these incidents. uni know that that is not right. i want to commend the efforts under way by the housing authority to bring more synergy to the response. it is not a police problem exclusively. it is a combined problem. every department needs to be pulled back and looked at a quarterly basis to quantify best practices. it is not a department of children youth problem because they do not have the authority to exceed other departments that need to be part of the discussion. i want to encourage you to increase reliance on the university's as well as the philanthropic community to bring us up to a state of the art best practices systemic response. one of the things the police can do immediately as the first respondents to a scene is provide multi language information regarding resources for people who are directly and tangentially involved. maybe more information will be forthright. again, we want to commend and

thank you for continuing to make this a priority for the city. we are available to assist. economic justice is that the court. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. marlenetran, spokesperson for the visitation vallate asian alliance. also, ed district attorney gaston's group. last night, the standard trustco police commission held a meeting in visitation valley. many of the people that attended last night, including chief sur, paul henderson, mary harris, and many others were there. i wanted to thank sharon for working with the closely regarding the issues in visitation valley. actually, for years, we all know

that there has been disturdentst sector. we have the highest homicide rates on our youth, mainly because of gun violence. why does it take a terrible tragedy, like the aurora shootings to make people understand all this going on? we need to work vigorously to ban assault weapons, the sale of firearms and ammunition via the internet, and easy accessibility of guns in the city. will san francisco take the lead to address these serious issues? my request when everyone mentions this is, if not now, when? we talk about it, we cry about it, we pray about it, but we have not been able to really do anything about gun-control. obviously, prevention and

intervention is the best measure. i feel a lot of sympathy for mary scott's healing circle. i have been there to lobby and help them also in the past. i think this ongoing issue with gun-control is to rampant. we need to do something about it. before i close, i want to show you what guns have been doing to america. i hope this shows it. supervisor avalos: thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is sheila greer.

i would like to thank the supervisors first for hearing me this morning. i am a victim of murder, a witness. i came forward to san francisco and i stood up for what i believed. i believe in what you guys said, what you said about our communities. now the city is leaving me with a $3,000 balance, leaving me with paying rent above what i get a month. they also discontinued me out of the witness protection program. what i'm trying to let you know is you are not doing enough. you want people to come forward but when people come forward, you get screwed by the witness protection program.

mr. kerrigan, his favorite thing is opt out of the program. i had two sons murdered and killed in san francisco. i had one killed in the alemany projects. they told me -- and i still stood up for the murder. first he got shot and i testified. i did everything that i told them i would do. they also assured me that they would take care of this. now they come back and tell me that they cannot take care of the bill. also, because they did not take care of what they said they would take care of, and they assured me that they would, and they live and strong me along. i got the man captured, convicted, and sentenced to 205 years for this murder. he was molesting children. two of the children were being

molested in the home, and you want people to stand up and speak up, and then you want to kick them out of the program with nothing? you gave me -- gascon gave me a national award. i have no where to put this award. i am a person that speaks out for what is right. we are citizens of san francisco. we should not be scared to stand up and stay in our homes and not cooperate. we have to cooperate with the police and everything, but you guys have to do right by us. they told me yesterday that if i did not turn in, i would be filed with federal charges and now i am a criminal. imagine that? all i did was stand up for what was right. i did what was right by my community. my mother is a pioneer of bayview hunters point.

people of color, we are not getting our just due with the witness protection program. they need to step up their game, and when you tell somebody you are going to do something, you need to step up and do it. >> i concur with you, sheila. i know your sons and the ins did you are speaking up. we have the housing authority, city attorney, and i just lost focus for the of what i wanted to say. we have been basing this for years. homicide's written for other projects. people come forward. they had no relocation. that is when kamela harris was here. you on the to step up to the plate. how much money are we spending in prevention and homicide? all of these services they spoke of, crn and all that, what does

that mean, when dcyf is coming around looking for everybody? when you look at the homicides, you spend about $1 million on homicide and we cannot get no economic program to come to the community. when it comes to bayview, we are going to roll this out. we have five men coming from park and representative. we have all this stuff going on. but then when it comes to omi, there is nothing left for us. i want to commend you for bringing this issue up. that is a beautiful thing. but we cannot with proposition a. it lost by 1000 votes. you know what that was about? $5 million going to economically-deprived communities. bayview, western addition, and

lakeview. you know what that would have done? the ymca, could well, somebody like that. you are overlooking african- americans. how many homicides have the police department's stop? open cases, open cases. commander holder, god bless him, years ago, he would kick in doors and get stuff done but he was kicked out. this is by design. they do not one but people here. all the development happening, there is no revenue. all they are doing with that money, why is there no revenue- generating businesses? they have a downside because they expect the black people to be there. it is a charade. bring in some private funding and let us get something going to help these kids get their

