An elderly woman was attacked and robbed by three teens in San Francisco over the weekend as she got off a Muni bus in the Mission District, police said.
One girl and two boys assaulted and injured the 79-year-old Asian woman on Saturday afternoon at the 16th and Mission exit -- one of many attacks on members of the AAPI community in recent years.
“At this point we don’t have any evidence that points in that direction,” said Robert Rueca of the San Francisco Police Department. He said there’s no evidence of a hate crime, but it’s an incident that points to another troubling trend.
SFPD is seeing more and more juvenile suspects. They believe the three teens in the latest attack were just 12-years-old.
“We experience juveniles committing different incidents throughout the city,” said Rueca.
Mayor London Breed said Monday that the city will expand its community ambassador program from 250 to 400.
The ambassadors are men and women placed in key areas across the city. They don’t carry weapons and they can’t detain suspects, but they can communicate with officers.
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“It’s about our partnership and working together to make San Francisco a safer place for all of us,” said Breed.
The vice president of San Francisco's Council of District Merchants said he’s noticed an improvement in combating the crime since the program started two years ago and he welcomes the expansion.
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“The kinks are being worked out, but I think, so far, it’s a step in the right direction,” said Albert Chow.
Chow, who grew up in Chinatown and the Sunset District, said that in the long run, the city needs to fill a huge number of officer vacancies to fully address the growing crime problem.
“Absolutely! You know, losing 600 officers, that's 25% of the police force,” said Chow.
But SFPD is having a tough time attracting new officers even though it offers more than $100,000 per year in pay and benefits to new recruits.
“We do have current academy classes that are training, as we speak, but they are not as robust or as large as they have been in the past,” said Rueca.
The city could vote on a measure soon to increase starting officer pay even more in hopes of attracting more new recruits to fill at least some of those 600-plus vacancies.
