Social Justice | Dangerous Common Sense

Recall Chesa Boudin — Yes on H

San Francisco voters should recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin June 7th.

My disillusion with Chesa’s performance stems from his failure to live up to his progressive promises while at the same time failing to develop reasonable and effective standards for the implementation of his laudable goals.I have personal experience about his failure to prevent unnecessary aggressive prosecution of a Black man.

Chesa’s office would not divert or work with the public defender when one of our church’s gay refugee Guardian Group clients was arrested in a roommate dispute. I was not there as a witness but I understand that our guy froze up when the police arrived because he has PTSD from being beaten by cops in Africa. So the police heard only the roommate’s description of what happened and arrested our guy. Our guy is thin, not muscular, and really not physically threatening. Our guy had no criminal record. It was a “he said, he said” situation. Regardless, Cheasa’s staff would not drop the charges or work with the public defender to come to any resolution. The DA’s office — Chesa’s office — were going for a felony charge and over a period of weeks they would not budge.

Given the facts of the case and the refusal of Chea’s staff to be reasonable, the judge stepped in, ordered our guy to go to anger management, and then completely dismissed the charges and wiped the record.

Now if Chesa was really looking to help Black and other people who have been abused by the system, his people should have never even filed the charge. Society would NOT have been better off if our guy had been convicted of anything.

At the same time as he allowed an unreasonable prosecution Chesa has picked some truly awful and dangerous people to be lenient with. People who have caused death from violence and drug dealing have be set free. It’s not just one or two mistakes, I ran across a page full of video stories of families of victims.

I like what I know about Chesa’s philosophy and his desire to give fairer justice and to prosecute wrong doing wherever it comes from. Divert the poor who got caught stealing food; throw the book at dirty cops.

The problem, and why I support recall, is that Chesa has no apparent consistent, effective standards that guide him or his staff. My mild, scared PTSD refugee was prosecuted while unrepentant crooks have been set free.

As the pro-recall campaign notes, “Almost half of San Francisco’s prosecutors have resigned from the District Attorney’s office in protest over Chesa Boudin’s mismanagement, threats to withhold evidence, decisions to hand down lenient sentences or not press charges, and release violent criminals early. Until we recall Chesa Boudin, more and more prosecutors will continue to leave. He can’t even do the job.”

Unfortunately, those opposing recall are engaging in name calling to divert attention from the issue of Chesa’s performance. They’re saying it’s a “Republican recall.” I am no Republican. I will talk to recall opponents respectfully and we can exchange reasons for our positions. But, let’s talk and not call names.

Moreover, the numbers say that this recall effort is supported mainly by people other than Republicans. From the Yes on Recall campaign: “83% of our donors are Dem or NPP with over 80% of donations coming from local San Franciscans. Lifelong Democrats are leading this effort.”

Opponents of recall also say that I should look at the police statistics for 2019 to 2020 for certain violent crimes that prove Chesa is combatting crime. I am truly glad that the number of recorded rapes, robberies and assaults declined year over year. But, carefully selected specific offense statistics culled from a pandemic year do not counterbalance what I see with my own eyes: car window glass littering streets, abandoned Walgreens, and too frequent news stories of maham caused by individuals Chesa has refused to prosecute and released. Moreover, according to the New York Post other crimes have increased “significantly in the city Boudin works for, with burglaries up 40% from pre-pandemic levels and homicides up almost 37%.” So, no. Crime statistics don’t support Chesa staying in office.

The final argument against recall is that recall itself is extreme and either should not be allowed ever or in Chesa’s case we should just wait for the next election. Well, I think there are times when recall is needed to correct an election outcome that was manipulated by campaign statements that were later found to be untrue. The law already provides for the removal of public officials convicted of a crime, but I believe citizens also need recourse when they vote for someone whose actions in office don’t match what they promised in a campaign or they otherwise endanger the community.

Someone suggested in Facebook comment that Chesa should not be removed mid term because of “buyer’s remorse”. That is not it at all.

I believe Chesa’s actual performance is office does not match the compassionate and equal justice outlook he promised. He has rhetoric but no clear, consistent, predictable path of intelligent action. He has disrupted the criminal justice system in San Francisco but he has not installed an effective, reliable set of alternative procedures. The result of his ideological approach to prosecution has resulted in deaths, stores closing, and a high level of citizen anguish as their cars and other property have been stolen by organized crooks.

Every day Chesa stays in office increases the losses to San Franciscans.

Based on my personal experience of his failure to stop a senseless prosecution of a PTSD victim and my observations of the closing of stores because of unprosecuted theft, the stories of released people causing death, the disbanding of many task forces in the DA’s office, his failure to appropriate charge enhancements, and, and, and…
I am voting YES on H.