life going, show them how to run businesses. we have city departments looking over our shoulder. we are trying to be a positive influence but they want to look at us by the numbers. we are superseding the numbers but they will not come up with any creative stuff. we are going to help you all do this. we are looking for you, supervisors. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker please. >> i am the coach executive director of inner-city youth. i am here to talk about bringing more resources to agencies that are on the ground working with young people affected by violence every day. we are located on 96 broad street. the third murder happened down

the street from us. one of my staff actually went out to the scene to try to revive a young man. she was unsuccessful. he died in front of her and in front of the community. he was shot in daylight. he was a former participant. he had just come to the center to access summit plummet services. for an agency like inner-city youth, i think we're the only funded bp agency in the omi. the entire community comes to us because they see us as advocates, as a place that they can go to get help. we are more than willing to provide that assistance but we need some support from the city. we need that investment, or at least referrals. i cannot refer anybody to sunnyvale, hunters point, western addition. i have to come up with travel costs. we need some real assistance and

real, tangible opportunities we can provide for these young people. i refuse to close my doors to them, even if i do not have the money. thank you. >> i am also with inner-city youth of san francisco. we're at the corner of broad and plymouth. i want to think of surprises for initiating this discussion. yesterday, we had a short meeting with young people and staff to come up with some solutions to prevention of homicide, and all the talking about what happens in the community in the aftermath. we came up with a couple of things. young people said that following a homicide, the whole community physically comes out. they said generally the police on the scene do not make them feel safe or protected, but they perceive them as looking for information, which as we know in the community is stigmatized, and sometimes life-threatening.

they said if dph or mobile crisis was able to offer three to four mental health workers on the scene, that would provide some sort of day consoling buffer in that time period. they also said that having the crn and community front line workers there is great, but with the absence of trained clinicians, it is not as and tactful. another solution the staff came up with was 4 dph to issue an rfp for organization working directly with those impacted with ptsd. a lot of times, nonprofits like us are not funded at a high level. as a result, we do not have the capacity to have a mfw on staff. if we were able to access mental health services for a long term period, it would be impeccable in the long run. they also said, in 2002,

supervisor avalos, there was a boxing program at one of the gyms. we know that boxing is something of a pre -- antidote for dealing with anger or other problems with young people. we encourage you to see if there is any way to bring the program back or access the old equipment. lastly, perpetrators of violence are also victims of violence. as we look into that, when we are talking about doing trauma work that is so necessary, we need to look at going into our jails and prisons and hospitals to make sure the cycle of violence does not continue and we can have a long-term solution. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you very much. before the next speaker, i will call some more names. the ness said jackson. francisco de costa.

sebatien contera. mary harris. violet. we line up on the other side and please come forward to speak. >> supervisors, you understand, in this city, we have about 805,000 constituents. the city budget, you will understand, having worked on the budget before, we have a $7.2 billion budget. now, i have attended over 242 funerals. when we see the city department

and some of the heads of the department coming here, they are representing something as if they are representing -- presenting it for a grant. these people do not have the guts -- the mayor's office representative, all the others -- to go into the community, walk into the community, knock on the doors of the community, and find out what is really happening. so we spend thousands of dollars addressing this step and the other. we have a community for listing documents that everybody has, including all of the supervisors have read it at some time, but none of you want to implement it. so, today, some of the members,

some mothers, have come and spoken to you about gentrification, about lack of quality of life issues, and what do our supervisors do? what do our authorities do? they waste millions of dollars trying to put the sheriff on trial. imagine a city and the sheriff cannot carry a gun. what kind of joke is this? where are your priorities? we have been in the trenches for a long time, and so has ross mirkarimi. i know all of the police command, the chief, and the other deputies that are here,

all the police authorities that gave their presentation, i had met them personally and spoke to them about environmental concerns. this dog and pony show can only take a so far. we need you in the community talking to focus groups, talking to the mothers, talking to the victims. thank you very much. supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker please. >> my name is vanessa jackson. i met with you several times. i work with parents and at risk youth, and i do a lot with the gain in junction -- gang injunction. the work that i do, i do not get paid for it. i love my community and i have

watched my kids been shot. i have watched people die in my arms. i know they have all the services, but some of these services just do not work. they need some more tailor-made services. the problem i have, i work with the family who is on the witness protection, who once i talk to the city investigator, he complained that he gave them almost $10,000 and he was not doing any more. this lady was a witness to a murder. and her husband was killed. she was a teacher for the san francisco school district. she is now an apology. she was moving her stuff by bus. the man said that he would not give them any more money. their kids cannot even play outside. they are riding their bicycles in the living room. this does not make any sense. our people are getting sold out for pennies. i have another client that would

testify to a murder, and now that it is over, she had a warrant out for her arrest and is in jail. this is ridiculous. is this the protective custody by your offering? it does not make any sense. you asked us to do certain things, but then you do not follow through on what your instructions are supposed to be. you know what i'm saying? if i was wearing black and i had a silver badge, you would fly me to where i need to go, but no blood is red. you made a choice to be an officer, and you are going to cover them, but the community, you cannot cover them. i can go to the bottle and cents off for a ded in because they are dead, we do not even get a nickel. you want to bring in people with felonies or have been convicted. it does not matter. you have a dead child, dead

mother, dead mother. it is not worth a dime but you want to set up this dinners and cooked popcorn and cotton candy for somebody's life? that makes no sense. this city is ridiculous. i just graduated. there 1 million african- american people incarcerated in the prisons but 50% come from san francisco. you have all the cash. this is the only place where the officers are not getting laid off, but they are planning people. especially at anglesite. they are so rude and nasty and a talk to you like you have done something. you want people to testify and to write. you have to treat people right. otherwise, you are going to have some stuff happening in san francisco because people will not take it anymore. supervisor avalos: thank you.

