that is due to the professionalism of the members and the training that each one of those receives. >> i wish that mr. lamb had touched on any one of those issues. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> good afternoon, i am here before you as a resident of san francisco and also a former officer in the 146. i am employed by the fire department, as a fire engine paramedic. and i worked for the city as a paramedic, since 1976, i am not here as a representative of the fire department i am not speaking on their behalf. we have a situation where the ambulance service is arriving at a critical point, i would call it, and that is we don't have enough of them and it is more important, what is called the medic to follow which is the situations that effect both

the police department as well as there are no vehicles available. each of you has a document which i have prepared in advance and so you have it. >> yes. >> just to be as dramatic as possible and to drive home the point is that, if somebody a police officer, shot, stabbed or suffers some short of internal injury if you get shot in the arm i can control it and stabilize you and you probably will do fine, if it is internal injuries, there is very little, that the paramedic can do in the field in an immediate sense there are a few things that we can do, what we need is a rapid immediate transport to a trauma center, with a trauma surgeon and that is the bottom line. and so the problem that we have and the reason that i am here for you is that your appointees

of the mayor and i want to ask you on our behalf, the paramedics of the city and the fire department and if you have any influence over the mayor, to lobby for us, because, we presented a plan, to solve, some of the problems, with the lack of ambulances. we asked for 9.8 million dollars, along with the comprehensive plan and we got 3 million, and it is simply not going to get us to where we need to be and hanging over our heads is a sort of that we are not meeting certain mandates by the state of california for example we should be doing 80 percent of the total 911 calls and we are barely making it past 71 or 72 percent to the extent that you have the input for the mayor of san francisco if you could lobby on our behalf for the additional money above the 3 million that he is giving us. we would be in your debt, thank

you very much. >> thank you very much. and i want to thank you for the packet and thank you for the hard work with the paramedics that serve the fire department and you are true heroes out there we do appreciate it. >> thank you, it is very kind of you. >> any further public comment? >> hearing none, the public comment is now closed. >> the chief's report, and and chief, good evening, >> very quickly, jason has a presentation that i think that everybody is interested in, and i made the report on the violent crime is down 13 percent, and part one crime is down one percent, and we are still experiencing difficulties with theft, auto theft is up, 12 percent burglary is up seven

percent and grappling what we believe to be issues with 109 and the early release of pretty much property of the criminals from the jail and then the folks refend and we are aware that the violent crime is down and i can't say enough about the partnership and the community and the jobs program from the mayor's office and the work of the unified school district and the drop out rate, that has us on a half year paced that if we did, do as well with the second half of the year, it might leave us with the lowest homicide total since we have been keeping track since 1950 and we are at 14 homicides for the year and we did percent one last friday. and in the station, valley, actually on a playground and a playground that we had schedule to start taking on the officers as we have, at garfield

playground, in ashley, and modeled on jj who is going to speak shortly in being in the willie maze clubhouse and we are going for go forward with that and obviously there were children present when this shooting occurred, and this city is putting a ton of resources in there through the department of public health. and to see if we can't get the kids to a better place and certainly any playground in any community will be a safe haven and so we will work with the mayor's office and other folks to make sure that we climb that playground for the kids. the officers were doing the best that they could and this is over the whole weekend, 70 intoxication arrests and another 75 went to centers and

felony arrests and assaults and violations and we did have a shooting at one of the venues of one of the out lying stages and that, young person was hit in the hand, and that suspect is in custody, and there were 11 misdemeanor arrests and we recovered three firearms. and so, and the entire command staff and some of the members of the commission, participated in what was possibly the biggest pride parade that i remember, so, all in all, a lot of police work got done, and a lot of fun was had by a lot of people working with the mayor's office to make next year's pride that much safer. >> with that i will close out my report and invite up officer jason johnson and his able assistant. to do a presentation on a pretty spectacular trip. >> i would also apologize in advance for officer johnson,

not being in the uniform but he is here on his own time, as he is a new father. so he is off on family leave. >> the information with the boy's club. >> he better not be. >> i was actually had my newborn son and i kind of hurry to make and... >> just today? >> yeah. >> no he was born on march 10th. >> okay. >> and i understand. >> yeah. >> and i have been there. >> congratulations. good evening, everybody, and we are back from the trip. the trip of a major success. i knew that it would be impactful, but not to the extent and i did not know that it would be coming back and doing what we are doing now. and so, some of the kids like, i believe that i told you before, have never been on a plane. and not even really been out of

