{"id":32070,"date":"2024-03-01T20:53:12","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T04:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=32070"},"modified":"2024-03-01T20:53:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T04:53:13","slug":"proposition-e-will-lead-to-more-risks-voters-will-decide-if-theyre-okay-with-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/03\/01\/proposition-e-will-lead-to-more-risks-voters-will-decide-if-theyre-okay-with-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposition E will lead to more risks. Voters will decide if they\u2019re okay with that."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\" by\u00a0JOE ESKENAZI<\/a><\/strong> FEBRUARY 28, 2024, 3:07 PM (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"crashed
The SFMTA truck that was allegedly carjacked by Carlo Watson on May 23, 2023 and crashed outside the Boston Market, killing 58-year-old Victor Nguyen. Photo by Will Jarrett.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In life, Victor Nguyen was unique, an individual, one-of-a-kind. In death, however, he was hardly atypical. And he became a statistic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 23 of last year, Nguyen was an innocent bystander \u2014 a term that\u2019s never used when something good happens. He was waiting for a bus in front of the Potrero Center mall in the late morning, when a purloined SFMTA paint truck being pursued by San Francisco law-enforcement officers jumped the curb and ran him down<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nguyen was 58. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One month later<\/a>, a San Francisco Police Department cruiser involved in a high-speed chase clipped a motorcycle, narrowly missed a child and barreled through the former Lucca delicatessen site. By the grace of God, nobody was seriously injured. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In light of a man being killed and half a dozen others injured, San Francisco\u2019s Police Commission stated in June that it would \u201ctake a hard look<\/a>\u201d at the city\u2019s police-pursuit policy, which hasn\u2019t been modified since Chief Greg Suhr and a prior iteration of the Police Commission hammered it out in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Mayor London Breed had plans of her own. In October, she claimed that the Police Commission \u2014 which, again, last modified police pursuit policy a decade ago \u2014 had \u201cgone way too far<\/a>.\u201d She proposed that we, the voters, decide on departmental policy regarding chasing suspected criminals. And this proposed policy would be broader: Rather than essentially being limited to pursuing alleged violent felons, SFPD officers would, if Breed\u2019s Proposition E passes on Tuesday, be empowered to chase suspects in nonviolent felonies and \u201cviolent misdemeanors.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cViolent misdemeanors<\/a>,\u201d by the way, are not defined under the state penal code. Both prosecutors and police officers have told me they don\u2019t know what this means. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they can certainly make inferences. Cops I\u2019ve spoken with figured this was a term of art to encompass retail thieves and auto break-in specialists of the sort who\u2019ve been a San Francisco scourge going back decades. \u201cThis would allow WAY more suspects to be pursued,\u201d says one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s a double-edged sword. More than four in 10 <\/a>of the pursuits initiated by San Francisco police result in a collision. And this staggering rate comes as no surprise to the cops who do the pursuing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPursuits end in two ways; suspects rarely have a change of heart and just pull over,\u201d says one. Rather, \u201c1. The suspect crashes and probably foot bails or, 2. The suspect has his tires spiked and eventually stops \u2014 and then probably foot bails.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The front end of a Honda was damaged in a collision resulting from a 2013 Highway Patrol chase.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This week, a pair of deeply researched stories regarding police pursuits appeared in San Francisco publications.\u00a0The\u00a0Chronicle\u00a0<\/em>published\u00a0<\/a>a yearlong analysis of pursuits nationwide, which found that in the six years ending in 2022, at least 3,336 people were killed in police pursuits \u2014 which were often triggered by minor crimes or non-crimes. At least 551 of the people killed were bystanders, like Nguyen.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The San Francisco Standard<\/em> published<\/a> a study of California police chases. It found that pursuits initiated by the San Francisco Police Department result in a collision 41 percent of the time \u2014 compared to a 22 percent statewide average. San Francisco officers catch the suspect they\u2019re pursuing only 39 percent of the time \u2014 compared to a 56 percent statewide average. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not the job of Mission Local to tell you how to vote on Proposition E, but it is within our purview to elucidate the issues you\u2019ll be voting on, and explain how and why things get on the ballot. Enabling a broader swath of suspected crimes to trigger police chases intuitively figures to increase the number of police chases undertaken in San Francisco. And, considering the statistics we have access to \u2014 and common sense \u2014 that would lead to more risk. More risk for suspected criminals, more risk for police officers and more risk for passengers and innocent bystanders. Like Victor Nguyen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police are well aware of this. The police don\u2019t need to be reminded that driving at high speeds through San Francisco\u2019s crowded streets \u2014 and pursuing people who are not bound by ethical obligations to drive as safely as possible and who may well be armed \u2014 is dangerous. The officers I have spoken with get this. They know the risks. They\u2019re frustrated at watching law-breakers drive off and simply radioing it in. Professional break-in crews wear gloves and masks, and are often driving stolen cars with stolen plates. They are often packing heat, and if there\u2019s a way to track them down beyond nabbing them in the act or pursuing them, it almost always eludes the SFPD; the department\u2019s clearance rate for auto break-ins rarely cracks 2 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we get hurt while preventing future people from being victimized, it\u2019s a tradeoff I\u2019m willing to make,\u201d says a veteran cop. He\u2019s voting yes on Proposition E. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s okay with the risk. This, he says, is part of his job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"YouTube<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s not yours. What about the increased risk for the general public? The veteran officer went on to make a point that I think is pretty profound \u2014 and is something every voter could do well to consider. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see the police commission, in a liberal city like San Francisco, being open to allowing more dangerous activities \u2014 which I understand,\u201d he said. \u201cSo if we\u2019re going to loosen a pursuit policy, something that will increase risk to the public at large, maybe the citizens should<\/em> get a vote and express the amount of risk they\u2019re willing to accept \u2014 for themselves and <\/em>for their cops.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The officer notes that residents of affluent areas like the Marina, Alamo Square, Pacific Heights or North Beach \u2014 \u201cwhere a lot of our \u2018crimes of opportunity\u2019 are occurring\u201d \u2014 may be the ones to disproportionately experience more high-speed police chases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voters, the cop concludes, should understand that Proposition E \u201clikely will put more people in danger. If we are willing to accept that in order to arrest people, okay, fine. If we aren\u2019t okay with that, that\u2019s fine, too. I will work under whatever parameters the public sets.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is awaiting your orders; Election Day is March 5. Mission Local cannot tell you how to think nor how to vote. It can only ask you to think. And then vote.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JOE ESKENAZI<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

getbackjoejoe@gmail.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing Editor\/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour humble narrator\u201d was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.More by Joe Eskenazi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0JOE ESKENAZI FEBRUARY 28, 2024, 3:07 PM (MissionLocal.org) In life, Victor Nguyen was unique, an individual, one-of-a-kind. In death, however, he was hardly atypical. And he became a statistic.  On May 23 of last year, Nguyen was an innocent bystander \u2014 a term that\u2019s never used when something good happens. He… 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":[1851],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32070"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32071,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32070\/revisions\/32071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}