Police

Dailies dutifully vomit out the city's misleading portrait of OccupySF

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Both the Examiner and the Chronicle reported this morning that the OccupySF encampment has become a public health hazard, setting the stage for what many believe is an imminent police raid. The newspapers' only source: a notice that the Department of Public Health handed out to protesters, at their camp in Justin Herman Plaza, at 6am today. Read more »

Oakland occupiers clash with police (VIDEO)

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Angered by the 4 a.m. raid that demolished the two-week-old Occupy Oakland tent city at Frank Ogawa Plaza, more than a thousand protesters marched through the streets in downtown Oakland Oct. 25. The march left at 5 p.m. from the Oakland Public Library and lasted for hours, scattering and reconvening at times due to clouds of teargas or threats of mass arrest. Read more »

Avalos offers resolution supporting OccupySF and its camp

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In the wake of last night's violent police raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment (a still-tense situation that we're now on the scene covering) and two similar late-night police crackdowns on OccupySF in recent weeks, Sup. Read more »

SFPD allows OccupySF to grow into a tent city

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Photos by Steven T. Jones, who also contributed to this report.

It seems the San Francisco Police Department is laying off the OccupySF encampment, at least for now. After top city officials sent mixed messages to the occupiers during a pair of high-profile hearings in City Hall this week, a full-blown tent city with working kitchen and medical tent has now been erected in Justin Herman Plaza. Read more »

OccupySF appeals to City Hall, but the standoff continues

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Frustrated by repeated late-night police raids on their encampments and empty statements of support by top city officials, hundreds of protesters with OccupySF entered City Hall today – under the watchful eyes of a large police presence with riot gear at the ready – to testify at today’s Board of Supervisors meeting.Read more »

Don't search my cell phone

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Privacy and civil-liberties activists are thrilled by state Sen. Mark Leno's bill the prevents the cops from searching cell phones without a warrant. And the bill makes perfect sense -- if I get stopped and arrested and have a laptop computer in my backpack, the police can't turn it on and start reading my email without a warrant. But right now, they can freely scroll through the same information on my cell phone.Read more »

Threats or payback?

Activist arrested after criticizing the SFPD and its tactics on television

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news@sfbg.com

Officers from the San Francisco Police Department arrested a 21-year-old activist from Hunters Point less than 24 hours after he appeared on a public access television show where he indicted the police for a recent shooting and named officers he says have personally harassed him.Read more »

Outrage at the Bayview Opera House (VIDEO)

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A community meeting July 20 at the Bayview Opera House dissolved into chaotic shouting when Police Chief Greg Suhr attempted to present the San Francisco Police Department's version of what transpired July 16 when a 19-year-old African American man was shot nine times by police and killed just blocks from where the meeting was held. Read more »

Mehserle's free, but some protesters could still face jail time

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 Johannes Mehserle, the former BART police officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant while he was lying face down on the Fruitvale station train platform on New Year's Day 2009, was released from a Los Angeles jail June 13 after serving a total of 365 days for his involuntary manslaughter conviction. He was sentenced to two years behind bars, but Judge Robert Perry granted him an early release due to credit for time served and good behavior. Read more »

FBI spying will be an issue for new Police Commissioner

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When Police Chief Greg Suhr got sworn in at City Hall a month ago, reporters each got to ask one question during a hastily convened media roundtable inside Mayor Ed Lee’s office. And since the Guardian’s story about the FBI’s secret agreement with the San Francisco Police Department had just hit the streets, I asked the new Chief, if he would welcome clarification around the duties of SFPD officers assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Taskforce. Read more »