san francisco. and so, we flew from here to germany. and we got to germany and you know the kids, be in germany and calling everybody and we are in germany and we were there for about 6 hours and then we flew from germany to ghana in africa. and when we first got there, it was, it was kind of late, it was real hot, and dark, and you could not see too much and this is a little bit and so, a lot of kids were excited. and you know, to the and adequate, and debrief, and we woke up early and hit the road and first we start off and i went on a small safari where they got to meet ba baboons and

we went into a bat cave and so all of the kids were like really in awe. and after that, we headed to another city called kamatzi, the home of the ashansi kingdom, the most powerful tribe in north africa and they are rich in tradition and they actually have it there today and still have a king the country itself has a president and they had a king, the kamatsi, the santi king, they had a chance to see him walk in, and you can't approach him or anything like that. he has crazy security. but we got to do that. and they got to experience, going to a village, seeing what it is like to not have running water, you have to pump your water. and getting down with the kids and playing with the kids, and going into a village where there is no electricity or

anything like that. and they were all excited at this point they were having a lot and a lot of fun. we go to a market and as soon as we get out of the van, all of these people just approaches everybody, hey, hey, buy this, we got this, and where are you from? you are from america? see what i got, see what i got. and the thing that really got them, that like really got to them is when they got into the market and all of these people are coming up to them and you say no, i want to see what she has. or everybody else that was trying to get a sale from actually helped that person get a sale from me and not really asked for anything in return, and it was like, wow. why are they helping this person and they need to get, you know, they need to make a living and so while aren't they trying to get me to go to them? and to see them work together.

was like mind blowing to them and they had a really good time. and from there, we went to cape coast. it was the main reason why we went out there to see the historical part as far as slavery. and on our way to cape coast we stopped at a village where at the time it was just a forest, and after at this particular village, they have a place called the slave river. and they call it the last bath, but it is a place where before slaves were had to walk from that village all the way to cape coast, they were cleaned, with bamboo leaves only in this river. and they had to go to the cape coast and they actually got to walk in the same path as the slaves did and they walked down these, they walked down this

forest w no clothes on and the hands shackled to their feet. and it was pretty intense and the kids, you know we got there and it was like this and everybody is having fun and exciting and then, we hit that part. you know, and everybody gets quiet and they start to think and from there we go to the slave castles and it was really intense and they could not go into some of the dungeons because they were so intense and we were fortunate enough to have steve, do the tour, he is the guy, and he no longer does tours, and he is like a legend, like when obama went, this is what he brought out to do the tour. and so we have fortunate enough to get him and it was deep. and you know, after they got to experience all of that seen and see how this slave well they

don't like to be called slaifsh they liked to be termed captives. and the things that took place in the dungeon and the thing that was really was big, and each night we have a reflection and that particular night the reflection was it was it was very powerful and i gave each student a chance to talk about how they felt. and what they spoke about is forgiveness, and you know, you know, he said that you are a people but you have to forgive and they can understand that concept, and and some of them could not talk and they could not understand it. but, it was a good opportunity

to help them realize that a lot of the kids that i deal with don't have a concept of their heritage and their culture. it is kind of like, if you take, like if you take some of your kids that like i work with on a daily basis, and you put them say somewhere like ghana and it was only the thing that you might see sooner is the way that they look and in terms of wait that they act and their motivation is completely different. and the wholly live in oak dale, or i can't go to harvard and it is all separate. but you are all of the same people. but in africa, you have all of these different tribes, and they all work together. and they also have pride in who they are, but at the same time they don't really knock anybody

else for who they are. and so, it ain't like, oh,, you know, it is okay, to represent who you are and you don't have an issue of somebody else representing who they are. and so for example, if you are irish and you have an irish and number one cool, that is good and it is not like no, africans are better, it is none, everybody will get along and proud of who they are and without knocking anybody else, really and it was, it was huge and they understood that. and a lot of the kids did not, some of them did not go to school. and the ones that, some of them that did, they were always late. and the grades was bad. and some of them disrespectful to their parents. and had an excuse for everything. but when they see what took place the whole walking from and getting captured and walking through this hot forest and being put in a dungeon and

put on the ship and ship to the americans for months and they realized that like, you know, africans are really strong people. and it kind of, it was a trip because they all and they figured it out on their own, man what am i doing? i am not taking advantage of all of these opportunities that i have here in san francisco, and the free education. and we go to a school, and the kids are and i mean that it was. it was, and first of all it is not free for everybody, they have to pay for their education and when they are in school, for cell phones and nobody is sleeping and everybody is looking straight and pay attention to instruction. and everywhere is like tripping out like i be in class and i go to sleep and i waint go to go half of the time. and but, the long story short, they came back, one of them that was not even in school, she is actually enrolled in school. she is doing what is necessary for her to graduate. and one of them is not going to graduate she is a senior and

