San Francisco’s latest monthly allowance scheme offers 300$ per month to select group of criminals or future criminals for not resorting to shooting. The No Shooting Allowance project is being financed by the San Francisco’s Dream Keeper Fellowship which will give away gift cards to 10 chosen candidates most likely to engage in gun violence if they stay away from gun crime.
According to the New York Post, the scheme is connected to the Mayor’s two year plan of investing 120 million dollars in the city’s black community and would supposedly be run on tax payers’ money also funded by private donations and a possible federal grant. A possible expansion to 75 people a year is expected.
The plan of reducing violence through a monthly allowance is based on a pilot project that was implemented in Richmond California in 2016 which supposedly had reduced violence according to the officials. However, the Richmond project came under fire when Dawaun Rice, a 22-year-old member of the scheme, got sentenced for 40 years for murdering two people, that included a 17-year-old boy, in two separate shootings while still being part of the program. According to a 2016 interview with KGO, Yolanda Ficklin-Prothro, the mother of one Rice’s victims said, “You didn’t take their guns. You were giving them money to buy more guns.”
Rev. Eugene Rivers III, a founder of the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies, called the San Francisco scheme a “policy gimmick” and a “terrible idea.” He also said “For many young people, it will be Christmas in … October”.
However, San Francisco Mayor London Breed maintained that the scheme was not meant to give cash to criminals. “We’re looking at ways in which we can provide incentives,” Breed told KPIX. “Incentives to keep them motivated, to keep them searching for a better opportunity is what this program is about,” he added.
The program’s pilot will be launched in October and will be called ‘Dream Keeper Fellowship’.