pelter who is destined to be the first man -- >> your time is up. supervisor kim: i have to other speaker cards. >> ♪ you are watching closer than close in exciting who is inviting you there? you're watching closer than close in it is exciting it could be a nightmare there you're closer than close too close and the look of spy is in your eyes in your eyes i know you are watching mid there -- me there

could be a nightmare oh do not watch so close city private eyes they are watching you watching your city every move private eye is your watching me and watching everyone so close they are watching you watching you watch out ♪ [applause] >> thank you. if there any more public speakers, please line up in the center aisle. >> there is one more speaker, emily -- >> you just need to line up. >> i am not going to take too long. i came from a country, and

arabic country. the first thing that should be mentioned on my did the kitchen is my religion, before the name is written. i want to live in liberty, and i mean it. i do not want anybody to follow me or surveillance me without my knowledge. if they had a good reason to follow me, it is his right. but without a reason, he has no right to follow me. so we would not have any psychological diseases. and will not make people apart from each other.

this is a beautiful country. i received all the services, and had surgery done on me in the hospital. i have not worked in this country, not even one day. and they treated me and put me on their head. for myself, i love myself. but the harassment, if it continues like this and the surveillance continues, it will separate people. i am talking myself. i hate that. i believe in justice and i like justice. and i worship the ground of this country.

i want all my brothers and sisters, the arabic brothers and sisters, to love this country. and how they can love it, they will love it if we find justice and equality. even if we came from a country that is a dictatorship country. and they have a separation and there is persecution. [bell rings] america is the greatest country in the world. and i loved it. and i have a message to the

police, to do their job within their limitations and not to harass people. do not do anything out of your jurisdiction. and do not cause problems to anyone. at the same time, have the right to keep this country safe. without causing any mental illness to other people. and i thank you. [applause] supervisor kim: thank you. >> hello, supervisors. i am from the arab research and organizing center. i wanted to take a moment to thank you as supervisors who have stood up for this important issue. both supervisor kim as brought forward this ordinance and the bravery that takes, and the other endorsing supervisors. those on the committee, and we

have had indications from supervisor chiu and supervisor compost -- supervisor campos has indicated he will be participating. there are many here that are a symbol of the community organizations who are really concerned about this issue. community united against violence, community service, islamic society of san francisco, people organized to defend environmental rights. the education network, the baker center for human rights, the national center for lesbian rights, and the black alliance for just immigration. to me, this is an issue that really crosses communities. it is just one snapshot within a larger huge problem, and the problem is the federal

government's over reach into our communities. and i do not want to sound like a big conspiracy theorist or separatist or anything. but, really, we have a problem with the federal government here. we have had the problem with the century ordinance. we continue to see a with the joint terrorism task force. you have heard today from people representing not only san francisco residence but bay area residents. that is because all over san francisco and the bay area, we look to this city, to you as supervisors to take the lead on this issue, whether it is immigrant rights issues, human rights issues, police account of it -- accountability issues, housing, things uttermost near and dear to our hearts. i encourage you to take a stand. sometimes people have said in the community, supervisors or city leaders, who have not heard

stories like this to have said, well, we do not know that there is a problem. what is the indication? to that, i say to do what you can as supervisors to stand up. [bell rings] to say that these are these stories that we have heard in this hearing and otherwise in the community. this is the right step, and this will only serve to ratify into a city code what we hope is already there. right? we hope they're not transgressing boundaries, rules, and regulations. but this will codify it. it is a necessary measure. so thank you very much for your time. [bell rings] tweeted and lot of time, but we really appreciate your hearing those community stories. [applause] supervisor kim: thank you. >> hello. thank you for letting me speak. i attended high school that

during the vietnam war in suburban virginia, a high school mostly white middle-class, very few immigrants, certainly no muslims. one day during the war, during our mathematics class, a young marine came in to speak to us. the first thing he said was, if anyone says anything against u.s. government, i am going to throw them out that window. and our teacher, instead of standing up and saying, how dare you come in here and threaten my students and intimidate them while wearing the uniform of people who are supposed to protect us and our rights, he said on his hands. i just so san francisco does not make the same mistake now and sit on your hands. you know, stand up to protect us for who we are. thank you. [applause] supervisor kim: thank you. is there any other public comment?

