SF Chief Pig Shouted Down Trying to Defend Police Murder
March 26, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Correspondence from San Francisco/Bay Area:
People in San Francisco are fighting back against the epidemic of police murder and brutality and building for April 14.
Alice Brown, shot and killed by San Francisco police March 17.Monday, March 23, people shouted down Chief San Francisco Pig Greg Suhr at a community meeting the police called to try and justify the March 17 police killing of Alice Brown, a 24-year-old white woman. The police say they were conducting a stolen vehicle investigation and were pursuing Alice Brown in her car. When she drove the wrong way down a one-way street and then up on the sidewalk, the cops shot and killed her.
Suhr wanted people to believe that they could get justice by relying on an official investigation. Less than a half hour after the meeting started, the Chief had to shut it down because people refused to put up with his lies.
After Suhr finished his “explanation” of why the cops shot Alice, a woman who was there and saw what happened challenged Suhr to his face, saying, “What you said was not true.” She went on to say the cops escalated the situation unnecessarily. Others questioned whether Alice even knew that the men chasing her were the police since they arrived in plainclothes in an unmarked police car.
Angela Naggie, whose son O’Shaine Evans was killed by undercover police officers near AT&T Park last year, spoke to similarities between the two cases. Another person asked Suhr, “Are you reading from a script?” speaking to how the police always run out the same lies every time they take someone’s life.
Others challenged Suhr on other murders by police and called on him to resign. People from the Stop Mass Incarceration Network held up a “Stolen Lives” banner with pictures and names of people killed by the cops.
People block gate to Mission District police station parking lot to protest police killing of Alex Nieto, a City College student. March 23, San Francisco. Photo: Capp Street Crap
Earlier that day in the morning, about 200 people shut down Valencia Street in front of the San Francisco Mission District police station for several hours to mark the one-year anniversary of the killing of Alejandro "Alex" Nieto, a 28-year-old San Francisco City College student, at the hands of the SFPD. The protest was called by “Stop Police Impunity.” Police fired more than 57 shots at Alex, who was unarmed and walking in his neighborhood. Outrageously, the San Francisco District Attorney (and former police chief) refused to file charges against the four cops who murdered Alex.
Photo: Sagnic the Salazar
People shut down street in front of police station in the Mission District to protest police killing of Alex Nieto, a City College student. March 23, San Francisco.
Photo: Capp Street Crap
In front of the police station, protesters conducted a mock trial of the four cops. Demonstrators were dressed in blue and wore large masks with depictions of the cops’ faces. They were handcuffed with their legs shackled, symbolizing that they should have been arrested for murder. At the same time, 16 activists blocked the gate to the parking lot, locking themselves to a large artwork in front of the station for over four hours.
“We are here to give notice to the SFPD and other police departments across the country that our communities will not sit passively while we are targeted. We deserve to live with dignity and we deserve justice,” a protester told the media.
On Saturday, March 20, the group “Justice for Alex Nieto” called for a memorial procession to mark the anniversary of Alex’s killing. It went from Bernal Heights, where Alex was shot, to the Mission Cultural Center, where a film of Alex’s life, Amor for Alex, was shown. Lowrider car clubs participated in the procession.
April 14 was widely promoted—and warmly received—at all these protests.
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