More than 80 people were arrested after San Francisco authorities raided Jefferson Square Park.
An estimated three dozen suspects wanted by law enforcement were among those taken into custody following the open-air drug market raid.
Police Chief Bill Scott said more drug raids are forthcoming. “It was a massive undertaking,” he said, as per KTVU. “So, it’s not going to be something you see every single day. But, you will see this more often, and we’re going to use this as a strategy to deal with this displacement that’s haunted us.”
“People had warrants already. San Francisco warrants, Alameda County warrants, Marin County warrants, Red Bluff, Emeryville, Clear Lake, Solano County,” the police chief added. “The list goes on and on. So, these are people who already [had] been through the court system and were wanted.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, whose platform focused on cleaning the city and reducing crime, declared, “If you are selling drugs in this city we are coming after you.”
In November, Lurie told CNN that although he is a “lifelong Democrat,” city residents do not view themselves as “progressives or moderates or conservatives.”
“We just want to get back to common sense. We have to deliver the basics and that’s my plan. That’s the mandate that I was elected to fulfill,” he said. “We have to make sure that we have a fully staffed police department. We have to get our behavioral health and drug crisis under control in our city.”
“We need to make sure our small businesses can thrive. Our big businesses need to be coming back to San Francisco. We need to be open for business again,” he noted. “I don’t believe that that’s a rightward swing. That’s a common sense approach.”