>> ok, we will close public comment. >> [inaudible] >> sorry , we will reopen public comment. >> thank you. you never called my name. i am a native american and, for those who do not know and many do not know these days, we're said to have been on this continent for at least 25,000 years. and we have been the victims of genocide by the european colonialists. i, personally, am subject to surveillance and harassment of a most unusual form that i cannot believe myself. i really doubted my sanity when it first began back around 1997.

i started hearing snatches that my personal conversations with friends that i held in my car or my home, subject matter from my e-mails, being discussed, believe it or not, on national public radio and kqed public radio. as i said, i had a hard time believing it was real when it began. but now, many years later, it has continued and even intensify. i was not a political activist or an activist of any kind until around the run-up to the iraq war. so it was really strange that i was being harassed in this most unusual way, and it all began,

strangely enough, when i rebuffed the advances of an old man who still lives in my neighborhood, an old jewish man named dave. i do not even know his last night. he is a writer and is apparently directly or indirectly connected to people working at national public radio and kqed radio. after i rebuffed this mans' advances many times in our local favorite cafe, martha's on 24th street, i began hearing parts of my conversations, subject matter in my e-mails and more, discussed. [bell rings] and it continues to this day.

the latest example being yester day -- yesterday. i e-mailed a scientist, a friend, a biotech inventor about pursuing perhaps ucsf as a potential partner. this morning driving here -- [bell rings] on npr, they had a guest talking about ucsf and their bureaucracy that made it very hard for them to be a good partner -- >> thank you. >> and this is a daily -- >> thank you. that was three minutes. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> [inaudible] >> any other member of the public who would like to comment? if not, we will close public comment. >> [inaudible] supervisor kim: thank you. i know that many members could not stay.

i want to appreciate everyone who came in at the middle of the day when many folks are working and have other obligations, to sit with us through the last three hours of this hearing. it goes to show how important this is for the community and how much safer everyone would feel if all of our civil rights were in short and it investigations that took place always had a basis of reasonable suspicion, a criminal predicate, or other activity. thank you. also want to knowledge the hours and months and years of work that went into what we are seeing today, this is not something that was urgently brought forth, but this is been an ongoing issue for many years. really over the last 10 years in this country in terms of its impact to the muslim, arabic, south asian community. of course, historically we have seen racial profiling and other types of profiling for decades here in this country, and this is a continuation. it is a different target, a

different community, but many of our communities have been targeted by the fbi under the guise of national security and keeping our country safe. but what is instead happening is we have been making people feel unsafe as residents of the city. that is why it is is so important that we have this ordinance. i want to thank my colleagues for cosponsoring this. we do have six co-sponsors for this. i want to appreciate our colleagues for coming out so early in support. supervisor olague: i just wanted to thank supervisor kim for taking the lead on this and responding to the concerns of the community. i was raised in the valley, a daughter of an immigrant family, and among farmworkers. i grew up watching the raids on the fields from the ins. so nothing like this ever surprises me when i hear about

it, because i kind of have flashbacks to when i was growing up. an arm of government was used to terrorize immigrants or human beings. so, recently, i was asked to attend -- it seems like i am going all over the map, and i apologize for that, but i was asked to attend an event later in the month commemorating archbishop romero, and it sort of reminded me -- i sort of, you know, googled searched and was reminded of all the human rights violations that have been exerted against people of goodwil will. my heart is heavy after listening to all the testimony. i am exhausted, not by the length of the testimony by the content. i am sorry that people have to live with this type of fear and excited the every day of their lives, you know, constantly looking over their shoulders and

just not being certain whether or not they will be the next one targeted. as many people mentioned, many of their friends have been randomly assaulted by this sort of terrorism on behalf of, you know, our government agencies. i am just really sad and to hear that people have to live with this constant threat. having grown up during the 1970's, during the cold war, it seems like the government has the tendency to -- you know, we went from the russians, being this soviet threat of terror, and then after 9/11, it is that sort of venom that has been projected onto the middle eastern-arab communities. i think it does not take much to convince us of that. even as recently as -- i think

