Posted on 07/12/2005 7:48:33 AM PDT by SmithL
A communications glitch left a San Francisco police officer and his partner alone to confront a splinter group of anarchist demonstrators in the Mission District, an altercation that ended with protesters inflicting a head injury on one of the officers, police said Monday.
Police promised to fix the breakdown in the dispatch system, which resulted in 100 officers -- dressed in riot gear and assigned to Friday night's protest against the Group of Eight summit -- unaware for several critical minutes of the brewing confrontation involving Officer Peter Shields.
"If the demonstration happened again this afternoon, we'd make sure this didn't happen again,'' said Deputy Chief Greg Suhr, who oversees patrol operations and was in charge of the officers who confronted 150 protesters Friday.
Shields, 36, a five-year veteran of the department, was surrounded by about 30 protesters at 23rd and Bartlett streets and struck in the head, possibly with a pipe or baseball bat, by a hooded, bandanna-masked attacker, police said.
Shields suffered a fractured skull and was hospitalized over the weekend. He was released Sunday with seven surgical staples in his scalp and was recovering at home.
Three people were arrested on suspicion of attempted lynching, assaulting a police officer and a number of other felonies. Prosecutors said they were waiting for police to hand over their case before filing charges.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
The story from the same paper yesterday said the officer was hit in the head with a hammer. Now they don't know what was used. They always change their stories.
I know cuz I saw it on Freep yesterday!
Uhmmm
Didn't the police officer have a gun? What about pepper spray...or at least a baton of some sort?
In most jurisdiction, as soon as a thug takes a swing at a cop, it's Say Hello to Mister Glock time.
Said hippie would be bought and paid for.
This is disgusting.
Home grown terrorists
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