Here's a scene that has become almost mundane in San Francisco: A resident is walking their dog near 7th and Harrison when they spot a visibly mentally unwell man talking to himself, knife in hand, pacing back and forth near the county jail and courthouse. No one intervenes. No officers appear. The resident spends twenty minutes stranded at a traffic light, waiting for another human being to walk with so they don't have to pass the armed man alone.

Let that sink in. Twenty minutes. Near a courthouse.

The resident later posted about the experience, genuinely unsure whether they should have called anyone. And honestly? The fact that San Franciscans now question whether a man openly brandishing a knife on a public sidewalk warrants a phone call tells you everything about the state of public safety expectations in this city.

As one local put it bluntly: "People on Reddit will type five paragraphs instead of do obvious things. Are we all in a scary movie now?" Another resident was more direct: "Calling 911 would've been more than appropriate here."

They're both right. But let's also be honest about why people hesitate. Years of mixed messaging — defund this, redirect that, don't criminalize mental illness — have left ordinary residents confused about what they're even supposed to do when they feel unsafe. Call 911? Will anyone come? Call a crisis line? For a man with a knife? The bureaucratic layering of response systems has created a fog where common sense used to live.

This isn't about demonizing someone who is clearly suffering from mental illness. It's about the basic compact between a city and its residents: you pay your taxes, you follow the rules, and in return, you can walk your dog at midday without doing a threat assessment at every intersection.

San Francisco spends roughly $1.3 billion annually on homelessness-related services. The city's budget for the Department of Public Health tops $3 billion. And yet a taxpaying resident near SoMa still has to crowdsource safety advice on the internet after encountering an armed, erratic individual steps from a county courthouse.

The answer, for the record, is yes — call 911. Every single time. But the bigger question is why this city has made its residents feel foolish for expecting the basics.