it was a reality tv show where a certain corporate sponsors removed their name because it focused on an american middle eastern family. so we see this constantly. i think this is but a small gesture. so i want to thank you all for being here and showing so much courage in the face of this. because it is scary in a way to have to live with this type of thing hanging over one's head. again, i want to thank supervisor kim for her leadership and to all of those who had the courage to cry and to really share the experience of what it means to be middle eastern and living in this american culture right now. because i just cannot imagine this. people talk about ptsd. well, i think you are all living

with it really, in fear in this country. yeah, i fully support this. [applause] >> supervisor mar. supervisor mar: thank you. i wanted to also say i was deeply moved by the testimony. thank you for everyone for coming out and educating us as a board of supervisors on the important issues. i also wanted to say that the arab-middle eastern-muslim-south asian communities being united like this is something that is very important, so keep building the unity. i heard tremendous solidarity from other communities that have been similarly affected. and also, people that know about the history of targeting political activism historically, not just from the 1960's movements but also to today. i appreciate those connections. i also wanted to say that, not

to be too light hearted about the issues, but i am a big fan of "portlandia," the tv show, and i expect san francisco to be ahead on the issues, but i expect -- was going to say that i was shocked by how great the police chief from portland in the memo that came to us yesterday where he states that the portland police bureau is committed to a model of community policing in which a positive connection between the police in a community contributes to the well-being of our city. that is speaking about "portlandia." it goes on to give a very good statement. we need as values in san francisco. we need to reestablish that. thank you, everyone, for protecting civil liberties and civil rights for everyone, for creating safer communities, as supervisor kim asset, and respecting san francisco's values for protecting these

interests and making our communities safer. thank you very much. [applause] >> i wanted to thank supervisor jane kim for bringing this legislation forward and also to the human rights commission for having their original hearing a couple years ago on the experience. members of the community. of course, i want to think folks who came here today and spoke of their experiences over the past many years. its banks of a lot of paranoia and -- if it speaks of a lot of paranoia that is driving out we're doing our police practices and fbi practices in this country. in a more ideal world, there would be a lot more bankers and wall street executives who would be under surveillance, not educators, artists, teachers, students, and engineers, doctors and lawyers. we do not have that kind of world. because the experience israel,

the experience of discrimination, the experience of oppression -- because the experience is real. these involve government workers, government agencies. we have to make sure we are creating a more level playing field to protect ourselves and ensure that government is playing -- not playing an active role in the kind of oppression. this is a good tool for doing that. i want to support it. i am a co-sponsor of it already. it is something that i think we can all be proud of moving forward. because we are ensuring that we are making our government, putting a firewall between abuses of our government and real protections for people. i want to thank again a supervisor kim for bringing this forward. thank you all for being here and sharing experiences. i knew -- i know it's a great deal of courage. i know with the type of unity

you have, you have a sense of power as well to see that we can get these changes made here at the board of supervisors and elsewhere. thank you very much. [applause] supervisor kim: i just wanted to thank a couple of people personally. i appreciate all the things you have given to me, but i want to acknowledge that i have played a very small role in this. the committee brought this to us and helped to write it. i want to a knowledge of john from aclu, nasrin from asian law caucus, zahara from council on america islamic relations , islamiclilyu from the arab resources -- center. i want to thank my office who worked so hard on this. i know you had a weekly friday conference calls and we're really organized around this issue. i know an immense amount of time when into it. i want to acknowledge everyone

for doing that. so thank you. [applause] supervisor campos: do we have this item like before us? do we have a motion to move it forward with recommendations? motion by supervisor olague. we will move it forward to the full board with a recommendation. [applause] do have any other items before us? >> no, mr. chairman. >> we are adjourned. thank you.

supervisor kim: that afternoon, and welcome to the rules committee for thursday, march 1, 2012. my apologies. we're waiting for sfgtv. all right, we're ready to go. good afternoon. welcome to the rules committee. i apologize for the late start because i was on the public safety commi.