The Board of Supes Rules Committee moved forward the nomination of Petra DeJesus for another term on the Police Commission Thursday – but not before a lengthy hearing in which Sups. London Breed and Ahsha Safai challenged DeJesus repeatedly, particularly on the issue of arming cops with Tasers.
DeJesus was the only candidate for the job. Safai and Breed had tried to oust her and replace her with Olga Miranda, a political ally of Safai, but they clearly didn’t have the votes so Miranda withdrew.
Safai, who chairs Rules, had declined to hold a hearing on DeJesus, leaving that seat on the commission empty.
He finally called a hearing June 8. Breed, who is not a member of the Rules Committee, showed up for the hearing, and the two foes of DeJesus spent a long time talking about her role on the panel – and raising questions about how the Police Commission works.
Part of this whole process was clearly political payback – DeJesus supported the opponents of both Breed and Safai. Part of it showed that the new supervisor, Safai, doesn’t fully comprehend how the Police Commission operates.
And part of it gave DeJesus a chance to defend herself on what is the real issue here: The police union wants Tasers (and so, apparently, does Safai). DeJesus thinks those weapons are a recipe for more disaster in a department that has a long record of using excessive force, particularly on communities of color.
“Why is San Francisco the only major city, besides Detroit, that doesn’t give the police Tasers?” Safai asked. “Even the BART Police have Tasers.”
DeJesus responded quickly: “You saw what happened to Oscar Grant.”
Grant was killed by a BART cop who thought he was drawing a Taser but instead pulled a pistol. “Just because someone else has it” doesn’t make those weapons a good idea, she said.
DeJesus discussed the Mario Woods case, where seven officers fired more than 50 rounds and killed a man armed with a knife.
The cops say that if they were armed with Tasers, they wouldn’t have had to shoot Woods. But DeJesus was brutally incisive in her response.
There were seven officers, and nobody called for a sergeant, she said. They made no effort to close off the area and wait for crisis intervention. “This was a training failure,” she said. “And they want to be rewarded with more weapons.”
Breed brought up Tasers, too, and DeJesus went through a detailed history of the stun guns. Tasers were first tested, she said, by firing electrodes at a 250-pound pig, and adjusting the voltage until the animal was paralyzed. They are tested on healthy people, usually large men, who are placed above a mat with two assistants to keep the subject from falling to the ground and injuring himself.
Many of the people shot with Tasers could be smaller, won’t have the mat or assistance, and would be at risk of serious injury. If the subject is shot in the chest, the result could be fatal.
“So the rules say you aren’t supposed to shoot in the face, neck, chest, or groin,” DeJesus said. “What is the efficacy of a weapon if you can’t shoot it in any of the areas that officers are trained to shoot?”
Besides, she noted, most people who will end up being zapped are likely mentally ill.
“It’s a lazy man’s way,” she said, noting that for 100 years, SF officers used batons successful against people with knives, but they are no longer trained to do that.
She pleaded with the panel not to remove from the Police Commission someone who questions the need for new weapons. “You can’t have everyone on the panel say if the [officers] want a new weapon, they get a new weapon.”
Safai asked DeJesus at some length about the process the commission uses to hear disciplinary cases, which has been in place for a long time. He seemed confused to learn how it works.
Breed raised questions about police overtime, which has become a huge budget issue, and about staff deployment. “I ask where the officers are in the Haight, and they tell me they are at the Giants game,” she said. “I would like the commission to take more of a leadership role.”
(Officer Grace Gatpandan at SFPD Public Affairs told me that “Officer presence during Giants home games are paid through a combination of the Giants organization hiring SFPD, Federal/State grants, and detailing on duty officers to the game.” So yes, some of the cops at the game are paid by our tax dollars, not by the Giants, which seems like a problem.)
And she asked a question that I have often wondered about, too: Why are police captains routinely rotated out of a neighborhood after a year or two?
