those that don't drive have a hard time getting on the dangerous 92 to meet with them in the morning and we're all looking forward to being able to take greater appreciation of our open space and i think there are environmental issues to keep in mind and i think habitat restoration maintenance happen best when there are members of the public actually out there able to see things and appreciate the dangers of oak death and the drought on our public spaces. >> very good. thank you. are there any other members of the public that would like to comment? seeing none. public comment is now closed on this item. and we will close out this hearing. i think supervisor wiener will have comments as well but i want to thank everyone for coming out and most of all thank the public utilities commission and their work in coordination with the

golden gate recreation area, with san mateo county as well and other agencies to help move this forward. i actually do -- i heard several theme thases were part of this hearing. collaboration was key, especially under scored at the very end of the hearing, but of course that we actually move forward responsibly opening access without dosens, but doing so in a way that we can look at having a strong stewardship program, one that can maintain the trails that don't need to be constructed wholly but in need of care and the habitat that is there and the sensitive species and i am excited that we're seeing that coordination happen and i think urgency is going to be really important especially when it comes to the east west connections, not just from the ridge trail down to the ocean

pacifica, but east west connections that could cross the watershed areas as well that could create the kind of loops that would not mean that you have to go from one end to the other completely but shoulder trails to hike or bike or enjoyment of the nature so i want to say thank you to everyone for coming out and i am excited about this moving forward, the work that has been done so far and i will yield to supervisor wiener if he has any comments. >> thank you supervisor avalos and thank you to you and your staff and work on really moving towards expanding recreational access to this really majestic area in our urbanized region. it's interesting when you talk about our natural resources it's always a balance because you want to preserve and keep things

in their very pristine and natural state, but you also want to make sure that people have access, and the access is not -- it is of course to make sure that people are able to utilize and enjoy these spaces and incorporate it into their lives, and we as a region need more open space, but there are also advantages to the overall movement for good environmental stewardship by allowing access. you know it's interesting in the last item that we heard before this for those here that we recommended legislation to ban the use of exotic animals for entertainment purposes what is exempted from that legislation are zoos and aquariums because abusing animals is a bad thing but allowing people to experience animals builds support for the humane and good treatment of animals, and when

people especially children but people in general can experience animals and see how amazing they are it only builds support for the broader movement. the same is true with our public lands. when people are actually able to experience the absolute majesty of lands like this watershed it only builds support for good stewardship and for working not just here but around the world to preserve our open space, our for ests, our watersheds, and allowing people to experience that beauty only has positive benefits. of course it has to be done in an environmentally sensitive way. i have a lot of respect for mr. sig and the si era club and i completely understand the concerns and i know from everything i heard from the puc this is going to be

done in a very responsible way and not haphazard way and i think we can strike a balance so i am glad to see the direction we're moving in. >> thank you supervisor wiener. supervisor avalos and wiener would you like to table it? >> file. we could file the item. >> so we have a motion to file. could we do that without objection? [gavel] thank you to everyone coming out to speak. the next item mr. evans could you call item 3. >> item 3 is a hearing addressing bias in the san francisco justice system and requesting that the public defender, and office of citizen complaints and district attorney to report. >> thank you and as our speakers from the last item leave quietly i wanted to say we're joined by our president london breed and malia cohen and supervisor avalos is staying and david campos couldn't be here with us, but very briefly so we can hear the public comment and

the presentations the five of us supervisors are responding to the recent reports of the racist and homophobic texts that were reviewed in the san francisco police department. we called for this hearing and engage the police department and the city organizations to address the issue. i wanted to thank officers for justice and the leadership here and many community based groups being here with us. i wanted to acknowledge we will hear from the public defender jeff hi darby and thank you to chief chief and others that are here and staff for the district attorney george gaston and the chair of the human rights commission and many others. thank you to reverend amos brown and naacp and the aclu from california and just cause and a number of other speakers.

