For all the tension in the air at this month’s police community meeting, Mission Station Captain Thomas Harvey could agree with the room on one thing: Policing sure is hard. He welcomed suggestions from attendees regarding petty crimes plaguing the neighborhood, particularly graffiti and dirt bike caravans chopping through Dolores Park.
“They do not stop, they do not yield … which means it makes the enforcement part difficult,” he said. And, later: “You need, like, Spider-Man equipment to stop it.”
Captain Harvey was pleased to note that SFPD did impound a small vehicle that was a part of the dirt-bike caravan, though no arrest was made.
That was one of a small number of crimes mentioned at the top of the meeting’s crime update, which included three arrests made at the 16th and 24th St. BART plazas for illegal vending and, in one case, for harassment of a Department of Public Works employee.
Harvey failed to mention the Aug. 18 brazen shooting death of 18-year-old Damien González at the Mission Recreation Center.
Perhaps that was because the focus of today’s meeting was ostensibly on graffiti in the neighborhood, with nearly everyone believing there is more than ever.
To address the problem, Harvey introduced Officer Martin Ferreira, SFPD’s sole full-time graffiti investigator. Ferreira has a lonely job, and he says he’s doing it the best he can.
“I would love to have more resources, but these are the waters that we swim in. We’re all frustrated — I’m frustrated — to have to see the state of things,” Ferreira said to the room. He noted that the vast majority of graffiti in the Mission is from taggers, and unrelated to gang activity.
Ferreira cited a few taggers that his department has charged, whom he said were no longer tagging. Nevertheless, the attendees of Tuesday evening’s meeting think Ferreira is not, in fact, doing his best.
“Whatever you’re doing, and the examples that you’re providing, it’s not working,” said one Mission resident. “The permission granted for this behavior is the problem, and the neutering of the police station is why it persists.”
Harvey interjected. “Martin’s here to talk about graffiti, specifically,“ he said. “If there are other greater societal things you want to talk about, I’d be happy to do that with you after this meeting.”
Ferreira made a point to say that investigations into tags are possible, if not always followed up on. “What it takes to have a good case is good video, a willing victim, and a cost estimate” from a licensed contractor, he said.
Next, Harvey blazed through the the “Bi-Annual Presentation of Officer Conduct, Citizen Complaint Process, and Bias-Free Policing,” which advertised, among other things, published reports on SFPD use-of-force data, sworn force demographics, and the department’s Quarterly Activity & Data Report.
Things got a little out of hand once Harvey gave the floor to community members. Attendees often had to shout to be heard over a chorus of grievances. Nonetheless, the 25 or so in the crowd agreed: The SFPD should be doing more.
More of what, exactly? Everyone had their two cents.
“TikTok,” one attendee suggested. That’s how she said police can educate young people on the consequences of tagging. “I don’t like TikTok, but TikTok, YouTube. Our young people are into all the social media and they need to know the punishments of doing graffiti.”
“Are you going to high schools and talking to young people about this?” one man asked. “Do they even know it’s a crime?”
“Does anybody not know it’s a crime?” said one woman. She then asked the room to raise their hand if they knew graffiti was a crime. Everybody raised their hand.
It’s worth noting SFPD officers no longer work in schools, due to a 2020 agreement with the school district, though Ferreira and Harvey both they think it would help relations with youth.
Other concerns included loud gatherings late at night and public misbehavior.
Harvey cut the complaints off to end the meeting, which went 15 minutes over. As most of the room shuffled out, a handful stayed back.
“I know it’s not high on the priority list,” said one attendee, who complained of people drinking, playing loud music and urinating outside her apartment. But Harvey invited her, as he had invited others, to speak with him about it after the meeting. Once it ended, she was one of a small crowd of complainants who stayed to chat.
The offenses are so brazen and out in the open, you’d think it would be easy for the police. Those dirt bikers have got to go. They are basically showing the police that the law doesn’t matter in this city.
The dirt bikers should start a tech company then the city would sanction them. Great idea!
More street patrols are needed. Try random hours after midnight in heavily grafitti areas. Also police need to photograph the Graffiti. Part of the problem is class conflict in the Mission.
Often dirt bike groups to wheel stands on Valencia right in front of Mission Station.
odd photo choice. not a big deal, but under headline about mission station captain, you show a different officer, who spoke about graffiti. maybe headline should have been “Mission Station also not sure what to do about crime”
Progressives: “We hate cops. The city should have fewer cops.”
Also progressives: “Why aren’t the cops doing anything?”
“The cops aren’t doing anything” seems like an entirely rational and justifiable reason to have contempt for the cops.
What’s the deal that SFPD brass is increasingly excusifying how hard the job is and why they can’t do it, as SFPD’s budget inexorably rises?
Did he blame Prop 47? The DA? SF Superior Court judges? Jurors?
