Robberies Rising in the Mission
by Admin on Oct.31, 2011, under San Francisco News
On Oct. 13 at 12:30 a.m., Rachel Newman was about to leave the Beauty Bar at 2299 Mission St. when she went to get her purse from the bar and it was gone.
“I put my bag down on the bar and put it under my coat and it was all in a pile. We were dancing right in front of it and I guess someone just came up and swiped it and then when we were ready to leave I picked up my jacket and there was nothing underneath it,” the 25-year-old Castro resident said.
Not everything was in the purse, just a few credit cards, a blackberry and house and car keys, but whoever took the purse has personal information and a set of keys, Newman said.
Newman has just become victim of the most committed crime in the Mission District. September had a total of 162 personal thefts, which is only two less than reported in August, according to the Mission Police COMPSTAT.
While robberies are slightly up, rapes, burglaries and aggravated assaults are down with an overall 6 percent reduction in violent crimes in the district compared to this same time last year, Capt. Gregory Corrales said.
“I always tell [Newman] not to put her purse down anywhere. I lived in Barcelona for three years so I know that if you were to do that, your stuff would get stolen in 0.2 seconds,” Ayesha Pirbhai, 24, Newman’s friend and roommate, said.
For some residents of the Mission, all the crime that is committed is simply ignored or overlooked.
“I’ve lived here for so long, I think I’ve learned to ignore all the crime. I know to try to avoid walking below Mission Street or by the BART late at night and I always take a cab if I need to get somewhere after I’ve been drinking,” Norman Pitt, Mission resident, said.
The Mission District is completely staffed with great police officers and when some go out to solve another crime, there are always enough in the station to ensure the safety of the districts’ residents, Corrales said.