valerie from the mission police collaborative and many others. i just wanted to start briefly by saying that these text messages demonstrate to me that racism and home phobia and other issues are a significant problem and maybe a culture within the police department and our justice system and i feel that we cannot let this poison the justice system. i think it's important that the law enforcement agencies and others here today up hold civil rights for officers for justice and it must be under a system free of bias. free of bias that is also conscious bias and unconscious biaslet public defender will point out but to me what is more

worry some we don't have a clear picture of how the clear biases from police officers play out on the streets or in the courts. at this hearing we will discuss how the police departments and agencies and community groups have historically come up with strategies to address these biases within the institutions and the culture of policing and law enforcement. i think we're trying to do our best to address the issue from a long-term perspective. this hearing will be the first. my hope is we will human this to the call of the chair and come back within a couple of months, perhaps in june, to hear more data and information about strategies. also my suggestions as the chair of the public safety committee will come from the or pointed out after the presentations. i think the racial justice committee of the public defender and the 10.program is a good place to start. the hiring process in the department of human resources within the police department with vigorous

screening of applicants and weed out those with biases but ongoing screening so we can pay more attention to those issues continually screening for bias within the department. i also believe that the task force called for our district attorney george gast ron is a good first step but independent investigation as the sheriff ross mirkarimi and public defender have called for is also in order. i also wanted to say that data must be gathered and i know some of the comments brought up today is not only the traffic stop data but perhaps stop and frisk and detention data maybe necessary to understand the depth of issues of dais and lastly whether it's academies or the field training within the department how we look at how ongoing trainings

for practical trainings on conscious and unconscious racism and bias maybe necessary to move forward as well. with they would like to ask my colleagues would like to give opening, remarks before we hear from the guests. supervisor breed. >> thank you supervisor and thank you to everyone that is here today. i am looking forward to the presentation. we clearly supervisor mar outlined where we called this hearing. we think it's important to have these discussions to find out specifically what is going on and how we need to address some of the challenges that we face in the city as it relates to the police department, and making sure that good relationships develop between our communities and the department. that we are hiring the kinds of officers that represent san francisco and represent the department well; that we deal with these issues

swiftly especially these issues around text messaging but we also keep in mind that we have police officers out there that are good police officers who are risking their lives everyday to protect the city, and part of what we have to do is make sure that those officers that are doing anything counter to that are not members of our police department, and so a big part of the discussion i am looking forward to is yes, there are things we need to do. yes, there are things we can do better with the department, but ultimately no amount of training is going to change someone who would send text messages of this nature back and forth and think it's okay or funny or anything of that nature and i think a lot of the folks here today would agree with me that people like that should never be part of the san francisco police department and now we need to look at what we're doing as a city and this

isn't just about discipline and firing police officers. it's also looking at the cases these officers were involved in so i want to accomplish today is hear from the various departments to understand exactly what is going on and what is our game plan so we can assure the public that we're taking care of this and to make sure that we prevent this from ever happening again thank you so much so for being here and i am looking forward to the discussion. >> thank you president breed. i am sorry. i forgot to mention the director of office of citizen complaints and joyce hicks and the first one to arrive and my apologies for not mentioning that. i wanted to say that supervisor campos wanted to be here but couldn't and i know the office of citizen complaints is a goal of his out of this hearing. supervisor cohen or supervisor avalos would you like to make opening

remarks. >> yes thank you very much. i am glad to see people here and taking an interest of what is happening in san francisco and thank supervisor mar for pulling us together and grateful. i think it is important and needless to say when we read the hateful meajses that were sent by the officers many of us were disgusted, angry and disappointed but it's good to note there are very good officers who put their livesos the line everyday and like there are good public servants there are not so good ones and those are indictd and dismissed but today's hearing is discuss bias in the entire san francisco justice system because of the nature of the messages i understand most of this is focused on the police department but going forward we all need to work together to figure out how we can as a city eradicate this type of ignorance and racism and sex yism from the justice system and it's not something that

will happen in an hour hearing that we're going to conduct today. the messages sent by the officers represent a culture that i do not believe is innate within the entire police department but more of a cancerous culture within the department, a culture that affects many african-american men the most so we have to ban together and figure out how to cure it and cut it out and get back to a healthy state and if we don't the entire system will remain infected and we focus on the police department because they're the face of our law enforcement system and why i consistently make the point that the police force should be reflective of the community it serves and will continue to do so on that level of advocacy. we can deal with overt racism and bias and by nature it presents itself clearly. now

