[glide ensemble and change band playing]

[ ♪ ]

[ ♪ ] [ ♪ ] ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ [singing] ♪ ♪

[applause] [singing]

[singing]

[ ♪ ] [ ♪ ]

[ ♪ ]

[ ♪ ] [applause] >> yes, yes. thank you, mayor brown, for those moving remarks and thank you to glide ensemble and change band for that beautiful tribute, you guys. that was very soulful. very nice. i just wanted to say real quick, and i know jeff might be mad at me. how many have you seen jeff

dance? [laughter] yeah, jeff he was soulful this we. i shared this with the family. he used to go out and dance. he used to get out there and be so happy and free when he danced, y'all. he love him some stevie wonder, he loved him some motown, but jeff you'd know london breed, he was like a rubber band with no rhythm. [laughter] my bad, jeff! but he was happy. he was cut up some fluids. but he was happy. jeff was a man of many passions, you guys. in addition to being a tireless advocate for the incarcerated, he's the past president of the asian-american board association and the first asian-american to be elected in san francisco as the public defender. his film "the slanted screen"

and "you don't know jack" the jack soo story" shined light on asian-americans in hollywood. we lost a lot of good people over the several years years frr asian-pacific islander community, you guys. woes pat, brother ed lee, my brother howard danzell, steve orilio. may they rest in peace and now we lost jeff. so i want to bring up a young brother from the asian-american community, here today to speak about his involvement in the asian-american community, my brother paul osaki, y'all. he's the executive director of the japanese culture and community center of northern california. give him a welcome. [applause]

that was one of jeff's dance moves, just like that. [laughter] take your time, player. >> well, as you can see, i'm not that young. no one has called me a young brother in a long time. but i feel young. i'd like to begin by offering my condolences to you mutsuko and lauren, the adachi families. i can't imagine what you're going through. but i want you to also know that

in my 40 years of working in the community, i have never seen a japanese-american so beloved by so many people across the city -- [applause] in neighborhoods and districts, ethnic communities and individuals. he was so loved. so thank you for sharing jeff with us. i really don't know jeff, the public defender. i know jeff the community guy, jeff the let's go have a drink guy. jeff the friend. and so i'm going to talk about him from the perspective of the community. when news first started to spread throughout the japan town

community about jeff's passing, everything stopped. people in utter shock. it was as if you could feel the hearts break of an entire community. like many others throughout the city, we are still in disbelief, not quite sure what to do. there's a sense of immeasurable loss. we only know how blessed we are and how fortunate we are to have had jeff as part of our lives and as part of the japan town community. jeff was my hero. he was japan town's hero. he was always there for us and he never said no. and he was there at almost every event or cause that we need him to be at. jeff was like our

japanese-american superman, seeking truth, justice, and in search of the american way. that's basically how i summed him up, fighting for truth, justice and the american way. however, jeff's truths were justice, where justice came by -- a very un-american way and that was the illegal rounding up and incarceration of his parents, grandparents, along with another 120,000 japanese and japanese-americans living on the west coast during world war ii. that injustice, based on lies and in violation of our constitutional rights, he said was one of the factors that led him to become a criminal defense attorney. so that he can fight for justice

for all, find truth in lies, and cover up and give a voice to those who don't have a voice and to ensure the protection of the constitutions and make sure that they apply to everyone. i first met jeff when i was working part time at the japanese community youth council. i remember when i first met him, i wasn't quite sure what to make of him, because he had slick-backed hair, much more than you see now. [laughter] and he was dressed up in -- he was dressed up in this bruce lee kind of wardrobe. [laughter] you know, it wasn't halloween. so he actually liked this. he was wearing like a white tank top, so i could see his tattoo.

i called it ugly. but his tattoo and he was wearing blue sweats and something that looked like kung fu shoes. i thought it was -- i thought it was odd, especially for a japanese-american, but i didn't say anything because i could tell he thought it was very cool. [laughter] and because there actually could have been a chance that he did know kung fu and can kick my butt. [laughter] jeff was not your typical japanese-american male. he couldn't shoot a basketball, he enjoyed public speaking. he ran for political office. he had no problems asking people for money. [laughter] he challenged authority, he said what was on his mind. and he had a tattoo before

tattoos were mainstream. and he liked to wear suspenders. [laughter] you know, i should have asked for permission, but i was reading this article in the paper and it was about how jeff's mom described him when he was growing up. and i wanted to share that with you, because it was really jeff's beginnings. and as we celebrate his life, to share some background of maybe jeff adachi we don't know. and she told a reporters that jeff never cared about being mainstream. his mother gladys recalled that her son didn't want to play baseball, like the other sacramento boys. instead he enjoyed intellectual, solitary pursuits, including reading, writing and stamp-collecting.

