San Francisco’s Democratic Mayor London Breed had to flee a speech that she was giving about crime as a violent crime took place in the crowd.
Breed and other city officials met on Tuesday in United Nations Plaza.
Local station KRON 4 notes that the plaza is a notorious “hot spot for open-air drug dealing and drug use.”
Breed was speaking about how the city has been treating criminals too delicately and was met with boos and heckling from the crowd.
The mayor said the city tolerated “illegal, out-of-control behavior for far too long,” before the violence broke out.
Breed said, “Compassion is killing people. We have to change what is happening on the streets. It’s too easy getting drugs, they are dying under our watch, we have to do better.”
“I was born and raised in this city. I am putting everything on the line,” Breed continued. “I am doing this job without fear of losing it. San Francisco claims to be so compassionate and liberal. People are growing up in the midst of this chaos. What about them? We have tried over, and over again, and what we are doing is not working. Are we going to collaborate and work toward solutions? Or are we going to let the same old thing happen over, and over, and over again?
Proving Breed’s point, a woman in the crowd threw a brick and nearly hit a child in attendance.
Here’s video of the woman throwing a brick at UN Plaza in San Francisco following the postponement of a special session of the Board of Supervisors and a Q&A with Mayor London Breed. pic.twitter.com/hlAzWHJvpx
— Sergio Quintana (@svqjournalist) May 24, 2023
“San Francisco Police Department officers were positioned in UN Plaza for Tuesday’s public meeting,” KRON 4 reports. “Officers intervened after a woman threw a brick in the crowd and nearly struck a child, police said. The woman was quickly arrested and hauled away in handcuffs.”