subjects. 80% of taser use is against unarmed individuals. if they are adequately trained, they can handle noncompliant subjects without tasers. police policy is that officers are not to shoot unless someone is in danger. meeting that the suspect is armed. if that is true, that they will reduce police shootings by 1/3, it implies police are shooting on their own suspects. we don't agree that it is an acceptable substitute for police education. police used the taser and will

make racial profiling much worse. courts do not protect against taser abuse. a 7-month pregnant seattle black woman was pulled over and she was refusing to sign the ticket. the court upheld that. [chime] >> good evening, commissioners. chief. several things have come up during this hearing, so i will not repeat what was said. but thank you for holding this hearing. i appreciate the consideration given to this very important matter. the issue has, about anecdote vs

fact. as someone who works weekly with police abuse, i ask you to look very deeply where you find the truth. accountability has come up in this discussion, and we are far more interested in accountability before people are attacked with weapons. i appreciate the contributions concerning the tactis and the focus on tactics. frankly, i get threatened nearly every week. i was told, i am going to come find you and get you. a direct quote.

frankly, as a black man who has low body mass and a history of epilepsy, i have a huge candidate for having fatal results. with me or anyone else in this public, i would ask each one of you to please explain [unintelligible] thank you very much. >> throughout the meeting, it seems like we were having this great conversation. they were having to listen and we would have this great discussion or counter argument.

in this case, children are getting tasered. we have families, too. i think the problem is, we are people. we have communities and a voice, too. we worked with the sfpd in teh past, -- the past, and we worked hard to keep costs from getting on muni and harassing passengers. safety in times where there is poverty exploding into police oppression on the rise, especially for people that are listening right now, for the communities that have been hit hardest by the depression, they

have access to medical care and we should also [unintelligible] in san francisco, no, this paid less than $100,000 a year. -- no cop is paid less than $100,000 a year. that will provide for a better future. and if you want support to remain poor, the potential students and workers -- [chime] >> good evening, commissionaires. thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak tonight. you have each received a copy of

the letter we have submitted in opposition to the use of tasers by the san francisco police department. eva pattterson, the executive director, the president of the san francisco lawyers association and other community leaders. the woman was thrown to the ground, placed in a chokehold and tased while her hands were behind her back. she was purchasing can be for a movie and had the receipt to prove it. this is the real narrative of how tasers are used.

the stories are all too common in communities of color. despite the trading protocols that are put in place by the police department, these are the kinds of incidents that happen again and again despite their best efforts to protect against them. we come today with a simple request that the commission should not move forward when some many of our community leaders and so many community members have serious and legitimate concerns. that is why your vote is of critical importance. >> good evening, commissioners.

i am the president of the national lawyers guild, i am a local attorney. we live in a world with too many weapons, and we don't need any more weapons. they don't make us safe. i'm opposed to the use of tasers. there is a history of them being developed as instruments of torture. we don't need the extra costs associated with buying tasers. as we've also heard, police are likely to use force against people of color. our black and brown brothers and

sisters are likely to be at an additional risk. tasers end up causing more deaths after they are adopted by the police. i was at a cafe and i noticed a commotion. there was a guy being beat up outside by someone else. the guy was left there, he was dazed and confused. people gave him water. the cops showed up, and because he would not stand up, they held him against the wall like this. and a woman cop shot him with a taser. i made a complaint. they did not find any

wrongdoing. the man was taken away in an ambulance. [chime] >> my name is catherine, here i teach art at the community center. i am a little nervous about speaking. the argument that tasers are more dangerous, they are usually thought of as less lethal. they are actually lethal to some degree, and in my opinion, a significant degree. there is an inherent danger with the less-lethal weapons. the public's fear of authority has shifted in the past few decades. it is coupled with an increasing

fear of the law. it is seen as a less lethal weapon. it will be used more often if there were not a taser option. it is a choice between violent action and restraint. i do not support the increased use of violent weapons, i understand the argument for the less lethal option. if you vote to support this option, i want to the equal amounts to be invested for low education -- low-income communities in francisco -- san francisco.

thank you. >> good evening, i am a student and a member of [unintelligible] this is not another tool for the tool box, it is another weapon to brutalize the community, especially communities of color. how can we believe that they will exercise caution described as humane. community members will feel more fear. we need to use the money to strengthen our communities. thank you. >> i am a resident of san

francisco and their practice medicine in san francisco -- and i practice medicine in san francisco. the issue tonight is whether the adoption will result in fewer deaths and severe injuries. growing medical evidence suggests that it is not much of that. i have looked into some of the details and spent some time with that. severe injuries to officers increase when they were introduced. his data does not support that conclusion. and also the death of subjects increased twofold. that is because the relatively small size of the study, it did

not have that much significance. both cannot be ruled out. the findings are also similar to a 2008 study where the officer sites they did not rule out an increase in death. there is some data in the study, one of which is that the death rate in the intervention department was lower by a factor of four. there was a suggestion that the departments that were there were not matched. in the study, they presented it that it was published and considered the last time.

the last thing i will say, if you don't use it in legal situations, there doesn't seem to be a role for tasters. -- tasers. >> police officers are using extremely [unintelligible] when the police leave, i have to deal with the aftermath.

when you put extra weapons on them, it is going to cost them. the fact that he was on the ground with four people surrounding him, it shows a lot of irresponsibility and unaccountability. remember this. we are people, we are not statistics and numbers.

