SF Gang Injunction Hearing "This is the Wrong Way to Address Violence!"

Instead of attending classes or work yesterday morning, many students, teachers, parents, and community workers attended a hearing at City Hall hosted by Supervisor Chris Daly about the SF Gang Injunctions. He intended to ask a series of questions to the City Attorney, Dennis Herrera who proposed the civil injunctions. But when Herrera saw the questions he backed out and send his press secretary to sit in the hot seat for him!

The hearing room, and the overflow room, and Daly's office were filled at 10am on a Monday morning with people who took time out from their lives to come listen and speak out on the impacts of the injunctions on Bayview, the Mission, and the Fillmore.

Public comment lasted until 2:15 in the afternoon! We heard stories of police misconduct, racial profiling, gentrification, poverty, lack of resources, and failing schools. Many called the injunction a "band-aid solution" and demanded the City do some thing REAL to prevent violence in our communities. Not just move the problems out of the way of developers and gentrifyers, not just arrest more people, not just kick people out of their communities, but actually take steps to stop violence at it's roots.

A woman told a blood-boiling story of the police storming her home on Thanksgiving day, pulling her out of the shower, forcing her to put her hands in the air at gunpoint as they beat her nephew for no crime committed, but having his name on a list of supposed "Gang Members".

A young man came up to the podium with his wife carrying their sleeping 2-year old son, and said that he has no gang affiliations, no criminal record, a family and a full time job, but his name was placed on the list. "How do I get off this list?" he asked the Supervisors.

That was precisely one of the questions the Supervisors were trying to ask Herrera. "What qualifies on to be on the list?" "How long does one stay on the list?" "How does one get off the list?" But Herrera was no where to be found.

Daly stated that if he had know what he knows now, he would not have voted in favor of the first injunction a year ago. He apologized to the people of San Francisco for passing it with out taking time to get community input or do research, and stated, " If we are filing suits on behalf of 'The People of San Francisco', then we better be sure we have the support of 'The People of San Francisco'".

People demanded:
~> a moratorium on the injunctions
~> more money for prevention services
~> clear & fair criteria to get on the list
~> Services for people on list
~> Clear process to get off the list
~> Investigation of police misconduct
~> outlawing future injunctions


We got hella media coverage:
~> 2 articles in the Chronicle
~> Front page of the City Star
~> Article in the Examiner
~> Channel 7 news
~> KCBS radio

check http://www.homeysf.org for links to all the press and our photos.