San Francisco Employee Calls out Department’s Racism
By: Leon Kwasi Kuntuo-Asare
A San Francisco city employee, who was teaching anti-bias classes for two-years, recently came forward with frustration with the rampant anti-black racism that is widespread in the department.The now ex-Department of Human Resources manager said to his superiors in a farewell email:
The degree of anti-black sentiment throughout SFPD is extreme.
Dante King wrote in the email to DHR Director Micki Callahan, (San Francisco) Examiner obtained the email through a public records request past week.
King later said:
While there are some SFPD who possess somewhat of a balanced view of racism and anti-blackness, there are an equal number (if not more)-who possess and exude deeply anti-black sentiment.
The U.S. Department of Justice reviewed the SFPD in October of 2016, and discovered the department had:
numerous indicators of implicit and institutionalized bias against minority groups.
As of this writing the SFPD has only completed 16% of the 272 recommendations for reform that were issued by the U.S. Department of Justice.
An African-American man, who went to prison for six years was awarded $13 million dollars in a settlement , which was agreed upon by the San Francisco board of supervisors .
According to NPR, Jamal Trulove, who is also an actor, was reportedly set up and served prison time for a 2007 murder he did not commit. His 2015 retrial proved his innocence, and he was acquitted for the crime.
In 2007, Trulove sued the SFPD, after he was arrested and sent to prison for the murder of his friend Seu Kuka.
A jury would later determine that San Francisco police officers Maureen D’Amico and Michael Johnson lied and falsified evidence in the case, and even coerced a witness to lie and claim that Trulove was the shooter.
If the case was not overturned, Trulove could of spent the rest of his life behind bar.
By: Leon Kwasi Kuntuo-Asare
A small protest on front of the Valencia street police station in the Mission District of San Francisco.
The people peaceful gathered to demand justice for Amilcar Perez Lopez, who was an 21 year-old immigrant from Guatemala.
On Tuesday, the city of San Francisco became the first so-called “Sanctuary City”, to sue the Trump Administration, after his executive order to defund cities that he claims protects illegal immigrants.
Ed Lee, the mayor of San Francisco, said : ” the misguided executive order makes our cities less safe, and we believe is unconstitutional.”
Mayors from other major cities like New York and Chicago, promised to defy the president’s executive order, the ACLU, also plans to file a lawsuit against Trump’s administration.
On Saturday, October 15, 2016, early on a foggy, San Francisco morning, hundreds of activist-athletes and good Samaritans, of all faiths and even those without, came from a rainbow of races, nationalities, sexual orientations, and gender identities converged at Lake Merced Park.
After months of donations, given by a multitude of contributors, over a hundred thousand dollars was raised to support the children affected by the crisis and blockade in Gaza.
Proceeds from the Gaza 5k walk/run went to the UNRWA’s community Mental Health Program for Palestinian children in Gaza suffering from Psychological issues and posttraumatic stress disorder, due to the prolonged crisis of 2014 and the continued Israeli blockade in the Gaza area.
At the event there were several awe-inspiring and wonderful people of various ethnic backgrounds and cultures, united for this one great progressive cause, but the one person who stood out the most to me was fellow activist-athlete and a person I call friend, Chelsea Swall, her toughness still continues to blow me completely off my feet . Chelsea is what many millennials would refer to as a sociopreneur, for those of you unfamiliar with that term, a sociopreneur, according to UrbanDictionary.com is : “An enterprising individual that starts a venture not merely for profits but for inclusion of the communities that so far have been left out of the main stream.”
Well before the age of 30, she has already earned her Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy /Counseling , worked at places like San Francisco suicide Prevention, USF Center for Child and Family Development, continues to volunteer in her community and has recently began practicing as a Marriage and Family Therapy Intern at a San Francisco private practice. What is most amazing to me is how she has turned her family’s tragedy and unimaginable personal “Pain into a Passion Fueled Purpose”, having lost two family members to suicide, she fights valiantly everyday to help people suffering with various types of psychological issues and mental Trauma. For Chelsea this is not about politics or religion ,it’s about curing a disease that according to the World Health Organization , over 350 million people are suffering from worldwide. An agonizing disease that at its worst, can lead to suicide, the World Health Organization states: Over 800 000 people die due to suicide every year. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds.”
I am pleased to say Chelsea and I have become good friends over time. Here is some of our conversation from the event :
Me: where are you originally from?
Chelsea : San Diego
Me: What made you come to San Francisco?
Chelsea : I came here for graduate school at San Francisco State University . I also loved the openness of alot of the people here.
Me: what age were you when you decided psychology was the path you wanted to take in life?
Chelsea: in high school I took a psychology class and volunteered at a hospice, but junior year of college is when I knew for sure, that I wanted to work in mental health.
Me: what do you want to accomplish by being here today?
