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December 7th, 2015 
Awake Goy 
Print FriendlyAbove photo: Resident Sala Chandler speaks at a town hall meeting hosted by Police Chief Greg Suhr after police shot a young man in the Bayview this week.
San Francisco, CA – A community meeting erupted into outrage Friday night as San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr attempted to explain the shooting death of a man by police in the Bayview neighborhood that drew ire nationwide after video of the incident was widely circulated on social media. (The video.)
Police Commission President Suzy Loftus (left), San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr and Bayview Station Capt. Raj Vaswani listen to the combative crowd at the town hall meeting.
Dozens of community members packed a room at the City College of San Francisco southeast facility, calling for Suhr’s resignation as he told the crowd that officers fatally shot Mario Woods, 26, “in defense” of both themselves and bystanders at the scene.
Woods died shortly after at least five officers fired at him about 15 times in the Bayview neighborhood about 4:30 p.m.Wednesday.
Suhr said Friday that his officers had no choice but to use their firearms after attempts to disarm Woods with beanbag rounds and pepper spray were unsuccessful.
He presented a blown-up frame from a video taken by a civilian that he said showed Woods’ arm outstretched, proof that he was pointing his knife at the officer.
The meeting quickly devolved into cries of “bull—!” from community members.
Anger over Woods’ death has grown in the days after the first video was posted on Instagram, with many saying the video showed not an absolution for the officers that fired upon him, but an execution of a man who was clearly in distress and posed no threat to anyone around him.
Several signs reflect the feelings of the crowd as the San Francisco Police department hosts a town hall meeting, on Fri. December 4, 2015 to discuss the officer-involved shooting of 26-year-old Mario Woods in the Bayview neighborhood that sparked outrage nationwide after a video taken of the shooting was circulated on social media, in San Francisco, Calif.
The video showed Woods up against a building, gesturing as armed officers surround him. With his hands at his sides, he is seen limping away from at least four officers but toward another one, who steps into his path, walking backward with his gun drawn.
At Friday’s meeting, Suhr said that officer was trying to keep Woods from bystanders who were filming the encounter from a Muni bus.
“You think we’re actually stupid,” said Asale-Haqueenyah Chandler, a Bayview resident whose son, Yalani Chinyamurindi, was killed alongside three others in Hayes Valley earlier this year in a crime that has yet to be solved.
Several speakers at the meeting brought up a video of British police officers disarming a man with a machete as proof that the officers could have tried other tactics to bring Woods into custody.
“If it were your father, or your brother, or your son that had a knife, would you shoot him down like a pig?” asked a woman who asked to be identified only as Sandie T.
Suhr said Woods was a suspect in an earlier stabbing and had been acting erratically when he encountered the stabbing victim about an hour before the shooting.
He said some of the officers had crisis-intervention training, something the crowd shouted that they did not believe.
Suhr hosted Friday’s town hall meeting — which lasted about three hours — as part of a promise he made when he took office in 2011 to speak to the community after every officer-involved shooting. But to Adriana Camarena, a member of the Justice for Alex Nieto Committee, called the meetings a farce as she asked for Suhr’s resignation.
Nieto was killed by San Francisco police officers in 2014.
MIchael Red who lost his 15-year-old son to gang violence holds 7-year-old Michael Red Jr. as he speaks before the crowd, as the San Francisco Police department hosts a town hall meeting, on Fri. December 4, 2015 to discuss the officer-involved shooting of 26-year-old Mario Woods in the Bayview neighborhood that sparked outrage nationwide after a video taken of the shooting was circulated on social media, in San Francisco, Calif.
“You get up here (at these meetings) and you tell the same version of events,” Camarena said. “You tell a narrative that someone poses. It’s the narrative you have to defend in court, but it’s a lie. So are you here to resign?”
After the meeting, Suhr said he does not plan to resign, as “there’s a lot of good I think I can do that I’m trying to do.”
“I took this job and I knew it was a tough job,” he said. “There’s a lot of people that came up to me after the meeting to tell me to stay strong and I intend to.”
Suhr said he called the Police Executive Research Forum Friday morning to ask to join a group of police departments that will be studying the United Kingdom’s de-escalation techniques.
“If we can figure out a way so we can do this better, so there is no next time, I think that’s better for everybody,” he said.
Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: [email protected]Twitter: @VivianHo
Also read SFist December 3 “Videos Of Fatal SFPD Shooting Raise Questions On Need For Lethal Force”
Source Article from https://www.popularresistance.org/bayview-crowd-calls-for-police-chief-to-quit-over-death/
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