good evening. welcome to the whole story. i m anderson cooper. tonight brings us to one of the most beautiful and progressive cities in america. it s a city known as much for its social activism as it is for its wealth and innovation, particularly in the tech world. it s home to the highest number of billionaires per capita in the country. but it s also one of the least affordable places to live. it s san francisco. a city some say is in steep decline because of crime, homelessness and drug use. more people died from drug overdoses in this city during the covid pandemic than from the virus itself. cnn s sara sidner heads to the bay area, a place she once called her home, to show us what it looks like now and find out what happened to san francisco? reporter: so when i first laid eyes on san francisco, i was enchanted. from where i am right now driving over the bay bridge, and it looked like someone had taken an enormous vat of fog and just continuously poured it
in a chokehold for several minutes on a new york subway on may 1st now stands accused of second-degree manslaughter for recklessly causing his death. the manhattan district attorney s office bringing the charge after numerous witness interviews, a review of photo and video footage and discussions with the medical examiner. the prosecutor telling the court witnesses observed neely making threats and scaring passengers, adding penny approached neely from behind and placed him in the chokehold, taking him down to the ground. when the train arrived at the next stop, penny continued to hold neely in the chokehold for several minutes. two other men helping to restrain his arms. at some point mr. neely stopped moving. the defendant continued to hold mr. neely for a period and then released him. penny s lawyers argue he risked his own life and safety to protect himself and fellow new yorkers, resulting in the unintended and unforeseen death of mr. neely. adding they are confident pen
oftentimes if there s an arrest made it s almost as if the person who committed the crime has more rights than the person who lost their life and the family members who are asking for justice. reporter: when it comes to crime statistics, they have been dissected, debated and cherry-picked by conservatives, liberals, and everyone in between. i think you throw in the pandemic, which resulted in crime rates rising all over the country. and in some cases violent crime. not here. again, going back to other cities love to dump on us but our violent crime rates weren t shooting up and theirs were. reporter: san francisco does have lower rates of homicide and other violent crimes compared to other major cities. that s true now and has been the case for decades. the guy wheeling his bicycle into the walgreen s in san francisco, loading up and then bicycling out went worldwide. yeah. the mass swarm robberies went
crime, for unaffordability, for its street conditions. in one recent survey san francisco residents say they feel less safe now than at any point since 1996. that s according to the city s own controller s office. this week on the whole story with anderson cooper, our sunday night magazine show, cnn s sara sidner heads to the bay area, a place she once called home, to find out what happened to san francisco. here s a little preview. the video of the guy wheeling his bicycle into the walgreen s in san francisco, loading up and then bicycling out went worldwide. yeah. the mass swarm robberies went worldwide. reporter: even with some high-profile videos going viral, robberies and larceny, which is property theft without threat of violence, were both down in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels according to san francisco police data. while the number of car break-ins was actually higher in