>> good morning. welcome to the grand opening of the san francisco police department's special victims unit. i am the commanding officer of the new svu. i would like to take a couple moments to briefly acknowledged our honorable mayor ed lee,

chief greg suhr and command staff, commissioner azuko, and commissioner chan as well. thank you for joining us. i know how busy your schedules are. i believe district attorney gascon is going to be here any moment. i wanted to take a moment to acknowledge our professional partners. child protective services, adult protective services, the child abuse prevention center, the mayor's office into violence consortium, -- anti-silence consortium -- anti-violence consortium, and casa de las

madres. with that, chief greg suhr. [applause] >> welcome. i really appreciate everyone being here. in my administration, we do not do a lot of press conferences, but this is really important. october is domestic violence awareness month. it was a major priority of mine and the mayor's to make an impression that we have to take care of our most vulnerable. we will open one is to be the special victims unit in the san francisco police department for the first time where we consolidate the domestic violence units, a juvenile, human trafficking, missing persons, elder abuse and

neglect, financial abuse, and sex crimes into one unit. over the next few years, we will go through a huge transition in the police department. some of our most experienced officers will be retiring. we want to make sure we do not lose their expertise and their ability to work with the advocates to make the most successful prosecutions possible for those who would victimize our most vulnerable. often the victims come with children. we wanted to have a warm space that was secure. i think when you find your way inside, you will find that is the case. a lot of these officers will pick up the expertise from each other where maybe they did not have it before. if there is a day when we are short, they will bring this

additional ability to connect with the victims. the advocates will also be providing services and support. i like to think they do it in no other city like they do in san francisco. working with partner agencies is key to this. this is a cooperative effort that happens to be located inside the police department. i want you to take special note that we have a children's play area to keep them occupied, safe, and warm. we have books in chinese that were provided by a community member. we have books in spanish that are on the way. we want to make this a place for everybody. i will not go on and on. i really want to get to what is important. that is to get inside. i will pass the microphone i cai

appreciate his support in pulling this off. it took a lot of change and collaboration of the police department. they moved their space, they work on their time off. they worked with me and the command staff to get this done. i think when you go inside, their hearts are in the right place. this is the deputy chief. >> good morning. fiona mah appreciates the invitation and appreciates the effort to better serve victims of crime in san francisco. as the chair of the select committee on domestic violence, she has been a tireless advocate

for victims and survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. she is unable to join us as she is chairing a select committee hearing. >> thank you. thank you for being here. we have a special victims unit. it has been a culmination of a lot of discussions. i want to thank chief suhr. we said we would have to do more and do better with less. with those ideas in mind in knowing we have a dwindling force but increased amount of demand from our communities, we needed to do smarter things. it makes so much sense that this innovative idea of bringing the various investigative units together in the same space and under the same command can make

the offer is even more resources put together. i want to thank the community- based advocates for their willingness to bring resources to work with our law enforcement. this effort is also a reflection of the commitment from our police commission. i want to thank each and every one of them and their leadership in working with the community and our police chief. it means so much to bring more and better resources and enforcement of our laws right to where the victims need it. this is a special time. we have the most vulnerable parts of our population, women, children, and elderly, who can get better service here in a culturally competent way. i am proud to be the mayor of the city who knows how to do it

better. for the state of california, our elderly population is the highest level in the whole state. bringing more resources to the victims who may be financial victims, victims of abuse, as well as recognizing this being domestic violence awareness month, that we will do better with this coordinated effort. i am excited to see this unit come to fruition. i thank the chief for making sure we reorganize properly with the future in mind. i am glad to begin the ribbon cutting and allow everyone to see what we have done and for the committee to know that we're working hard to increase -- for the community to know that we're working hard to increase the resources for them. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor.

we have the president of the police commission. >> it is great to see the collaboration between the commission, the mayor's office, the police department, the district attorney's office. it will increase the expertise our officers have. it will streamline the process in terms of managing the units. we're looking at losing a lot of officers to retirement. this is an excellent idea to train them in new areas. we owe it to the precious crown jewels of our city. this is a great place for children to come and a great place for women to feel comfortable. i know the most domestic violence cases, the victims may decide not to cooperate. the results are sometimes

tragic. i want to thank the mayor and police department for taking a big step in leading the state and country and how we handle these issues. thank you. [applause] >> i want to acknowledge our new officers in charge that are assigned to this unit. lt. jane, lt. foxx, and lt. scallini. i also want to acknowledge the dedication and ongoing hard work that the investigators assigned to the different disciplines that will be culminated here. they have the logistical move and continued to work on their cases as we were moving forward with these -- this.

they still had to work on their cases in debt outstanding job during this difficult time. along with that, i wanted to say thank you again to the mayor and chief for making this happen for us. it was a long time overdue. we're very excited. chief? >> channel 26 is really taking a beating. [laughter] i am going to forgo the honor of cutting the ribbon. i will ask commander sandra tong who conceived of and was the first commanding officer of one of the first domestic violence sections in any police department in california to do the honors with mayor lee with these not so classroom-safe

scissors. we will have you come forward and do the honors. [applause]

>> i am the director of visual arts programming at intersection for the arts. intersection for the arts is based in san francisco and has always been an organization that looks at larger social political

issues through the lens of practice, and we are here today at our exhibition of "chico and chang." the original inspiration was drawn from a restaurant chain in new york city. half of their menu is -- what struck me was the graphic pictures and a man in a hat on a rig truck carrying take that time is containers and in the black sea to representation of a mexican guy wearing a sombrero and caring a somali horn. it struck me that these two large, very subversive complex cultures could be boiled down to such simple representations. chico and chang primarily looks at four topic areas. one of the man was is whose stories are being told and how.

one of the artisans in the show has created an amazing body of work working with young adults calling themselves the dreamers. another piece of the exhibition talks about whose stories of exhibition are actually being told. one artist created a magnificent sculpture that sits right in the center of the exhibition. >> these pieces are the physical manifestation of a narrative of a child in memory. an important family friend give us a dining table, very important, and we are excited about it. my little brother and i were 11, 14. we were realizing that they were kind of hand prints everywhere on the bottom where no one would really see, and it became this kind of a weakening of what child labor is.

it was almost like an exercise to show a stranger that feeling we had at that moment. >> the second thing the exhibition covers is how the allocation is defined, a great example on the theme, sculpture called mexicali culture. another bay area artist who has done residencies in china and also to what, mexico. where immigrant communities really helped define how businesses look of a business' sign age and interior decoration, her sculptural piece kind of mismatches the two communities together, creating this wonderful, fantastical future look at what the present is today. first topic is where we can see where the two communities are

intersecting and where they start colliding. teresa fernandez did a sculptural installation, utilizing the ubiquitous blue, white, and read patterns of a rayon bag that many communities used to transport laundry and laundromats to buy groceries and such. she created a little installation kind of mucking up the interior of a household, covering up as many objects that are familiar to the i and the fabric. fourth area of investigation that the exhibition looks at is the larger concerns of the asian and latin communities intersecting with popular cultur one best example -- when he's exemplified is what you see when you enter into the culture.

>> this piece refers to restaurants in tijuana. when you are driving, to speak chinese and you read chinese characters. you see these signs. i was trying to play with the idea of what you see and the direction you read. when you start mixing these different groups of people, different cultures, i like the idea. you can comment on somebody else's culture or someone else's understanding about culture. >> one of the hopes we have for visitors is that they go away taking a better understanding with the broadest and the breadth of issues impacting both the asian and latin communities here in california and how they spell out into the larger fabric of the communities we live and work in.