Viral video of kids' grim encounter highlights San Francisco's drug problem
SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco's interim district attorney has vowed to take a harder stance against both drug users and dealers, an issue highlighted in a new viral video showing open drug use downtown in front of children.
San Francisco resident Ricci Wynne said he was on a downtown Muni bus when he came across a group of school children who just finished ice skating Friday. He said he was compelled shoot video when he saw where they had to get off in the mid-Market neighborhood.
"I just seen a plethora of drug dealers and homeless people using, smoking off foil and what not. I mean nothing new right? Nothing new, out of the ordinary that you see, but it was just overloaded with these types of individuals. And they had basically hijacked the transit stop right there on 8th and Mission," said Wynne.
Wynne said he works with recovering addicts nearby at the Billie Holiday Center, and noted the sights like those he captured in a now viral video posted to Twitter aren't surprising. The clip had received over 2.3 million views as of Sunday morning.
"Now ask yourself this question would you want your children to walk through this squalor just to get home from school?" Wynne asked in the post.
Now ask yourself this question would you want your children to walk through this squalor just to get home from school? @JoeBiden @VP @SpeakerPelosi @SenFeinstein @LondonBreed @SFPDChief #DoBetter #democrats #politics #Police #DRUGS #SanFrancisco #California #crime #DoYourJob #NA pic.twitter.com/ZBa8PApgtC
— Ricci Wynne (@RawRicci415) July 8, 2022
"For me, what made me almost well up with anger, I had tears and that tingly sensation in the back of your nose that I wanted to cry," Wynne said. "It was like, these people need to change this system right now. They have to."
On Friday, Mayor Breed's newly appointed interim District Attorney Brooke Jenkins vowed to end open air drug markets and take back the city's streets.
"Starting today, drug crime laws will be enforced in this city," said Jenkins. "We know the largest percentage of children that live in the Tenderloin and they shouldn't have to walk past drug dealing. They shouldn't have to endure violence and they shouldn't have to watch people die on the street of overdose as they walk to school."
Wynne said he's looking forward to change.
"I think we're leaning further to a dystopian drug hell. It's crazy. It's too much," he said.