BVHP under siege by occupying army

For 16 hours on Monday, in blatant retaliation for the killing of Officer Isaac Espinoza on April 20 in Hunters Point, the sky rumbled with the sound of a California Highway Patrol plane and helicopter as an unprecedented armed force of countless city cops joined by 32 CHP officers moved in to occupy Bay View Hunters Point under the pretext of curbing traffic violations, stopping over 250 cars and arresting 30 community members.

The young man accused of killing Officer Espinoza is Hunters Point resident David Hill, 21, but the SFPD is retaliating against the entire neighborhood.

According to Bayview Precinct Capt. Rick Bruce, “We impounded 31 cars, made one arrest on drug felony charges, 28 misdemeanor arrests, one arrest for drunk driving, 31 tows and 191 citations, 42 verbal warnings.” Justifying traffic stops as a technique leading to the discovery of drugs and guns, Bruce told the San Francisco Chronicle: “You’re going to trip over things in a lot of cases.”

No weapons were found, however, in spite of this massive effort by the men in blue to bust those Bruce calls the “bad guys.”

When several police and CHP cruisers and a total of 22 officers jammed the intersection of Third and Quesada at one point on Monday evening, a young onlooker cried out, “We need to rise UP!” He was immediately arrested.

AJ, a young Hunters Point resident who deeply cares about his community, was at a loss for words. “This is scary,” he said. “What can we do? What are we going to do?”

“Blessings to all our enemies, but we need to take action, through peaceful and nonviolent means, to protest this siege and the threat to our freedom!” Dennis Billups, a very spiritual Brother who hosts the program just before mine on Sunday evenings on 103.3 FM BVHP Community Radio and who lives at Revere and Third, said in a call Monday evening to Sandra Juanita Cooper, co-host of our radio show and co-founder of the Idriss Stelley Foundation. He was furious about the helicopter’s deafening roar above his home that went on all day, raising his concern for his family and community’s safety.

At 9:30 p.m. Monday, I went back to Third and Palou, hoping to get more testimonies. But Third Street was unusually quiet and empty, frozen in time, curfew style. Steve, a worker at the liquor store on Third and Quesada, talked briefly about the “all-day raid,” then hurriedly locked down the store gate by 10 p.m.

SFPD Chief Heather Fong told me Tuesday, “This is a three-day operation citywide that will take place tomorrow in the Mission (District). I was at the lineup yesterday afternoon. The key is to stop gang and narcotics activity which leads to violent crimes, tragically impacting the community.” What the Chronicle calls “a wave of gang violence” is blamed for many of the recent killings in Bay View Hunters Point.

On Sunday, as a lead-in to the siege, Sandra and I saw four SFPD officers detain five Latino teenagers with their backs to a wall under floodlights at the corner of Ingalls and Thomas in the Bay View. I interviewed three teenagers who were part of the line up, Leyda, Erica and Daniel, who were very nervous about the incident and in a hurry to get safely home.

Returning from the Cinco de Mayo cultural celebration in the Mission District, they had been detained, the police told them, for wearing red clothing! They were searched - we did not see any female officers while driving by - questioned and released for the lack of drugs or weapons in their possession.

Sadly, this incident reminded us of the infamous police harassment and brutalization of children on West Point and Middle Point Road last Aug. 23 and SFPD’s allegation that youth at the scene were wearing gang T-shirts. They were actually T-shirts printed for a neighborhood event.

Monday was the first time in the history of San Francisco that the CHP and SFPD patrolled a neighborhood jointly. “My officers are very happy to receive support from the CHP,” Bruce said, but I could hardly hear him due to interference by the CHP helicopter on the phone line.

“This is a pilot program,” Chief Heather Fong told the Chronicle. “We’ll let it go for a few days, then we will re-evaluate it.” The CHP’s “sheer presence is a deterrent out there,” said Lt. John Hennessey, head of the SFPD homicide unit. In the same spirit, Capt. Bruce is staffing a substation with 12 White officers in a Hunters Point public housing development.

A man of European descent at the scene made the following statement to the press: “I am glad to see the police finally cracking down on crime in my neighborhood. It’s about time!” I wonder if he believes that criminalizing an entire community of color is the solution to his discomfort.

What does he see as alternatives for our youngsters, growing up in a neighborhood already under siege by toxic polluters, employers who refuse to hire them and developers who are itching to bulldoze their homes and build mansions there instead?

Police, as the enforcers of gentrification, have turned Black neighborhoods into war zones. “Operation Impact,” a joint campaign conducted by CHP and Alameda County sheriff’s deputies in Oakland last year, made more than 2,000 arrests, according to Oakland Police Chief Richard Word. That campaign prompted the U.N. to issue, a month ago, a document pointing at Bay Area law enforcement as perpetrators of world crimes.

In the current edition of the Final Call, Minister Louis Farrakhan asks, “Is America headed for Civil War? The United States of America is moving closer and closer to great civil strife, unrest and bloodshed. Although the American people are supposed to be citizens of one nation, the division between labor and management is growing more intense. The division between the haves and have nots is getting wider and wider, and that breach is being filled with hatred. May Allah (God) bless us to help to end the civil strife among our people that we may become examples of peace in the midst of a world being destroyed through war.”

We refuse to fall into the deadly trap set by the occupying army! We do not want to fight your war. We want accountability. We will not accept your claim that the CHP and SFPD must gang up on our people to end the violence in BVHP. The youth ain’t the criminal, the system is!

This is not the South, half a century ago. This is California, the most “liberal” state in the world. This is San Francisco, allegedly a safe haven for the oppressed of the world. At the risk of raising a few conservative eyebrows, I surely am not the only one to holler, along with the brave Brotha arrested Monday, “We need to rise up!”

Do we really wonder, after decades of disrespect, harassment and systematic execution of members of our most disenfranchised, oppressed neighborhood, why Officer Espinoza was allegedly killed by Hunters Point resident David Hill?

Brothas and Sistas, contact your city officials – who are paid with your tax dollars – and tell them what you think about the siege of BVHP by an occupying army. Call Capt. Rick Bruce at the Bayview Station, (415) 671-2303, on his pager, (415) 998-9244 or on his cell phone, (415) 613-0632 or email him at Rick_Bruce [at] ci.sf.ca.us. Contact Chief Heather Fong at (415) 553-1551 or Heather_Fong [at] ci.sf.ca.us.

Also, as part of Renee Saucedo’s campaign for District 9 (Mission District) supervisor, the Idriss Stelley Foundation is launching a citywide Police Accountability Task Force. Please report police misconduct by calling (415) 822-4731 or email ISF at isf23 [at] sbcglobal.net.
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