WEALTH AND DISPARITIES IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY 

We have had three demands since the SFPD executed Mario Woods:

 

• Charges for Killer Cops

• Fire Police Chief Suhr

• Get an Independent Investigation of the SFPD

 

Through our activism, we achieved Chief Suhr’s forced resignation and an independent investigation of the SFPD by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Because of work like ours, there have been no public killings by SFPD for two years – a new record in SFPD’s history. However, the racism in the department continues and there is much work yet to do. SFPD was forced to report its interactions by race from 2016 onward, and from that data we know that Black San Franciscans are more than 10 times as likely to be targeted for arrests and more than 12 times as likely to have force used against them than white San Franciscans (1). These horrific disparities continue to this day.

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We demand that SFPD complete the DOJ’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) recommendations, which SFPD, the City of San Francisco, and the State of California have all committed to implementing (2). We demand that San Francisco eliminate its racially disparate tactics. We demand that the District Attorney of San Francisco file charges against Killer Cops. To those ends, we continue to track SFPD’s statistics, monitor its activities, and meet with city, county and state officials. We engage the community every step of the way.

 

(1) COPS Office. 2016. An Assessment of the San Francisco Police Department. Collaborative Reform Initiative. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/sites/default/files/Documents/PoliceDocuments/An%20Assessment%20of%20the%20San%20Francisco%20Police%20Department%20-%20October%202016.pdf 

 

(2) Attorney General of the State of California. 2018. Memorandum of Understanding Between the California Department of Justice and the City and County of San Francisco, Acting Through the Mayor’s Office and San Francisco Police Department. San Francisco, CA: Mayor’s Office. https://sfgov.org/policecommission/sites/default/files/Documents/PoliceCommission/sfpd-doj-mou.pdf 

 

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African-Americans in San Francisco are less than 6% of the city’s population but make up 56% of its jail population. African-Americans in San Francisco experience felony drug arrests at 19 times the rate of the City’s white residents (while white residents make up 60% of those likely to die from drug abuse). African-Americans experience on average 50% of all shootings and homicides in the City.

We therefore petition the elected leadership of San Francisco to take the following actions to address these health disparities:

 

• Declare a State of Emergency in the District 10 and Hunter’s Point communities and double the level of resources targeted at collaborations between City agencies and African-American community-based organizations serving criminal justice special populations. Within this effort, address specific concerns for African-American women and girls.

• Expand resources for reintegration and reentry programs in District 10 to fund existing criminal justice programs.

• Focus expanded funding to targeted community-based organizations in the Bayview, Hunter’s Point, and Visitacion Valley areas that work to reduce recidivism for the transitional age youth population (18-25).