San Franciscans rally at 850 Bryant, Hall of (In)justice, to launch the #MarchforJusticeSF October 6, 2017
A group of San Francisco natives, exhausted by SFPD brutality and impunity, launched a #MarchforJusticeSF on Friday October 6, 2017 to demand that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra prosecute killer SFPD officers.
Over 14 days, 10 people, including three of the Frisco Five hunger strikers, community organizer Maria Cristina Gutierrez, her son hip hop artist Ilyich Sato, and Ike Ali Pinkston, will walk 95 miles from San Francisco to Sacramento. The Frisco 5 Hunger Strike succeeded at achieving its demand, that SFPD Chief Greg Suhr be fired.
#MarchforJusticeSF departing San Rafael for Novato, Sunday October 8, 2017
The same group has protested weekly in front of San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon’s office at 850 Bryant since October 2016, demanding DA Gascon prosecute SFPD killers.
In that time, DA Gascon has announced decisions not to charge SFPD killers in three cases: Amilcar Perez Lopez, shot 6 times in the back by SFPD in February 2015; Giovany Contreras-Sandoval killed by SFPD in September 2014; and Nicholas McWherter killed by SFPD in October 2016, the first SFPD fatality in the post-Chief Suhr era.
DA Gascon currently has 10 open cases of SFPD fatal officer involved shootings dating to October 7, 2014 in which he has not made a decision to prosecute, including O’Shaine Evans (October 7, 2014), Mario Woods (December 2, 2015), Luis Gongora Pat (April 7, 2016), and Jessica Nelson Williams (May 19, 2016).
DA Gascon told community activists he would announce charging decisions by the end of summer 2017 in these high-profile cases.
It’s now October 2017 and we are still waiting. Justice delayed is justice denied. #MarchforJusticeSF demands accountability NOW.
All the killer officers remain working for SFPD while the DA’s investigations drag on. The SF Police Commission cannot take disciplinary action, if any, on officers until the DA announces his decision.
Meanwhile Mayor Ed Lee, Chief Bill Scott, and Police Commissioner Sonia Melara are striving to arm all SFPD officers with TASERS, despite tremendous opposition in San Francisco that has thwarted all past attempts at TASER implementation. San Francisco is currently the only major US police department without TASERS. Chief Scott wants to arm all SFPD officers with TASERS, even as SFPD received 32,000+ calls in the last six months for people in mental health duress, 50% of the 3100 people SFPD pointed their guns at in the last 6 months are Black although Black people make up 6% of SF’s population, and SF’s Police Officers Association, the union of police officers, continues to litigate to block implementation of the Police Commission’s Use of Force policy enacted in December 2016 requiring time and distance and deescalation. The Police Commission will likely vote in November whether or not to adopt TASERS.
The #MarchforJustice demands that Attorney General Becerra take action since SF District Attorney George Gascon is dragging his feet, despite a 2016 Grand Jury report demanding more timely and transparent investigations of fatal officer involved shootings in San Francisco.
Last fall, DA Gascon told the Board of Supervisors that investigations took so long because he did not have sufficient resources, and Mayor Ed Lee and the Board of Supervisors responded by allocating $1.5 million to DA Gascon in the fall of 2016 to create a unit dedicated to prosecuting SFPD officer involved shootings.
It is especially important that the CA Attorney General engage since last month US Attorney General Jeff Sessions disbanded the US Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) office, an Obama initiative to provide “collaborative reviews” and technical assistance to troubled police departments in a less antagonistic process than a civil rights pattern and practice investigation resulting in a consent decree. COPS “reviewed” SFPD throughout 2016, and had been overseeing SFPD’s implementation of its recommendations.
Now there will be no oversight nor technical assistance from DC, and all pressure to change SFPD will have to emanate locally.
Recent History of SFPD, a Troubled Department
In 2015, San Francisco ranked eighth among US cities nationally for per capita fatal officer involved shootings. SFPD’s Spanish Civil War-style execution of Mario Woods by firing squad on December 2, 2015, captured on video by several of the hundreds of eyewitnesses, was a tipping point.
Scores of outraged San Franciscans formed the Justice4MarioWoods Coalition to demand that SFPD Chief Greg Suhr be fired, District Attorney George Gascon charge Mario’s killers with murder, and that the US Attorney General Loretta Lynch or then California Attorney General Kamala Harris conduct a civil rights division pattern and practice investigation of SFPD that would result in a consent decree.
At the time, SFPD was already being examined by a Blue Ribbon Panel of retired judges commissioned by District Attorney George Gascon to investigate the depth of racism at SFPD in the wake of the 2015 racist text messaging scandal (not to be confused with the 2016 SFPD racist text messaging scandal involving a totally different set of officers).
In January 2016, Mayor Ed Lee asked Attorney General Loretta Lynch to investigate SFPD, she decided to send the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) team instead of the Civil Rights Division. COPS was here from February - October 2016 when it issued a report with 272 recommendations for changes at SFPD. The Blue Ribbon Panel made 81 findings and recommendations in July 2016.
In October 2016, the SF Board of Supervisors held its first quarterly hearing on SFPD reform. Judge LaDoris Cordell, who served on the Blue Ribbon Panel, made an impassioned plea that that the Supervisors push hard for SFPD accountability, because the Department has thwarted reform efforts for the last 80 years:
At the same time a Grand Jury investigated the lengthy process of investigating and making charging decisions when SFPD officers kill, releasing a report in June 2016 that documented that on average, it takes 2-3 years from the time SFPD kills someone to the time the District Attorney’s office concludes its investigation and decides whether to charge the officers. No SFPD officer has ever been criminally charged for killing anyone. While the DA investigates, killer officers remain working for SFPD, and only upon conclusion of the DA’s investigation does the Police Commission disciplinary action commence.
How You Can Show Your Support
Contact California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and voice your concern that DA Gascon’s investigations are taking too long and he needs to step in. Call (800) 952-5225 Tweet @AGBecerra
Contact DA George Gascon and tell him he needs to do his job and prosecute killer officers. Call (415) 553-1751 or e-mail districtattorney@sfgov.org Tweet @georgegascon
Contact Mayor Ed Lee, Chief Bill Scott, and the SF Police Commission and demand that they terminate killer officers and not implement TASERs. Mayor Lee (415) 554-6141, Email: mayoredwinlee@sfgov.org Tweet: @mayoredlee Chief Scott 415-553-0123 Tweet: @SFPDChief SF Police Commission Voice: 1-415-837-7070 Email: sfpd.commission@sfgov.org Tweet: @SFPDCommission
Follow the #MarchforJusticeSF hashtag and social media, like and share with your friends, and encourage people you know along the march route to support them.
Turn up in Sacramento when the marchers arrive, or at any point along the way, and march with them.
Remember, only we can prevent police brutality! We cannot allow the legacy of SFPD impunity to continue!
Karen Fleshman is a Racial Equity Trainer and Police Accountability Activist. Her mission is to inspire the first antiracist generation in America. She offers talks and workshops at companies, universities, nonprofits, and government agencies and blogs on Huffington Post, Moguldom, and The GED Section. She is a co-founder of San Franciscans for Police Accountability and often testifies to the San Francisco Police Commission and Board of Supervisors.www.karenfleshman.com @fleshmankaren
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