Mayor London Breed tours Chinatown to reassure merchants, residents that SF will do all it can to combat rising crime
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Mayor London Breed came to Chinatown to assure everyone that City Hall would be doing all it can to protect them.
The recent series of violent street crimes filled the entire front page today of the Chinese language newspaper World Journal.
This comes after a heated community meeting here yesterday.
Frustrated and angry, merchants and residents asked for more police.
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A video shows a man with a stick smashing windows of cars along Stockton street.
Stills last week show a Chinese community leader unconscious on the ground just after he was attacked by a group who stole his gold Rolex watch.
He sits waiting for an ambulance which witnesses say took a half-hour to respond.
Another video shows Chang Hwang being beaten by the same assailants as he was on that same crosswalk.
Hwang tells ABC7 News he ran over to help the victim, a close friend of his when someone from the group punched him in the face.
"After the events that just occurred, I know there's a lot of fear," said the Mayor to merchants along her walk.
Kevin Chan owns the Fortune Cookie Factory, a Chinatown institution always crowded with tourists.
He wonders what this will do to local business.
"Who wants to come to Chinatown when they heard of this on the news? All this bad stuff happening to them."
Realtor Pius Lee heads the Chinatown Neighborhood Association. He and others want a police box on Stockton Street.
Lee's even offered space rent-free in his building.
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"These guys who want to come to make trouble, 'oh that's a police station there?' Better to avoid that, you know."
Capt. Robert Yick says he prefers his officers to walk their beat instead.
"For my foot beat officers to be mobile and throughout Chinatown is probably better."
The Mayor says the bottom line is, "cameras are going up. Adding more beat officers. Just so you know that's something I/ve been fighting for."
The public safety group SF SAFE says it'll have cameras up and running in eight weeks along Stockton Street where the recent assaults took place.