Safai kept challenging DeJesus about her record, suggesting that after 12 years she hadn’t fixed the problems in the department. It took Sup. Norman Yee to note in his usual quiet manner that there are seven commissioners, and DeJesus and her reform efforts are not always in the majority.
“I was on the School Board for eight years,” he said. “And sometimes I got voted down.”
Breed left before the final vote – and despite the long testimony, and the long list of speakers supporting DeJesus, Safai voted against her.
With Yee and Sandra Lee Fewer voting yes, the nomination moves onto the full board, where – unless something changes radically – DeJesus will be confirmed for another term.
Thank you, Tim Redmond for being the voice of reason regarding the debate for TASER weapons. I find it wholly ironic that the San Francisco Supervisor Board President, London Breed is a black woman pushing TASER weapons for San Francisco even when we've said time and time again NO TASERS FOR SFPD. San Francisco, in case locals like London Breed have forgotten, is a special place. We are NOT like everywhere else. If we were, why would so many people want to live here? The SFPD needs better training in de-escalation tactics, better training in how to use their most powerful weapons, their minds, to HELP NOT HURT S.F. citizens. You're sealing your fate, London Breed, if you think ANYONE will vote for you to be mayor in a city that has always welcomed diversity, tolerance and peacefulness over violence. Take a step back, London Breed. You're sounding more like an ignorant hillbilly huckster from some run-of-the-mill yokel town than our San Francisco that supposedly attracts millions of intelligent, sensitive and peaceful people.
Cops will use tasers as a punitive measure, an “attitude adjuster” that won’t leave them with skinned knuckles.
And they will lie about it.
An outrageous abuse of power.
Someone with a knife is exactly a situation where a TASER would properly be used. It can be fired from far enough away that the officer is not in immediate danger, A TASER should not be used to subdue someone. They are not non-lethal, and they are not intended to make cops lives easy,
The problem is, the police union is not willing to accept reasonable restraints. They want tasers to be available as toys.
I would say it is the idiots who want the police armed to the teeth, and free to use those weapons without restraint.
Agreed. I linked to the video above. With a wall behind him, he should easily have been stopped short of 20 bullets.
there is video of the mario woods shooting. he had stabbed a man earlier….police shot him with beanbag rounds, and heavier 40 mm rounds and yet he would drop the knife. the police corraled him but he tried to walk away towards an officer while still holding the knife and towards a muni bus unloading passengers. a taser would have been a good option. every major city has them except sfpd and Detroit.
I appreciate what you’re saying about deadly force, but is that really what this article is about? Being surrounded by many police, there’s no possibility of escape, and you’ve got a knife in your hand, that’s it, you’re dead? There’s no video of the Mario Woods shooting, but I imagine it was something like this one, which seems absurd to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BolqWQ4iIY4
Because tasers are not used in the place of deadly force..they are used to subdue someone without using a more injuring force. If a person is posing a deadly threat then deadly force is used. A person with a knife or gun, etc posing a threat is not a person one uses a taser on…the electrodes don’t work 100% of the time. Shooting someone armed with a deadly weapon can’t be stopped by shooting them in the arm or leg…a handgun bullet doesn’t have enough force to knock a person down.
What about the fact that the DOJ report that is touted as a recipe to fix the department recommends that the officers be equipped with tasers?
DeJesus was the only candidate for the job.
this city needs more accountability, and less petty politics from the BoS
“So the rules say you aren’t supposed to shoot in the face, neck, chest, or groin,” DeJesus said. “What is the efficacy of a weapon if you can’t shoot it in any of the areas that officers are trained to shoot?”
If you can train someone to shoot a Taser away from vital organs, why not train officers to shoot their guns similarly?
Um, l’m not Caucasian, thus I never ever call them.
But, what do you know, you’re convinced they’ll help me “if” I ever did.
yeah, it’s a pig to you until you need their help
idiots don’t want officers to have guns or tasers. Let’s just invite violent criminals to sit around the campfire and sing kumbayah.
I only hope the the 250lb “PIG” was from our SFPD.