Posted on 05/19/2016 7:20:30 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The resignation comes after police earlier in the day fatally shot a woman in the Bayview District
Police Chief Greg Suhr has resigned from the San Francisco Police Department in the midst of the shooting of a black woman by SFPD officers and other racial tensions, Mayor Ed Lee announced at a news conference late Thursday afternoon.
Lee said he had asked Suhr, who has served in the city's police department for more than 30 years, to resign.
The mayor appointed Toney Chaplin, former SFPD deputy chief of the Professional Standards and Principled Policing Bureau, as the acting police chief.
"The past several months have shaken and divided our City, and tensions between law enforcement and communities of color that have simmered for too many years have come into full view," Lee said.
"Though the facts are still emerging, we know that, this morning, a young woman of color was killed in an officer-involved shooting in the Bayview. The community is grieving, and I join them in that grief."
The resignation comes after police earlier in the day fatally shot a woman in the Bayview District. Earlier in the day, Suhr said the woman was driving a stolen car and refused officers' commands to stop the car. Officers approached her on foot and she drove away. She was then shot by police.
The shooting comes at a politically difficult time for Suhr and Lee.
The San Francisco Police Department is under intense scrutiny following the fatal shooting of Mario Woods in December and the fatal shooting of Luis Gongora in April, as well as two recent scandals involving racist text messages exchanged among officers.
Activists for months have been calling for Suhr to be fired. A group of five protesters — dubbed "the Frisco 5" — went on a hunger strike outside of Mission Police Station on April 21, vowing not to eat until Suhr had tendered his resignation.
On May 3, about 400 supporters marched with the strikers, who were pushed in wheelchairs, to the steps of city hall where they interrupted a San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting and demanded his resignation. At the time, the board’s president London Breed said she would not “comment publicly” on whether she wanted Suhr to resign.
On May 8, the hunger strikers were sent to the hospital and ended the strike for health reasons, leading to a violent protest involving their supporters and sheriff’s deputies at City Hall. At the time, Lee had still expressed support for Suhr.
City supervisors Jane Kim, David Campos, Eric Mar and John Avalos joined those calls for Suhr's removal last week following the release of a critical report on the department by a blue-ribbon panel commissioned by District Attorney George Gascon.
33 Arrested Following Chaotic Protest Supporting 'Frisco 5' Edwin Lindo, one of the hunger strikers, told NBC Bay Area that Suhr’s resignation is a positive step for the city.
“This shows the power of the people and the community,” he said. “When we come together with love justice, the power for justice is inevitable. This battle is a victory, but the fight for justice continues, making sure the next chief is one accountable to the community and that the necessary reforms are implemented. “
The Frisco 5 released a statement following Lee's announcement, demanding that the officers involved in these shootings be fired and charged with murder.
"We demand a meeting between the community and the interim police chief to discuss real reform created by the community," they said, calling for Lee to resign.
They said that Lee "allowed rampant police misconduct, terrorized the homeless and forced out the middle and lower income residents of our community to serve the interest of big business over the people of San Francisco."
Mayor Lee's full statement on Suhr's resignation:
"The past several months have shaken and divided our City, and tensions between law enforcement and communities of color that have simmered for too many years have come into full view.
Though the facts are still emerging, we know that, this morning, a young woman of color was killed in an officer-involved shooting in the Bayview. The community is grieving, and I join them in that grief.
These officer-involved shootings, justified or not, have forced our City to open its eyes to questions of when and how police use lethal force.
For the last many months, every day, I have asked myself, is the path to reform best advanced by our current Department leadership?
Because my goal has always been, and remains, real reform and the restoration of trust.
I have previously expressed confidence in Chief Suhr because I know he agrees with and understands the need for reform. He has demonstrated his commitment to instilling these reforms into the whole department, from the command staff to the cadets.
But following this morning’s officer-involved shooting and my meeting with Chief Suhr this afternoon, today I have arrived at a different conclusion to the question of how best to move forward.
For me, this has never been about personalities and politics, it’s been about performance.
Because, in my three decades of public service, I’ve learned how important it is to measure progress along the way. Greg Suhr, a dedicated public servant who’s given more than three decades of his life to the Bayview and to this City.
The progress we’ve made has been meaningful, but it hasn’t been fast enough. Not for me, not for Greg.
That’s why I have asked Chief Suhr for his resignation. And in the best interest of the City he loves so much, he tendered his resignation earlier today. Despite the political rhetoric of the past few weeks, I have nothing but profound admiration for Greg. He’s a true public servant, and he will always have my respect.
I’ve known him for years, and he’s a man of great character. He takes his job seriously, he’s loyal, he’s smart, and he understands that a Police officer is more than a public safety enforcer. A police officer is peace of mind, a social worker. He’s a model San Franciscan and a great man.
To take Greg’s place, I am naming Toney Chaplin as Acting Chief of Police.
Toney has served in the Police Department for 26 years. He’s established a record of commitment to the City’s diverse communities, serving at Mission and Taraval Stations, in the Gang Task Force, and running the Homicide division. Toney has most recently helped establish our new Professional Standards and Principled Policing bureau, the arm of the department that focuses on accountability and transparency.
The men and women of the San Francisco Police Department put themselves in harms’ way daily, literally. We owe it to them to restore the community’s trust in their department. As we embark on a new chapter for the Police, we aim to restore this trust.
Some of the reforms underway might have prevented or clarified today’s incident.
We need to turn these plans into actions.