Chelsea : bring awareness and raise money for a good cause.
Me: do you plan to continue to do community volunteering and activism for mental health causes?
Chelsea : yes
For those of you interested in seeing an amazing therapist in the Bay Area, use the link below to contact Chelsea Swall :
In a room at City Hall with extra security and full of social justice activists looking on, Ed Lee the mayor of San Francisco listened to a barrage of questions from the city’s board of supervisors, who were demanding new police reforms.
This comes after a study by the district attorney’s Blue Ribbon Panel, revealed major racial bias by SF police and lack of oversight within the department.
“The community is in pain. Protesters are demanding the removal of the chief,” Board President London Breed said to the mayor. “How do we bring The City together?”
As a result of the outcry for police reform in the city, due to incidents of police violence and brutality , including the shooting of unarmed Alex Nieto, a case that went on trial a couple months ago.
Ed Lee claimed he would would allocate over 17 million dollars to police reforms and violence prevention in his new two-year budget, which he is scheduled to submit to the board of supervisors by the first of June, for review.
HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE MARCH IN SAN FRANCISCO FOR
THE FIRING OF SAN FRANCISCO POLICE CHIEF GREG SUHR.
On Thursday, March 10, 2016 in a San Francisco federal court, four San Francisco police officers were cleared of charges of excessive force in the killing of Alex Nieto.
Nieto, was a 28 year old man, who was gunned down, in Bernal Heights Park, area of San Francisco in 2014, when four police officers shot at Mr. Nieto over 50 times. When SFPD officers allegedly mistook a Nieto’s taser, that he used for his security job, for a gun.
Oscar Salinas, a friend of Alex Nieto, stated after the trial :
“SFPD can shoot 59 bullets and get away with it. ”
According to several news sources, one of the domestic white supremacist terrorists, who was involved in the bloody and violent clash between the Ku Klux Klan and protesters, in Anaheim, California last week, is not only white, rich and privileged but also Jewish.
Sources say, 51 year old, Charles Edward Donner, the man who reportedly stabbed several anti-racism protesters last week, is the son of Charles D’Honau, who is an alum of Princeton University and is a former publisher of the Japan division of Time magazine.
Charles Edward Donner, reportedly lives in a 3,500-square foot mansion, in the extremely wealthy Marina district of San Francisco, California.
Despite Donner’s family’s Jewish bloodlines, he was able to make it to the rank of an exalted cyclops of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
On March 1, 2016 the local activist community in San Francisco, came together to demand Justice for Alex Nieto, who was a young man, who reportedly had a history of strange and erratic behavior , but who also was a community organizer, college student, security guard and a family man.
FAMILY, FRIENDS AND THE COMMUNITY, COMING TOGETHER MEMORY OF ALEX NIETO, BEFORE THE NIETO FAMILY’S CIVIL SUIT AGAINST THE SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT.
Nieto was shot by SFPD two years, allegedly in a barrage of over 40 bullets, police claim they mistook the taser that Nieto used for his security job, for a gun.
Hundreds of people from a rainbow of various ethnic backgrounds, came together in solidarity in front of the Federal Courthouse in San Francisco, for the first day of the Nieto’s civil suit against the San Francisco police department.
VOICES FOR JUSTICE AT THE JUSTICE FOR ALEX NIETO RALLY!
LOCAL ACTIVIST AND POET GIVES SPEECH ABOUT ALEX NIETO.
A YOUNG POETESS PERFORMS AN EMOTIONAL POEM ABOUT ALEX NIETO.
PUBLISHED POET, BLOGGER AND SAN FRANCISCO ACTIVIST, SPEAKS ABOUT ALEX NIETO, SFPD, RACISM, AND POLICE BRUTALITY.
If you’re like me and you ever thought about joining the tech startup revolution, but maybe because of socio-economic reasons , or a poor inner-city education you lack the skills, and need the time to build those skills up. Here is a list of ten websites to use to join the revolution without possessing the skills of a software engineer.
IF YOU WANT TO BUILD AN APP, BUT LACK THE CODING SKILLS, USE THESE APPS:
HTTPS://BUBBLE.IS
WWW.SHOUTEM.COM
WWW.COMO.COM
BLOG BULIDING WEBSITES :
WWW.TUMBLR.COM
WWW.MEDIUM.COM
WEBSITE BUILDING WEBSITES:
WWW.WORDPRESS.COM
WWW.WORDPRESS.ORG
BOOK PUBLISHING :
KDP.AMAZON.COM (KINDLE )
WWW.CREATESPACE.COM (PRINT ON DEMAND, ALSO OWNED BY AMAZON. COM )
CLOTHING DESIGN:
CAFEPRESS.COM (PRINT ON DEMAND COMPANY ) CREATE YOUR OWN TEE SHIRT COMPANY.
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