-- get nervous and hold their thumb down. i am a great grandmother with a heart murmur. i want to know if police will be able to recognize that fact when we are protesting the future budget cuts that will be necessary to pay for these tasers. thank you. >> i am from north beach. during the 1990's, i probably attended 150 police commission

meetings. i represented people in oakland before the police review board. we had some terminology, some of us who did cases. street justice is when a police officer, without taking somebody through the system, punishes the person physically or verbally or somehow. i am worried, because a significant number of san francisco police officers, i think, do that sort of thing. the other thing is that in a lot of our cases, where we started winning -- i read in the newspaper we are going to be trained. what i found out when i do cases is once we start winning, the defense goes, "the officer

was inadequately trained." it always happens that way. we have had many things we could accomplish in san francisco, and we have not. how to do with the mentally ill. 10 to 15 years, there has been training available in northern california, but the police department says we have not got it done yet. how about the backlog of misconduct cases? how about the backlog of misconduct cases the experts -- cases? i'll give you a quote. there is a poster on the wall at the hall of justice. it shows a kid hitting somebody, and another kid picking somebody. the "is, "violence is learned and can be unlearned, and there is no exception for police officers."

>> good evening. i am cynthia. i worked at an organization that works with both the latino and black communities of san francisco. a lot of our members were here today, and had to leave because of the time and how late we are running for public comment. just so you know, our members are tall, short, thin, big, with diabetes, and with many other illnesses. i do not know the police officer will be able to tell just looking at them, if they're in a situation where the officer might think something is going on that is bad. our communities are communities of color who are disproportionately impacted by police brutality and by the use of tasters nationwide. our families were here today. our elderly folks came out today to speak against tasers.

instead, do talk to our communities. don't talk to them about what gun you are going to allow a police officer to shoot them with. talk to them about what services are needed, but their experience has been with officers when things have escalated and they have used force on them. you talk to them about that. thank you for holding the public, and finally. also, the research and study and everything presented to you today shows that tasers are not what you should be looking for. i am not sure how much research to need to do, given the research that is already out there, and given what your purpose is with looking into tasers. talk to our communities and figure out a way there can be

more effective community policing in our communities and less police brutality, less police abuse. thank you. [applause] >> good evening, commissioners, chief. i want to thank you again for voting to adopt the memphis program two weeks ago. that was a historic moment. i would echo what some other speakers have asked you, which is where will the money for the pacers come from -- the tasers come from? sacrifices' within budgets usually come from direct services to help people, not technology or weapons that could be used to control people. of all of the studies you will presented this evening, one of the things i think was lacking

was at studies that were done showing the disproportionate use of tasers on people with psychiatric disabilities. that is known to advocacy organizations that work with disabled people. however, i did not hear it coming up in any of your studies. i would encourage you to take a look at those issues if you are not prepared to vote no. in one state, correct me if i'm wrong, i believe it was vermont, the state itself voted to prohibit the use of tasers until every member of the state police was trained in tactics, understanding that police are pressure. they believe they are under a great deal of time pressure to accomplish things. people they are encountering, most of them called suspect -- if suspects are not compliant,

they will immediately go to something that will make them compliant, short and everybody's time, and get them home. we see the disproportionate use of tasers in all of the population is described by former speakers. we see it in interactions between people who have psychiatric disabilities and the police. i urge you to vote bi,' -- vote no. president mazzucco: we really are having late into the evening. we are going to have to limit, if we can come up public speaking -- it is two minutes. we have to stop at this point. if we could stop at the end of each line and move to the other line and see who we have left to discuss this issue, we do have a full agenda besides this. >> i think there is an overflow room. how does that work? we have to bring them in here so they can lineup? president mazzucco: is it

possible if we could take the time down to eminent and halfbacks -- to a minute and a half? there is one person left in the overflow room? do we have to keep the time at two minutes? please come forward. if some of you can consolidate your thoughts, and that would be greatly appreciated. >> i am speaking for two people, so can i have twice the time. -- twice the time? [laughter] [applause] seriously. i am speaking for james cancini, and also to the mental disability issue. he has written and asked me to say, "please reject the proposal to arm with tasers. i am a social worker who worked in settings with diagnoses of

psychiatric disability. many clients reported having been dealt with in a properly by the police, who did not understand the mental illness. i am shortening his, and i am going to shorten-well. my name is carol harvey, and i am a human rights journalist. i wrote about the randall dunlkin situation, the man in the wheelchair who was shot more than once by the police. he was sitting in his wheelchair in the back. the fix on that was supposed to be the use of tasers, talking about that. in my humble opinion, that man was surrounded by what i count as six police officers who were not in wheelchairs', who were strong and a bold -- and abled and supposedly trained. i think if the use of tasers had

been employed, there would have been a disastrous result from that, just as from his being shot. i would like to know. first of all, i support the idea of the training. dealing with talking down people who have mental illness. i am also concerned about this myself. i am not mentally disabled, but i am physically disabled. with the new set-lie law, if i am sitting and do not move fast enough, because i have bone spurs, i am concerned about being tased. please reject this and put in some training. thanks. >> my name is colleen rebecca. i work with homeless youth alliance. we provide basic services, including clothing, food, and a

safe place to be to homeless youth in the haight. many are people with mental illness, people who have lived super -- lips through severe trauma, despite their young age, and many of whom use illegal and legal substances. we are very concerned about the potential use of tasers. we do our best not only to keep our youth safe, but also to help them into programs that have been shown to give them better lives and a chance to be fully functioning members of society that they want to be.

my concern is that the introduction of tasers will turn non-legal situations that could be dealt with through the escalation -- deescalation will be concluded with use of a taser. we want a safer community, not a more heavily armed police force. we need to talk about this more as a police community, how we can have a separate community for everyone, from homeless youth to officers to work on our streets. this should be the beginning, not the end of the conversation. we want you to come to our home turf. we want to talk to you about some of our issues in our community, with our people. thank you. [applause] >>