Cops vs. community
The Bayview under siege. Another questionable police shooting. Tensions around the SFPD just keep getting worse.

By Steven T. Jones, Sitara Nieves, and Lee Hubbard

A COUPLE HOURS after the new San Francisco Police Commission began its first meeting May 5, most of the cops in the room suddenly bolted. A few minutes later, the public learned why: Cammerin Boyd, an African American double amputee, had been shot and killed by the San Francisco police.

May 5 was also the final day in a three-day police crackdown in Bayview-Hunters Point that drew accusations of racial profiling and payback for the murder of Officer Isaac Espinoza.

And while all of that was going on, Louise Renne, who had just been elected interim commission president, proposed that the new commission meet less frequently, citing her suspicion that the new commission, like its predecessor, might not have enough agenda items to ensure "substantive meetings."

Although other commissioners rejected Renne's idea and voted to move the meetings over to City Hall and hold more in the community as a way of outreach, it was an inauspicious beginning for a commission reformed by last fall's Proposition H to better deal with police abuse and accountability issues (see "No Restraint," 5/5/04).

And things only got worse in the hours and days to come. Witnesses to the Boyd shooting told the Bay Guardian and other journalists that the 29-year-old wasn't brandishing a weapon and was trying to surrender as he was shot. Yet police refused to release anything more than a three-paragraph statement that directly contradicts accounts by the many eyewitnesses (that is, except for defamatory information about Boyd's criminal history, which police leaked to the media).

Mayor Gavin Newsom responded to the growing crisis in confidence by canceling a planned trip and summoning local African American leaders to a closed-door meeting May 7 at City Hall. Yet some attendees called it a public relations stunt that lacked substance – an impression that wasn't helped by Newsom and police chief Heather Fong sneaking out a back door to avoid taking questions from journalists (who had been invited to the cover the event by a Mayor's Office press release and who had waited five hours for a comment).

Then, over the weekend, two more young African American men were shot to death, for which police say they have no leads or suspects, bringing the homicide total this year to 36.

The question is obvious: can the new commission even begin to heal these wounds before things get worse – maybe much worse?

Operation Impact

Sydney Reece knew something was different in Bayview-Hunters Point May 3, when he began riding his bicycle around his neighborhood.

"It tripped me out to see Highway Patrol cars zipping up and down the street in front of my house," Reece told us.

Seeing police in his neighborhood is nothing new for the 19-year-old, but this was something different: an unprecedented joint San Francisco Police Department-California Highway Patrol crackdown dubbed Operation Impact, which would result in 857 traffic stops, 66 arrests, 520 citations, and 72 impounded vehicles. Police say no firearms were found, but three stolen vehicles were recovered. There were just six felony arrests, two for driving under the influence, and four for narcotics.

The stated purpose of the operation, according to an SFPD press release put out on the first day, was "to control what are referred to as precursors to violent crime and gang-related activity, namely reckless driving, DUI, weapons possession, narcotics, vandalism, and loitering." But to many community members, it was better summed up by the headline in the San Francisco Bay View newspaper: "BVHP under Siege by Occupying Army."

"As I was riding my bike down the hill, I saw a police officer who stopped a car," Reece said. "As I rode by him, he told me that I had to stop at every stop sign, and that if I did not, and if he catches me, that he was going to give me a ticket."

Scared, Reece just rode his bike to his house to avoid any problems and further police contact.

Newsom, who has tried to focus attention on Bayview-Hunters Point, had no comment on the crackdown. But community leaders said police should have been going to the hot spots in the community, where the open drug dealing and gang activities take place, rather than appearing to take over the entire neighborhood with this broad show of force – which only served to further alienate residents.

"I think that this is a cosmetic gesture," said Mel Washington, owner of Bay Copy and president of the San Francisco Black Chamber of Commerce. "A police officer gets killed, and now they respond. This would have been met with more community acceptance if this would have happened prior to the police officer's death."

Concerns about the crackdown greeted the new commissioners, who already had their work cut out for them: There are at least 18 officer-misconduct cases that need immediate attention before their statutes of limitation run out. And the previous commission's reputation as a political rubber stamp for the mayor and the police chief has done little to convince community leaders that it can be trusted to take misconduct seriously.

Alvin Jones, a longtime Bayview resident, told the commission, "These last few days was the cops saying, 'My white buddy got killed, and we're going to make you pay for this.' "

"In what other community in San Francisco do you think they would actually go in and do that? Not a one," Bayview resident Marie Harrison told us. "Nor would they brag about how many people they pulled over and stopped and arrested. But they got away with it. Because it was over here – because they were all black."

Field operations commander David Shinn gave a brief but glowing report on Operation Impact, saying it had already reduced crime in the Bayview – this is in less than three days – and that the SFPD had received more positive feedback than negative. The audible gasps and snorts from Bayview residents in the audience seemed to indicate those positive comments weren't from the Bayview.

"People are really upset about this," Shawn Richard, head of Brothers Against Guns, a nonprofit that aims to stop gun violence in San Francisco's African American communities, told us. "The Highway Patrol came over here, not knowing nothing about the community, and pulled everyone over for no reason, for little violations."

"All [Operation Impact] was was 'driving while black or brown,' " Maurice Campbell, of the Bayview-based Community First Coalition, told us. "I think what you'll see is a lot of people who had tickets or a broken taillight who couldn't afford to pay them who got nailed by that – and is that really fighting crime? That's economic depression. If [those people] had any money left in discretionary income, it's gone. That's a form of suppression on an already poor community."

