San Francisco Board of Supervisors President
London Breed’s call this week for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate
last month’s fatal police shooting of Mario Woods and the San Francisco Police
Department’s use-of-force policies is a sensible move that The City as a whole
should welcome.
Unfortunately, in the political climate of
this city, where our leaders seem content to turn a blind eye to what happened
on the Bayview sidewalk on Dec. 2, such a request is seen as “bold.” Mayor Ed
Lee’s office gave tepid support, observing The City is already conducting many
investigations into the shooting, but “the mayor welcomes independent review.”
The San Francisco Police Officers
Association, which has defended the officers in the shooting, didn’t bother
with such pleasantries, with consultant Gary Delagnes telling the San Francisco
Examiner that Breed’s request was “political posturing” and “grandstanding.”
There should be no tolerance for this kind of
heartless obstructionism. A man died, fatally shot by police officers on a San
Francisco sidewalk. We would like to think we live in a city where those whose
job is to care about how law enforcement is practiced would go to the ends of
the earth to ensure police work is done ethically and professionally, for the
benefit of the department and to give full dignity to those who wear the badge.
We recognize that is not the city we live in, but the realization is painful.
Breed wants San Francisco to follow Chicago’s
example: That city called on the DOJ to investigate the October 2014 shooting
by Chicago police of Laquan McDonald, an investigation that grew to include
examining the police department’s operations.
Breed’s resolution, introduced with the
support of Supervisor Malia Cohen, who represents the Bayview, requests the
Department of Justice “undertake an independent investigation” into the
shooting of Woods, which “raised serious questions about the actions of the
officers involved, as well as SFPD’s training and use of force protocols and
its treatment of African Americans.”
We urge the full board, which could vote on
the resolution by the end of the month, to stand together with a unanimous
approval calling for the investigation.
Several supervisors on Tuesday also publicly
apologized to the victim’s mother, Gwen Woods, who was at the meeting. Even
though it was a gesture, it was overdue. The board should also back Supervisor
David Campos’ resolution to officially apologize to Gwen Woods for treatment
over the death of her son.
Those officers who surrounded Woods, who was
holding a kitchen knife on the sidewalk that afternoon six weeks ago, appeared
to show a blatant disregard for human life. When we talk about the need for
police reform in this country and in this city, the real problem is that in the
decisive moment, our police officers seemed to care less about a man losing his
life than about getting a cut on their hand by trying to disarm him of a knife.
If that proves to be the case, the officers let The City down, they let the
department down and they let the Woods family down.
Yes, the family deserves an apology, and The
City deserves one as well. Police officers are trained to allow us to feel safe
and protected on our streets, and in this instance they produced the opposite
effect.
We need the most thorough and independent
investigations possible, and that includes calling on the federal government to
be involved.
“We do not have at this point the Police
Department that the city and county of San Francisco deserves to have,” Campos
said this week.
We sadly agree. And we concur that a federal
investigation is needed for a true independent review to see that justice is
done.
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