Aunt of police shooting victim Keita O’Neil crashes event, heckles mayor
by ELENI BALAKRISHNAN FEBRUARY 1, 2023 (MissionLocal.org)
A City Hall gathering of politicians and activists recognizing Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man brutally killed by Memphis police this month, temporarily devolved into mayhem on Wednesday.
That came after April Green, the aunt of police shooting victim Keita O’Neil, decried the event as exclusionary. After being disinvited last night from speaking at the event by organizer Phelicia Jones, Green today burst into the proceedings on the steps of City Hall while Mayor London Breed was speaking.
“What about my nephew, Keita ‘Icky’ O’Neil?” Green shouted, evoking her nephew’s nickname, alongside supporters with megaphones.“You’re not even taking care of your own city.” https://d-25650379643545743950.ampproject.net/2301181928000/frame.html
Moments earlier, Breed had been praising Memphis for holding its officers accountable in Nichols’ death. “An arrest is only one step,” Breed said. Next would come a “lengthy criminal justice process,” she said, during which attention on the case needed to be maintained.
Green and others made it clear on Wednesday that San Francisco and the Mayor’s office is also being watched by the families of victims here.
O’Neil’s family is in the middle of such a criminal justice process, but it is not clear whether city leaders praising the goings-on in Memphis are supportive of that process here in San Francisco.
O’Neil, a carjacking suspect, was shot in the head as he fled police in Bayview in 2017. His killer, rookie officer Christopher Samayoa, was dismissed by the department and charged with homicide by former DA Chesa Boudin. But the current DA administration has been accused of slow-walking the prosecution — and Green’s attorney last week charged the office of DA Brooke Jenkins of, in fact, colluding with Samayoa’s defense team.
Breed immediately stopped speaking and stepped back after the interruption. The event organizer, Jones, tried and failed to regain control. Eventually, the DJ began blasting the reggae tune “Solidarity” to drown out the discord. https://d-25650379643545743950.ampproject.net/2301181928000/frame.html
Texts between Green and Jones, obtained by Mission Local, show that Jones told Green she could not speak at the event because of her support for former DA Boudin. Green had requested to speak alongside the city figures and other family members of victims of local police violence, but was ultimately told to sit out.
“You were standing with Chesa for his re-election,” Jones wrote to Green on Tuesday evening. “Maybe this isn’t the right platform for you.”
When Green texted Jones that they should put political differences aside and fight for police accountability, Jones, the founder of activist organization Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community, texted back: “Please don’t try and tell me what I need to do because I am a lone Black Woman out here fighting for Justice 24/7.”
Green asked: “Black men have been murdered by SF policemen and need you to stand with them … You stand with a Black man in another state but not your own city?”
“Whatever,” Jones responded.
In her own address Wednesday morning, Jones preached unity, and more than once called on the community to “come together.”
O’Neil’s aunt wasn’t the only relative of a Black man killed by San Francisco police that Jones did not want speaking today at the Tyre Nichols event. Kenneth Blackmon, the brother of Sean Moore, a mentally ill man who was in 2017 shot by police on the front steps of his home, said he went back and forth with Jones about whether he would be permitted to talk. Moore’s killer, Officer Kenneth Cha, was criminally charged by Boudin, but court proceedings in that case have also dragged on.
Blackmon told Mission Local that Jones first told him he couldn’t speak at today’s rally. “She said I’m here for the Black people, this, that — I said, so am I.” Blackmon said he was finally given one minute to speak. He and his mother ended up addressing the crowd for several minutes.
When Green disrupted Breed’s speech early in the program, Jones attempted to regain order by ignoring the interruption and drawing attention to her organization, Wealth and Disparities, which she said “has been on the front lines,” and her own “dedication to Black San Franciscans.” Jones claimed she was the one who got Samayoa, the officer who killed O’Neil, fired.
“You were standing with Chesa for his re-election. Maybe this isn’t the right platform for you.”
TEXT FROM PHELICIA JONES TO APRIL GREEN, JAN. 31
“Black men have been murdered by SF policemen and need you to stand with them … You stand with a Black man in another state but not your own city?”
TEXT FROM GREEN TO JONES, JAN. 31
Struggling to keep the audience’s attention, Jones began shouting to the press: “Don’t take pictures of her! Don’t take pictures of her!” Several people in the audience told Green to quiet down, saying she was being disrespectful of the ceremony, which was in honor of Nichols.
But others in attendance seemed confused by the apparent hypocrisy in silencing the family of a victim of police violence, during an event meant to bring awareness to pervasive police violence.
“It’s about everybody,” called out one man.
“She’s doing it the wrong way, but her point is valid,” said another attendee. “Put her up there on stage.”
Eventually, the protesters quieted down and the regularly scheduled programming continued. Community leaders spoke, as did Supervisor Shamann Walton and Police Chief Bill Scott, who shared their experiences as Black men and their dedication to reforming policing.
Afterward, Green told Mission Local that she did not mean to lose her cool, but had just grown “tired of the lies” from politicians who fail to “hold our own police accountable nor the DA office for the murders of our Black men.”
ELENI BALAKRISHNAN
REPORTER. Eleni is our reporter focused on policing in San Francisco. She first moved to the city on a whim nearly 10 years ago, and the Mission has become her home. Follow her on Twitter @miss_elenius.
