Despite a series of proposals by Mayor London Breed that have historically harmed communities of color, many Black San Francisco community leaders say they remain supportive of the mayor and her strategy. They said San Francisco is facing a crisis that requires a different hand, even one that would increase policing and punitive measures.
“The knee-jerk reaction in community has typically been, ‘Well, we’ve got to do something. This is out of control,’” said Sheryl Davis, the head of the Human Rights Commission and a longtime Breed ally.
Del Seymour, a self-described former addict who runs Code Tenderloin and is a community leader there, has not always believed in a tough-on-crime approach, but said he is “willing to try anything.”
Davis declined to share her own views, but said many San Franciscans have reached the end of their rope, particularly older residents. “By and large, there are a lot of people that want to see this begin to happen, because they think we’ve swung too far the other way,” she said.
Mission Local spoke to eight Black San Francisco leaders, including Breed allies like Davis, community activists like Seymour, and critics, asking them about their perspectives on a slew of recent proposals from Breed. Those include moves to weaken police oversight, give police officers more power and crack down on drug use and sales.
While some have misgivings about individual proposals and others are openly critical, many said they are exasperated by the current state of affairs in San Francisco and ready to give the mayor leeway in putting her ideas into play.
Two ballot measures on cops and drugs
One of Breed’s initiatives, introduced in October, would shift some power away from the Police Commission by requiring the civilian oversight body to get public input before any policy changes. In controversial cases, like those for Tasers and pretextual traffic stops, public forums already take place, but the measure would require them more broadly.
The measure would also undo the city’s ban on facial-recognition cameras, exempt police officers from regulations on surveillance technology, allow the use of drones during car chases, and allow police to more easily initiate car chases.
A second ballot measure, also introduced by Breed last month, mandates welfare recipients to undergo drug screening and potentially submit to substance abuse treatment programs to receive government checks.
“Feels like we are living below the Mason-Dixon Line.”
shamann walton
James Taylor, a political science professor at the University of San Francisco, said that while progressives disagree with the steps Breed has taken, the mayor is looking toward election season and is on the right side of the issue — as far as voters are concerned.
“Everything the mayor does has to be read through the lens that she’s a candidate for reelection,” Taylor said. “The mayor has to fix one of these perennial issues that the city has had, for her legacy.”
Black residents account for less than 6 percent of San Francisco’s population and, in some elections, are less likely to vote than their white counterparts. Breed won with 36 percent of the city’s first-place votes in 2018, and 70 percent in 2019. And, while the Black vote may not have determined her victory, the Black community’s support could be more important in 2024, when the mayor faces multiple challengers.
“In this particular election, probably more Black voters will vote than have voted in a mayoral election in quite some time,” said political consultant Jim Stearns, who said he expected the city’s next mayoral election, now shifted to a presidential election year, would likely have a high turnout across the board.
Undoing police reforms initiated seven years ago
In putting Breed’s Police Commission proposal into context, Yulanda Williams, a retired SFPD lieutenant, pointed to years of police reform efforts that were launched in 2016, when the U.S. Department of Justice conducted a thorough review of the department.
That came after a series of police killings — like those of Alex Nieto, Amilcar Perez-Lopez, and Mario Woods — that largely affected communities of color. The Police Commission, with four of its members appointed by the mayor and three appointed by the supervisors, was seen as critical to installing those reforms.
“Limiting or excluding some of the powers that the police commission currently has — that’s a very bad idea,” Williams said. “If you do what she is proposing at this point, that just reverses, and could perhaps have damaging effects in the long term.”
Seymour, the Tenderloin leader, said that, despite knowing the police department’s troubled history and acknowledging the need for reform and oversight, he is frustrated. He couldn’t think of a specific example where the commission had overstepped, but he said he supports loosening its sway over the police department regardless.
“What would you prefer, having a strong commission to make sure the police aren’t running rampant? Or let the police department do their job and end this fear?” Seymour said. “Whether it’s bringing in armed militias, whatever, I’m ready to get my community back, because ain’t nothing else working.”