To quote Johnny Rotten at the Sex Pistol’s final show at the Winterland here in SF, “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
Get the police out of their cars and onto the sidewalks to be more visible.
Literally the only thing cops are supposed to do is know how to stop crime; if they’re taking random suggestions from the public they’re supposed to protect and serve, what’s the $760 million budget for?
Not sure if “policing sure is hard” was meant to be ironic; it sure came off sounding more like copaganda.
My family was attacked by someone two weeks ago. She smashed our front door in, dented up our car and our neighbors’ cars and kicked in our garage door. When the cops came, she went back into her house. I suggested that the cops go to her house and arrest her, they said they “didn’t have the manpower for that”. I suggested that they could ask her girlfriend, who was standing on the street holding a baby and screaming homophobic obscenities at us, about the identity of our attacker, but they didn’t have the manpower for that either. Huh.
For graffiti bring back the stock! It’s proven effective.
San Franciscians need to make up their minds… Do you want justice or not? Do you want to support the police or live in anarchy?
I know the argument… Cops are bad. Isn’t that painting an entire group of people based on the bad actions of a small minority? I thought we were against that🤔
That’s not the argument you think it is. Our police force is tired from long commutes and they aren’t invested in our city or community. You can give them all the money in the world and our issues would persist. Police benefit from crime, why would they try to stop it when more crime means more money and overtime hours?
This is hilarious. If the city proposed building apartments for police families, there would be outrage. So they live where they can afford good lives for themselves. I can’t fault them for that; I’d do the same.
The obvious solution is not the easy one. It’s not about punishment. It’s about building respect in our communities. People trash our city because they don’t respect it. We don’t trust each other. We have to work on building community trust especially with folks who trash our community.
I agree. Why do people tag? Full disclosure, I think it’s the skate boarders who a lot of it. Go to Twin Peaks and see what they do, compare the tags to others you see around town and see how they’re repeated. So why are they doing it? The city’s providing skate parks, you’d thin they’d appreciate the effort, but most are covered with graffiti. Why do they hate this place so much? I don’t know, but I wish they’d get a grip and help the image of our city to not look worse than it needs to.
The city is ready to turn Justin Herman Plaza over to the skateboarders so they will have a blank canvas. The Mission has been graffitied top to bottom – it’s difficult to find any blank space. Meanwhile Supv. Ronen spent Thursday volunteering at an illegal pop up drug consumption site in the TL to celebrate Overdose Awareness Day (just in case anyone in SF isn’t aware).
30 years ago we worked with SFPD and property owners to catch a graffiti vandal who kept tagging a 200′ long wall in the Bayview. We tried to be helpful. We asked if the vandal could help us by painting a mural instead of tagging. We would pay for all materials. The response we got was, “No. Why should I help you?”
I have witnessed with my own eye s, from my home, that the taggers are GROWN adult men. Our building is targeted regularly with them climbing into our rooftops through the fire escapes. These aren’t ‘kids’ or skaters… These are grown adult men 30 to 45+ taggers with skate boards, not skaters that tag. The ones I have seen were white grown men, dressed in all black. On at least two occasions, SFPD was driving down the street as the tagging was taking place. As you can imagine, the SFPD car with two officers inside did not stop, it appears that the tagging went unnoticed by them even though it was in plain sight. I have talked to officers who patrol my neighborhood, and most if not all of them do not live anywhere near here. They are not remotely interested in community relations. I ask one of them when these community meetings took place so I could attend, since I didn’t see this info on their website, and he told me he did not know. At the same time we have increasing numbers of unemployment in the city, especially among minority, trans, and immigrant communities, and meanwhile spending our tax payer money to fund the out of state lifestyles of the officers serving our community. Before we provide more of our tax money to the SFPD, we need more resources for our local community and recruiting efforts should be focused on the local workforce. These officers aren’t invested in our city or communities, they just drive down or fly in for the 6 figure paycheck and bill us unethically for overtime.
When you have some Board of Stupidvisors and Police Commissioners against you, what do you do when you are the ones trying to serve and protect public?
Defund and refund the cops is a little too late now. How many more businesses and leaving people does it take before San Francisco does a 180 degrees turn around on its failed policies? Turning into Oakland is not the solution. The businesses that had left for San Jose from San Francisco are doing well. Look into the mirror and fix the problems now.
You are using San Jose an example of prosperity? San Jose has the highest youth unhoused population the the whole country. Businesses are using crime as an excuse to move but the reality is they are profit motivated. Walgreens CEO himself said that they had exaggerated the problem of shoplifting. Security guards are beating and murdering people suspected of shoplifting without a trial. This is unamerican and should be the main concern right now. People in the city are facing high rates of unemployment and government aid is going to wealthy corporations instead of seniors, families, and others. It’s seductive and satisfying to watch the news sensationalize petty crime, property crime, etc. People clearly get caught up in that. The real question should be, what are resources and jobs available to prevent this crime in the first place? Crimes like shoplifting are rising nationwide and also in the UK. This is far from a San Francisco problem. The world has changed, wealth extraction is accelerating and many people… And many more, are being left behind. Many people who are right now complaining about crime and the unhoused will soon find themselves retiring into the streets and joining them.
