Police Injure Daly At Hastings Garage Protest

Hastings College Board of Directors have decided to build condominiums for 800 cars rather than badly needed affordable housing for the Tenderloin. Friday, while in an act of non-violent civil disobedience on behalf of homeless and underhoused an Chris Daly an elected representative of the people was manhandled and injured. Many of us worked hard to elect a more progressive Board. Some police now believe they can attack with impunity our elected representatives and lie about it in the police report in the midst of so many witnesses with impeccable integrity. This should make it clear that massive and thorough housecleaning needs to be done and training programs instituted.Go to sentinel website to see phony police report. Public comment at the supervisors meeting at 2 pm at city hall is one of the places where your outrage can be expressed.

The article from the sentinel http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/ photo at Sentinel site.
Keep housing the
issue, not my arrest,
says Daly

Police apply thumb
pain hold, Daly suffers
nerve damage

Daly threatened my
job, says arresting
officer

Daly didn't resist, say
Sr. Bernie Galvin,
Randy Shaw

Full text of statements
from arresting officer,
Daly, Galvin and
Shaw

HANDCUFF MARKS were still evident on
Daly's wrists six hours after cuffs removed.
Sentinel Photo



by pat murphy

June 8, 2002
Supervisor Chris Daly closed out his Friday with a thumb gone insensate,
wrist contusions, and a sense the issue he targeted for protest will be
challenged in court by the city.

Public focus, he insisted, should remain on that issue, not on him.

Daly was one of twelve people arrested, cited, and released during a 9:00 a.m.
meeting of the Hastings Law School Board of Directors convened for a final
vote on construction of an 885-car garage in the Tenderloin.

Housing activists contend Hastings reneged on affordable housing provisions
for the site, having promised those provisions in return for leveling two
residential hotels that provided 85 units of low-income housing.

Daly last week introduced a resolution asking the City Attorney to file suit
against Hastings to block garage construction, based on inadequate
Environmental Impact Report and the city's General Plan.

Daly expects that resolution to be adopted by the Board of Supervisors
Monday, he told the Sentinel yesterday.

Daly, along with 200 housing activists, turned out for the Hastings Board
meeting, according to Randy Shaw, director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic.

The Board, Shaw said, had provided itself with only one resolution for
consideration -- a resolution to go forward with the garage, but not a
resolution opposing it.

Shaw was the last of several people who spoke before the Board in opposition
to the garage, he said, followed by several chanting audience members sitting
down in proximity to the Board, bullhorns amplifying the chants.

Daly joined the floor protest, locking hands with Sister Bernie Galvin, director
of Religious Witness with Homeless People, Daly said.

Police gave protesters the choice of leaving or being arrested for trespassing,
according to both police and protester accounts.

"I was the fourth or fifth person approached by police," Daly told the
Sentinel. "I told them I would leave as soon as Hastings agreed to housing,"
continued Daly.

According to Daly, a police officer immediately put Daly in a thumb pain
hold, forcing him to his feet to be handcuffed. The officer continued to assert
the pain hold while Daly was handcuffed, Daly said, at one point forcing Daly
to the floor.

During that time, Daly repeatedly said he was in pain, that he would comply
with arrest orders, asking how to comply in order to have the pain hold
released, Daly told the Sentinel.

He told the officer he would telephone Police Captain Stephen Tacchini to
report the officer's use of a pain hold, if the hold wasn't released, Daly said.

Daly was held in a police van for ten minutes, cited for trespassing, and
released, Shaw said. Two hours later, Tacchini telephoned Daly saying Daly
additionally would be cited for misdemeanor resisting arrest, Daly reported.

"Making change is never easy, and civil disobedience is a time honored
American tradition when all other reasonable steps have been taken to make
that change," Daly said in a written statement.

"I remain as committed today as ever to stopping this ill advised project, and
join the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and the San Francisco
Chronicle in calling on the trustees to do the right thing and build housing and
parking on this site. On Monday, I will again call on former Police
Commission president and current City Attorney Dennis Herrera to file suit to
stop this project," read the statement.

"I never resisted arrest, even though the officer placed me in a painful hold
observed by dozens of witnesses. I am hopeful that the District Attorney will
see through these baseless and politically motivated charges and dismiss
them," Daly's written statement reported.

The arresting officer recalled a different scenario.

That officer, identified as Officer Riordan, Badge 1233, of Tenderloin Police
Station, reported Daly repeatedly pulled away from arrest attempts, and
quoted Daly as saying "I know Captain Tacchini. I will have your job."

Riordan also reported, "Daly dropped his entire body to the floor in an
attempt to resist and delay his arrest."

In addition to Daly, Shaw, and Galvin, those arrested include Richard
Marquez, James Tracy, Mathew Dodt, Paul Hogarth, Michelle Rose Roger,
Meredith Ann Walters, Joseph Halaiko, Ted Gullicksen, and Thomas Simms.

