{"id":32515,"date":"2024-03-27T13:48:19","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T20:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=32515"},"modified":"2024-03-27T13:48:20","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T20:48:20","slug":"city-attorney-chiu-puts-tenderloin-residents-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/03\/27\/city-attorney-chiu-puts-tenderloin-residents-at-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"CITY ATTORNEY CHIU PUTS TENDERLOIN RESIDENTS AT RISK"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by\u00a0Randy Shaw<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0March 25, 2024 (BeyondChron.org)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tenderloin sidewalk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chiu Demands Plaintiffs\u2019 Names Be Available to Drug Dealers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit challenging San Francisco\u2019s use of the Tenderloin as a drug containment zone kept plaintiffs\u2019 names anonymous. It\u2019s common for lawsuits to identify plaintiffs as \u201cJane Roe\u201d and use other protective names when their safety is at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But City Attorney David Chiu\u2019s office filed a motion<\/a> last week to make plaintiffs\u2019 names public. Plaintiffs expected their names would go confidentially to the city attorney. They know the city attorney can question them about their claims. But making their names public enables drug dealers to potentially retaliate against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is Chiu trying to intimidate those who filed this lawsuit as a last resort to protect their families?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does publicizing plaintiffs\u2019 names help the city\u2019s defense against their claims?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What drives the City Attorney\u2019s scorched earth defense strategy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of the plaintiffs are seeking money damages from San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider the claims<\/a> of one of the Tenderloin plaintiffs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cJane Roe works full-time as a housekeeper. Her husband works full-time as a cook. Both are immigrants. Neither speaks much English. They have two daughters, ages 9 and 5. The family lives in an apartment on Ellis Street, between Hyde and Larkin, in the center of the Tenderloin. They share the apartment with another family with young children. Open-air drug deals occur on the sidewalk in front of Jane Roe\u2019s apartment building. She describes the drug-dealing as happening \u2018all day, every day.\u2019 Those involved in narcotics sales block the entrance to her building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jane Roe enters or leaves her apartment, she encounters drug dealers, users openly injecting or smoking narcotics, and people lying on the sidewalk who appear unconscious or dead. On one occasion, a person in front of Jane Roe\u2019s building threatened to cut her throat. On other occasions, people threatened her with knives and hammers.\u201d (See Complaint<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The City Attorney\u2019s motion would make Jane Roe\u2019s identity available to the same constituency that has threatened her with knives and hammers. San Francisco\u2019s City Attorney seeks to give an opportunity for retaliation to very violent criminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Motivates City Attorney Chiu?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why has the City Attorney taken this stand? David Chiu knows full well that the city uses the Tenderloin as a drug containment zone. So why not use his power as city attorney to end the practice? Why align with the forces jeopardizing families\u2019 lives when he could use his power to protect them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City Attorney is under no obligation to aggressively defend a racist, anti-immigrant containment  policy that shames San Francisco. That\u2019s why San Francisco has an independently elected city attorney\u2014it enables them to do the right thing despite pressure from other politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is motivating David Chiu here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve thought a lot about this. I see the answer as going to the deep, underlying class bias that the City Attorney\u2019s office and many in City Hall have toward those living in the Tenderloin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They see the plaintiffs as breaching the boundaries of what is akin to their caste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians promote the Tenderloin for its kids and ethnic and racial diversity\u2014but when Tenderloin residents rise up and demand equal protection under the law, well, they feel they\u2019ve gone too far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chiu\u2019s City Attorney\u2019s office feels its their job to remind Tenderloin residents of their place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think I\u2019m exaggerating? Why else did the city attorney\u2019s office file this motion? It wants to intimidate the plaintiffs. To keep them subordinate. And maybe convince them their lives would be safer if they withdraw from the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tenderloin plaintiffs are raising claims that the entire city knows is true. City Hall expects low-income immigrant families in the Tenderloin to feel grateful that they are allowed to even live in affluent San Francisco\u2014they believe that suing to assert their constitutional rights to equal protection under the law goes too far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider these quotes from City Attorney motion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlaintiffs here have litigated their case in the press to demand the changes they seek in court.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Response: It is common practice for attorneys to seek media coverage when they file lawsuits. This is not \u201clitigating the case in the press.