it's the implicit bias is what i am concerned about. this is why i along with my colleagues consistently made the point that we truly need a robust and ongoing cultural competency training for all of our officers and so there's a couple of things i want to highlight today to get out of the hearing today. i want a understanding how we got to this point and secondly i want a real systemic change and discussion real changes about where we're going and how we will ensure we don't come to this ugly place again. i am anxious to hear from the departments on how we're going to continue to work together on ensure that the incidents like this are discovered if more exists, and how this sort of behavior affects past cases and how it's going we can prevent it in the future so with they

believe supervisor avalos you have a couple of things you want to throw in there? >> let's have a hearing. >> all right. >> thank you. i did want to first read a short statement from the office of just and i think it captures what happened in the last weeks since the revelation of the text and i want to thank yolanda williams and one of the founding members marianne jackson and rodney williams and other officers for justice and after the text were revealed they wrote an immediate statement and said they were outraged and disappointed that there are sworn members of the police department that are engaging in these despicable racist activities and conversations. at this time we want all members of the san francisco police department who are responsible for the texting

publicly identified as it is an apparent officer safety issue for our members and citizens of san francisco. the limited text messages we were provided identify association with the klu klux klan, white supremacy, ideally and threats to kill "in bred children" and derog tors to minorities and including hispanics, african-americans, lgbt et cetera and others and in addition to references as women as "b" word and i will say that's the quote from the officers of justice and i wanted thank them for being here. the first presenter before chief sure speaks is jeff hi darby, our den den and followed by chief suhr and the district attorney's office and susan

christian from the human rights commission followed by joyce hicks if she would like to make remarks. we will hear from you reverend brown. >> [inaudible] >> we will try to get through the presentation as quickly as we can and reverend brown and the naacp we will get to you. yes. >> thank you very much supervisor mar and supervisors for calling this hearing. my office, the public defender's office provide representation to 20,000 people a year. i have worked in the system for over 30 years. i think i have a good handle on the issue and problem of racial bias which is permeated in the criminal justice system for the time i have been around and much longer. we learned this year there was a serious of texts --

series of texts discovered on a cell phone. these statements were made public by a filing from the u.s. attorney in his corruption case. included in the texts were statements "do you celebrate kwanza at your school, november 9, 2011 to a civilian from the sergeant. "yeah we burn the cross on the field and then celebrate whiteness." he wrote to another police officer "i hate to tell you my friend is over with kids and her husband is black is an attorney and should i be worried. the officer wrote back get your pocket gun and if the monkey needs to be put down." there are many other texts that are homophobic. there are texts about asian americans and

repeated references to the "n" word. in response there was a press conference called the next day by the attorney and later a press conference where the sergeant spoke and they basically said it was just a joke and nothing that was said carried over into what was on the streets. i just want to give you a sense of what is happening on the streets and how this translates into incidents, interactions involving citizens. this is a interview with michael gabrias who had an interaction with one of the officers that was identified, officer scrab as the officer involved in the texts. can you please tell us your name. michael -- [inaudible] now you had had

reported an incident that occurred some years ago. can you tell us what happened to you and when it occurred? >> yeah mid-january 2007 i was leaning agency an a tm on market street and an officer pulled up. i locked eyes with one of the officers and i turned my head away and i was looked at my phone and what are you doing here? [inaudible] ended up searching me and pulled -- [inaudible] and they [inaudible] were on the album cover so he said "these niggers and monkeys can't spell. all they do is sell drugs to put out the music" and long story short i got a

misdemeanor violation and he begins ranting about monkeys and niggers -- [inaudible] sagging pants and i am getting mad just speaking about it and i was terrified. [inaudible] this nigger right here. this monkey right here. this monkey has nothing to live for. you monkeys have no upbringing. yeah, i have a home. he says not you. not you. you're different. i can tell by the way you walk and you know how to pronouncate words. you know what i am talk about michael. these niggers -- i [inaudible] and i was scared and i remember one at the station and looking at the partner and never said a world the whole ride and the partner -- [inaudible] and i almost cried when he said that. you're not going to speak up against this guy and i don't know and i know it's him

because i saw him in 2011 [inaudible] and that name -- i will never forget the name [inaudible] >> do you know his budget number? >> yes, sir. i will never forget. >> okay. thank you very much. >> i want to share just one other statement. this is from ms. wheeler, a ph.d candidate studying in london now and had an incident with ian ferminger. >> please tell us your name. >> my name is nora wheeler. >> okay. how old are you? where do you live? >> i am 37 and i live in england at the moment. >> and please tell us what your ethnic background is?

