In This Issue

THERE ARE, Steven T. Jones and Sitara Nieves report, a number of studies showing that right after a police officer is shot, the number of civilians shot by police officers goes up dramatically. Everyone's on hair-trigger alert – and, of course, they want revenge.

That's a scary thought when you consider the mind-set of the San Francisco Police Officers Association after the slaying of Officer Isaac Espinoza.

Killing a cop is a big-time offense, and the person who did it ought to pay a big-time penalty. That's exactly what District Attorney Kamala Harris is asking for: she wants to put the suspect in prison for life, without the possibility of parole.

But that's not good enough for the leaders of the POA: they want death. And they're willing to go to extraordinary lengths to get it. They've insulted Harris, demanded Attorney General Bill Lockyer take over the case, and now, apparently, convinced the FBI and the U.S. Attorney General to look at the case.

I know what the rank-and-file cops are thinking: one of their own was brutally murdered, and they want society to notice, to pay attention. But Harris isn't talking about letting the killer go free; life without parole isn't a slap on the wrist. And anyone with any sense knows San Francisco juries don't go for the death penalty anyway.

What's particularly disconcerting is the sight of so many of the department brass – people who are supposed to be supervising and setting an example for the rank and file – joining in the attacks on Harris and the demands for blood. It's not pleasant to think about the climate this is creating in a city where relations between the cops and many different communities are already in serious trouble.

(It didn't help at all for Sen. Dianne Feinstein to announce – at Espinoza's funeral, no less – that she thought the killer deserved the death penalty.)

Chief Heather Fong is known in the department as a by-the-book cop, and in this city, that makes her a reformer. But so far, she hasn't shown much leadership. She ought to be working to tone down the violent rhetoric; instead, she's joining it.

So the new Police Commission, which has its own problems, needs to take the lead here right away. Or else, I fear, someone is going to get killed.