Taylor, the University of San Francisco professor, sees Breed’s measure to try to control the Police Commission as a long shot. The mayor already appoints four of the seven commissioners, but has grown unhappy with the body this year, as one of her appointees has not voted to her liking.
Her proposal, Taylor said, is an attempt to regain control of an ostensibly independent body.
“It’s about power, and where power should rest around policing,” Taylor said, adding that it would be “very difficult” for the mayor to override the city charter to attempt a new distribution of that power.
As for police chases, former officer Williams said the proposal to make it easier for officers to initiate pursuits, which are known to be highly risky, would be inherently “dangerous.”
“You’re potentially jeopardizing the lives of the public,” said Williams. “We already see how many pedestrians are hit.” Already this year, four bystanders were injured and one was killed in a May chase on 16th Street, and two were injured in a police chase on Valencia Street in June, wherein a police cruiser crashed into Lucca Ravioli’s storefront and nearly hit a child.
Williams noted that the police union, department and commission had agreed on the existing 2013 policy, and wondered what had changed that would justify loosening it. Doing so, she said, could open a Pandora’s box and set a precedent to “unravel” other policies.
Drug screening welfare recipients
The mayor’s initiative to force some welfare recipients into drug screening could lead to testing and various “interventions,” from residential treatment to outpatient rehabilitation centers. The measure, which would apply to single adults receiving general assistance, does not require sobriety, only “reasonable participation in treatment programs.”
“I’m just tired of seeing the misery. I’m tired of seeing the irresponsibility.”
Del seymour
Davis, from the Human Rights Commission, sees community support for the proposal. “My interpretation … from the community members that support this work, is that they think that this approach will help, maybe help somebody who otherwise would not try to get help.”
Of 5,100 single adult welfare recipients as of October, 928 are registered as Black (18 percent) and another 2,300 are marked “unknown” (45 percent).
So far this year, 692 deaths have been attributed to drug overdose, compared to 513 during the same period last year; the vast majority of those were due to fentanyl. Black people made up about 32 percent of the deaths so far this year, a disproportionate share compared to the less than 6 percent of the city’s population that Black residents represent.
Although he has spoken against the war on drugs as ineffectual in the past, Seymour supports Breed’s latest proposal to screen welfare recipients for drug use.
“I wouldn’t have agreed to this a year ago,” he said of the drug-screening ballot measure. “I’m just tired of seeing the misery. I’m tired of seeing the irresponsibility.”
Seymour dismissed the idea that studies show forced rehabilitation is ineffective, or can even be harmful: “If we get one person sober by this, it’s worth it,” he said.
When other states have moved to drug-test their welfare recipients, drug use among those recipients has typically been found to be much lower than within the general population. In Florida, the move was ruled unconstitutional after only 2.6 percent of those tested were found to be using narcotics.
Other community leaders are strongly opposed, or point to the complications of rolling out such a policy.
Uzuri Pease-Greene, a Potrero Hill community leader and executive director of Community Awareness Resource Entity said it is important to approach cases individually. She mentioned her past experience with addiction, and periods when she struggled to care for her children.
“Is this person paying their rent, are they paying their bills, are they a functioning addict or a non-functioning addict? Do we want to stop their benefits, or do we want to help them?” Pease-Greene asked. If welfare benefits are cut off, she said a “domino effect” could follow that would push desperate people to commit crimes.
She also noted that, while some dealers could be incarcerated, the “people in power” who recruit street-level dealers would likely remain untouched, allowing the cycle to continue.
Department of Public Health eligibility supervisor Cheryl Thornton said she is confused by the proposal, which she sees as an “about-face” from the mayor.
“First [Breed] was very happy for safe-injection sites or whatever, and now she’s just gone completely to the right,” Gordon said. She added that the city already doesn’t have sufficient treatment beds for effective rehabilitation.
