Greg Suhr, chief of the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) and a 35-year veteran of the force, is out.
On May 20, he was forced to resign at the request of Mayor Ed Lee.
The reason: Rising tensions between the SFPD and the nonwhite community.
A major reasons for those tensions: The December 2, 2015 killing of Mario Woods, a known gang member, armed robber and car thief.
Mario Woods
At 26, Woods–born on July 22, 1989–had a well-documented history of criminality:
- He was an active member of the notorious Oakdale Mob infesting the predominantly black Bayview-Hunters Point area of San Francisco.
- His gang-related activities included armed robbery; attempted armed robbery; shooting incidents; being a felon in illegal possession of a firearm; car theft; driving a stolen car; and being involved in an automobile injury accident while fleeing from police.
- In 2008, he pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a felon.
- In 2009, he was one of six gang members added to the provisions of a 2007 gang injunction against the Oakdale Mob.
- Under the terms of this injunction, Oakdale Mob members are forbidden to engage in gang-related conduct within a four-block safety zone.
- Among those prohibited activities: Possessing guns or dangerous weapons; possessing illegal drugs; loitering with intent to sell drugs; intimidating witnesses or victims; using threats to recruit or retain gang members; defacing property with graffiti.
- In 2012, he was sentenced to seven years in state prison for armed robbery. (He had already spent almost three years in County Jail.) He was released in 2014.
On December 2, 2015, San Francisco police officers took a report from a 26-year-old Bayview man who had been slashed in the left shoulder.
He and a female friend had been eating in a car parked in front of an apartment building. They saw a man “walking back and forth on the sidewalk talking,” according to the police report.
The man–wielding a knife–reached into the passenger’s side of the car. The passenger opened the door to push the assailant away.
When he got out of the car, the man slashed him across the left shoulder. Bleeding heavily, the passenger fled to San Francisco General Hospital.
Two officers responded to the crime scene. Aided by a witness to the attack, they spotted the attacker and then lost him. Police radioed in a description, and more officers joined in the search.
Minutes later, two officers spotted Mario Woods, who matched the suspect’s description. He was waiting to board a bus–until he saw the officers get out of their car.
Woods seized a knife from his jeans pocket and said: “You’re not taking me today.”
The two officers drew their pistols and ordered Woods to drop the knife.
“You better squeeze that motherfucker and kill me,” said Woods.
More officers arrived.
Still refusing to drop the knife, Woods was hit with three nonlethal beanbag rounds fired from a 12-gauge weapon.
12-gauge Beanbag shotgun rounds
A woman repeatedly yelled to Woods: “Oh, my God, drop it! Drop it!”
A fourth beanbag from a 40mm gun hit Woods. Although he crouched on one knee, he still held the knife. Then he quickly regained his balance and stood up.
A dose of pepper spray had no apparent effect on him.
A crowd began to gather–and an officer moved toward them to warn: “Back up!”
Suddenly, Woods moved toward the crowd.
The officer stepped into Woods’ path, to keep him from reaching the bystanders.
As Woods kept advancing, the officer fired his pistol. So did four other officers, riddling Woods with bullets.
Two of the officers were black–as was Woods. But in Uber-liberal San Francisco, police are widely regarded with suspicion, if not outright hostility.
And this is especially true when a black suspect is involved.
Predictably, Black Lives Matter called for a protest and vigil on December 3, 2015.
According to San Francisco Chronicle reporter Vivian Ho:
“Since December 2nd, since that shooting of Mario Woods, the community members have really been asking for [Suhr’s] resignation for the first time.
“They would interrupt committee meetings. They would chant. They would call for it. In April 5th, after this, actually went on a hunger strike, calling for him to step down or for Mayor Ed Lee to fire him.”
On January 25, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee requested a federal investigation into Woods’ death.
And San Francisco Supervisor David Campos introduced a resolution to name July 22–Woods’ birthday–as “Mario Woods Day.”
On January 26, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed Campos’ resolution.
The effort sparked outrage from the San Francisco Police Officers Association (POA) which represents rank-and-file officers.
In a letter addressed to the Board of Supervisors, POA President Martin Halloran wrote:
“It will be a hurtful day to [the families of SFPD officers killed in the line of duty] if this city’s elected officials decide to recognize and honor an individual that preyed upon our most vulnerable citizens.”
