Family and Supporters Confront Police Commission

Mesha Irizarry, Idriss\'s mother, speaks to a crowd of almost 200 outside the Hall of "Justice"

Nearly 200 people rallied in support with the family of Idriss Stelley on Wedsnesday, July 11. Idriss, age 23, was shot to death by San Francisco police at the Metreon last month. Supporters then crowded into a San Francisco Police Commission meeting with the family and a list of demands.

Gathering on the sidewalk and steps outside the Hall of Justice, supporters held signs and made noise until Van Jones, director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, introduced Mesha Irizarry, Idriss\' mother. Ms. Irizarry spoke about her son and his accomplishments: he was a 4.0 college student who volunteered at soup kitchens and education programs, belonged to the Local 3 union, and taught chess to young people. Ms. Irizarry encouraged the crowd to "stay strong." Van Jones, demanding that the Police Commission "show respect to this family," then announced that the meeting was about to start.

Supporters filed one-by-one into the Hall of Justice through a police checkpoint and metal detector. A visibly upset SF police officer searched each person\'s belongings and made men remove their belts. This officer also confiscated a keyring from one African-American woman, claiming that it could be used as a weapon and that she would be able to get the keys back after the meeting.

People packed into the meeting room and spilled out into the hallway. A request to move the meeting to a larger venue in the building was denied. The meeting got started with the Pledge of Allegiance, which many people refused to recite. After this, two San Francisco residents were honored for "assisting" the police. The second award recipient, sensing the urgency of more important matters, declined to make comments, saying "it looks like you have a full house, I\'ll sit down."

Commission member Sidney Chan opened the public comments portion of the meeting by announcing that clapping would not be tolerated, and that public comments should be limited or the meeting would last "all night." He suggested that community members would get 2 minutes of speaking time each, while family members would be given 5 minutes. In response, Van Jones told Chan that "we don\'t get enough opportunities to show each other support. What we have to say deserves applause and support." The crowd erupted with clapping and cheers. Later in the meeting, Chan reiterated that clapping, booing, or vocal support was not allowed. All three continued throughout the meeting.

A young woman spoke first. In defiance of Chan\'s attempt to hurry through the meeting, the woman asked everyone present to stand and observe a moment of silence. As the people stood up, the Police Commission remained sitting. Finally, commission member Wayne Friday stood up, which forced the other members to reluctantly stand.

Both Idriss\' mother and Idriss\' partner spoke. Ms. Irizarry said that her son "is having a party with his ancestors," and that she is moving on to make sure that something like this cannot happen again. She spoke of her professional experience dealing with mental illness disabilities as well as racism, classism and sexism within these fields. She ended by saying that "we are not over this."

Summer Galbreath, Idris\'s partner, gave more details about the shooting. She said that she is familiar with mental illness terminology, and that she called 911 specifically for a 5150, which is a code that indicates psychiatric assistance is needed. She said that within minutes of arriving at the Metreon, at least 8 police officers shot Idris over 20 times. "We have taken too many losses," she said. "We\'re not going to take anymore."

One after another, people from the community voiced their outrage, anger, and grief about police violence in this case and countlesss others. Police Commission members were forced to listen as demands were issued and people voiced their opinions and emotions:

• A mental health expert who works near the Metreon described the history of forcing SFPD to implement mental health training for their officers. She said that after 5 years, the first training session was just finished. She said that the police have repeatedly resisted this kind of training. She insisted that mental health training for all officers was needed, since 1 out of 4 police calls involve someone with a mental illness. In contrast, she said that after the most recent trainings, only 1 out of 24 SFPD officers had received basic mental health education.
  
  She said that recent deaths include a man in Delores Park, where an officer insisted that "the only way to keep him from hurting himself was to kill him." She told a story of a naked, unarmed man who was killed by BART police. She quoted an officer who killed a man who was brandishing a bamboo stick, who said that "he looked at me and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he wanted me to shoot him." She said that the 2nd leading cause of death for people with psychiatric illnesses is death by police.
  
  She went on to say that in her 16 years of working with people who have psychiatric disabilities, she has never once needed to use an "armed and forceful response." She equated the SFPD to a "paramilitary."
  
  
• A woman from Policewatch said, "Teachers, psychiatric workers, and nurses do their jobs without ever killing a patient. Police only know how to shoot someone down." She reminded the commission that this was not an isolated incident, and warned that "this is only a glimpse of the community outrage" directed at "willful negligence" by the police.
  
  
• A man spoke passionately to the commission entirely in Spanish.
  
  
• A young woman who lives near the Metreon was brought to tears as she talked about her neighborhood, which she says is "under siege, under a constant threat of terror from police." She said that "all I have is my community, like people in this room, who are watching out for me. You aren\'t going to get away with this, quit fucking killing us."
  
  
• A young man from STORM challenged the commission on each of the family\'s demands, ending by saying that he didn\'t believe in being subtle. "I\'ll put it bluntly," he said. "You have blood on your hands. End the cover-up, it is disgusting."
  
  
• A man who works as an emergency room doctor in San Francisco spoke, saying that he is appalled at the number of police brutality victims that he treats. "After the police are done beating someone up, they bring them to me," he said. He said that "police talk to each other about how to beat on people without showing marks or bruises," but that they resisted talking to each other about how to handle mental disabilities. Describing the police as an "armed group of terrorists," he said that if all police receive crowd control trainings, then they should all receive mental disability trainings.
  
  
• A young Latino man from Oakland warned the commission, "if you do not want more riots in Watts and Oakland, get these cops out of our communities and keep your token asses at work in this office where you belong." He said that his generation was inspired by the Black Panthers and that if private citizens were allowed to carry guns in public, police brutality would not be as widespread.
  
  
• An African-American man who works at juvenile hall firmly addressed the commission. He spoke about severe institutional dysfunctions from an "insider" view.
  
  
• A young Chinese man spoke about his brother, who has developmental disabilities. Fighting back tears, he said that his brother was harrassed by police "every day of his life." He told his brother not to move to the Bay Area because he feared that he would be murdered by police. This young man addressed his comments to the Asian-American officers who were present in the room.
  
  

As public comments were ending, Van Jones again spoke and presented a list of demands, and asked for the commission to respond. However, they sat in silence, only eventually saying that they would "not engage in dialogue." The demands were: (1) stop the cover-up and release all information to Idriss\' family, (2) support the call for a criminal investigation by an independent prosecutor, and (3) implement immediate, concrete changes in police policy/practice regarding people in mental distress. The commission just continued to silently sit.

As people began to disperse, Police Chief Fred Lau made an appearance. He said that he would support expanded mental health trainings, including trainings for all active officers. Members of the crowd expressed doubt, but vowed to start a renewed effort to keep the commission in check. Shortly after, the group began shouting "we\'ll be back" in unison and marched out of the meeting room.

Bay Area PoliceWatch can be reached at (415) 951-4844, x24.