And even as activists were describing their outrage at being targeted by police, Boyd was leading cops on a chase through the Western Addition that ended in the Plaza East housing project, in front of dozens of African American witnesses, some of whom told us Boyd had his hands up and was repeatedly saying, "I don't have a gun," before being fatally shot.

"With the shooting of the police officer and this young man, it is like a war," Richard said. "It is like civilians versus police officers. The trust is gone. It will take top brass and top community folks to bridge that gap."

Officer-involved shooting

The police version of events goes like this: Just after 8 p.m. on May 5, a guy in an SUV who seemed intoxicated pulled up next to a car at Eddy and Laguna Streets. A woman and a four-year-old child were in the car. The man "threaten[ed] to kill her, ordered her at gunpoint to get into his vehicle. The child got out of the car and ran off. At that point, the suspect drove away," a brief summary released by police stated.

The woman then flagged down a cop, who put out an alert. Another cop spotted the suspect vehicle and a high-speed chase through the Western Addition ensued. "During the pursuit the suspect fired at least two rounds at the officers following him. At Larch Street at Buchanan, the suspect got out of his car," the police statement continued.

Officers told him to get away from the car, after which they said he raised his arms, lowered them, then sat on the running board of his car and reached for something under his seat while officers repeatedly ordered him out of the car. According to the summary, "he then suddenly spun around, and officers, fearing for their safety as well as the safety of residents in the area, fired" an undisclosed number of shots, killing him. "Police found a gun inside the car within reach of the suspect," the summary said.

Although it's not in the official statement, the cops apparently added a further embellishment for the San Francisco Chronicle. The paper quoted an unnamed police source saying that Boyd yelled to witnesses, "Help me kill these cops."

And if it really happened just like that, the police might be right in their adamant claims that the shooting was justified. The problem is, none of the many eyewitnesses the media have found support this version – and the SFPD has blocked the release of documents, including the incident, paramedic, and medical examiner reports, that might allow independent assessments.

Boyd's mother, attorney Marylon Boyd, told us that she saw her son a half hour before the incident and that he was sober and lucid. She also said he would have had trouble either sitting on the running board or quickly twisting in the manner described, because both of his legs had been amputated above the knee and he had prosthetic limbs. She also doubts he had a gun.

She said the internal investigations by the police and the District Attorney's Office can't be trusted. "How can the investigation be objective when they have to deal with each other every day?" she said. "I appeal to whoever has the discretion to please release that information.... We deserve a full and complete investigation and for justice to be done."

We also spoke with three women whose apartments overlook the spot where Boyd was shot. All of them claim to have seen what happened: they described Boyd standing away from the vehicle, unarmed, yelling that he was trying to surrender, as he was shot.

"He told the police, 'Please don't shoot me. I have nothing on me. I don't have a gun.' And the police just blew him away," Dominika Johnson told us. "The young man didn't even have a gun in the car."

"He said, 'I don't have anything. Don't shoot, don't shoot,' " Johnneka Hall told us in a separate interview.

Both women described a standoff between Boyd, who they say had his hands in the air, and two plainclothes officers, one of whom shot out the back window of the car, before they shot Boyd less than a minute later.

Camille Brooks said Boyd appeared to be trying to undress to show officers that he didn't have a gun and that he had prosthetic legs so he couldn't easily lie down on the ground. All three say that after the shooting, no medical attention was given and that it took an ambulance nearly 20 minutes to arrive.

"They left him out here for a long time, just bleeding," Brooks said. "He was alive and talking, just lying there for, like, 20 minutes, just bleeding to death. We saw him take his last breath.... No young black man should die like that."

Police spokesperson Maria Oropeza told us that an ambulance was called immediately and that officers on the scene administered CPR. She wouldn't comment on any other details of the incident.

Crisis of confidence

Among the community leaders summoned by Newsom May 7, even those who voiced confidence in the mayor, police chief, and investigatory process – including prominent African American ministers Cecil Williams and Amos Brown – expressed doubts about the official version of events.

"This young man's hands were up in the air," said Brown, president of the local NAACP chapter. "I think the public deserves to hear the truth."

Yet both Williams and Brown called for calm in their communities and said they had raised the right questions in the meeting, which they characterized as frank and productive. Others disagreed.

"It was a complete farce. We need the mayor to take a stand," said Van Jones, of Bay Area Police Watch, who attended the meeting. "It's a P.R. stunt. It's offensive. We are tired of going to the funerals of young black men with police bullets in their bodies."

Others echoed Jones. Rev. Gregory Richardson, of Black Pride Enterprise (who was at City Hall during the meeting but didn't go inside), told us, "If the mayor doesn't send a message, the gang members will send their own message. It's a very serious situation."

Activists note that Boyd is the latest in a string of disabled people of color shot by police in San Francisco, which includes Sheila Detoy (1998), Idriss Stelley (2001), Richard Tims (2002), Xi Tao Wu (2003), and Gian Yu (2004). Jones noted that no SFPD officer has been disciplined for a shooting in more than 10 years, and many have been promoted.

"The SFPD has a history of cover-ups," said Cathye Leonard, a spokesperson for Marylon Boyd, who hadn't been invited to the meeting but was whisked inside by mayoral aides after she began talking to the assembled journalists. "We demand an outside investigation."

Police commissioners Renne, Joe Marshall, and Gail Orr-Smith were also at the meeting.

Among the items on the May 12 commission agenda is a discussion of the procedures related to officer-involved shootings.

The Police Commission meets Wed/12 and every Wednesday, 5:30 p.m., City Hall, Room 400, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl., S.F. (415) 553-1667. Agendas can be found at www.sfgov.org/site/police_meeting.asp?id=20454.

E-mail Steven T. Jones