{"id":21947,"date":"2022-04-05T18:19:31","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T01:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=21947"},"modified":"2022-04-05T18:19:32","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T01:19:32","slug":"update-on-sfpd-officer-kenneth-cha-case-for-homicide-of-sean-moore-oped-article-by-cat-brooks-from-adrienne-fong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/04\/05\/update-on-sfpd-officer-kenneth-cha-case-for-homicide-of-sean-moore-oped-article-by-cat-brooks-from-adrienne-fong\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on SFPD Officer Kenneth Cha case for homicide of Sean Moore + OpEd article by Cat Brooks (from Adrienne Fong)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brief update on SFPD Officer Kenneth Cha\u2019s court dates for the homicide of Sean Moore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow, Wednesday, April 6 will be the FIFTH<\/strong> time that the case will go before a judge in Dept. 9. The attorney for Cha (POA) has stalled the case four other times in Dept. 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case has never made it to Dept 20 for a hearing, even though a date for Dept. 20  has been set for four different times. Officer Cha has never had to show up for the Dept. 9 hearings, only his attorney from the POA. Sean\u2019s family has showed up at each pre-trial hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know how Dept. 9 functions, but in each of the previous  4 \u2013 pre-trial dates there has been a different judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is the case calendar for tomorrow, April 6th<\/sup> in Dept. 9 and for April 28th<\/sup> in Dept. 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case Calendar (sftc.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Case Number<\/strong><\/td>Case Title<\/strong><\/td>Purpose<\/strong><\/td>Location<\/strong><\/td>Dept<\/strong><\/td>Date<\/strong><\/td>Time<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
21010958<\/td>CHA, KENNETH<\/td>PRETRIAL<\/td>850 BRYANT ST<\/td>9<\/td>2022-04-06<\/td>09:00 AM<\/td><\/tr>
21010958<\/td>CHA, KENNETH<\/td>HEARING<\/td>850 BRYANT ST<\/td>20<\/td>2022-04-28<\/td>09:00 AM<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

ARTICLE:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Criminal justice reform isn\u2019t just falling apart in San Francisco, it\u2019s exploding  <\/strong>– March 28, 2022<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Criminal justice reform isn\u2019t just falling apart in San Francisco, it\u2019s exploding (sfchronicle.com)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OpEd by Cat Brooks<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a year that had already seen a spate of officer-involved killings, 2015 ended with San Francisco police officers shooting Mario Woods<\/a> to death over a kitchen knife. As tragic as that moment was, however, it was also the beginning of an avalanche of movement building.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pressure in the aftermath of the Woods shooting helped turn the San Francisco Police Commission<\/a> into the strongest civil oversight board in the country (at least in theory). It also led to the hiring of Bill Scott<\/a> as San Francisco Police Department chief, under the promise of reform. That same avalanche eventually led to the election of progressive District Attorney Chesa<\/a> Boudin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u2014 despite the San Francisco Police Officers Association dumping $400,000 into television ads to defeat him. And this year for the first time, Boudin put a police officer in San Francisco, Terrance Stangel, on trial for the 2019 beating that left Dacari Spiers with broken bones and permanent disabilities.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, all that progress is exploding.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the eve of Stangel\u2019s trial, Chief Scott \u2014 days before he was to face a vote of no confidence from the San Francisco Police Officer\u2019s Association \u2014 very publicly pulled out of an memorandum of understanding with the District Attorney\u2019s office to allow independent investigations of excessive uses of force. Scott justified his action in part by suggesting that Boudin\u2019s office likely withheld evidence from Stangel\u2019s defense team \u2014 a claim the judge presiding over the trial denied.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dominoes kept tumbling.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police commission, whose job it is to direct Scott, failed to direct the chief to maintain the memorandum. Then Stangel was found not guilty by a jury that no doubt saw the scandalous headlines. The police commission subsequently lost its most strident critic when John Hamasaki announced his resignation. And a recent poll revealed Boudin is likely to fall victim to a recall effort driven by a Republican and police union smear campaign.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the hell is happening in San Francisco?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamasaki joined the San Francisco Police Commission in 2018 with hopes of riding a national wave of demands for police reform and accountability. And, for a minute, he believed a teensy bit of progress was on the horizon. After the memorandum went into effect, there were zero deadly officer-involved shootings in 2019. In 2020 and 2021, there were just one per year. Meanwhile, three officers in additional to Stangel were charged for violent behavior, and the city launched civilian response programs to combat the community safety crises that can\u2019t be solved with badges and guns.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things weren\u2019t perfect. A report by Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice showed the department continued to arrest the city\u2019s diminishing Black population at disparate rates. And recently released data showed Black people were 12 times more likely than white people to be subjected to police force. Latinos were five times more likely.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s horrific. Some progress is better than none, I guess. Better than the backsliding we\u2019re looking at now.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamasaki said Scott\u2019s pulling out of the memorandum should have been met with headlines that read \u201cSan Francisco Police Commission orders Chief Scott to remain in MOU.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No such luck.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat does our authority matter if we don\u2019t use it when our backs are against the wall?\u201d he said in an interview.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like so many of us, Hamasaki is tired. Tired, and unsure of how to be impactful or effective in a national climate where elected officials are backing away from demands for police accountability \u2014 in the face of billionaires funding recall efforts for politicians they could not defeat in democratically run elections.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile I believe that we have done some good work,\u201d Hamasaki said, \u201cwe have failed at changing the culture.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A culture that balks at accountability.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boudin campaigned on police accountability. And, true to his word, he has charged four police officers for abusing their power. And yet these efforts have been a lightning rod.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never suggest that people watch the violent videos that dominate social media. But if you do, you will clearly see Officer Stangel violating any sane interpretation of the San Francisco Police Department\u2019s use of force policy in beating Spiers. Stangel\u2019s trial proceedings reminded us that Spiers\u2019 girlfriend denied the assault occurred, that Spiers was never charged with any crime, and the Sacramento tourist who called 911 told District Attorney\u2019s Office investigators she never actually saw Spiers hitting his girlfriend. And it turned out the ones playing dirty ball in this case were police. The department, determined to protect its own, withheld relevant evidence from the prosecution.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stangel walked nonetheless. And we who live in the supposedly liberal bastion of the Bay Area are left scratching our heads, wondering why, with so much overwhelming evidence, an approved city abuse settlement and a district attorney willing to hold bad-actors to account, was justice not served?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was the jury tainted by media coverage of Scott\u2019s move?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s certainly one question.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But perhaps the more important ones are this: Where does the department go now? What will happen to Chief Scott\u2019s promises of reform and accountability or to his efforts to change the decades long violent culture of the department? What message does this send to police about what they can get away with?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco is in danger of regressing to a time where police violence goes unchecked and unfettered. If so, it will undoubtedly make things even more difficult than they already are to push for real change inside the department.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If \u201cprogressive\u201d San Francisco can\u2019t get it right, the forecast for the nation is grim.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cat Brooks is an award-winning actress, playwright, the executive director of the Justice Teams Network, the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project and the co-host of UpFront on KPFA.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brief update on SFPD Officer Kenneth Cha\u2019s court dates for the homicide of Sean Moore. Tomorrow, Wednesday, April 6 will be the FIFTH time that the case will go before a judge in Dept. 9. The attorney for Cha (POA) has stalled the case four other times in Dept. 9. The case… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21947"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21948,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21947\/revisions\/21948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}