And others pointed to failed hard-line approaches to past drug overdose epidemics.
District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton called the mayor’s proposals “right-wing conservative policies,” and said that it “feels like we are living below the Mason-Dixon Line.”
“Maybe I will wake up from this nightmare and be back in my city that focuses on addressing root causes, investing in prevention and intervention, providing resources to support and uplift the most vulnerable,” Walton said.
Professor Taylor, too, dismissed the measure to have welfare recipients submit to drug tests, calling it “arbitrary.”
“It’s like, you’re creating a problem that wasn’t a problem,” he said.
But again, Taylor said, Breed has to do something in the face of a constituency tired of an ongoing drug crisis. “If she were proposing to do nothing … it might show vulnerabilities or a sense of weakness in leadership.”
“It seems to me that the Black community, and the city in general, wants a strong response,” Taylor said, speaking about the fentanyl crisis and the city’s overt drug dealing. “But the problem is, it would be a Band-Aid solution, because these problems are multi-layered; some of them are generational. And locking people up and throwing away the key is not going to be a solution to the problem.”
“Tired”. This word dominates the discourse of Breed and her acolytes. They are “tired.” Is there anything more “tired” than the same old same old of criminalizing various substances and stuffing the prisons with black and latino youth. When has that ever “worked”? Ever? Where? The 90’s? Even Joe Biden repudiated his own crime laws. Want to bring back the 80’s? If you are so “tired”, either get some sleep or get to work on real solutions like supportive housing and treatment. Oh, snap. That takes money. Money not only for the programs themselves but by a functional and respected public administration to administer them, something which has never gets done, and in this environment, with a brain-dead mayor sucking up to a clique of penny pinching billionaires, most unlikely.
Damn! Preach, brother Mark!
Breed and her corrupt administration must go !
Sheryl Davis serves at Breed’s pleasure as ED of the HRC. Either she plays ball or she risks her retirement.
Don’t Code Tenderloin and CARE receive city funding through their fiscal sponsors as well?
Are these “community leaders” or compromised members of the Bucket Brigade who are singing for their supper?
Wow. Seems like a huge oversight to include people beholden to the mayor yet leave that fact out. Do better ML.
Mitch,
I agree.
h.
HRC operates on its own, the ED is appointed to the mayor but is not beholden to the office. In fact HRC is one of the large obstacles in the issues we have in the street. They advocate on behalf of homeless people and defend the claim that they have a right to be there. HRC also supports the court ruling that would prohibit San Francisco from moving people off the street through conservatorship who are hurting themselves and the neighborhood. It would be great for HRC to move a little bit more to the middle hopefully that’s happening.
Would love to hear readers define what they mean by “The War on Drugs.”
[War–what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!–Tolstoy]
It’s like the term ‘Jihad,’ which can mean different things to different people. While it may have meant ‘Holy War’ in the past, it can also mean ‘correct action.’ Using the word ‘war’ is just a way of focusing on the problem that drugs are causing in our community.
I would hate to see a full return to the ’80s-style War on Drugs. BUT we also can’t use Nancy Reagan as an excuse for allowing anarchy on our streets, as we had been doing during the Boudin era.
The city has a problem. We need to react. Maybe we’ll overreact, but let’s worry about that if it happens. Right now the problem is to correct several years of underreacting.
The “Boudin era” was only one year. We have no idea how his policies vs. general societal trends would have worked out. He was hardly given a chance……
Also Boudin wasn’t a cop and wasn’t in charge of cops. He had nothing to do with the police commission. Every time London Breed gets control of a piece of government, she shifts the blame to another piece. First it was the DA, now it’s the police commission and the judiciary. It’s not that hard to see through, it’s about power.
2 1/2 years is not one year. It is literally 2 1/2 times one year.
And Boudin was doing damage to the very end of his term, giving most of his staff vacation so there would be no attorneys available when a grownup took over the office.
