-ins, burglaries, robberies) and hawking the stolen merchandise on the sidewalks,” the lawsuit alleges. “As their disease progresses, their mental and physical health declines, resulting in them acting erratically, ignoring serious medical problems, rummaging through trash, discarding garbage on the sidewalk around them, going partially clothed, and defecating in public.”

“The City-owned sidewalks in the Tenderloin are dangerous, unsanitary, and no longer open and accessible to plaintiffs,” the lawsuit continued. “Those involved in narcotics sales block the entrance to [plaintiff’s] building, threaten them, and start smoky bonfires.”

Business leaders also slammed the city for their response to the drug and crime epidemic. Rather than addressing the policies that caused the problem or even trying to arrest the criminals, San Francisco imposed a curfew on businesses — angering shop owners who questioned why the city would shut down their stores rather than shutting down the crime.

U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar ruled that the lawsuit could proceed with five of the six allegations against the city.

“Plaintiffs argue that the City’s acts, such as the operation of a congregate shelter which allows residents to use and sell narcotics; operation of narcotic consumption sites in the Tenderloin; instruction of SFPD to drop off addicts at the center; distribution or facilitation of the distribution of drug paraphernalia to addicts in the Tenderloin; and street-based support for those that reject shelter and live on the sidewalk have actively placed and encouraged addicts and dealers to come to the Tenderloin which was a substantial factor in producing the harm.”

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