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The 108 Bay Area attorneys listed below addressed the following open letter, dated Jan. 14, 2016, to The Honorable Ed Lee, City Hall, Room 200, 1 Dr Carlton B Goodlett Pl, San Francisco, CA 94102.
Dear Mayor Lee:
As Bay Area attorneys on both the plaintiff and defense side of the Bar, we were deeply disturbed by the video of the killing of Mario Woods by San Francisco police officers on Dec. 2, 2015. Mr. Woods does not appear to have been a threat to the lives of the officers.
The manner in which the police killed Mr. Woods – shooting him 15 times rather than attempting to detain him – displays a callous willingness to deprive a fellow citizen of life without due process of law. We hope that the City government will respond appropriately to assure its citizens and its police force that this kind of violence will not be tolerated.
We ask that you take concrete steps to hold the appropriate parties accountable for the death of Mr. Woods and to minimize the chances of another such killing in our city.
Especially troubling has been the response of Police Chief Greg Suhr, who went on record on the day of the shooting stating that the actions of the police officers were justified. That Chief Suhr made these statements prior to a full investigation being conducted fatally taints Chief Suhr’s impartiality with respect to any investigation of this matter.
That he apparently considers the shooting to be justified even after viewing the video recordings of the incident raises grave questions about Chief Suhr’s views about the appropriate use of force by the SFPD.
We appreciate your statement that the city will conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the incident. However, the statements made by Chief Suhr make clear that such an investigation cannot be handled by the SFPD itself or by any institution that has close ties to the SFPD.
We call upon you to authorize a truly independent investigation by a body that is not beholden to the SFPD and including a review of the role of Chief Suhr in the handling of this incident.
We also call upon the city to initiate a review of its policies with respect to use of force by the SFPD. It is encouraging to read the news that the Police Commission has reopened the discussion on the department’s use-of-force policy for the first time since 1995.
This process must be transparent and should include input from experts within and outside the law enforcement field and other relevant stakeholders. For instance, the conduct of the officers cannot be squared with overwhelming empirical data showing that a suspect armed with a knife presents nearly zero danger to the life of a police officer when there are several officers engaged with the suspect and that each additional bullet fired significantly increases the chance of killing the suspect. (See Professor Franklin E. Zimmring, “Mario Woods’ Unnecessary Death,” San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 9, 2015).
A suspect armed with a knife presents nearly zero danger to the life of a police officer when there are several officers engaged with the suspect.
The use-of-force policies must take into account such relevant scientific data. The reported increased focus on training officers in crisis intervention techniques and deescalation tactics is encouraging, but public trust is possible only if the city is transparent regarding the extent and content of such training.
It is also clear that the city must address the related issue of the relationship between the SFPD and San Francisco’s Black community, as well as other minority communities. That police officers are in the process of receiving training in implicit racial bias is a good start. We call on the city to pursue this and other initiatives to build trust and create more positive relationships between law enforcement and the city’s diverse communities.
We will be watching the City government’s reaction carefully to see how it handles this troubling and saddening incident.
Sincerely,
Note: While attorneys’ firms or affiliations are shown, their signatures are in each individual’s personal capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of the individual’s employer.