she met with the counselors and just graduated. and one of the students, he loves basketball and loves it more than anything, but he does not really take school serious but he came back knowing that in order for him to be able to play basketball, you have to take school serious and so he actually stopped, and he put himself off of the basketball team so that he could get the grades up so that next year he could go in. and one of the young ladies had a son and i had no idea, i had been around this young lady for four years and she was kind of, she was not in school and she was not really taking care of her son. and now she is taking care of her son and she is in school full time. and i mean, it was impactful in talking to the parents, and all of them had everything, and all of them have positive things to say, but this one particular parent, i met with her and i was like, how is she responding? she is like, i would say jj, my daughter, you know, came back

and told me, she loved me and she cared about me. >> that is cool. >> no you don't understand. >> my daughter is 18 years old and has never told me that in her entire life. >> and i was like, wow, it was interesting. >> and it was to do it again, and they actually, it was hard getting the kids to go and now they came back and shared the experience and the kids are coming up to say that can i go next time? and so, yeah, that, and that i it, and she is one of the students that went and she can share what she learned from her trip. >> i know that you are not shy. >> hi, everybody, my name is iesha. i went on the trip with officer johnson. and just kind of bouncing off of what he said this experience

was life changing and i think that it was amazing because the entire group of kids that went were kids from bay view hunter's point, and you know, anyone who has been in that neighborhood, you have seen the kids and you know, it is very hard to be motivated in this neighborhood and it is very hard to a lot of kids have a hard life and it is hard to appreciate, if you will, what you have, because a lot of times it seems like you you don't have much. and you take a lot of things for granted. and, going on this trip, you know, coming from myself and a lot of my friends that went, you know, it opened our eyes to how much you have to appreciate even when it feels like you don't have anything at all. and so going to ghana and seeing these kids who have nothing, bare minimum, you know, working, walking miles, just to get water. you know, not even being able to go to school and looking at all of the opportunities that you have here in the states. and it is just a whole, it

opens your behind to everything that you take for granted and makes you appreciate your family, having a roof over your head and having running water and just the bare necessities and essentials that we take for granted every day. so, if there is anything that i really took from this trip, it was, just appreciating my mother, you know, saying thank you. you know, just for a meal. or having a great education, and being able to have a full scholarship to such an amazing school and you know, really applying myself because i can think back to when i was in africa and i was sitting there looking at all of these students, who some of them, you know, are working early mornings and still walking miles to get to school. and you know, i complain about taking muni. i am in school and i am going to go to college and not a lot of the kids in africa have the same opportunities and it was powerful and motivating and it is just something that i will never forget and i am forever grateful for everyone who made

it possible. thank you. >> so, iesha is being a little modest. she was one of the outsing of the year for the boys and girls club in 2012. >> yeah. >> so she is pretty spectacular kid too. and so just to give everybody the background and i know that a lot of people know the story, this was entirely jason's idea. and so i was all ready to blame it on him if he did not go well but it went great and he deserves all of the credit. and he got all of the money and private money and no city dollars spent on this at all, and the kids went and the other officers that went, lieutenant danger field, and i don't want to miss anybody. leon jackson out in the bay view and l*in went and did a lot of the pictures and it was a complete volunteer army and everybody came back changed and it was one of the kids when we met him at the airport he was saying that there was a young

guy that he connected with and was trying to find him but he was hustling so much in the day he could not catch up to him, he could not believe that how hard this one guy that was a regular kid in ghana pretty much hustled the entire day and was still up beat enough to entertain all of these folks and tell them their story. and so, i would imagine that this will not be the last time that jj is going across the water, but it was a great deal for all of the kids and jj was perfect. [ applause ] >> officer johnson, i should thank you so much for your presentations. it really brought the experience to light. and i actually think that it is easy for us to see that you are one of the youth of the year of 2012. >> and how many kids did you end up taking over all? >> 7 kids. >> 7? >> yeah. >> ages 14 to 18.

>> 14 to 18? >> yes. and >> i heard that you are thinking about a second trip, when is that planned for? have you thought about that yet? >> spring break of next year, march 28th, i think. >> and i understand that you had to rig all of these funds and approximately is that going to run you there, the money to do that? >> $50,000. >> okay. >> well you can count on me for your first $1,000. >> thank you. >> and i also want to say you said something here that really struck me. and africans are strong people, they are very strong people. and so, are the people that ascend from them. and i want to thank you for your demonstration of that and providing a lifetime experience that will shape their futures it is a wonderful program and thank you so much. >> thank you.