Although Riordan reported, "Every arrestee was offered medical treatment
and refused," Daly sought treatment at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center
"with a finding that he sustained nerve damage in his wrists and thumb,"
according to a statement released by Daly.

Both Shaw and Galvin signed statements attesting Daly had not resisted
arrest.

Text of full statements from Riordan, Shaw, Galvin, and Daly follow.






DECLARATION OF RANDALL M. SHAW

I, RANDALL M. SHAW, DECLARE;

1. I am an attorney duly licensed to practice law before all the courts of
California. I have personal knowledge of all the facts set forth in this
declaration and if called as a witness could and would competently testify
thereto.

2. I was standing next to Chris Daly when he was arrested at the Hastings
Board meeting on June 7, 2002. The arresting officer told Daly that he could
either leave or face arrest. Daly replied that he was not leaving. Although Daly
made no effort to resist arrest, the officer pulled Daly's arm and twisted. Daly
was clearly in pain and was telling the officer to stop twisting his arm. The
officer refused to release Daly's arm, and I called out that the police were
assaulting our Supervisor. The officer then ceased twisting the arm, and the
arrested proceeded.

3. At no time did Daly take any action to resist arrest I had conversations
with a number of the officers involved in the arrests, and none suggested that
Daly or anyone else had resisted arrest.

I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California
that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed this 7th day of June, 2002, in San Francisco, California.

RANDALL M. SHAW
Declarant


STATEMENT OF SISTER BERNIE GALVIN

My name is Sister Bernie Galvin. I am a Sister of Divine Providence and
Executive Director of Religious Witness with Homeless People. I was arrested
at the Hastings Board of Directors meeting on June 7, 2002.

I was sitting on the floor in the meeting room next to Supervisor Chris Daly as
we both awaited the Police Officers to come arrest us. They came for
Supervisor Daly first. The Officer told him that if he did not leave he would
be arrested. Supervisor Daly responded, "I want housing," and remained
siting. They told him he was under arrest and to stand up. He did tell the
Officer that he wanted to know what the charge against him was, but he never
resisted arrest. Even though he was standing up on his own the Officer still
pulled on him by his arms.

The Officer walked him a distance of no more than three feet from me to
handcuff him. It was then I noticed Supervisor Daly wincing as they twisted
his thumb even before they attempted to put his hands behind him for cuffing.
Supervisor Daly was asking the police to quit twisting his thumb and kept
saying, "I want to cooperate." But the Police did not release their grip on
Supervisor Daly's thumb. I heard some man shout out, "They're assaulting
our Supervisor."

I watched the whole process from the time the Police first approached
Supervisor Daly to the time they led him out of the room. At no time did I
ever see Supervisor Daly resist arrest.

The above statement is the truth as I observed it.

SISTER BERNIE GALVIN, CDP


STATEMENT FROM SUPERVISOR DALY'S OFFICE

SUPERVISOR DALY REMAINS INTENT ON

STOPPING HASTINGS GARAGE


Supervisor undaunted by morning arrest and physical impacts;
“Housing is very important. I will always do what's right.”

SAN FRANCISCO-District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly today restated his
commitment to stop the University of California Hastings Board of Trustees
from building an 885-space parking garage in the Tenderloin district of San
Francisco on a site that formerly contained 85 low-income housing units
contained in two single room occupancy hotels.

“Making change is never easy, and civil disobedience is a time-honored
American tradition when all other reasonable steps have been taken to make
that change,” said Supervisor Daly. “I remain as committed today as ever to
stopping this ill-advised project, and join the San Francisco Chamber of
Commerce and the San Francisco Chronicle in calling on the trustees to do
the right thing and build housing and parking on this site. On Monday, I will
again call on former Police Commission president and current City Attorney
Dennis Herrera to file suit to stop this project.”

Daly also sought to clear up misinformation about the arrest itself by saying
“Housing is always important and I will always do what's right. I never
resisted arrest, even though the officer placed me in a painful hold observed
by dozens of witnesses. I am hopeful that the District Attorney will see
through these baseless and politically motivated charges and dismiss them.”
Statements from Sister Bernie Galvin and Randy Shaw of the Tenderloin
Housing Clinic and pictures taken by witnesses at the time of the arrest and
available through Supervisor Daly's office corroborate these positions.

As of 6:18 PM, Supervisor Daly had not yet received a copy of the police
report even though his office requested it from the Tenderloin Station and the
office of Police Chief Fred Lau at 1:30 PM. Dong An, a reporter from Sing
Tao Daily, a Chinese-American newspaper, told Supervisor Daly's office that
he had a copy of the police report, but it was marked “confidential” and he
would not share it with Supervisor Daly.

On a related note, Supervisor Daly was examined at Kaiser Permanente
Medical Center and released at approximately 3:30 PM with a finding that he
sustained nerve damage in his wrists and thumb.



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Pat Murphy
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