By Galen Workman|2022-06-02T11:20:36-07:00June 2, 2022|Politics, San Francisco, Social Justice|0 Comments

Taking Care of the Poor, San Francisco Style, 2021
Gallery
Taking Care of the Poor, San Francisco Style, 2021

philippic, Social Justice

Taking Care of the Poor, San Francisco Style, 2021

There is something humanly disturbing and wrong about how we Americans have decided to NOT handle poor homeless people in need. In some areas of the country people look down on street people as being lazy addicts who deserve whatever happens to them. In left-wing San Francisco we view our hands-off approach through the lens of individual rights and respecting the choice that people have… we honor the “decision” to do drugs, stay on the street, and survive however they can.

Our determination to let other humans rot on the street is apparently official.

Last Thursday afternoon I was sitting with a friend on a Castro Street parklet enjoying a cocktail. While sipping our drinks we watched a disoriented man go back and forth on the sidewalk. He looked to be either on drugs or on an internal mental journey. But, he didn’t approach us so we pretty much lost track of him.

Then out of the side of my eye I saw him fall in the middle of the sidewalk.

Our attention shifted to see if he got up, moved, or otherwise looked okay. He did none of those things. Instead, we watched pedestrians change course to walk around him. No one stopped or took any action.

So, I called the Police Department to report a man down on sidewalk. I explained that he looked like a homeless man in bad health who collapsed. I tried to make the call urgent and wouldn’t speculate that he was drunk or otherwise a low priority.

Within a few minutes — and after a follow-up call or two — officers arrived.

They were nice officers. At least the one I talked to was friendly and reasonable. They made contact and assured themselves that the man did not need paramedics.

Then they followed apparent policy.

They had the man crawl with his crutch over to the side of the walkway where he would not be in the way. Then they left.

I was — and still am — stunned. Here’s a man who effectively cannot walk, and we respect his “right” to pass out by the side of a building.

When I was a police dispatcher 40+ years ago, I was trained that California’s Health and Welfare code is supposed to protect people who are either a danger to others or to themselves. Officers, doctors, and some other people are empowered to put people in a hospital for 72 hours… even if the person objects. I cannot conceive of a time when I would have sent a unit to a situation like the one I observed and the officers would have left the man still down on the sidewalk.

But in 2021 we do that in San Francisco. I don’t know the official policy wording that has police walk away from someone clearly gravely disabled. But, whether we say it’s”individual freedom” or other lofty reason, we are doing it wrong.

We need to take care of the crazy and the drug addled. I am not advocating making the streets “cleaner” or even safer. We simply owe each other enough care to give safe shelter and food to the desperate among us. Even if they say they don’t want it.

By Galen Workman|2021-09-07T12:46:46-07:00September 5, 2021|philippic, Social Justice|1 Comment

How to Save Black Lives

Black Lives Matter. Period.

The deaths of black men at the hands of police are tragedies that we as a society must work to stop. Demands for change are appropriate and necessary. But, I worry that anti-police and anti-government protests don’t help us move forward. To me there is a difference between insisting on systemic changes and insisting that authorities are evil.

In the 1960’s governors stood in the doors of schoolhouses to keep black people out, politicians publicly advocated segregation, and law enforcement openly planned how to violently attack marchers. There is no 2015 — or 2020 — equivalent to George Wallace, Sheriff Clark, or even the “moderate” States’ Right advocates who protected segregation in the 1960’s. I haven’t heard governors say black kids deserve to be profiled and shot. I haven’t heard law enforcement departments say that they are content with their alienation from the communities they police.

There is no entrenched, intentional Evil in this discussion.

In 2015 when this post was first drafted NPR interviewed Constance Rice, a civil rights attorney who sued the LAPD in the 1990’s. Here’s what NPR reported (read more at NPR):

Rice’s time battling the LAPD, and specifically captain Charlie Beck, who is now LA’s police chief, eventually led to a place where there could be trust. They worked together to reform the department.

Some of that change included LAPD officers going into projects to set up youth sports programs and health screenings, things that made people’s lives better and brought police and predominantly black communities closer together.

Here are some interview highlights:
On use of police force on minorities:

“Cops can get into a state of mind where they’re scared to death. When they’re in that really, really frightened place they panic and they act out on that panic. I have known cops who haven’t had a racist bone in their bodies and in fact had adopted black children, they went to black churches on the weekend; and these are white cops. They really weren’t overtly racist. They weren’t consciously racist. But you know what they had in their minds that made them act out and beat a black suspect unwarrantedly? They had fear. They were afraid of black men. I know a lot of white cops who have told me. And I interviewed over 900 police officers in 18 months and they started talking to me, it was almost like a therapy session for them I didn’t realize that they needed an outlet to talk.

