[queervision] POLICE BRUTALITY CAUGHT ON VIDEO, mesha's experience

OCC (SF Office of Citizens Complaints) is a sinister joke...

97% of OCC complaints are unsustained.
We have only 2 allies at OCC,
Jessica Cole, Jewish Lesbian,franco-American,
and Samara Marion, Policy Analyst.

2 years ago I was taking pictures of a stake out on 3rd near Williams in SF
Bayview, (on my way to the SF Bayview paper to submit pictures, I had jumped
off the 15 -now defunct- bus when I saw 8 patrol cars, blocking off both
intersections, and the WHITE VAN [always present when they expect to take someone to
it FEET FIRST], and flocks of cops with 4 K9 dogs, going behind a church
building through a side fence to block off the back exit).

As I approach the scene, some officers (there were at least a dozen) start
hollering at me:
"Get the F... out of here !" "Get the the other side of the street!"
"You are interfering with police business !"
I keep taking pictures, flash my press card and say out loud : "Officers, I
am not interfering, I'm the press, I am 10 feet away, and exercizing my
Constitutional Right to Observe" (which is usually sufficient to stop them on their
tracks)
This older white officer, moustache, dark glasses and all, worthy a special
feature in National Geographic's under "San FrancisKKKops", rushes at me,
stands in my chest, and shouts
:"Well, Bitch ! where are your 10 feet now ?
You are under arrest, show me your ID"

I happen to have a picture of my 2004 graduation from the SF Police Academy
Citizen Training with me, 8' by 11'. smiling and hugged by Chief Fong and Ldt.
Flores, that I was bringing to the office to frame it and hang it above our
toilet.
So I take the picture out of my backpack, show it to him and tell him :

"That's my ID, officer, and what is your name?"
He yells back in my face: "I don't know who the F... these people are, show
me your ID !"
"You do not know who your bosses are, Officer? And what is your name?"
"Get stepping !Get to the other side of the street ! You could get KILLED !"
An Asian female and another white male officers cheer on :
"Yeah ! Wrong Place ! Wrong time ! Get the hell out !" "Yeah ! You can get
killed !"

I cross the street and keep shooting pictures, surprised that they did not
take my camera.
Determined to keep taking pictures until the suspect comes out alive, as it
is hard for cops to kill in front of the press
.
On the other side of 3rd street, Brothers come out of a barber shop and out
the the Jazz Room bat, one stating" "Gurl, U crazy... they WILL kill you, you
know".
I ask them if they were my witnesses. They shake their heads without another
word and go back inside the barber shop and the bar.

So I call Sgt Gittens on my cell phone and reported what had been going on.
He angrily states " How could I know, I am not there, there are always 2
sides to these stories, I will read the police report" and hangs up.

So the following day, I go to OCC (still on 2nd street), file a complaint
for cops making death threats against the press and violating my constitutional
right to observe. (as understandibly, they may have simply warned me that I
may be caught in cross fire, but the style of delivery, and threatening to
arrest a member of the press under the circumstance was in violation of
departmental policies and procedures)

Atty Jason Wells, who takes my report, chuckles inappropriately during the
whole time of our interview, and I do not meet his eyes once in a hour time.
Never gets back to me as to the development of the case.
A month later, I received an official notice on OCC letterhead, claiming that
my complaint is unsustained.

2 years ago, Gary Delagnes, head of the POA flashed on the giant TV at a
police commission hearing a PRIVATE correspondence from OCC investigator Susan
Leff (no longer with the agency, on her own volition when she was about to have
a child, now in private practice) to ISARC (my agency), asking for witnesses
of SFPD assault on Tyrelle Taylor,
and demanded for Leff to be fired, for agressively doing outreach, supposedly
in volation of OCC policies and procedures.

The fact that the POA was illegally using spyware to check on both of our
agencies PRIVATE email correspondence was never addressed, but the commission
dismissed Delagnes' demand.

In 7 years of Operation, all OCC complaints filed by ISARC on behalf of tis
clients, some of which have been prompted by OCC itself, have been deemed
UNSUSTAINED.

WE NEED AN INDEPENDENT CIVILIAN REVIEW BOARD IN SF.

While we have insider allies, who contiue to encourage us to file complaints,
and call us on particular cases that they would like to be brought to their
official attention, OCC department heads are EMBEDDED WITH PD, INSTRUCTED BY
OUR MAYOR ON SUSTAINABLE CASES, THE OCC PRESIDENT SITS BY FONG AT THE POLICE
COMMISSION, PASSING NOTES TO EACH OTHER DURING PROCEEDINGS.

En la Lucha
mesha
ISARC