San Francisco cracking down on street vendors who sell stolen goods

SAN FRANCISCO – It is enforcement day for a brand new San Francisco legislation geared toward cracking down on the commerce of stolen items. The town is implementing a brand new legislation geared toward pushing these promoting stolen items out of enterprise.

On any given day the plaza at twenty fourth and Mission in San Francisco can seem like an out of doors comfort retailer with every part from toothpaste and ache treatment and even cookware, all on the market. 

Now, a brand new legislation co-sponsored by Supervisor Hillary Ronen is being enforced, concentrating on those that are clearly trafficking in stolen items. A few of these distributors have been decidedly sad in regards to the enforcement, and about seeing our digicam.

“Pay attention, I do not like cameras in my face. I do not like cameras and [expletive] in my face.”

Santiago Lerma from Supervisor Ronen’s workplace stated the out of doors marketplaces grew throughout the pandemic. 

The purpose of the brand new laws is to get lawbreakers off the streets, and finally scale back the inducement for thieves to steal from brick and mortar companies. 

“We have additionally seen a shift from seeing of us promoting wares that they’d traded for, bartered for or made, to clearly stolen items being offered on the road, and by clearly stolen, which means lots of of bottles of shampoo with the Walgreens label on them,” stated Lerma.

Crews from the town’s Division of Public Works at the moment are tasked with implementing the brand new legislation, ensuring there are clear paths on the sidewalks, educating distributors once they can, and going from vendor to vendor, searching for these promoting stolen items, and finally issuing citations. 

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“In the event that they’re out right here promoting stolen items we do not need them out right here,” stated Beth Rubenstein from SFDPW. “We do not need to be supporting that form of criminality and do not need to wreck it for the distributors who’re truly attempting to make a dwelling and do factor in the neighborhood.”

Supervisor Ronen’s workplace stated they know occasions are powerful, and say the brand new legislation can also be geared toward giving these distributors promoting gadgets they made or purchased legitimately, the instruments they should run a enterprise. 

“By way of this funds course of occurring proper now, [we] hope to fund assets for the distributors to maybe get them to a spot the place they will get to a brick and mortar,” stated Lerma.

At this level, the emphasis remains to be on schooling and warning these trafficking in stolen merchandise. 

The DPW did not seize any of the products KTVU noticed at twenty fourth and Mission and so they have not but issued any citations because the rules for precisely how that will likely be achieved are nonetheless being ironed out.