And to use those batons as it chooses.
No more will the department abide by some namby-pamby agreement to allow the city's elected District Attorney to investigate, and if proper prosecute, when cops beat up citizens. The boys in blue will take care of their own. That's what Chief Scott's announcement last week that he'll leave a "memorandum of understanding" (MOU) with the DA's office amounts to.
A cop is about to go on trial next week for beating up a man in 2019 near Fisherman's Wharf. The incident was captured on police body camera video. The victim had to have surgery for a broken leg and wrist; he was never charged with any crime. I guess the cop was delivering what he thought was rough street justice. Perhaps the beatdown was all in a days work for Officer Terrance Stangel, but our prosecutor thought otherwise, so a jury will decide.
The cops say a DA investigator working on the case failed to share every interview she had about the incident. The judge who is preparing to seat a jury has seen all the police and DA interviews and wonders what's the big deal.
Court transcripts show Judge Teresa Caffese asked several times for clarification on what evidence was exculpatory, but Hayashi did not provide sufficient details to satisfy her. Caffese stated that she felt the information in question was not exculpatory — it would not have exonerated Stangel nor changed the defense’s approach. The trial is set to commence on Monday.
It's hard not to conclude that SFPD brass and the police union are acting out to protect their own. This announcement that the SFPD intends reject cooperation with civilian oversight is a direct challenge to the rule of law.
It's a travesty that the police department requires an MOU to work with the properly elected prosecutor of the city of San Francisco. The cops work for the citizens of this city. Their job is to do what the elected government of the city orders, within the framework of criminal law. If they won't play, they are just a lawless gang. And should be replaced.
Our elected Public Defender Mano Raju spelled it out:
Without this MOU in place, the SFPD will go back to policing themselves, which presents a clear conflict of interest that San Franciscans have long rejected by creating oversight bodies and mechanisms to provide transparency. For a department that still stops, searches, and inflicts violence disproportionately against Black, Latinx, and other marginalized communities, the public deserves at a minimum the transparency and protection that this agreement provided.
Chief Scott’s sudden announcement should alarm the public and everyone who has called for police reform in San Francisco and across the country. We can no longer permit the police to police themselves. The San Francisco Police Commission should assert its authority and act immediately to preserve independent oversight.
SFPD is acting as a gang that threatens public safety.
No comments:
Post a Comment