Mayhem Monday in San Francisco – a PSA warning to travelers

Much has been written about the rise of violent crime in the Bay Area, particularly San Francisco, and much of it I have ignored. Please don’t.

This past Monday, it was mid-morning, and I was staying with a friend in one of San Francisco’s iconic “Painted Ladies” on Alamo Square when I requested an Uber for a trip downtown before heading to the airport with my two bags.

I stepped outside with two minutes remaining on what was a beautiful day in the City.

With a minute to go, a shiny black car slammed to a halt in front of me, and four men dressed in all-black and ski masks lunged out of the car and toward me. At first, nothing registered. It was all so fast. Then the guns came out.

All four men had weapons pointed at me, and they began yelling to take off my watch, or they would kill me. When they reached me, two men held guns to my head while the other two pointed their weapons at my chest with one hand while grabbing a bag with the other.

The gunman did not care that it was a bright day on one of the most trafficked streets in the City. They feared nothing.

I began shaking so uncontrollably that I couldn’t unclip my watch, agitating the thug to my right. He kept yelling, “I gonna shoot you man!” All I could do was say, “Please don’t kill me; you can have anything you want.

A man across the street caused a commotion with the car’s driver (a San Francisco hero!); at the same time, I was able to get my watch off, and all four gunmen scurried into the car, and then screeched to the end of Steiner and sped down Fulton into the distance.

The distraction meant they didn’t get my wallet and phone in the “transaction” and ensured that I wasn’t shot.

One of the two laptops they had stolen was on and had “Find My” enabled. Over the next hour, I was able to trace the gunman back to a “hothouse” near Cow Palace to a building known by the police for its gang activity.

SFPD set up surveillance and picked up two of the four assailants the next day in possession of some of the stolen items, plus a cache of loaded weapons, all with extended magazines. Both are juveniles; one faces 16 felony counts and the other six counts.

Though catching some bad guys felt good, what I learned from the SFPD was not comforting for a prior 30-year resident of this once beautiful city and now a visitor. I was the fourth victim of an armed robbery just that morning. Apparently, SFPD staffing is light after a broad swath of cops refused the COVID vaccination and were dismissed. One cascade effect is that there are no plain clothes police on the streets on Mondays and Tuesdays anymore. These are the gangs’ “field days” when a concentration of violence happens.

The police relayed that, as I experienced, no part of the City is immune to this type of gang violence anymore. It’s fully mobile and is becoming pervasive.

If you still must travel to San Francisco, remember to use all the same precautions that you would use traveling to a third-world nation. It has come to that.