Is the San Francisco Police run by George W. Bush?
Over the past few days, the San Francisco Chronicle, one of the only newspapers in this country that attempts actual journalism, did a series of articles on the rampant incompetence and corruption of the San Francisco Police Department.
It's common knowledge in San Francisco that the city has one of the highest per-capita murder rates in the country, and the lowest crime clearance rate OF ANY CITY IN THE COUNTRY including a 28% solvency rate for murder and other violent crimes. For any criminals reading my blog, that means you have a 72% chance of getting away with murder, where the national average is something like 55%.
The San Francisco Police may or may not respond to a 911 call regardless of the importance. I can tell you from many firsthand experiences that getting a police response, if it happens at all, will take upwards of 20 minutes and requires multiple calls.
The Chronicle pointed out that SFPD officers routinely break the law by using force when situations do not warrant it. Complaints against officers are never acted upon, infact the worst abusers are often promoted.
On Monday, the chronicle did a story on one of the worst offenders of criminal use of force, officer John Haggett. Everything in the article was factually accurate.
On Tuesday, after several articles had been done on the SFPD, the city finally responded. They dressed police chief Heather Fong up in a police costume, which we can assume she never actually wears to work because she isn't a patrol officer, and pointed out that the picture that was published in the John Haggett article was not of John Haggett, but someone who isn't even a cop at all. It turns out he's a taxi driver.
Now obviously this is a stupidly embarrassing error on the Chronicle's part, but this is completely immaterial and irrelevant. Heather Fong did not refute any of the chronicles allegations about rampant corruption and criminal conduct, nothing about illegal use of force on innocent civilians. She just went on and on about the picture being the wrong person.
Ever since then, the story about the SFPD has kind of gone away and been replaced with front page articles about the man in the picture.
If I didn't know any better, I'd say the police department was run by George W. Bush and Karl Rove. This PR strategy is taken directly out of their playbook. When someone points the finger, attack the finger. Do everything you can to distract and confuse the public. Find an irrelevant point that takes the attention off your own wrongdoing and point the spotlight on something else.
This is very fucking disturbing that it is happening in San Francisco, a supposedly liberal anti-bush city. Police Chief Heather Fong has proved that she is corrupt and she needs to be fired and held to account for her horrible management style. The entire city should be outraged at this disgusting use of PR tricks and DEMAND that someone be fired.
It's common knowledge in San Francisco that the city has one of the highest per-capita murder rates in the country, and the lowest crime clearance rate OF ANY CITY IN THE COUNTRY including a 28% solvency rate for murder and other violent crimes. For any criminals reading my blog, that means you have a 72% chance of getting away with murder, where the national average is something like 55%.
The San Francisco Police may or may not respond to a 911 call regardless of the importance. I can tell you from many firsthand experiences that getting a police response, if it happens at all, will take upwards of 20 minutes and requires multiple calls.
The Chronicle pointed out that SFPD officers routinely break the law by using force when situations do not warrant it. Complaints against officers are never acted upon, infact the worst abusers are often promoted.
On Monday, the chronicle did a story on one of the worst offenders of criminal use of force, officer John Haggett. Everything in the article was factually accurate.
On Tuesday, after several articles had been done on the SFPD, the city finally responded. They dressed police chief Heather Fong up in a police costume, which we can assume she never actually wears to work because she isn't a patrol officer, and pointed out that the picture that was published in the John Haggett article was not of John Haggett, but someone who isn't even a cop at all. It turns out he's a taxi driver.
Now obviously this is a stupidly embarrassing error on the Chronicle's part, but this is completely immaterial and irrelevant. Heather Fong did not refute any of the chronicles allegations about rampant corruption and criminal conduct, nothing about illegal use of force on innocent civilians. She just went on and on about the picture being the wrong person.
Ever since then, the story about the SFPD has kind of gone away and been replaced with front page articles about the man in the picture.
If I didn't know any better, I'd say the police department was run by George W. Bush and Karl Rove. This PR strategy is taken directly out of their playbook. When someone points the finger, attack the finger. Do everything you can to distract and confuse the public. Find an irrelevant point that takes the attention off your own wrongdoing and point the spotlight on something else.
This is very fucking disturbing that it is happening in San Francisco, a supposedly liberal anti-bush city. Police Chief Heather Fong has proved that she is corrupt and she needs to be fired and held to account for her horrible management style. The entire city should be outraged at this disgusting use of PR tricks and DEMAND that someone be fired.
posted by JS at
10:23 AM
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