I’ve never met you, Mr. Benioff, although I’ve heard of your Salesforce and once even walked through the gardens adjacent to its San Francisco building. I read in a recent New York Times interview (not necessarily a reliable source) that you want the National Guard stationed in San Francisco.
Were they here this week, the soldiers could protect your Dreamforce conference from crime, which would save you from having to hire a large number of security guards.
You were once a major donor to the Democratic Party and once a San Francisco resident, as I understand it. Now you live in Hawaii but still visit our city to conduct business, such as the Dreamforce conference that’s bringing 50,000 participants to the Moscone Center Oct. 14-16.
You told the Times that San Francisco needs another 1,000 police officers, and (here I quote reporter Heather Knight) you “lamented that [you have] to pay for hundreds of off-duty law enforcement officers to help patrol the convention.”
In the same article, Mayor Daniel Lurie said he did not see a need for the National Guard coming here. Nor did some other local officials.
However, and this is my view, not necessarily yours, if Mayor Lurie or Governor Newsom made an immediate, urgent call for the National Guard to take over the streets of San Francisco, form a cordon around Moscone Center and escort your 50,000 Dreamforce guests to and from their hotels and parties, it would save you some money, and it would probably delight your friend Donald Trump, who wants to see a number of American cities occupied by the National Guard.
In Chicago, Portland, and Los Angeles the National Guard is supposed to protect ICE agents and federal buildings from danger. But there hasn’t been much of a need for them, aside from their having to initiate conflict with non-violent, non-intrusive nearby protesters objecting to ICE’s abduction of immigrants and the subsequent “disappearance” of some of the people detained by ICE. Some observers say that National Guard has been the main source of danger in their vicinity.
But then you weren’t talking about protecting ICE with the Guard. Your Timesstatements suggest the National Guard is needed to protect business people, 50,000 of your associates, when they come into a city that has a limited budget for its services. Whether these guests need extra protection—when their large numbers may disrupt traffic, overcrowd a few hotels, increase street noise, attract curious spectators, etc.—is difficult to predict. But it appears that rather than pay your own funds to hire private security, you would prefer to let government come to the rescue, or at least finance the extra security, with its troops.
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If I didn’t know better, I might say you favor socialism for the rich. You want the state and the federal government to subsidize your security by sending in the Marines or the National Guard.
I could be wrong here in thinking most billionaires are opposed to socialism, or at least do not openly advocate it. And yet here you are, asking the state and the city to cover some of your convention’s costs and offer you security.
Perhaps you should consider some of the other benefits that a socialist or (the term I prefer) democratic socialist program would offer you. I know your taxes might rise with a wealth tax (one solution to wealth inequality), but as I understand it, in 2018 you supported a city measure to tax businesses for the benefit of the unhoused, so you can’t be completely opposed to the notion of a tax increase and wealth redistribution.
Maybe you would even support a city, state or national wealth tax to help pay for public transportation, affordable housing subsidies, city drug treatment and healthcare programs. At the risk of being called a dangerous radical by Donald Trump, you also could support the campaign of a West Coast or Hawaiian Zohran Mamdani if we had one.
And then maybe you wouldn’t need to call in the National Guard. The city would prevent crime by giving its residents the dignity, affordable housing, education and job opportunities that governments can provide when they have an adequate tax base and a public that wants such services.
I know it’s asking a lot of you, but besides calling for government help with your security concerns, how about leading a new group of billionaires for democratic socialism? I expect if you announced the group’s formation to your 50,000 guests, it would earn you another interview in the Times, and maybe a feature in48hills.
Joel Schechter has written several books on satire.
