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Supervisors Pass Crisis Intervention Resolution
This is a step in the direction of justice for Idriss Stelley --- where is SFPD in all this? Still hiding out ...
SF SUPES PASS RESOLUTION TO IMPLEMENT LARGEST POLICE CRISIS INTERVENTION TRAINING PROGRAM IN COUNTRY
City Hall Responds to Community Pressure Surrounding the SFPD Metreon Shooting Case
(San Francisco) In response to community outrage about the June 13th police killing of Idriss Stelley at the Sony Metreon Theater, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution urging a dramatic increase in the police crisis intervention training program. One in every four calls to the police is regarding someone in psychiatric crisis, but currently less than 3% of SFPD officers are trained to respond. The resolution, passed on Monday January 7th at the Board of Supervisors Meeting, urges the SFPD to train 25% of all first responder officers and supervisors within the next two years and ongoing at that rate until all officers are trained. If implemented, this increase would set a national precedent, making the SFPD crisis intervention training program the largest in the country.
Stelley, an African-American 4.0 college student, was suffering from a psychiatric crisis when SFPD officers shot him more than 20 times. The police were called by Summer Galbreath, Stelley¹s fiancé, who asked for a 5150 the police code for emergency response in the case of a psychiatric crisis. None of the officers involved had received crisis intervention training.
Supervisor Ammiano, an avid supporter of the Police Crisis Intervention Training Program, originally proposed the resolution to the Rules Committee in December, 2001. "The response to the first Police Crisis Intervention training was wildly successful. Now the program needs to be institutionalized and amplified," said Supervisor Ammiano. At the Board of Supervisors meeting, Ammiano pledged to find the money to appropriately budget the ambitious program.
"The passage of this resolution is an important victory for the San Francisco community and for the police accountability cause," said Samantha Liapes, Director of Bay Area PoliceWatch. "Without the community pressure and leadership of Idriss' family, as well as the support of Supervisor Ammiano, the resolution would never have seen the light of day. The community forced city hall to finally acknowledge the urgent and dire nature of this issue."
"The 20 plus shots fired at Idriss were just the tip of the iceberg," explains Mary Kate Conner, Director of Caduceus Outreach Services. "Every day because of SFPD's negligence, people in psychiatric crises end up in jails instead of hospitals and are beat down instead of talked down. Mandated police crisis intervention trainings will begin to curb some of this violence."
Though community advocates and Idriss Stelley's family are calling this resolution a victory, they emphasize that it is only one piece of a larger campaign for police accountability. They applaud the Board of Supervisors efforts but claim the SFPD and the Police Commission continue to ignore Stelley¹s family. "The Board of Supervisors have joined the community on the right side of this issue," said Mesha Monge-Irizarry, Idriss Stelley¹s mother. "On the other side, the SFPD continues their shameless coverup by refusing to release the names and statements of the witnesses to Idriss' killing."
City Hall Responds to Community Pressure Surrounding the SFPD Metreon Shooting Case
(San Francisco) In response to community outrage about the June 13th police killing of Idriss Stelley at the Sony Metreon Theater, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution urging a dramatic increase in the police crisis intervention training program. One in every four calls to the police is regarding someone in psychiatric crisis, but currently less than 3% of SFPD officers are trained to respond. The resolution, passed on Monday January 7th at the Board of Supervisors Meeting, urges the SFPD to train 25% of all first responder officers and supervisors within the next two years and ongoing at that rate until all officers are trained. If implemented, this increase would set a national precedent, making the SFPD crisis intervention training program the largest in the country.
Stelley, an African-American 4.0 college student, was suffering from a psychiatric crisis when SFPD officers shot him more than 20 times. The police were called by Summer Galbreath, Stelley¹s fiancé, who asked for a 5150 the police code for emergency response in the case of a psychiatric crisis. None of the officers involved had received crisis intervention training.
Supervisor Ammiano, an avid supporter of the Police Crisis Intervention Training Program, originally proposed the resolution to the Rules Committee in December, 2001. "The response to the first Police Crisis Intervention training was wildly successful. Now the program needs to be institutionalized and amplified," said Supervisor Ammiano. At the Board of Supervisors meeting, Ammiano pledged to find the money to appropriately budget the ambitious program.
