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 higher than african-americans early where in california and i have a copy of the report attached to the report i gave you. >> >> african-americans are 6% of san francisco's population -- actually less but they're seven

more times likely to be arrested than whites who represent 41% of the city's population. this is from the california department of justice. african-american female youth and this is insane account for over 40% of the felony drug arrests of african-american arrests in the entire state and remember our population is under a million and this is the same report and have rates 50 times higher than others. and despite the disproportionate arrests and study after study that shows drug use and abuse that african-americans and whites use drugs at the same rate and if you look at the people that over dorsed in san francisco and 62% were white. if you look at the san francisco jail population under 6% now of san franciscans

are african-american yet 56% of jail inmates are black. whitings make up 22% and 42% of san francisco -- latino americans 15% and asian and the statistics are here and wildly disproportionate. for youth it's no better. african-americans ages 18-25 are the largest demographic in the san francisco county jail and the population of san francisco juvenile hall is about 51% black and 6.6% white. this indicates that's 50 times more likely for an incarcerated black youth to be be at the youth guidance center. according to usa today san francisco is one of the cities listed along with 1580 other police departments that

have higher arrest rates of black people, higher than in ferguson. in terms of in a criminal case one of the first things that occurs is the bail setting. these are national studies. we don't have any studies for san francisco but this shows that black defends are assigned greater bail levels than the white counter parts when they're accused of similar offenses and as a result have lower probabilities of getting out of jail. that is 2010 study. according to the stanford 1994 study due to implicit bias judges set bail 25% higher for blacks than whites. it's also been found in a study by paterson and lynch judges are less likely to give black suspects the benefit of

like whites and this study was on the manhattan da's office and we had a similar one in of the district attorney's office and he invited them to do that study but they found that blacks and latinos charged with drug offenses were less likely to get three offers and found that blacks were 27% and latinos 18% more likely to receive a jail offer and this is the plea bargaining process. in sentencing the study from the journal of legal studies and done by an economists and not a justice system professor and found that black defendants are 30% more likely to be in print prison for the same crime and

judges take race into account and at a punish differently based on the race and only at the race even when they looked at other factors and judges are more likely to sentence black defendants to prison than whites. and there was a study from duke in 2012 and juries from all white jury pools in florida convicted blacks more often than whites and this is a huge issue in san francisco and from the jury pools we see now we're lucky to see a few african-americans in a panel of 80, 90 jurors so it shows there is a direct correlation between the race of the jurors and the race of the defendant and it's interesting they found this this gap was nearly eliminated when there was at least one member of the jury

pool who was african-american. so how do we address racial bias in a justice system system? it's access to point fingers and it's you or that department or that department and that's certainly not my point here. obviously when we have officers who are engaging and exhibiting expressed racial bias like we do with the texts they shouldn't be on the force. i think everybody here -- well, when i say everybody here, but certainly everyone from the chief to the police officers association, officers for justice have expressed that sentiment, but the bigger problem in my view is unconscious bias and when we talk about this it is a residue that we have in our minds that is relying on stereotypes as a default, on prejudices that we may have, on fear. there's

actually a part of the brain called the a mig dalaand responds to perceived fear so if we see someone because of our own biases and our experiences and something we read or seen even on tv we respond to that. our brain has a physiological response that telegraphs danger and this is very, very dangerous when it comes to decision making in the criminal justice system. there is a whole science behind this ask a test developed by harvard. anyone can go online and take it and it creates associations as you're going through this. you take it on the computer and punch the key to indicate your choice and it will give you a score at the end and it actually shows the amount of bias you may have and towards people, towards products that you buy, towards food, and it

is really a part of human nature which is what makes it scary. they even have an implicit association test you can take that you're simulating pressing a gun on the computer board and have different people come out and have a white person come out with a bag of groceries and then a gun and a black person do the same thing and what happens you see it again and again people are going to punch that key and pull the trigger when they see an african-american much more than if they see a white american. most of the tests only involved white and black subjects. it's impossible i think for anyone to try to suggest what the solutions are, but i think we have to start somewhere and how do you legislate away racism or sort