1 William Jhaveri-Weeks, Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho
2 George Chikovani, Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP
3 Jeanette Barzelay
4 Hillary Benham-Baker, Campins Benham-Baker, LLP
5 Chesa Boudin, San Francisco Public Defenders Office
6 Rebecca Brackman, Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office
7 Jane Brown, Alameda County Public Defender
8 Brian Brosnahan, Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP
9 Nate Cardozo, Electronic Frontier Foundation
10 Aby Castro, GREE International
11 Mark Chavez, Chavez & Gertler LLP
12 Pilan Chenhansa, Ancestry.com
13 Gregory S. Clark
14 Kelly Corcoran
15 Gail Cornwall, Inactive
16 Linda Dardarian, Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho
17 Marley Degner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
18 Matthew Dengel, Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office; Public Defenders for Racial Justice
19 Elisabeth Derby
20 Meredith Desautels, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area
21 Sharon Djemal, East Bay Community Law Center
22 Adam Dubinsky, LawRoom
23 Allison Ehlert, Ehlert Appeals
24 Demarris Evans, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
25 Yi-Fan Everett, Bryan Schwartz Law
26 Monique Farris
27 Charles Freiberg, Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP
28 Stephanie Funt, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area
29 Azita Ghafourpour, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
30 Byron Goldstein, Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho
31 Anne Gordon
32 Cecilia Guevara Zamora
33 Irene Gutierrez
34 Adam Hansen, Nichols Kaster
35 Danielle Harris, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
36 Steven Hong
37 Phil Hwang
38 Solomon Ilona, San Francisco Public Defenders Office
39 Dana Isaac, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area
40 Mark Jacobs, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, Racial Justice Committee
41 Seiya Johnson, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
42 Nataniel Johnson-Gottlieb, Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office; Public Defenders for Racial Justice
43 Eliana Kaimowitz, Attorney at Law
44 James Kan, Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho
45 Alycia Kellman
46 Heather Kim, Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP
47 Maloof Kwixuan, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, Racial Justice Committee
48 Jack Lamar Jr., San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
49 Jeff Landau, Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office; Public Defenders for Racial Justice
50 Augustin Le, U.S. Treasury Department
51 Erin Le, East Bay Community Law Center
52 Jose Lopez
53 Kathleen Lu, Fenwick & West LLP
54 Kimberly Lutes-Koths, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
55 Corynne McSherry, Electronic Frontier Foundation
56 Donald Medearis
57 Seth Meisels, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
58 Eduard Meleshinsky, Bryan Schwartz Law
59 David Moakley, Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office
60 Michael Murphy
61 Colin Murray, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
62 Sliman Nawabi, San Francisco Public Defenders Office
63 Daniel Nazer, Electronic Frontier Foundation
64 Osha Neumann, East Bay Community Law Center
65 Minh Nguyen, Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP
66 Hien Ngoc Nguyen, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, Racial Justice Committee
67 Rob Nolan, Carroll Burdick & McDonough LLP
68 Danielle Pierre, Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP
69 Rebecca Pinger, Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto
70 Pamela Price, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area
71 Jennifer Redding, Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office
72 Jennifer Reisch, Equal Rights Advocates
73 Abigail Rivamonte, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
74 Grisel Ruiz, Immigration Attorney
75 Peter Rukin, Rukin Hyland Doria & Tindall
76 Kathleen Ryals, Alameda County Public Defenders Office
77 Alex Santana
78 Jaclyn Santana
79 Peter Santina, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, Racial Justice Committee
80 Chad Saunders
81 Bryan Schwartz, Bryan Schwartz Law
82 Julianne Schwarz, California Civil Rights Law Group
83 Stillman Scott
84 Grant Scott, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
85 Simin Shamji, San Francisco Public Defenders Office
86 Kaylie Simon, Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office; Public Defenders for Racial Justice
87 Noah Smith
88 Ji Seon Song, Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office; Public Defenders for Racial Justice
89 Christine Start, Solano County Alternate Public Defender
90 Rebecca Stephens, Rukin Hyland Doria & Tindall
91 Jesse Stout, Greenbridge Corporate Counsel
92 Ryan Takemoto
93 Jason Tarricone, Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto
94 Cottam Tatiana, San Francisco Public Defenders Office
95 Rachel Terp, Bryan Schwartz Law
96 Michael Thomas, Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart P.C. ; Charles Houston Bar Association Board Member
97 Margaret Thomson, AT&T Services, Inc.
98 Erica Turcios, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
99 Francisco Ugarte, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, Racial Justice Committee
100 Matthew Valdez, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
101 Nikki Vo, Keker & Van Nest LLP
102 Phong Wang, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
103 Maya Watts
104 Doug Welch, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
106 Raymond Wendell, Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho
107 Julie Wilensky, Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center
108 Rebecca Young, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, Racial Justice Committee
Attorneys George Chikovani and William Jhaveri-Weeks can be reached at gchikovani@gmail.com and jhaveriweeks@gmail.com.
https://youtu.be/7ZfCjOJ8iGk
https://youtu.be/grcd1JlbXN8
