• San Francisco Democrat Mayor London Breed is seeking federal assistance to curb the city’s drugs, violence and homelessness problems.
• Breed makes the plea as the city’s police department faces steep staffing hurdles.
• “The scale of the problem is beyond our local capacity,” the mayor reportedly wrote in letter last month to U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey.
• Critics of the mayor says she’s asking for help while being unsupportive of her own police department.
• “No one else is going to go and deal with this problem but the police,” San Francisco Police Officers Association’s Lt. Tracy McCray said Monday. “Stop criticizing us. … Everyone knows about our staffing crisis, so this is no secret.”
• Breed’s letter emphasized curbing San Francisco’s “open-air drug market” as fentanyl-related overdoses continue to soar.
• “We need additional and ongoing support from the Department of Justice to arrest and prosecute drug dealers so residents, families, and workers feel safe in their neighborhoods,” she wrote.
• McCray also said: “Believe me, you want to call the DOJ to help you with this problem before you have to call in the National Guard because you don’t have a police force.”

Tagged: Biden's America