of wrong thinking? that's very difficult to do but i do think we can take a big step by measuring bias, and we've already taken that step to one extent with traffic violations. sfpd now reports on traffic stops. but we should extend it to detentions whether or not it results in a arrest or not, who is being detained? who is being frisked and searched? who is being arrested and tracked for racial disparities? we just started doing this. we have a racial justice committee and we have a partnership with the center at the university of pencil zaneia and we need to do this and they do this and the chief

said and they need to follow up and make sure that the reports when they occur are taken seriously. i think that it's important that we require officers who witness others who are engaging in this conduct -- right, because we had the first person talk about how one officer was silent while the other officer made all of the racial epithets and the other officer told him to just keep his head up. that's the solution. well that conduct should have been reported to the superior officer and having a general order that requires that or a policy that requires that i think would go a long way because an officer who acts in that way should be rewarded. i saw a television report on the three receives that came forward and reported that one of the fellow officers had stolen money from the lgbt fund but what struck me when i saw the officers on tv they were in the

shadows. they weren't allow their faces to be seen and i think that sends a powerful message to the citizenry you can't speak out. if another officer can't speak out when an officer has misconduct how do they expect citizens to do the same? obviously vetting officerrings for racial bias and i'm not an expert in that and i know there is testing and there has to be training. i understand there was a training on bias and sistivity and i maybe wrong but it was stopped and i think it should be continued and also there needs to be an implicit bias component. you can do the same thing for our staffs. about two years ago someone came to me and say why don't you do a training on implicitly bias? we're public defenders and represent

people of comfortable and what are you talking about? and after i saw the presentation i realized we need to do this and public defenders and attorneys suffer fromace as well and we did a film and discussion on bias and attorneys in the office and a seven hour commitment but we did it on a non workday. we also did another training this year. it's very fortunate because for example the defense attorney who harbors unconscious racist bias might not try as hard for this kline closed to this client. >> >> could you wrap up? >> sure. i am just about done. i would just note that bay area police departments have began recording the races of the people they stop and arrest and some make it all but impossible for the public to gain access to the data i have two members of

the racial justice committee. i told them to be very brief and then i will be done. >> i have a question. >> yes president breed. >> thank you. so thank you for your presentation. thank you for being here today. can you tell me we know what the statistics say as it relates to the challenges in racial bias in our criminal justice system sadly, but one of the challenges that we also experience are the sad reality that oftentimes african-american boys and men are victims and perpetrators of some violent crimes in our city and i am just wondering how you think that factors into this data too? what role do you think it plays? because i for one just to be clear i don't want violent criminals on our streets. it doesn't matter the race but more importantly i want to make sure we're are doing

everything we can to get those individuals behind bars so just understanding what we can do better because on the flip side we have had challenges with people who -- i have experienced this personally with kids i worked with that i know for a fact never committed a crime but sadly were falsely accused or encounter some situations where they ended up doing time or spending time in juvenile hall for something they didn't do, so i guess i am just trying to understand how does that play a role in some of these challenges that we face as it relates to racial bias? >> it's a very good question. whether you're a victim or a defendant you have a right to be treated equally and i think when there is a perception you're not going to be treated fairly by the police then the response from a victim is not come

forward or not cooperate or refuse to testify. certainly we have experienced that in san francisco. i think the other thing to look at too i can tell you many of our clients when you look at their case histories were victims. they were victims of sexual assault. they were victims of trauma, victims of violence in their own community, and the fact that they didn't feel protected by police in some cases causes them not to take the appropriate steps that they otherwise should that a person who is not burdened by those perspectives -- perceptions or experiences might so i think it's very important that we look at the system in terms of the impact on everyone whether it's witnesses, whether it's jurors. you know it's interesting we just had a situation in a homicide case where jurors