> Walgreens CEO himself said that they had exaggerated the problem of shoplifting
No they didn’t.
> People in the city are facing high rates of unemployment
San Francisco has extremely low unemployment rates.
> government aid is going to wealthy corporations instead of seniors, families, and others
The pandemic saw the greatest expansion of the welfare state in the last 40 years and an unprecedented drop in poverty and increase in income to the bottom quartile of earners. This was referred to as the “super dole” in many communities.
> Crimes like shoplifting are rising nationwide and also in the UK. This is far from a San Francisco problem.
Walgreens’s most shoplifted store in the country is in the Richmond district. This doesn’t consider that San Francisco is a rich city and should have _lower_ rats of crime due to demographics.
> And many more, are being left behind.
False. Honestly it’s pretty rude to assume that poor people steal. Most shoplifters are probably doing pretty well for themselves.
> Many people who are right now complaining about crime and the unhoused will soon find themselves retiring into the streets and joining them.
Nah, they’ll most likely find themselves moving to the burbs or out of state.
I think we have cognitive dissonance issues here. SFGov systems of so called fixes grew the homeless, drug, and crime problems. There are people who are non-native dumped/migrated here that is now a San Francisco Taxpayer problem. San Francisco is losing its major business tax base, which it depends on for its operations and public services. Business functions are to make profit, not lose it. If you do a statistical survey of businesses that have left, people who had left, and problems the city has, you would have a different opinion.
Anonymous, Notice how I put my face and name to my comments and you have not? I agree with you on one thing… San Francisco HAS indeed been invaded by outsiders… we are on stolen land that belongs to neither of us. You are blaming one city with less than 1 million residents for unhoused, crime, and drug increases… an apologist sycophant for corporations… condescending to the max… This is satire right? Listen to less podcasts and read more books, get out in the community and talk to people who are different than you, educated yourself and you will have a different opinion.
Alleged stolen or not, it’s past the statute of limitations….
> Notice how I put my face and name to my comments and you have not?
Yeah people who agree with you about everything have a tendency to go around harassing those who don’t. Also, Lauren is a very generic name.
> You are blaming one city with less than 1 million residents for unhoused, crime, and drug increases
What does the city population have to do with anything? It’s a regional business center which, until recently, had a daytime population that was hundreds of thousands of people larger than its residential population. It has a giant budget padded by business taxes generated from the work of people who live elsewhere, many of whom would rather live here but cannot afford to do so because of the city’s housing policies.
> Listen to less podcasts and read more books, get out in the community and talk to people who are different than you, educated yourself and you will have a different opinion.
Honestly, you come across as extremely narrow minded. Most of your comments are uncritical regurgitations of narratives poorly developed in other articles on this site. Like how could you believe that government welfare was reduced to the most needy during the pandemic unless you were mainlining propaganda? It’s objectively untrue at almost every level.
When city gov is begging for $ and asking other entities to rent buildings and come to it for business events, there is no satire here. The businesses you are cutting down provide jobs to people; the people make $ and return back by buying things and paying taxes that support the local economy. Small businesses are part of this system. Where is the city gov support for the remaining taxpayers? Nothing is free and there is always a cost when it comes to services that are government or private. You can only tax so much before there is major push back from the remaining taxpayers of the city. What reforms must happen to repair the damage already done? How long will it take to recover from this damage for the city and its remaining people and businesses? If this keeps up, you will see more cuts to some government services for the people. Also, this will start to look more and more like Gotham City. For SF, there is no Bat Man but politicians who have to make wise choices on what to do to fix its problems.
How about parents teach their kids what is a crime and what is not a crime? Then the cops can reenforce these lessons? All these people want the cops to fix everything but 3 years ago it was stop hiring cops, we don’t need you or want you. Same people crying that have now changed their tune.
The very same people in that room most likely voted for all the stupid policies put in place that allows theses people to do what they do and get away with it. The San Francisco police department has been deballed. So stop complaining you’re getting exactly what you voted for.
The officers are driving into our city after extremely long commutes, or flying in from other states. Far from being ‘deballed’ they aren’t invested in our city. They are here to collect a 6 figure paycheck and they are probably tired during their shifts from their long commutes. Why aren’t you upset that your tax money being wasted on an inefficient workforce?
Supervisor Walton has a primary residence mortgage for a house in Vallejo. Supervisor Fewer peaced out of San Francisco as soon as she could, possibly earlier than her term end. Local gadflys like Calvin Welch have second homes in Gualala from which they sign lawsuits against UCSF. Supervior Preston owned an estate in North Bay. What does where you live have anything to do with your “investment” in the community?