I will hold the Acting Chief and the Department to a high standard of urgency to implement the reforms we’ve already announced in the past several months.
And we will keep pressing forward with new accountability measures, and stronger oversight over police use-of-force.
My fellow San Franciscans, we must push forward, harder than ever before, to reform the Police Department and restore trust with every community and keep our City safe.
In this solemn moment, we must put aside politics and begin to heal the City.”
“Well you busted me. I haven’t been to Bayview in almost 20 years.I guess I shouldn’t be surprised it has gentrified with all the .com money.”
That’s what did it. All that dreary City-owned housing on the southeast side of Potrero HIll is gone. Replaced wtih up-scale places with teriffic views of the Bay. I used to go down to a little hole-in-the-wall waterside burger joint on Third St. that overlooked the drydocks in the now defunct shipyard. We had a birthday party there last February, only the building has been replaced by an up-scale restaurant with seriously up-scale prices. The old American Can Plant is now offices and all the packing houses are long gone. Everything from Army St (pardon me Ceasar Chavez) to the Giants ballpark is all new or rebuilt. People here badmouth San Francisco, and it’s government today deserves all the ridicule and trash talk you can muster up. But when it comes to a vibrant place, SF really has no equal.
Ha! I’m at a startup right across from Facebook (in the industrial park that Facebook now owns).
I just got back from a quick pre-sunset mountain bike ride that took me through that underpass and down to the park north of FB, got back, looked at FR, and what do I read...
...but posts from the guy who developed the property.
Small world.
Didn't claim that. But why don't the powers that be convene a review panel at least before they take action like this? Knee-jerk reactions simply reinforce that "Police are Pigs" meme the BLM people just love using for their own ends. And they will.
Pandering to them is madness.
people killed by illegals in SF and nobody resigns.
“The last 5 or more SF Police Chief’s ended in disgrace”
Pretty bad pattern there. I don’t know if it could have been avoided, because they usually are forced to pick a replacement very quickly. At one time, Heather Fong was Police Chief, the first Asian woman to do it. She always seemed overwhelmed by what she had walked into.
OFF TOPIC::I do recall Fajita-Gate. That happened around the same time as the murder trial for Diane Whipple, that poor girl who was mauled to death by huge dogs.
The dogs belonged to two rather unlikable lawyers, who never even dialed 911 for help.
Army St.? Ha ha. Good one. I use to slum down there at the flea market.
Those old projects on Potrero are where OJ grew up if I recall correctly.
I did some business in China basin right before they built Pac Bell Park. It was easy to see the potential then.
I was also down in the peninsula in the ‘90s when a lot of the old time defense tech companies were shutting up shop.
I read recently that SF is more expensive than Manhattan now. Hard to believe.
And to think Dirty Harry took place in this city only a little over 40 years ago (and was quite prescient). They’d have to make loads of changes to that film ... probably enough to warrant a title change to “Dirty Sanchez”.
“the facts are still emerging”
So why has the Chief, with 30 years of service behind him, already been forced to resign?
An IA rat is the new chief? I’m sure that’s going over well with rank-and-file.
You attack a policeman, we shoot you.
You attack a fellow citizen, we shoot you.
You riot, we shoot you.
You act like civilized human beings, we leave you alone.
Clear?
“Army St.? Ha ha. Good one.”
Yeah, I worked for a company that “was connected” with the city government in the early 70’s ( one of the streets that borders the Catholic Cathedral is named after the guys dad), so we were “obligated to take a table or two at the monthly fundraiser at the Catholic Church on Precita St. (Where they finally found Patty Hearst). On the third Wednesday of every month the church had a “Pasta Feed” with plenty of wine. The DA’s office showed up, along with the people from the Public Defender’s office, and most of the judges and the mayor and his staff (Moscone used to show up until he Dan White showed up in his office). We always said that if you were going to have to go before the bar of justice in SF, you needed to try and not go on the 3rd Wednesday! BTW, the priests were Franciscans (I think) and they wore hooded vestments tied off with a rope. One of them we called “Father Little Dog,” because he packed a Chihuahua up one of his sleeves.
Wasn’t Heather Fong a trannie?
I did some business with The City back in the 90s on the international terminal. They had a rule that 1% of a project had to be spent on art and on a billion dollar project like the airport that was a huge chunk of change. They were throwing money out of windows basically to anybody who could come up with a plan on art for the new terminal. Took them forever to pay me but eventually they did. That was my first experience with heavy handed politically correctness. I had to certify I did not discriminate before they would do business with me. LOL.
It's also the proper place to dump your trash.
It's not so good to live, work or visit, unless you are trash.
Thank you for the context. You are correct and I enjoyed learning from your observations. Third Street is totally fixed up. The area around the SF Chronicle building is not as sketchy as 20 years ago. The building going up in SOMA are amazing and swank. Lots of money and spoiled Ebay workers.
I had to go there last month, to the Philippine consulate on Sutter Street. I thought there were tons of weird looking people everywhere. Once in awhile, I actually heard English being spoken. I don't want to go back there anytime soon.
This is a shame. Chief Suhr was one of the best to occupy this position in some time. He was an experienced SF cop who ran a precinct and understood what policing meant, not this PC crap that the libtards spout. But after the latest shooting there had to be a fall guy to placate the libs and so it was Suhr.
The homeless are really out of control in SF. But there is no will to really change things, that would eliminate the $250 million that is wasted every year on a huge bureacracy that has done nothing to fix the problem.
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