Yes, it seems that the seedy underbelly of San Francisco has been brought to light by the hard work of the SFPD and they have cracked down heavily on the... chess players. Yep, you read that correctly. For decades, the Mid-Market Neighborhood has been host to people playing chess on the sidewalks. Some of the homeless make small money at it, playing games for a dollar. However, as happens in a city, where law abiding people gather, criminals will be attracted and gather and figure out how to make a fast buck. Be it drug deals or illegal gambling, they will work to make money at the expense of other people. So as it happens, this eventually occurred. And of course our brave SFPD swoops in to solve the problem. They confiscated the chessboards, folding tables and folding chairs of the players.
Were they cited? Nope. No laws were broken. No city ordinances were violated. Not a single ticket was issued. In fact, according to Capt. Redmond of the SFPD, the chess players are not the actual problem and none of them were doing anything illegal or wrong. He thinks.. kinda... Other people committed crimes in the vicinity of the chess players. Oh, yea, they "might have been using the chess games as cover for their illegal activities" but no evidence exists to show that the chess players were the problem. So, instead of doing real police work and maybe putting a foot patrol in the area, they'll just go ahead and confiscate the belongings of people who are not breaking the law.
I am more entertained by the lack of complaint about the policy from all of the liberal lawmakers who run that fine city. There was a 3 hour protest, but not a single politician there stumping for the rights of the chess players. Oh, right, they're mainly homeless and not really a tax and voter base. I guess their rights don't count...
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