<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-container gmail-content-width3">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://sfbayview.com/2020/06/sf-public-defender-mano-raju-calls-for-major-reforms-after-video-surfaces-showing-sfpd-officer-with-knee-on-teenagers-neck/">sfbayview.com</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">SF Public Defender Mano Raju calls for major reforms after video surfaces showing SFPD officer with knee on teenager’s neck</h1>
<div class="gmail-meta-data">
<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">June 1, 2020<br></div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-line-height4 gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div>
<p><strong><em>by SF Public Defender Mano Raju </em></strong></p>
<p>The country is mourning after a Minneapolis police officer murdered
George Floyd, an unarmed Black man accused of a nonviolent offense. What
happened to George Floyd is happening all over the United States with
miserable regularity. Anyone paying attention can see that our country
is plagued by police use of excessive force and violence, especially
against communities of color. </p>
<p>In fact, on Saturday, my office learned of a video of an SFPD officer
using the same deadly tactic, kneeling on the neck of an immobilized
Black teenager. </p>
<p>On Jan. 25, 19-year-old Kajon Busby was thrown to the ground by three
SFPD officers who had been called to a verbal dispute between Kajon’s
mother and the next door neighbors. Officer Valle kneeled on Kajon’s
neck and back, pinning him face down on the sidewalk while her partners
handcuffed him. </p>
<a href="https://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Kajon-A.-Busby-mother-Kerrine-Busby-031718-on-FB.jpg"><img src="https://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Kajon-A.-Busby-mother-Kerrine-Busby-031718-on-FB.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="338" height="451"></a>Kajon Busby with his mother, Kerrine Busby, on March 17, 2018, from his Facebook page
<p>Valle continued to use her knee to put pressure on Kajon’s neck and
head for nearly a whole minute after he was cuffed. In the video, Valle
can be heard attempting to explain the violence by telling the
cameraman, “We told you to leave, but you didn’t want to,” as if that
fact, if true, justified this violence. </p>
<p>All three officers then misrepresented the events in their reports,
Valle claiming she put her knee on Kajon’s back only, and the two others
attempting to omit Valle’s violent conduct altogether. </p>
<div><img src="https://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Kajon-Busby-graduation-announcement-from-Ida-B.-Wells-High-School-060419-1.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="319" height="451">Kajon Busby graduated from Ida B. Wells High School in San Francisco on June 4, 2019.</div>
<p>Police who abuse their power should not be wearing a badge. While
oversight and early intervention is important, it means nothing if there
is rarely any meaningful disciplinary action or change. A massive
overhaul of our policing system is needed, and it must be driven by the
wisdom of the communities most impacted by systemic abuse.</p>
<p>The time for incremental reform in the SFPD has long passed.
Therefore, we are calling on the Police Commission and Chief Scott to do
the following now:</p>
<p>1. Issue a general order to the department forbidding any officer
from applying pressure on a person’s neck and head while a person is on
the ground. This new policy comports with SFPD’s policy against other
potentially deadly detention holds such as chokeholds or hobbling. This
policy must be made explicit and take effect immediately.</p>
<p>2. Make the use of potentially deadly detention holds a form of misconduct that leads to immediate termination.</p>
<p><strong><em>. . . enact statewide legislative reforms, including
amending provisions of the Public Safety Officers’ Procedural Bill of
Rights that impede the swift termination of officers who abuse their
authority . . .</em></strong></p>
<p>3. Make systemic reforms the top priority of the Police Commission,
requiring that the commission agendize only reform measures and
discipline matters, and that the SFPD devote adequate personnel to
implement the remaining California DOJ recommendations pursuant to the
Collaborative Reform Initiative without further delay. </p>
<p>4. End the two-tiered system of justice: Speedily investigate
officers accused of violent and/or dishonest misconduct. Investigations
that take months and sometimes years – while the offenders continue to
act under the color of the law – endanger those who bear the brunt of
the abuse and empower the abusers. </p>
<p>5. Increase investments in alternatives to policing. Our
over-reliance on law enforcement to respond to every call for help in
our communities has led to more violence and over-incarceration.
Instead, we must invest in other forms of social support and respond to
crises by assessing needs and providing the necessary support. The
systems currently in place are not the only options – we can build
something different. Diverting funds from policing to community-based
and trauma-informed approaches is the first step of many needed to help
ameliorate the devastating effects that over-policing has had on
communities of color. </p>
<p>Further, I ask the Police Commission and Chief Scott to join us in a
coalition to work to identify and enact statewide legislative reforms,
including amending provisions of the Public Safety Officers’ Procedural
Bill of Rights that impede the swift termination of officers who abuse
their authority – for example, by accelerating the administrative
appeals process. </p>
<p>I am heartened by Chief Scott’s recent statement condemning the
police murder of George Floyd and by the chief’s desire to implement
anti-bias measures. However, the current pace of reform is neither
rooting out violence and racism in SFPD, nor protecting our community
members equally, nor holding violent or dishonest police accountable.
San Francisco deserves better.</p>
<h3><strong>References</strong></h3>
<p>Video surfaces among George Floyd death fallout showing SFPD kneeling on a man’s neck – SF Examiner – May 30, 2020: <a href="https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/video-surfaces-amid-george-floyd-death-fallout-showing-sf-police-kneeling-on-mans-neck/">https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/video-surfaces-amid-george-floyd-death-fallout-showing-sf-police-kneeling-on-mans-neck/</a> </p>
<p>SFPD Collaborative Reform Phase II Report from the California Department of Justice, March 4, 2020: <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/Final%20Hillard%20Heintze%20Phase%20II%20Report%20for%20the%20San%20Francisco%20Police%20Department-1.pdf">https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/Final%20Hillard%20Heintze%20Phase%20II%20Report%20for%20the%20San%20Francisco%20Police%20Department-1.pdf</a></p>
<p><em>SF Public Defender Mano Raju can be reached via Public Information Officer Valerie Ibarra at </em><a><em>Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org</em></a><em>.</em></p>
</div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>