An ABC News reporter admitted he was advised against appearing live in downtown San Francisco for his "Good Morning America" segment due to the rise in crime on Wednesday.
Chief national correspondent Matt Gutman reported on the news that Westfield Mall would be shutting down, one of the latest in a series of major store closings in the city. Though the shopping center cited a decline in sales and foot traffic as the reason, Gutman noted that San Francisco was at risk of becoming a "so-called zombie city" due to a rise in robberies and the ongoing fentanyl crisis.
In fact, Gutman remarked that his crew had been told not to film live in that area of downtown San Francisco because of the location being "too dangerous" at 4 a.m.
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"The mayor noting that several metrics of crime are actually flat or down. But it is worth mentioning that we are not at Union Square or the Westfield Mall this morning because we have been advised it is simply too dangerous to be there at this hour," Gutman said at the end of his report.
"That’s saying a lot there," host Michael Strahan commented back in the studio.
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Gutman also spoke with Mayor London Breed on reports of several retailers and businesses leaving the city and questioned her on whether San Francisco was considered "dangerous."
"Well, here's the thing, San Francisco is a major city and it has challenges. But let's back up a little bit. You are talking about people leaving the city but not the people who are staying, expanding, coming to San Francisco," Breed said.
In April, robberies were up by 11.4% with homicides rising by 83% in San Francisco since last year.
Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow and former San Francisco prosecutor Charles "Cully" Stimson also warned Fox News Digital that even crime statistics in the city could be misleading.
"Crime is worse than the data shows," Stimson said. "People do not report these crimes because when you have a DA who's pro criminal and not going to enforce the law, the cops aren't going to go out and arrest somebody when they know the case is going to be no papered."
Westfield Mall’s closing followed several prominent businesses including Nordstrom, Old Navy and Whole Foods announcing that they would be shutting down stores in San Francisco. Twitter CEO Elon Musk remarked on the concerns his own employees have coming to downtown San Francisco for work Wednesday.
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"Many Twitter employees feel unsafe coming to work in downtown SF and have had their car windows smashed," Musk tweeted. "They also got such a null response from the police that they rarely even bother reporting crimes anymore, because nothing happens."