Candace,
If Chesa’s staff was so bad, it would seem you’d want them on vacation rather than at work sending dangerous criminals back onto the streets.
Thank God we got an honest DA who took a couple of hundred grand under the table while using stolen records regarding a case not even under his purview to smear him.
Great evidence we’re in a Board Game.
lol
h.
Absolutely ridiculous. We had plenty of time to see Boudin’s marxist game plan enacted. Firing some of his best and most experienced prosecutors, some mid homicide trial..Dissmissing charges against a criminal, Jamaica Hampton, who committed a home invasion, then attempted to break into cars, attacking an SFPD officer with a glass bottle? Countless examples of black suspects having charges dropped for commiting violent rasist attacks against Asians….Calling it “Restorative Justice.” Zero accountability for criminals. Using the influence of his office to get his terrorist father released from prison…Get your head out of your you-know-where lady.
John,
Wasn’t it London Breed who wrote a letter under the Letterhead of the Office of SF City’s Mayor to Governor Jerry Brown asking for him to help get her little brother who tossed his girlfriend out of his getaway car on Golden Gate Bridge and got her killed?
Last I heard, London’s chosen DA, was moving along another effort to get the Mayor’s brother out of the slammer and she has an Irish judge promoted from Misdemeanor Court for the purpose by a Chief Superior Court judge who made his bones in the Zarate case ?
Get your slander straight.
h.
All True,
There was also a plan to allow the Ruskies to set up a thousand short range nuclear payloaded missiles to threaten Oakland and thus keep the A’s in town.
Makes as much sense as what you say.
h.
Mission Local editors: Will you please allow the correct length of Boudin’s tenure to be published here?
Supporting blatant falsehoods isn’t your style.
Thank you.
ok –correction: the time line was my goof (sure felt like one year. But it DID take him a while to start enacting his policies
Candace,
I believe the billionaire lackeys filed for Chesa’s Recall the day after he took office.
Like Buyer’s Remorse in Vegas day after the Wedding.
h.
Candace,
I’m hoping Chesa comes back and runs for DA again next year.
American Criminal Justice Reform needs him.
h.
h.
Does anyone know whether Del Seymour’s Code Tenderloin gets city funds? I think it’s pretty typical for leaders of organizations that receive city funding to not speak out against Mayoral policies. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Thanks for this article that gives me access to perspectives that I, as a white person, wouldn’t otherwise have had.
Unsure about city directly, but politically almost certainly.
https://tlcbd.org/blog/2020/06/30/twitter-code-tenderloin-donation/
Mission Local,
Thank you for your work on this issue.
h.
I’m in favor of just about anything to deal with the rampant crime, open drug use, disorder, filth, and downward spiraling social decay in San Francisco. It has been going on for years and years. One program after another and none of them have worked. All of them half hearted, unwilling to take strong measures. All the different groups fighting with each other. Something serious must be done. Right wing, left wing, I don’t care what it’s called, but something that works. A once beautiful, vibrant city, admired around the world, now looked at with a mixture of horror, derision, and laughter. One evening I got into conversation with a man working as a security guard at a building under construction. He was an immigrant from Sudan. He said that the kind of crime and people sleeping, and relieving themselves on the street here would never be allowed where he is from. Think about it: Sudan. Not exactly a wealthy country. He said he is disgusted by what he sees here.
Thomas,
I was a Special Ed (read: ‘Reform School’) teacher of the City’s toughest.
What they mostly had in common was that they came from households that sucked.
Lots of Guardians doing it for money and addicted parents kind of thing.
This will freak many out but I think it is best solution:
Give 10 thousand dollars to anyone in the World who agrees to be sterilized.
Took about 5 minutes for my vasectomy 50 years ago.
First in line around the World would be the Poor.
First in line in San Francisco would be drug addicts.
Do you really want to produce more of either class ?