"The passage of this resolution is an important victory for the San Francisco community and for the police accountability cause," said Samantha Liapes, Director of Bay Area PoliceWatch. "Without the community pressure and leadership of Idriss' family, as well as the support of Supervisor Ammiano, the resolution would never have seen the light of day. The community forced city hall to finally acknowledge the urgent and dire nature of this issue."
"The 20 plus shots fired at Idriss were just the tip of the iceberg," explains Mary Kate Conner, Director of Caduceus Outreach Services. "Every day because of SFPD's negligence, people in psychiatric crises end up in jails instead of hospitals and are beat down instead of talked down. Mandated police crisis intervention trainings will begin to curb some of this violence."
Though community advocates and Idriss Stelley's family are calling this resolution a victory, they emphasize that it is only one piece of a larger campaign for police accountability. They applaud the Board of Supervisors efforts but claim the SFPD and the Police Commission continue to ignore Stelley¹s family. "The Board of Supervisors have joined the community on the right side of this issue," said Mesha Monge-Irizarry, Idriss Stelley¹s mother. "On the other side, the SFPD continues their shameless coverup by refusing to release the names and statements of the witnesses to Idriss' killing."
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Willie Brown can simply simply deny the motion. God help city officials if my son has died in vain...this is not an idle threat, but a firm promise from the grieving family and the community organizations supporting our struggle for justice that we will not give up, until we are no longer ashamed to live in San Francisco, the supposedly world acclaimed capital of liberalism, tolerance and asylum, where criminilization of people in mental distress is rampant. It certainly has not been a sanctuary to us.
Regretefully, Mesha, Idriss Stelley's mother.
I have seen police brutally treat people in a psychiatric crisis when I have had to call because some one was suicidal. I've seen them wrassle a person to the ground, yank their arms behind their backs and cuff them very tightly, to the point where the person was crying out in pain, then jerk them up by their handcuffs. Police brutality is a common experience among any population that is impoverished or in some other way does not fit inot the mainstream of society. I have known women in re in the sex-industry and women who were assumed to be in the sex-trade,get rousted by the police, thrown inlo the back of police car and then get brutalised by the police ffor exampe, because a police officer decides she or he thinks that person dresses like a hooker, they stop them demand identification,m question them about their comings and goings or what they are doing out at a particualr time of night. This is particuarly true for transgendered women who live in the Tenderloin.
In the early nineties, when I worked at the Tenderloin Self Help Center, I worked with a large number of transgendered individuals. One young woman with whom I worked was named Lynette. Now Lynn was about as far away from sex-work as one could be. She dressed like what she was, a Grateful Dead fan, with the multi-coloured 'balloon' slacks, tie-dye tee-shirts, &tc. Unfortunately, Lynn was still early in the transition form male-to-female and did not 'pass' very well as a female yet.. Nevertheless, she had the courage to be true to her self and had started living as a woman a few months prior to October 1991. One night, she was walking home form some friends' house and was assaulted with a baseball bat. It took 30 minutes and four 911 calls for the police and the ambulance to arrive. The ploice station was only tewom and a half blocks away. She was transported to SFGeneral' ICU and two weeks later died after being removed form life support by her mother a week prior.
When I spoke with the homicide inspector, he told me in the most cavalier fashion, 'oh well, he fell over on his high heels'. To the best of my knlowledge, this crime has never been solved. The police inspector had clearly done no research inlot Lynette, because if he had, he would have known tha t 1.) she didn't wear high heels ; 2.) she ws not a hooker and not atall in the sex trade and 3.) that she identified as a woman. She didn't even like the word transgender or even transsexual.
While I served on the Human Rights Commission's ProstitutionTask Force, in 1994 &' 95, many women I knew in the sex trade, were telling horrific stories about how the police would treat them. They would rob them, rape them and then they would arrest them. The Sex-workers told me that they just didn't call the police, period, even if THEY were a victim of a crime. The police they said, would often victimise them more, by assuming that they were working and arrest them.
Much work is needed to reform the police department that it may adequately protect the rights of all people, regardless of their mental health status, their social status or their sexual or gender identity.