This morning, we got this message from a reader:
I live above Duc Loi at Mission and 18th and watched 5 men who appeared to be gang members fighting this morning at 3:45 am in the middle of the intersection and then in San Carlos alley. No guns ever came out but plenty of broken glass was flying around. I put in a call to 911 and they said they’d sent a unit.
15 minutes later I’m still watching the fight escalate from my balcony thinking to myself that I could’ve walked to the police station and back by now. Eventually about 20 minutes later I saw a 1 cop car. What a mess!
So where were the police?
They were all following a car chase. SFPD spokesman Sgt. Mike Andraychak tells us that a short while before this fight, a man was driving through the Mission and saw a familiar car.
It was, he realized, his car, which had recently been stolen.
He set off in pursuit, dialing the police as he drove. The driver of the stolen car tried to lose him, running into several parked cars in the process, before getting stuck with the man whose car he had stolen blocking his exit.
At this, the alleged car thief backed up and rammed the pursuing driver’s car, then leaped from the stolen car and fled on foot. Police apprehended him soon after.
But by then a half-hour backlog of calls had built up at the station, and the Mission officers were busy writing up reports on each and every vehicle that had been hit. That turned out to be a lot of vehicles.
While this was going on, officers from the Bayview station took over emergency calls. It takes about 15 minutes for a patrol in the Bayview to get to Mission Street.
So there’s your answer. Got any others? Send them to missionlocal@gmail.com
Better hope none of us ever get attacked/mugged in the Mission when there is a backlog of paperwork to be done..Seems like the police need to work on their prioritisation.
I second “themissionman”‘s comment.
Another article that proves the value of Mission Local. It is really cool to have a resource to let us know what is happening in out neighborhood.