Pirates have been around for as long as man has sailed the seas, and they continue to plague waterways and coastlines around the world. But like leprosy and shantytowns, they hadn’t really been an issue in the modern-day United States until very recently.
The piracy problem sprang up over the summer in San Francisco Bay, in the estuary between Oakland and Alameda, which is home to over a dozen marinas and thousands of slips. It’s also home to an increasing number of Oakland’s out-of-control homeless population, which has begun to set up encampments along the shoreline. Some of the vagrants, called “anchor-outs,” have been living on the water in derelict vessels.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the growing problem late last summer:
Beyond the thefts, critics of the anchor-outs say they dispose of their waste in the water, are often improperly anchored and become pinballs in the estuary during storms. When the boats sink, they become extremely expensive to remove, and they can pose a navigation hazard.
While most of the encampment dwellers and anchor-outs are not implicated in the piracy problem, the pirates find cover by living among them in lawless colonies.
Marina residents believe the “pirates” live in the half-dozen encampments scattered along the estuary, or on “anchor-out” vessels that are illegally moored on the water, though there is no hard evidence that homeless people are perpetrators.
The Oakland PD employs a single full-time marine officer, Kaleo Albino.
Albino surmised that one or two of roughly two dozen people living in unpermitted aquatic dwellings are committing crimes. Nonetheless, reports have surfaced in recent weeks of thieves raiding yacht clubs, sailing centers and marinas throughout the estuary, pilfering boats and stripping out the motors or painting the hulls silver to disguise them.
The pirates commit assorted crimes, similar to what their counterparts on land do. They break and enter, and they burgle property from boats and dock boxes (locked storage units on the docks). Sometimes they drive off with the entire boat, rob its contents, strip its engine for parts, and then scuttle the craft. They’ve stolen half the fleet from a youth sailing education non-profit.
They also pirate from businesses. Read this unbelievable heist they pulled off in August — it’s astonishing that there is such an utter lack of marine law enforcement in such a massive boating community:
Last week thieves struck the Outboard Motor Shop, a repair facility near the Park Street Bridge. Under cover of night, owner Craig Jacobsen said, they loaded stolen life rafts, tool bags and other goods onto a 15-foot section of dock before towing the whole structure to an encampment at Oakland’s Union Point Park.
“They took it over to their little flotilla,” Jacobsen said in an interview, referring to a stash of anchor-outs and allegedly stolen boats run aground at Union Point, where industrial buildings line rocky beaches strewn with trash.
Needless to say, the boating and waterfront home set is vexed. Boatowner Marianne Armand has been vocal at municipal meetings and active on social media, calling out the issue. Here is one of her Facebook posts, and it’s instructive to click through and read through the locals’ comments:
The situation has been escalating all summer. Boat owners know the thinly stretched Oakland PD won’t respond in time to interrupt the marauders’ work:
“It’s almost the Wild West,” said Steve Meckfessel, managing investor at the Marina Village Yacht Harbor in Alameda. “It’s almost as if you were on a ship and there are pirates out there, and there’s no government, no one to protect you.”
“We’ve all gotten to the point where we know there is going to be no response” from police, [boat owner Jonathan] DeLong said, noting that some neighbors have watched helplessly as intruders break their locks and swipe their possessions. Some wake up to find their vessels and storage units pillaged.
Related: Sacramento DA Files Suit Against the City Alleging Inaction on the Homeless Crisis
There have been increasing reports of physical altercations between civilians and the bold pirates, and I can’t believe I’m writing this sentence in the United States in 2023. Residents have discussed arming themselves, while the local U.S. Coast Guard is assisting in patrol duties. And perhaps the pesky pirate problem can even be slapped back into line for a while. But in the end, it’s merely a symptom of the deep rot in the San Francisco area and other blue cities and states, and nothing is going to get better until their suicidal policies are reversed — if that’s even still possible.
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