Fight Crime by Fighting Poverty with Guaranteed Basic Income
When it comes to protecting the people of San Francisco, the current system does too little, too late.
The entire system is designed around reacting once a crime has already occurred. While it is certainly important to uphold our laws and bring people to justice – that is little comfort to the people who have become the victim of a crime, a crime that might have been avoided with bold, preventative action. And does nothing to prevent that crime from happening again.
As your independent District Attorney, I will take bold action to keep our communities safe, starting with a focus on preventing crime before it occurs.
If you agree, sign our petition in support!
Sign the Petition:
And what’s one proven way we can prevent crime? Preventing poverty. That’s why I hope you will support our effort to enact, and sustain, a proven tool to ending poverty – Guaranteed Basic Income.
You have probably heard about this idea – it provides small but meaningful checks each month to low-income or no-income families. Basic Income programs have been shown to reduce crime where they have been tried – and can be made even stronger when linked to a greater focus on job training, small business creation and other proven ways to lift families out of poverty.
People with high-wage jobs are not very likely to steal your car, break into your garage or grab your phone. I don’t excuse those behaviors – but to me the smartest path forward is to prevent them from happening in the first place. And the data supports this.
Jobs fight crime. A Guaranteed Basic Income reduces poverty and helps bring people the stability they need to find job training, education and the other pathways toward employment.
Some ask – why should a District Attorney do this? The answer to me is clear – because it is the District Attorney’s job to make you safer. And reducing poverty makes all of us safer.
San Francisco should be safe for everyone. And the first step to safety can, and should, be fighting poverty.