As crime continues to rise in San Francisco, a library security guard suffered an attack by a canine while administering Narcan to his unresponsive owner.
The man was found slumped down at a kiosk by security guards from the Main Library. His dog kept barking behind him. Kate Patterson, spokesperson for the library said the dog was aggressive and not on a lead.
Patterson said that Patterson refused to let guards approach Patterson when they tried to find out if the man had taken opioids too much and was in need of Narcan.
Witnesses caught on camera the moment that the pit bull lunged at a guard, grabbed his arm and pulled him to the ground.
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Witnesses recorded the terrifying moment that the dog lunged towards one of the guards. It grabbed hold of him in its jaws before pulling him down to the floor.
The guard attempts to hit the dog with his left hand as the dog wriggles on the arm. An onlooker shouts, “Get it!” Another guard sprays the substance on its face, and then beats it with his belt
The guard shouts at the dog and attempts to hit him with his left hand. A second guard uses pepper spray to hit the dog’s head and then beats him with his nightstick. Unidentified third security guard rushes over to offer assistance.
One guard can be heard shouting, “Hit him!”
The owner of the dog was not responsive during the attack. However, another witness eventually woke him.
“Once alerted, he was capable of getting control over the dog who he claimed was his service animal. In a statement, the library stated that the patron had been uncooperative with staff and was argumentative after the incident.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the guard has serious injuries and is currently in hospital.
Animal Control took the dog and issued its owner a citation by the sheriff’s office. KTVU stated that Dorje, a neutered, nine-year-old pitbull, was allowed to enter the house as he was considered a “service animal”.
It is still not clear what the animal will do. The animal was quarantined for ten days at the San Francisco Department of Animal Care and Control in order to avoid rabies. A hearing by the San Francisco Police Department to decide if it should be killed.
Deb Campbell, spokeswoman of Department of Animal Care and Control, stated to the Chronicle, that so far, he has been calm in her care.
In a statement, the library stated that they are reviewing their policy and will give security personnel resources to deescalate aggressive dog situations. However, it did not provide details about the resources.
‘The safety of our patrons and staff are of the utmost importance, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that this never happens again,’ the library said, remarking that this was the first ‘severe dog attack’ to take place in the building.
DailyMail.com couldn’t reach the library to inquire about whether any other overdoses were also a concern.
The image shows a homeless person lying on the steps at the San Francisco Public Library. DailyMail.com was unable to reach the library for comments regarding overdoses within the building.
This incident occurs a month following Mayor London Breed’s declaration of a state emergency in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, its poorest area. Last year, the 650 overdose deaths in San Francisco outnumbered the city’s 430 deaths due to complications from COVID-19.
While overdose deaths have declined by 9 per cent in cities since 2020’s 711, the trend has been upwards for the last decade. In fact, in 2017, they climbed steadily from 222 to reach 222. Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and has been on the rise.
According to San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco now has one of the highest rates of overdose death in California. It also ranks amongst the top cities in America.
Last year, the Drug Overdose Prevention and Education Project recorded 8,200 Narcan overdose reversals. This is almost double that of 2020 which saw 4,300.
Point-in Time Homeless Count has recorded that the latest homeless population in San Francisco is now at 9,035 people. There were 8,035 homeless residents recorded, up by 14 percent from 2017.
The department statistics show that total crime in San Francisco increased 12.1 percent last year, compared with 2020. The number of assaults rose by 9.1 per cent to 2,383, with the rise in larcenies by 22.3 percentage points to 31,413.
Residents of the City By the Bay are vulnerable to attack on Asian American senior citizens, burglarized restaurant and boarded-up shopfronts in once-vibrant downtown.
The news media has been abuzz with reports of looting in which mobs smashed windows and took luxury purses from the Union Square shopping area.
‘There´s a widespread sense that things are on the wrong track in San Francisco,’ said Patrick Wolff, 53, a retired professional chess player from the Boston area who has lived in the city since 2005.
San Franciscans are expected to vote in June next year on recalling District Attorney Chesa Bodin. She was a former public defense attorney elected in 2019. Critics say she is too soft on crime.
Boudin’s office filed 46 percent of the theft cases that it received in 2018 and 2019, according to city data. His predecessor George Gascon, however, filed only 62 percent in theft cases between 2018 and 2019, according city data.
Boudin is a victim of even less petty theft and was charged in only 35% of all cases. This compares to Gascon who had 58 percent.
Boudin was also found guilty of far less of these crimes than Gascon, with a conviction rate of 79% in theft cases and 62% for petty theft. Gascon had a theft conviction rate of 82 per cent and a theft conviction rate of 77 per cent.
Boudin was able to charge people in 48 percent cases with crimes, while Gascon had a rate of 54%.