Woods’ mother, Gwen, was elated by the vote: “Sometimes you have to stand up and look life in the eye. Everyone can’t be bullied.”
She could–and should–have been speaking for the victims of her gangster son.
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NRA: “IF EVERYONE WENT ARMED, WE’D BE SAFE”
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on July 11, 2016 at 12:14 amOn June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof, a white high school dropout, gunned down three black men and six black women at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Dylann Roof
On June 18–one day after the church slaughter–Charles L. Cotton took insulting the dead to a whole new level.
Cotton is a National Rifle Association (NRA) board member who also runs TexasCHLForum.com, an online discussion forum about guns and gun owners’ rights in Texas and beyond.
In a discussion thread on the Forum, a board member noted that Clementa C. Pinckney, one of the nine people slain, was a pastor and a state legislator in South Carolina.
Cotton responded: “And he voted against concealed-carry. Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.”
That discussion thread was quickly deleted.
During a subsequent phone interview, Cotton emphasized that he had been speaking as a private citizen–and not as an NRA board member:
“It was a discussion we were having about so called gun-free zones. It’s my opinion that there should not be any gun-free zones in schools or churches or anywhere else. If we look at mass shootings that occur, most happen in gun-free zones.”
If private citizens were allowed to carry guns everywhere, Cotton said, there will be fewer mass shootings because “if armed citizens are in there, they have a chance to defend themselves and other citizens.”
Cotton’s position–“there should not be any gun-free zones”–is exactly that of the NRA itself.
Under such circumstances, America will become a nation where anyplace, anytime, can be turned into the O.K. Corral.
Another point that Cotton didn’t mention: Dylann Roof did believe in concealed-carry–and it cost not his life but the lives of nine innocent men and women.
Finally, there is this: Even highly-trained shooters–such as those assigned to the United States Secret Service–don’t always respond as expected.
On May 15, 1972, Alabama Governor George Wallace was campaigning for President in Laurel, Maryland. He gave a speech behind a bulletproof podium at the Laurel Shopping Center. Then he moved from it to mingle with the crowd.
Since the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, all those campaigning for President have been assigned Secret Service bodyguards. And Wallace was surrounded by them as he shook hands with his eager supporters.
Suddenly, Arthur Bremer, a fame-seeking failure in life and romance, pushed his way forward, aimed a .38 revolver at Wallace’s abdomen and opened fire. Before the Secret Service could subdue him, he hit Wallace four times, leaving him paralyzed for the rest of his life.
Arthur Bremer shoots George Wallace
Nor was he Bremer’s only victim. Three other people present were wounded unintentionally:
None of Wallace’s bodyguards got off a shot at Bremer–before or after he pulled the trigger.
On October 6, 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was reviewing a military parade in Cairo when a truck apparently broke down directly across from where he was seated.
Anwar Sadat, moments before his assassination
Suddenly, soldiers bolted from the rear of the vehicle, throwing hand grenades and firing assault rifles. They rushed straight at Sadat–who died instantly under a hail of bullets.
Meanwhile, Sadat’s bodyguards–who had been trained by the CIA–panicked and fled.
Sadat had been assassinated by army officers who believed he had betrayed Islam by making peace with Israel in 1977.
Most recently, the NRA mantra, “If every citizen went armed…” was put to the test in Dallas, Texas. It flunked.
On July 7, five Dallas police officers were shot and killed by a disgruntled ex-Army Reserve Afghan War veteran named Michah Xavier Johnson. Another seven officers and two civilians were wounded before the carnage ended.
The shootings erupted during a Black Lives Matter protest march in downtown Dallas.
Texas has long been an “open carry” state for those who want to brandish rifles without fear of arrest. And about 20 people wearing “ammo gear and protective equipment [had] rifles slung over their shoulder,” said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings.
“When the shooting started, at different angles, [the armed protesters] started running,” Rawlings said, adding that open carry only brings confusion to a shooting scene. “What I would do [if I were a police officer] is look for the people with guns,” he said.
“There were a number of armed demonstrators taking part,” said Max Geron, a Dallas police major. “There was confusion on the radio about the description of the suspects and whether or not one or more was in custody.”
The ultimate test of the NRA’s mantra that “there should not be any gun-free zones…anywhere” will come only when one or more heavily-armed gunmen target an NRA convention.
It will then be interesting to see if the surviving NRA members are as quick to blame themselves for being victims as they are to blame the victims of other mass slaughters.
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