Some 30 Mission residents who crowded into a monthly police meeting earlier this week grilled the neighborhood’s police captain and supervisor about their plans to address what residents described as a clear increase in criminal activity on their streets that has left them fearful.
The group blamed the police and city officials for being ineffective in prosecuting sex workers and dismantling homeless tent encampments that have cropped up on the Mission’s sidewalks. The Wednesday meeting was one of the best-attended during the past year.
“It’s never been this bad. I’ve never felt this fearful,” said one attendee, who has lived at her home near 20th and Capp streets for some 50 years and said that police have done little to discourage prostitutes from working on her block.
“The ladies out there are getting much more aggressive -- isn’t prostitution [illegal] still?” the woman wanted to know.
While prostitutes and homeless campers are not new to the Mission, many of the neighbors alleged that their presence has increased notably in recent months and is conducive to criminal activity.