>> i am the transitional aid case you manager at the omi beacon center. i want to thank you for calling this hearing. the recent violence that has what the community has really impacted our community centers, not just the youth that attend, but also the staff members. we are related to and friends with a lot of the victims in the community and it has been devastating. some of the programs we provide, tailor-made is a bout prevention program where we try to address the individual needs of the youth and provide wraparound services. this is one of the case managers in the program and these are some of the youth in the program. in terms of a solution, we are advocating for more workforce development dollars to create more opportunities for young people to get off the streets. the less young people we have on the streets, the less people will be dying on the streets. we are teaching people to make

money in a legitimate and productive way and giving them tangible hands on job skills. i wanted to let some of you talk about their experience with the program as well. >> my name is jp, i am with tailor-made, a gang violence prevention program. i agree with somebody who had mentioned the engleside police department treelike come. whether you are on the streets or not. there are so many -- people are maun-living in my neighborhood. i am one of the people that used to participate in that. these are one of the program the need to be funded. i recently turned 18. i am not try to go to jail but sometimes i have to do shady things to survive. hi i and try to get off the streets with programs like this. they need more money. they need to be funded.

they need to be appreciated more. and that's that. >> thank you, supervisor. i wanted to ijp. forgive me for bringing this up. he has been with us since the sixth grade. one of this dream was not to go to prison and become a gang leader. after coming through a program and thus helping him to think about what life has to offer him, he is making better choices and better decisions. i am the son of a mother who had to bury her son. this man took my family to a place where we did not want to be. i am a victim of gang violence on the street. my brother was killed in 1989 over a parking space. i watched my mother die in her eyes when she had to bury her son. i watch my family died because they had to bury a son.

our table is missing one person at thanksgiving, missing one person at christmas. you know what? i had to make a conscious decision not to follow in the footsteps because he was my role model. we have the omi beacon center, all sorts of different places to go to, but i'll want to stress, if we can look a bit deeper in the financial budget and just make sure everybody gets an equal shot, so it does not cause a divide within the community. i work closely with icy and other agencies. because the finances are different, we're almost at odds. i just want to say thank you for giving us this opportunity. god bless san francisco. supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is leah weiss, i'm here

representing the burnie heights community center. there was another tragic event where three members of a family were murdered. during this loss, one of you decided to ignore it -- organize a peace march to recognize the lives lost and the pain for the family and community. it was to make a statement that the young people in the community care. since then, the vernal heights community center has supported us by organizing community events with a main goal of helping to break old patterns of violence, as well as hoping that we can have a different dialogue with law enforcement in the area. as we have heard from others, the members of the excelsior -- engleside police department and community have negative relationship with one another. we incurred in by police officers to take part in the workshops and not necessarily be there as observers but as

participants, so that we can start a new dialogue. also to change the training that is required by the police department to have the police officers take part of these conversations so that they are more well-informed and can be members of the community and not looked at as a disembodied force. we would like to also encourage that everyone as individuals would be accountable to the community as a collective. at this point, i want to extend and in by to everybody for our next event on august 10. we are having an open mic called speak your piece. we do not want to feed into the isolation in our community but actually bring people together. helping san francisco's communities build ever upwards. here is another member of our program. her name is a pilot. she will talk about her experiences with us. -- violet. >> hello, my name is violet va

squez. i live in areas which are known to be violent. i also attend balboa high school. i have been involved in a lot of violent activities, including losing family members to violence and also being held at gunpoint myself, and other violence appeared in the past six months, i have also been helping to organize two events. one youth summit in may. now i'm helping to put together an open mic involving poetry. these two events have helped me express myself in a way where i do not have to turn to violence. to be able to write poetry by using my pen and paper, instead of using my fists to fight off a person. that 15 years old, it if i was not involved in this program, i would probably be in the juvenile justice system.

because of these two events, they have been helping me along the way to deal with a lot of problems at home and in the community. they also give me a sense to not put myself in dangerous situations and have responsibility to help the community. i would also like to invite the community and the board to the open mic we are holding august 10 from 4:00 until 6:00 at the excelsior community center. thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon, supervisors. thank you, supervisors and avalos and olague for having this hearing. and for asking the questions that you are asking. i would be remiss if i did not thank chief