San Francisco police stop blacks and Latinos more, per judges’ report
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A woman holds a sign as she and hundreds of other protesters march against the recent fatal shootings by police of black men in San Francisco on Friday.
SAN FRANCISCO » San Francisco police officers disproportionately stop and search African-Americans and Latinos and the department lacks robust oversight and transparency, according to report by a panel of retired judges released today.
The three-judge panel was put together by District Attorney George Gascon after a series of racist and homophobic text messages exchanged by 14 police officers were made public in April 2015.
The judges’ report found blacks and Latinos were searched without consent at higher rates than white and Asians. It also found complaints rarely resulted in disciplinary consequences and when they did, officers received mild disciplinary action.
There is a systemic lack of internal controls within the San Francisco Police Department and no external body overseeing its operational effectiveness, high-risk activities, or compliance with policies, the report said.
The judges’ 81 non-binding recommendations include creating an Office of Inspector General that would regularly audit the department and its Office of Citizen Complaints.
“Transparency and accountability of law enforcement is absolutely essential in a free society to protect the public and instill confidence in the system,” said Judge Dickran Tevrizian. “We hope this report and its findings will be seriously considered and its recommendations will be implemented.”
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The report comes as police departments across the nation grapple with tensions with minority communities following the police shootings of black men in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota, and the civilian shooting in Dallas that killed five police officers.
The judges’ findings and recommendations were sharply criticized by the Police Officers Association, which represents rank-and-file officers in San Francisco.
Union head Martin Halloran dismissed the findings, saying the panel was biased because it was hand-picked by Gascon, a former police chief who has clashed with the union in the past.
“Gascon organized this whole charade to publicize his inflammatory claims of widespread racism in the police department, when in fact the problem is much more limited in scope,” Halloran said in a statement.
The police department said in a statement it would analyze the report and forward it to the U.S. Department of Justice, which is also investigating.
10 responses to “San Francisco police stop blacks and Latinos more, per judges’ report”
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Shoot, this is a no brainer. its attitude , dress, body language not just color!
Maybe the police have good reason for doing so?
Sure they do. It’s called bigotry.
The higher the crime rate of a certain people, the oftener they will be stopped. Makes sense to me.
What is the ratio of certain races in prison? I would guess they are there because they committed a crime instead of racial profiling.
It would take 30 seconds of research to discover (surprise!) that black men are jailed more often for very minor crimes than white men are. It’s not even close. The sentences given to black men for exactly the same crimes are statistically longer. And many more black men are in prison prior to trial because they cannot afford bail. There are reasons for the disparity.
The lack of intellectual curiosity is a lifelong burden. I feel sorry for you.
Re Kiragirl/Klstri
I think it is a combination of both.
Some of it may be unintended consequences. e.g.
Selling drugs near a school is considered more serious. This happens to blacks more than whites because they live in more dense urban areas.
Crack cocaine is considered more dangerous than powdered, and has higher sentences (8-1 in 2010). Blacks appear to have a preference for crack.
Some of it seems correlates with a higher community crime rate, often related to social problems.
Perhaps this requires developmental improvements, such as the regeneration of the family and community connections.
Ignoring this and blaming white prejudice as the source of all problems is part of an unproductive vicious circle.
Some of it may be caused by true prejudice.
The statistics are such that the existence of true bias in the criminal system must be seriously investigated.
However, I accept that the statistics themselves do not prove anything, “the devil is in the details”.
As per Klastri’s claim of “exactly the same crimes” I think this is often discussed in terms of “similar crimes” as in
https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/141027_iachr_racial_disparities_aclu_submission_0.pdf
Happening in San Francisco of all places, I would have never guessed in a GodZillion years!
It’s a sanctuary city, isn’t it? Sure doesn’t fit! Wonder how they treat the Chinese gangs/goons members? Any stats on them?
San Francisco had good cops until 1968 when we “inherited” rogue cops from Chicago after the 1968 Democratic Party Convention. These Chicago cops had to “get out of Dodge” or suffer reprisals in Chicago. Want names? One guy from Chicago only lasted a month with SFPD before he transferred to SF Fire Department where he got shot in the thumb, “first minute” on the job. “You could look it up”.