A second liberal-run city is offering to bribe criminals to not commit crimes.
San Francisco is following New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s model, albeit trying to do it on the cheap.
The Free Press reported last month that de Blasio, as his city’s murder rate hit a decade-long high, offered to pay $1,000 a month to the “fellows,” who were defined as “young people deemed at-risk for being involved in gun crime.”
Similarly, according to the ABC affiliate in San Francisco, Democratic Mayor London Breed’s administration in October will launch the San Francisco Dream Keeper Fellowship. “The pilot program will initially pay 10 participants at-risk for violence $300 per month to act as public safety ambassadors,” the local report said.
“If they meet certain milestones they’ll be eligible for as much as $500 a month,” it added.
Local media noted that all of us may pay for this, as the Dream Keeper Fellowship will be funded by local taxpayers, private donors and possibly a federal grant.
The program could eventually reach 30 participants.
Despite the stated nature of the program, one advocate, David Muhammad, executive director of the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, told the local media that it was an “extraordinarily inaccurate description of the intervention” to simply declare that the city was paying people not to commit felonies.
Sheryl Davis, executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, said, “As a part of their participation they are expected to do some conversations around public safety, to do some goal setting for themselves, to also think about how they can influence and impact their communities to be better.”
Breed herself maintained to local media that the city was not simply giving cash to criminals.
“We’re looking at ways in which we can provide incentives – incentives to keep them motivated, to keep them searching for a better opportunity is what this program is about,” she said in an interview.
“The data shows that when you provide people with opportunities, that could change somebody’s life.”
One critic was unconvinced, though.
The Rev. Eugene Rivers III, a founder of the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies, dubbed the Dream Keeper Fellowship as a “policy gimmick.”
“You do not get young people … to turn from crime by generating gimmicks,” Rivers told Fox News.
“For many young people, it will be Christmas in … October,” he said, adding that the recipients will “make it a lucrative hustle, and we will not reduce crime.”
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You CAN’T FIX STUPID! The simple and plain truth is that CRIME WILL NOT GO DOWN. IN FACT, CRIME WILL GO UP. There will be more fraud committed and .ore robberies committed as a result of this for sure!