Former San Francisco mayoral candidate on crime surge: City totally controlled by 'left-wing idealogues'

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San Francisco resident slams 'outrageous' crime rate

Richie Greenberg credits the crime surge to a 'drastic drop in morale' from police after the defund police movement.

Some San Francisco retailers have been forced to close after a lack of police presence led to increased shoplifting. Richie Greenberg, a San Francisco resident and former mayoral candidate, joined Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade on "Fox & Friends" to discuss the "jaw-dropping" conditions that led to the current crime rate.

"I called this even years ago, but now we see this is all coming to fruition. It's astounding," Greenberg said. "It's completely unacceptable."

The Justice Department acknowledged this trend of rising crime across the country and launched new strike force teams to reduce the flow of illegal firearms in major cities.

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"Working with our local partners to tackle violent crime is one of the Justice Department’s most important responsibilities," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Greenberg credited the trend to a lack of police presence and support after Democratic Mayor London Breed released a plan in February to divert funding away from the city’s law enforcement.

"This is a far left-wing governed city," He said. "There's virtually no conservative, even centrist candidates that really win, especially on the city council and our board of Supervisors. This city is controlled completely by left-wing ideologues."

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Greenberg explained that police morale is low after a 2020 ballot measure left local officials to decide how the city is policed.

"In November 2020, there was a ballot measure that eliminated any sort of metrics on the number of police officers per capita per population. So it's up to the city council, our board of supervisors, to decide how many police are actually on the street walking the beat."

"This has led to a drastic drop in morale. There's just not enough police – part of the whole defunding police movement."

San Francisco saw an increase in theft after California passed Prop 47 in 2014, which reduced certain non-violent felonies to misdemeanors and lowered charges for theft of property under $950.

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"They actually mislabeled that," Greenberg said. "They said it was going to be a safe city, safe schools proposition. So they misled the voters who passed that as well. And that's the problem, along with a district attorney that refuses to do his job."

Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.