in this issue

IF THE FEDERAL Bureau of Investigation and the San Francisco Police Department decided to erect a security checkpoint on Market and Montgomery, and every single person who passed through that intersection was subject to a strip search, the cops would find some drugs. Probably some illegal weapons, too.

And I don't think that, even in these paranoid days, there would be a whole lot of people in the city who thought it was a good idea. In fact, if the mayor tried to promote that sort of attack on basic civil liberties, he'd be recalled from office.

On the other hand, the BART police have just set up a program, in cooperation with the U.S. Customs Service, to send drug-sniffing dogs on random checks through the trains, busting any passenger who happens to be carrying even a tiny amount of pot. And so far, the BART Board is letting it happen.

But the public shouldn't. Drug-sniffing dogs, conducting random searches on the BART trains? In the San Francisco Bay Area? This is insane. It makes me wonder (as I have been wondering for at least 15 years): is anybody in charge of the BART police? Does this armed force have any civilian oversight at all?

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In other news: It was fascinating to see the odd collection of people celebrating the election of Dennis Herrera as city attorney. I hope Herrera lives up to his promise (and promises); I'll believe it when I see it.

But there's no doubt that his election was a key moment for the San Francisco left. As Savannah Blackwell reports on page 18, Herrera consciously sought out the support of public power activists, Tom Ammiano loyalists, tenant organizers, and the like – because he knew that he couldn't win without them. That alone is reason to celebrate.

But the next test for the progressive-reform coalition that turned local politics on its head in the fall of 2000, with the near sweep of a reform slate on the Board of Supervisors, comes in just three months. The March elections are crucial: can the activists who led a takeover of the board, who very nearly beat Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and put public power on the top of the political agenda, and who helped Dennis Herrera win the City Attorney's Office put former supervisor Harry Britt in the state assembly and Jeff Adachi in the Public Defender's Office?

If they can, then maybe they can also elect the next mayor.

Tim Redmond (tredmond@sfbg.com)