“They would say things like, “Ms. Rice I’m scared of black men. Black men terrify me. I’m really scared of them. Ms. Rice, you know black men who come out of prison, they’ve got great hulk strength and I’m afraid they’re going to kill me. Ms. Rice, can you teach me how not to be afraid of black men.” I mean this is cops who are 6’4″. You know, the cop in Ferguson was 6’4″ talking about he was terrified. But when cops are scared, they kill and they do things that don’t make sense to you and me.”

I see police departments – especially the field level officers – struggling to figure out what to do to improve relations, to keep from being afraid of black men.

Rage and grief at the loss of black lives is appropriate. But, questioning the intention of all police officers and entire police departments feels like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Ultimately, I believe we can best find solutions when we all are open to the belief that all parts of the community are acting with good intentions. (No, not everyone in all sections of the community. But, I do feel that mayors and police chiefs are trying to end the build-in prejudice.)

Long Beach Police Department Communications Supervisors, circa 1980. Bryan Hawkins, Ethel Gelman, Galen Workman, Linda Trujillo, and Paul Stein.

My conviction of the human goodness of most police officers comes from my first-hand experience during my work in Long Beach.

As citizens we need to argue for the budgets for training and community building. We need to focus on programs like those Rice and LAPD developed and make sure that office holders understand that our interest is not another passing fad. Money and responsibilities should be transferred from police departments to other agencies. But, it’s critical that we as a community/country and work together.

Let’s not needlessly create enemies. Let’s refrain from demonizing people who are trying to find ways to do better, or to simply survive their work shift.

We also need to acknowledge that situations leading to the death of unarmed people don’t always involve one-sided police action. The stark “good, unarmed angelic kids vs. jack-booted cops” story line is not always accurate. Some of the people who have been killed by police have done something illegal or contributed in some way to looking dangerous (like by pointing a “toy” gun at a police officer). They did not “deserve” to die, and we as a community need to figure out how to train officers to be less afraid and feel less like civilization will fall if they don’t push the trigger and shoot someone the cop thinks is dangerous. But, at the same time, it feels unfair to not understand the human impulse to protect yourself when you think there is a gun pointed at you.

The deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Oscar Grant, so many others are tragic, and the list of heartbreak seems unstoppable with George Floyd, Sean Monterrosa, Rayshard Brooks, recent victims. Even if they died in interactions with police after they were involved in some non-violent crime, deadly force was not warranted. And, many people of color who are virtuous pillars of society are stopped, treated badly, and often hurt without any justification.

Still, I don’t see that the solution is to scream at police that they are bigoted storm troopers. We need training and programs to integrate police into the communities they serve. We need to show them how to feel less frightened and more skilled in ways of controlling situations involving black men they don’t know. We need to clarify exactly what the police are supposed to do and maybe get the police out of non core law enforcement duties.

I wish/hope/believe that with training and mutual outreach we all can get along.

Note: this post was originally drafted in 2015 after a black man was killed by police. I did not publish it then because I thought I didn’t need to add my voice or perspective. I need to publish this updated commentary now, five years and too many deaths later.

By Galen|2020-08-11T16:05:43-07:00June 18, 2020|Social Justice|1 Comment

Meditations on The Thin Blue Line

It’s been 40 years since my dispatching days at Long Beach Police. Have things changed?

I remember working the day shift and wondering why whenever a certain officer radioed that he was going to investigate a suspicious subject on his own initiative, a unit or two would immediately go to his assistance. He didn’t ask for back-up, but units who were supposedly busy magically cleared and showed up at his side.

Unit 7 — or was it Unit 21? some details fade — was rarely alone with someone he stopped. Other units investigated people and wrote tickets without other cops joining them. And, the officer wasn’t small, old, or otherwise weak. But, he always had another unit volunteer to be with him.

When I asked why Unit 7 always got a back up, I didn’t get an answer. Finally, when I was no longer the distrusted rookie, I was taken aside and given an explanation. Other officers knew that Unit 7 was a “black glove specialist” who would beat the African Americans he stopped. These other officers would check out with him to make sure that he didn’t go too far.

At the time I didn’t believe the explanation. I was an idealistic 21 year old from a liberal family. It didn’t make sense to me that this guy’s fellow officers, sergeants, and commanders would let him get away with chronic excessive force and devise work-arounds to keep him somewhat in check instead of telling him to stop or disciplining him. I wasn’t sure what the real answer on his backups was, but before I got too insistent on the truth I was transferred to the swing shift when the only time I heard him was when he was turning off the radio at the end of his watch.

