President Obama created the cash-for-clunkers program to get people to buy more efficient vehicles and now San Francisco leaders are bringing the city by the bay a pay-for-peace program that will provide income to individuals prone to shoot someone as long as they don't pull the trigger. Yep, this leftist utopia has figured out what it thinks is a simple solution to stem rising gun violence: just pay people to stop shooting each other.
Setting up something of a hostage situation between the city of San Francisco and its criminal class, monthly bribes will be provided to individuals the city thinks are otherwise likely to pop a cap in a fellow San Franciscan.
San Francisco is launching The Dream Keeper Fellowship, which will pay 10 individuals who are at high risk of being on either end of a shooting $300 each month to not shoot eachother.
— Amy Tarkanian (@MrsT106) September 1, 2021
Yes, San Francisco is paying people not to shoot one another.
The plan is certainly... something. The San Francisco Examiner reports that "the Dream Keeper Fellowship" as the program has been dubbed, will launch as a pilot this October using funds the mayor diverted from the city's law enforcement. Because why pay police to stop criminals when you can cut out the middleman and pay the criminals to police themselves, or something.
"The idea is to provide the small number of San Franciscans who authorities believe are most at risk of shooting someone — or being shot — with an incentive to get help and stay out of trouble," says The Examiner. "Participants will be able to earn up to $200 more a month by hitting milestones in the program, such as landing a job interview, complying with probation or consistently meeting with a mentor."
A local solution for gun violence: #SanFrancisco is paying people $300 a month to put away their weapons https://t.co/QneJdN1GzD
— SF Examiner (@sfexaminer) August 31, 2021
The proposed fellowship for would-be felons will "pair participants with newly hired life coaches from the Street Violence Intervention Program, known as SVIP, who will help... them make the right choices and access services."
It's unclear why, if San Francisco can so easily identify those it thinks are likely to commit gun crimes, it doesn't tip off law enforcement to these residents' identities so that any illegal weapons can be seized and taken off the streets for good.
In any case, San Francisco didn't come up with this cash-to-criminals plan entirely on its own but it is unique in one way, The Examiner explains:
A similar anti-violence program in Oakland, for instance, offers young adults up to $300 for achieving milestones. What’s new is San Francisco would start people off with a baseline of $300 a month without having to meet any marks.
Apparently in San Francisco, not shooting people is the bare minimum to expect from residents deemed to be at risk of engaging in gun violence. No other action is required to receive the baseline $300 per month — $3,600 for each year of compliance — an amount that doesn't cover much needed to build a better life by honest means in a wildly expensive city such as San Francisco.
City officials on San Francisco's Human Rights Commission and Office of Economic and Workforce development hope to expand the program from 10 participants to 30 by the end of 2021.