Justice delayed

It's good news that, at long last, San Francisco police officers whose racist and sexist text messages have been public knowledge since 2015 can face discipline. But I have to highlight one sentence from the Chronicle report on the decision.

The state Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for San Francisco to seek disciplinary action against a group of police officers who exchanged racist, sexist and homophobic text messages in 2011 and 2012 — calling African Americans “monkeys” and encouraging the killing of “half-breeds,” among other slurs.

The texts, which surfaced publicly in 2015, prompted the district attorney’s office to re-examine thousands of criminal cases the officers have handled. As many as nine officers, who have been on paid leave since December 2015, could be fired if the Police Commission finds serious misconduct.

We've been paying these guys not to work for three years because a combination of the power of the police union (POA) and politicians' weakness have made the SFPD unaccountable to the public. Individual cops have a right to fair hearings, but the people have a right to speedy resolution of complaints and removal of wrongdoers on the force.

Mayor Breed, State legislators, County supervisors, and Police Commission: take back our city from rogue cops! This is your job!