The night we dispatched a lieutenant and some select units to his house to negotiate his safe armed, drunken exit from his home after a violent domestic dispute rekindled my unease at the special handling the department gave him.

By then, I had a couple years experience dispatching and I understood that police officers felt compelled to stand beside other officers, no matter what the other officer was doing. The social code was that it was cops against the world.

Only the cops, sticking together, were going to keep civilization safe. Even if you beat “suspicious” black people or beat your wife, you were one of the Saviors.

That meant you never ticketed another cop, reported something they did wrong, or saw anything different from what the official report said. If you broke the code, the bad guys would win and civilization would fall. Better to look the other way occasionally than to risk societal collapse.

The officers I knew in Long Beach ran the gamut in intelligence and sensitivity, and I was surprised by the diversity of political and social opinion. Most were honest, fun loving, dedicated, and hard working.

But, all of them treated the Thin Blue Line as inviolate. Even us civilian dispatchers were a lower class of animal (although they wouldn’t give us a traffic ticket… probably because they knew if they crossed dispatch they’d be assigned nothing but junk calls for the rest of their lives).

One of my friends recently went on a tear, asking how so many aggressive racist people could be working in police departments nationwide. Didn’t they give pre-hiring psychological tests to weed out the racists?

Yes, of course we do.

But, one of the systemic problems we have not addressed is the mission and training we give the police.

We let police departments hire only non-crazy, non-racist recruits. But then we send these young, eager people to the Police Academy where we train them for months on battlefield survival techniques. We build up their pride in being officers, in being together, in upholding The Law. Basically, we indoctrinate them in the importance of the Thin Blue Line.

We make police officers raring-to-go protectors of society. Then we give them social service assignments like dealing with confused crazy people, moving messy homeless encamped on upper-class streets, and herding somewhat rowdy protesters.

We teach the officers that they are standing up for civilization against evil. But, most of their job is dealing with human weakness.

Of course, they cannot rely that their next call will be best handled by deescalation and understanding. There are real bad guys out there. Robbers, murderers, rapists,… cop killers. Being Officer Friendly has its limits outside of the elementary school classroom.

Right now I believe the United States is getting the police officers and departments we are asking for. What we are telling the chiefs and trainers we want.

Punishing “a bad apple” caught on video isn’t going to fix the problem. Yes, some officers are guilty of crimes and should be charged. But jailing individuals is not enough.

We need to work together to determine exactly what we want from our police departments. Do we want them to be Public Safety departments? Do we want to charge other, maybe new city agencies, with the responsibility for many non-criminal problems? What do we want the officers to do?

Let’s honor the officers who we have trained to hold The Thin Blue Line. But, for our souls’ sake, let’s find a different model for the police in 2020 and train our officers to that new standard.

By Galen|2020-06-14T10:50:10-07:00June 13, 2020|Social Justice|1 Comment

Talking to LGBT Refugees About the Orlando Shootings

There is no place where you are absolutely safe. No place in the world.

The men and women whom my church’s Refugee Guardian Group has helped all fled their home countries to avoid being beaten or killed because of their sexual orientation.

Most of our clients come from Muslim countries. They know first-hand the deadly acts against LGBT people carried out in the name of Islam. The news from Florida this morning must have sounded frighteningly familiar.

Today I contacted the four men for whom I have been a mentor. I wanted to check in. How were they after the murders at Pulse in Orlando?

The young men I contacted are used to society applauding attacks against LGBT’s. They are used to both the civil and religious authorities joining in the violence against sexual minorities. I wanted to reassure my guys that in the United States the government tries to protect us. In Florida, the police shot and killed the religious terrorist. I wanted my young men to feel safer and not to flash back to the helpless insecurity that they had in their country of birth.

The fight for safety is universal.

None of is completely shielded from attacks by delusional zealots who are certain that they are following God’s orders. We are not safe in Russia, Iran, Tunisia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon, Iraq,… or even in the United States, in the United Kingdom, or in Canada. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or straight: none of us is 100% secure.

But, at least in the United States, the crazed, divisive, self-proclaimed prophets do not represent the spirit of the nation.

Attacks by madmen justifying themselves by spouting their understanding of God’s will are blessedly uncommon in 2016 in the United States. That type of attack is very common and condoned in the countries from which our refugees and asylum seekers fled.

Today’s massacre reinforces how important it is for us to help LGBT people who have escaped the official persecution of their country of birth. We need to find ways to welcome more of them in the [relative] safety of the United States.

Help the San Francisco Refugee Guardian Group if you can, start your own Guardian Group, or simply contact me for more information if I can help.

Let us hold the good things in our lives a little tighter today.

By Galen|2016-06-13T10:36:48-07:00June 12, 2016|Social Justice|1 Comment

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