Deputy Chief Suhr Appears before Committee hearing to Defend Police Crackdowns on Protests

Thurs 4/22/04, San Francisco -- SFPD Deputy Chief Greg Suhr appeared before the SF Board of Supes' City Services Committee this afternoon to defend the department's policies on protest activity, including corralling, beating peaceful protesters with batons and billy clubs, and mass arrests. The hearing was called by Board President Matt Gonzalez to discuss "the San Francisco Police Department's arrests of protesters during the recent demonstrations marking the anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq."

Also speaking before the hearing were National Lawyers Guild representatives Mark Vermeulen and Riva Enteen, a representative of the Youth Commission, Mesha Irizarry from the Idriss Stelley Foundation, and three individuals who witnessed or were assaulted by police on March 19th and 20th, 2004.

Suhr maintains that protesters at unpermitted marches on March 19th and 20th were requested and allowed to move onto the sidewalk, and only after they failed to do so were they encircled, detained and eventually arrested. But reports suggest that a portion of the March 20th march was intentionally encircled and prevented from dispersing or moving onto the sidewalk. Suhr said he had heard of only a few minor scuffles involving police, one of which involved police breaking a protester's arm.

Aside from the potential for police violence which results from this policy of confrontation with protesters, Supervisor Gonzalez is also concerned about the high cost to the city of repeated mass arrests and lawsuits. These costs of police overtime and what Suhr himself termed police "assaults" are especially worrisome in the context of cuts to vital services such as residential treatment services for women with children.

Suhr seemed particularly concerned that peace protesters would seek to return to the San Francisco Centre shopping mall, the subject of a spontaneous antiwar protest last year which Suhr alleges caused surprised shoppers to suffer a "near heart attack and panic attacks."