SF leaders respond after Trump vows to 'strongly recommend' sending troops to city
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The debate over sending National Guard troops to San Francisco just doesn't seem to be going away. Wednesday at the White House, President Trump said he would be strongly recommending that the National Guard be sent to San Francisco.
It comes as the San Francisco mayor, the California governor, and others lay out recent crime statistics showing huge drops in crime.
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"I'm gonna be strongly recommending, at the request of government officials which is always nice, that you start looking at San Francisco. I think we can make San Francisco, one of our great cities 10 years ago, 15 years ago -- now it's a mess," said Trump from the Oval Office.
Ironically 15 years ago, Trump's current political rival was the mayor of San Francisco, that being now California Governor Gavin Newsom who pointed that out on his social media platforms Wednesday.
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown heard President Trump's National Guard recommendation and had this to say.
"I really do think the President is being given very bad advice, and very bad council," said Brown.
The former mayor suspects that the President didn't even think about San Francisco this week until it was mentioned by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Last week, Benioff commented to the New York Times on the possibility of the National Guard in San Francisco saying, "We don't have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I'm all for it."
Constitutional law professors tell ABC7 News that the National Guard serving as cops would be a clear violation of the law.
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"As a former member of the National Guard, I don't think we were ever trained to do anything about local enforcement, period," said Brown.
San Francisco city leaders spoke before the President's comments Wednesday, saying the city is already headed in the right direction when it comes to safety.
"We are at 70-year lows when it comes to homicides, car break-ins are at 20-year lows, we had the lowest number of tent encampments on record," said San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie.
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"There is no question that San Francisco is committed to safety. There is no question that when we need the addition of state or federal resources that we have no problem seeking the assistance that we need, but we have this issue under control," said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
"Well, the National Guard is not needed in San Francisco, frankly. I'm not sure they're needed in any city in America currently," said Brown.
Just to be clear, no decision has been made on sending the National Guard to San Francisco, but there certainly is a conversation about it.
