The Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed has finally thrown in the towel and requested federal assistance to help tackle rampant violent crime and open-air drug dens in her city.

In a letter this week to California’s new U.S. attorney, Ismail J. Ramsey, Breed cites an “unprecedented police staffing shortage” as justification for the terrible state the city is currently in.

Breed wrote, “As you know, we are dealing with multiple serious public safety challenges locally, from a fentanyl-driven overdose epidemic, open-air drug dealing, property crime in our commercial and residential neighborhoods, increasing gun violence and prejudiced fueled incidents.”

She added, “While San Francisco is doing everything it can to address these public safety challenges, we are in the midst of an unprecedented police staffing shortage and we need help from the federal government.”

The letter continues.

In particular, I am most alarmed by the sheer volume of drug dealing on our streets. These drug dealers have become increasingly aggressive with both our public safety personnel and with members of the community. Violence and shootings surround these brazen open-air drug dealing scenes. Sadly, this means that the people who live and work in these areas, including employees of various federal buildings and around the Tenderloin, are forced to endure unsafet and unhealthy conditions.

Our local law enforcement is doing its best to enforce against drug dealing, however, the scale of the problem is beyond our local capacity. We need additional and ongoing support from the Department of Justice to arrest and prosecute drug dealers.”

The U.S. attorney’s office spokesman, Abraham Simmons responded in an email, “We have received Mayor Breed’s letter and we are making arrangements to meet with her to discuss her concerns.”

The city’s request for federal assistance is deeply ironic given how, previously, Breed pledged to “defund the police” in response to the nationwide Black Lives Matter riots of 2020.

“We are in the midst of an unprecedented police staffing shortage… drug dealers have become increasingly aggressive… Violence and shootings surround these brazen open-air drug dealing scenes.” — @LondonBreed pic.twitter.com/9hG27eEAKl

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) April 1, 2023

As part of her plan, Breed cut $120 million from the budgets of both San Francisco’s police and sheriff’s departments, which a department spokesperson warned at the time “could impact our ability to respond to emergencies.” She later reversed the decision, as levels of crime skyrocketed.

Despite being home to Silicon Valley and many of the wealthiest individuals in the world, San Francisco has become notorious for obscenely high prices, combined with lawlessness and drug-ridden streets—making it an increasingly undesirable place to live.

The city also happens to be the most progressive place in the entire country, governed almost entirely by left-wing Democrats, a trend explained in a 2020 report by the Hoover Institute:

Progressive Democrats have dominated San Francisco’s city government for the last 20 years, a time during which homelessness, drug abuse, the cost of living, and the city budget have skyrocketed.

As a succession of city governments have tacitly tolerated drug abuse and the crimes that go with that, a de facto thriving drug-based economy tragically plays out in the open on city streets every day. The city spends a small fortune each year collecting millions of used hypodermic needles from city streets and pays city workers about $185,000 annually to clean up feces from the sidewalks.

Recently, the city has also drawn up proposals for reparations for those who identify as African-American. In March, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted “unanimously” to move forward with a plan that would give every black resident of the city $5 million in reparations, in a plan that would inevitably bankrupt the city overnight.