\u201d City Attorney Chiu\u2019s office regularly issues press releases when they file lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlaintiffs, apparently dissatisfied with the outcome of the 2020 Action, filed the instant action again alleging the City has unlawfully treated the Tenderloin as a \u2018containment zone\u2019 for drug dealing and abuse, violence, homelessness, and other social ills and again make nearly identical claims.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Response: None of the plaintiffs were parties to the 2020 lawsuit. That suit resulted in a federal court injunction against San Francisco preventing the city from continuing to violate federal and local COVID laws in the Tenderloin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlaintiffs rely entirely on identical, conclusory statements that the public identification of plaintiff, e.g.<\/em>, revealing her [or his] name or precise address in court filings, would put her [or him] at risk of being hurt or killed in retaliation by persons involved in the illegal narcotics trade in the Tenderloin. However, Plaintiffs offer no evidence to support this contention as it relates to their names and submit no declarations from themselves or even their counsel. The absence of any evidence of potential \u201cretaliation by persons involved in the illegal narcotics trade in the Tenderloin\u201d is particularly deficient here. Plaintiffs must show \u201cthat a <\/strong>reasonable person would believe that the threat might actually be carried out<\/strong>.\u201d (Emphasis added).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Response: The City Attorney  is telling the court that a Tenderloin family threatened by drug dealers in front of their home needs more evidence that \u201cthe threat might actually be carried out.\u201d Must she or a family member be assaulted? Killed? What level of violence must they suffer to meet the city\u2019s proposed evidence threshold? Does City Attorney Chiu\u2019s office really believe that drug dealers send letters to future victims announcing their plans?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the plaintiffs\u2019 accounts of Tenderloin life are confirmed in the city\u2019s own documents. The February 2024 Planning Commission report\u2014\u201cTenderloin Youth Services Gap Analysis\u201d\u2014-includes quotes from Focus Groups and Interviews in the Tenderloin. These quotes include: \u201cThere are dealers harassing us on the street and nobody is doing anything about it.\u201d (Transitional Aged Youth Focus Group) \u201cWhen my child walks on the street they offer them free drugs.\u201d (Focus Group with Spanish Speaking Parents) \u201cAfter school programs are surrounded by tents and drug dealing activities.\u201d (Focus Group with Arabic Speaking Parents)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These comments are anonymous in the report. Apparently what\u2019s good for the Planning Department is unacceptable for the City Attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Showing Contempt for Tenderloin Families<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City Attorney\u2019s contempt for Tenderloin families gets even worse. It\u2019s motion states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlaintiffs should not be permitted to use their anonymity as a sword to press their case in the media while simultaneously shielding themselves from public attention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sword to press their case? These plaintiffs are trying to survive in the containment zone San Francisco has created in their neighborhood. This lawsuit was a last resort!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShielding themselves from public attention\u201d? I thought the city attorney was angry that the plaintiffs sought public attention in the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cprinciple\u201d David Chiu\u2019s office is defending is keeping the Tenderloin a drug containment zone. Now and forever. Anyone challenging this must have their safety and well-being threatened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do the police say about all this? Jane Roe alleges in the complaint:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe rarely sees uniformed members of the San Francisco Police Department on foot patrol in the neighborhood. When she has seen SFPD officers, she has asked for help with the people who have taken over the sidewalks. In response, officers have told her that there is nothing they can do because, \u2018the City gives them more protection than you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some may ask: if it\u2019s so bad in the Tenderloin why don\u2019t these plaintiffs move? Jane Roe answers this in the complaint: \u201cI really wish my daughters could grow up in a better place, which does not have so much corruption, drugs, bad people. It is a frustration I have every day. We don\u2019t have enough money to move.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Threatening low-income immigrant families is not what San Francisco should be about. The mayor, candidates for mayor,  and the Board of Supervisors should demand that the City Attorney withdraw its disclosure motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randy Shaw<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco\u2019s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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by\u00a0Randy Shaw\u00a0on\u00a0March 25, 2024 (BeyondChron.org) Tenderloin sidewalk Chiu Demands Plaintiffs\u2019 Names Be Available to Drug Dealers The lawsuit challenging San Francisco\u2019s use of the Tenderloin as a drug containment zone kept plaintiffs\u2019 names anonymous. It\u2019s common for lawsuits to identify plaintiffs as \u201cJane Roe\u201d and use other protective names when… 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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32515"}],"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=32515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32516,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32515\/revisions\/32516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}