>> i am african-american. >> and did you come in contact with a police officer named ian fer minger some years ago? >> yes, i did. >> and please tell us what happened? >> a friend and i were leaving a location and i was approached and stopped by an officer -- a person that didn't identify themselves and they were trying to take the keys out of my car. i was then pulled out of my car and found out this person was an officer. i was arrested and i was put into a paddy wagon and that's where i came into contact with that officer. i was in the wagon and pretty much they drove around san francisco were playing loud music and i felled up falling over inside the van and i asked can you -- i have

fallen. he repeatedly told me to shut up and keep my mouth quiet and put up the volume and kept on driving. eventually when we got to the police station and i was waiting and she arrived and we were sitting there on a bench i started to talk to her and he said "shut your mouth. don't speak to each other" and he commanded another officer to remove my friend and place her somewhere else. he then after doing going -- he was there for a couple of moments and when he came back he said "[inaudible] in a cage and stick her where she belongs" i was a bar bar yick women -- [inaudible] and while looking at me so i was called a barbaric woman and to be locked up in a

cage where i belonged and a discriminatory comment to someone who is african-american. >> okay. what else happened to you as a result of this experience? >> well, as a result of that experience the following day i filed a complaint with the occ office complaint particularly against the officers because i was pulled out of the car, hair was pulled out. i had bruises and scrapes on my face and on my body and hands et cetera and occ complaint. they took pictures. when i had hired a public defender and had to go get the occ report and also get the pictures they disappeared. the person that -- we don't know where they're at. we don't have

them and that's all they would tell me. it's not like we will go and look for them. it's just "we don't know where they're at" and that's it and i did a follow up complaint but the evidence was missing. >> what motivated for you to come forward after all these years? >> what motivated me to come forward is one i don't believe in misjudging and mistreating people. more so because of the way i was treated by this officer. i will never forget that name. a lasting negative impression on my life and how i feel about officers in general. i don't trust officers. for a long time following that event i was having anxiety if i saw an officer. i was literally panicked having anxiety attacks and i came forward because i

don't believe that -- i don't believe he should be an officer or officer vasquez and ferminger and he's -- i believe my assault by the police department -- as an officer was racially motivated and that's why i came forward and i am sure i'm not the only african-american person that experienced this and i maybe one that is in a good position many years later to come forward and help get him off of the street as an officer and that's why i came forward and i want peace of mind. i think for me this will help bring closure. >> thank you very much ms. wheeler. >> these are just a couple of examples of the statements that i have learned of, and i recorded to bring today, and again this is not to say that every officer in the police department or everyone that works in the court system --

certainly there are a lot of good people that work in the justice system. i think most people try to do their best but the reality is if you look at the numbers there's no question beyond a reasonable doubt that our system in san francisco suffers deeply and engrained in institutional racism. at every step in the criminal justice system i'm going to start first with traffic stops on the powerpoint here. this is according to sfpd statistics in 2013 and shows that african-americans are three times more likely to be stopped for traffic offenses than whites, three times more likely and if you look at the statistics here comparing san francisco you look at the demographics of both san francisco and drivers stopped by race almost three times the number of african-americans who reside in san francisco are stopped for traffic violations. look at oakland. oakland has a

demographic, a population of african-americans of 28% and they stop 62%. we are almost three times that, three times that in san francisco. when you look at arrests african-american people in san francisco according to the aclu 2013 study were four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession and to his credit when the statistic came out chief sure ordered the police department and i don't want to misspeak and not make the arrest frs this. according to this study from 2012 and african-americans experienced arrests 19 times higher than others in san francisco and seven times high