>> dr. marshall? >> you know i had you guys on the show and it was great and it was so great and i know that this is limited to san francisco and the bay view, but you know i have a bunch of calls from people all over the bay area who want to go on this trip. you naturally made an impact. why don't you say about the process that they went through, and you just picked yours out of, you know. >> right. >> why don't you talk about the process and the selection process and i thought that was really fascinating. >> yeah. >> the selection process was a three part process, one of the parts where they had to write a letter or an essay, explaining why they want to go, and why they should be selected. the second part they had to maintain a 2.0 gpa. and in the third part was they

have to display good behavior at school as well as at the boys and girls club. the requirement for the 2.0 was i think as far as next time, not sure if that will be part of the requirement because like i said one young lady after she got a passport and a ticket and everything come to find out she was not even in school. and we thought of her going now, she was going to school and have the gpa is over a 2.0. and so it might be something that somebody needs to, you know, to get their grades up. >> and i think that the point that i wanted to make was that there was preparation, which i felt was key. and a lot of thought went into that. and i know that you talked about, you know, the impact that it had on the young people, but having seen you and the other adults in the studio, i don't know who got the most out of it, you guys or the kids?

really. and it comes through here, and even as you are speaking now. and i told the kids, and i use the phrase a lot the world is bigger than the block. >> yeah. >> the most important piece of it, is their academic diplomas that she can get is their passport and i mean, obviously, for me, history and culture is just the basis of who i am and what i do. and so but for you to take them actually there, i mean, that is greater than anything that they read in a book and you read in a book. so we are going to make it happen again, and you know, he has already kicked himself and i am working on something bigger that i mentioned to you earlier to try to make this a... >> and i am working on it and i am working on it because it is just, it is just a marvelous thing and lastly, let me just, say, that all of you out there,

who paint the police with one brush, this is a police officer who did this, okay? this is a police officer, and this is the police, and i don't want to hear that, all right? i don't want to hear it. this is a police officer, sanctioned by the police chief, okay? and so it may have been the gray, and it is a great public relations thing for the department. other departments might want to try it and we know that we are doing it in san francisco and we applaud you and the chief for backing this thing and i can't think of anything, for these young people, a better thing to do and the key thing is to do it again and again and again and again. so we are going to work on that. >> okay. >> and just real quick, the or another thing that the kids came up with, after experiencing that they all have jobs this summer, they decided to pitch in and put a kid through high school.

i would be remiss in our other partner in the back there being all quiet, sullivan and the current captain in the bay view and we were both on our, and saying our, come on, jj please come back with 7 kids. anxious moments for the bay view station, but we never had to doubt, rod? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> so any way, but rob, thank you for, you know, getting them across the finish line, too. >> commissioner loftus? >> yeah. jj. officer johnson, chief, captain sullivan, you know, this is just such a lesson to me and i feel like in the time that i have known you on the commission, i have learned a lot and one of those things is that you have this bold idea where there is a million different points that you could just say that this is not going to work and whenever you are trying to do anything in the world and what i am just amazed by is that the level of difficulty in pulling this off. and you know, i sometimes i

have to take the kids up to sacramento to testify before the assembly and i am panicked to have them in the car for 90 minutes and i am a mother of three. and so taking the leap, and bringing people into it and making them a part of this and then having just the kurage, and it is what you stand for, you stand for the future for these kids and they know that and you are a powerful stand for them and it is such a point of pride for this department, i can't, i can't tell you how proud i am to serve on this commission, and i can't tell you how proud i am of this city that you are an officer here and frankly, the fact that the command staff and the captain and the chief are behind this is exactly what dr. marshall said, it is just, we spend a lot of time talking about what does not work about the police, but this is one of the most powerful examples of what does work and you guys care about and stake your life, and in a lot of sleepless nights on behalf of the command staff sfo these kids and so you have my congratulations any way that i can help.

>> i have a feeling that julia is going to invite me to a fund-raiser. >> behind you, thank you. >> and thank you for sharing your experience. >> thank you. and jj i want to tell you the impact, that this had on 7 students and i know that they were on dr. marshall's show on street soldiers, are they going to return this when they return back to school, i noticed where you went to school and i saw the track uniform that you are wearing, are you going to share that with the fellow students? >> yeah, i did. i primarily shared it with my history class and just kind of my teacher was really interested because that is what we were learning about at the time and to hear it first hand because we are learning about the atlantic slave trade and i was able to give the brutal truth and for me that was orewarding because i know that a lot of kids are sheltered and don't understand and i can't say that i have understood because i have been reading the same textbooks my entire life and not fully understanding how strong and how proud i should be to be