Feature Archives

Breonna Taylor was fatally shot in her home by Louisville, Kentucky, Metro Police Department officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove on March 13. A Grand Jury returned an indictment for one officer with three counts of wanton endangerment for shooting into neighboring apartments — and no charges directly related to the murder. Announcement of the Grand Jury's decision on September 23 sparked protests across Northern California.

On September 4, five young activists from the city of Antioch and a former resident of the Mission District of San Francisco began a hunger strike with demands for local authorities to end racial injustice and police brutality. Despite ongoing protests, a petition signed by thousands, hundreds of public comments at City Council meetings, protests and an occupation of City Hall by several dozen activists, the Mayor, the Chief of Antioch Police, and council members have neither acknowledged nor taken action on protesters’ demands.

Citing a pattern of consistent stonewalling, investigative journalists have taken the Oakland Police Department to court to force it to comply with state public records laws. Two petitions brought in Alameda County Superior Court claim the department routinely ignores public records requests, professing a commitment to transparency even as thousands of open Public Records Act requests languish in their system. One petition claims the department offers only an automatic response to thousands of requests — if it replies at all.

On September 3, several hundred students gathered in front of the entrance to Mission High School for a "Defund the San Francisco Police" action. They showed up to demand that resources currently allocated to police be distributed back to the community for better schools and better mental health care services. Speakers honored survivors of police violence by calling for a recitation of names and said that that the Board of Supervisors needs to make more drastic cuts to the police budget than the relatively small measures currently proposed.

On August 21, Tiburon cops questioned the owners of Yema, a store on Main St. The officers insisted the merchant, who is Black, show proof that he really did belong inside the store he owns. One week later, 500 protesters marched to the police station in solidarity with the store owner and called for an end to racial profiling. Yema Khalif said he was working late when officers came to the door of his athletic store and assumed he, his co-owner, and a friend who are also Black, did not belong in the store.

The police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and too many more, have mobilized unprecedented numbers of people to take to the streets and declare that Black Lives Matter. Black people are 300% more likely to be killed at the hands of police than white people. Black people have been 28% of those killed by police since 2013 despite being only 13% of the population. A central feature of the current uprisings is the call to defund police departments, a demand also taking root in Santa Cruz.

On August 21, protesters met at Crissy field for a march across the Golden Gate Bridge. The march was to honor those who have died from coronavirus and police brutality, to fight for the living, and to demand Trump's resignation in solidarity with marches across the Brooklyn Bridge and other bridges in U.S. cities on the same day. In San Francisco, shield training readied protesters for police confrontation when they were not allowed to cross the iconic bridge's pedestrian walkway. Organizers called it a taste of what is to come.