I was born in San Francisco during the so called war on drugs period 1980’s-2010. I can honestly say that was a better period than this current era. People act like the war on drugs period was so bad when the city was averaging about 100 overdose deaths a year and had a jail population of 2000 people. Now our jail population is about 1000 people but we are anywhere between 600-700 overdose deaths a year and the city is filthy and crime ridden. Most people look back on the period of the 1980’s,1990s, and 2000’s with fondness.
Just because a policy is new or progressive doesn’t always means it’s good and we shouldn’t continue a bad idea because just because it’s a new policy. Sometimes old policies works.
ALS,
When Gavin was elected Mayor he said he’d resign if there were more than 100 murders in a year when he was Mayor.
Over a hundred in his first year.
He didn’t resign.
Tonite I’m watching him on TV at Manny’s debating Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
He’s the Governor of California.
Got there on the backs of the Poor and Addicted.
“No Sit or lie’
‘Care not Cash’
The junkies were always here.
It’s just that they were housed then.
Gentrification drove them to the streets.
Sheryl Davis has ethics violations. Davis replaced several qualified employees of HRC with Breed campaign volunteers, employees of her former nonprofit (a city contractor), and aides to failed Breed appointees. Her moral compass points toward Breed.
So the mayor declaring her 2023 war on drugs despite what we know (and should have learned) about previous wars on drugs because sheʻs running for reelection and will blow whatever way the political wind pushes her despite the harm itʻll surely do to her own community because she wants to grow her career as a politician.. got it.
I am sorry but when the mayors linkage center failed last year on the same grounds as a safe site for drug users, she didn’t think of the effects it would have to the farmers market on the other side of that fence. We dealt with drug users doing their drugs behind their trucks on a daily basis. This program was supposed to last only three months then went to six and then to a whole year. The vendors survived after the linkage center was disassembled until two months ago when the mayor and city parks and rec wrongfully evicted the farmers market after forty two years so the city could build another skate board park. Well here is some thing really funny, as I called it there was graffiti already on the very opening day of the park on the first power box, oh you didn’t see it, why the city got it wiped off quickly. Now as to the the park opening early because they got construction done early, well folks boy has the city started approving messed up work. All that cement has already started developing cracks in it and now the homeless and drug users have moved back in along beside the skateboarders. Now with the lion king showing at the theater what parent is going expose any kid to that. I wouldn’t. The mayor and David Campos were walking through the farmers market a month prior to the move and ignored two people who wanted to ask question. Then one month to the date after the move the mayor was once again spotted again in the farmers market and once again ignored people that put her in that office. If we are to expect that kind of respect from city hall and only to hear nothing but broken promises from them then I say it is high time the city gets rid of the problem not on the streets but in city hall. That is all for now. I am out.
Voice,
It’s even worse than you think.
She controls the Department of Elections which uses Dominion’s Proprietary Algorithms to count our votes.
20 years now, John Arntz has blocked Open Source Counting.
h.
how did it fail? how are you measuring that? data shows that overdose deaths were down during the time it operated. funding got pulled…. it didnʻt fail as much as we failed it.
Interesting article. I’m old enough to remember that the last “war on drugs” was largely demanded by, and approved by, the Black population. Crack (and other drugs) and the violence that came along with them were decimating Black communities. Very true that heavy enforcement disproportionately affects Black (and Latino) populations, but so does the lack of enforcement – witness the OD death stats. The difference is the latter adversely affects everyone while the former generally adversely affects criminals (with, of course, lots of spillover). So it’s no surprise to see calls for a stronger hand in enforcing the laws. I hope we don’t overdo it and, further, neglect the prevention/treatment part of the equation like we did last time.
SFAtty,
And here, I’d forgotten that Black people asked to be beaten and imprisoned.
And, now you say they’re calling for another round of same ?
It must be true.
Here it is in a respected publication.
h.
I love Professor Taylor. His analysis is always en point. The remaining folks interviewed can’t voice their opinions without repercussions.
There will be more news…. 😏