that's all -- wasn't your typical japanese-american male. i don't know anyone that collects stamps. [laughter] as a 6-year-old boy, he even authored books titled "the history of stamp collecting" "and the history of coin collecting." he'd staple them together and sell them to his aunties and you go -- uncles for 10 cents apiece. [laughter] this one really got me. so while in high school, he earned money plucking feathers from ducks for hunters. and spent that cash on stamps while his friends spent their money on going out to dates. so you could kind of see jeff's beginnings of a writer, an author, a publisher. but you can also see how coming to san francisco really changed his life. [laughter]

and it begun in 1978, when he became involved with the defense committee. the case involved a korean immigrant man, who was wrongfully convicted of a murder in san francisco's chinatown. his work on the free chol soo lee movement would have life changing, altering impacts on jeff's life. and he accounts for it to be his career path for fighting for justice. i remember he gave me this free chol soo lee bumper sticker. and i wore it on my -- i had it on my car. some people had no idea what it was. but i had it on there until i actually gave my car up. it was around that time in 1978 that was also his introduction

to the san francisco japantown community. steve recalled giving him a broom to clean up the street, as a volunteer for neo-nazi street fair. i started calling jeff superman when we had to save -- we had to save the japantown rally on the steps of city hall. he was suppose to speak, but he was late and he was holding things up. and all of a sudden i see him running down the street, he's taking off his suit jacket. he runs up, he says "give me a save japanese-americantown t-shirt." he puts it on and he's right up at the stage and he's talking. this all happened like in about five to ten seconds. he looked like -- literally like superman running down the street. other the reason i would kid and call him superman was i was always calling him to help me

save something. save japantown. save japantown when it was being sold. save japantown festivals when they're being threatened. he was always our big gun, our loudest voice, our secret weapon that we had come out when we needed him most. no matter what it was, he was always just a phone call, a text or an email away. jeff's love did not just center around the courtroom. as you know, jeff had a deep love for the arts. as mayor brown said, if he didn't become an attorney, probably would have became a producer, a director, writer, or maybe even a kung fu star. he was an advocate for the arts, to break down stereotypes and

support asian-american artists. he served on the board of the asian-american theatre company. and he established the asian-american arts foundation and created an event called the golden ring awards, which was like our asian-american oscars, emmys and grammys, all rolled up into one. it was a fancy affair with red carpet and at the davie symphony hall. i could never figure out for the life of me how he was doing all of this. you know, he never asked for a lot of help from us. and somehow he -- he did all of these incredible things in the community. and not just our community, in communities throughout san francisco. because japantown was not his only community. and i think he saw san francisco and particular certain

neighborhoodses a his community as well. somewhere, somehow he found the time to also make documentaries. you know, you talked to people who make documentaries, who are living, it's a 60-hour-a-week job and somehow jeff found the time to do this. and they were -- they were real movies. you know, with scripts and directors, interviews, lighting. i mean, he did the whole thing. his first one was culled "vice presidented -- "called "slanted doors." we used to talk a lot about that, because if you walk into my office, it's like a japanese-american museum. i have pictures up of old

athletes, of movie stars, many that he featured in his film. i also have a collection of toys in my office, like a whole shelfful of toys. he would come in and he would look at them and i knew he loved collecting. his second film was followed up by "you don't know jack." and it's not about jack kevorkian, although if you google "you don't know jack" that's the movie that pops up. it was about jack soo, who was a japanese-american singer during the 1950s and 1980s. so getting to collecting, jeff was kind of quirky that way. and he also liked to collect

things, whether they're stamps or coins when he was little. but as some of you may or may not know, he had the largest collection of godzilla dolls in the united states. he started collecting them in 1990, when his father bought him his first godzilla for his birthday. when he collected several dozen, he put them on top of his refrigerator like a mantel. but once they soon outgrew and he had to devote a whole room for his godzillas. jeff said when ebay was born, he was free to shop for godzillas at any time or anyplace. and that he did go a little crazy. jeff's collection stands at about 200 godzillas of all shapes and sizes, one of his

favorite being one that is about 3 feet tall with a 4-foot long tail. in closing, i'd like to end with part of a speech that jeff gave in san francisco's japantown when we gathered, banned together to address the post-election hate crimes in november of 2016. jeff stressed that those gathered at the unity for compassion vigil was not just speak, but we must also act. holding a candle in the air, he said, you know what, we must all become public defenders now. we've got to make sure that we defend our constitution. we've got to make sure that we defend our brothers and sisters

in harm's way and we have to make sure that we defend our humanity, because that's what's at stake for our country. thank you, jeff, for your love, for your friendship. we will never, ever forget you. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, brother paul. i had the honor to go with a group of people to israel with jeff, the jewish community relationship center, me and a whole lot of us. i hope you guys are in the house. and before i bring this next brother, i got to tell you the story. we used to silt down and listen to people who are really important people of israel to speak to us. and i don't know if it was like the prime minister of israel or the president of israel, i don't know. i know he was talking to us, with me in the group, me and

derek brown, we're looking at jeff. and jeff be nodding out. why it's important, man? speaking right there, he'd be like this. [laughter] and i'd be like, hey, derek, you look at jeff. he's sleeping in front of this dude. but when the dude was finished speaking, and he would ask questions, jeff would know everything he said. [laughter] i don't know if he was meditating or what he was doing, but he paid attention, y'all. so i just got to say thank you. this guy the next person who is coming up, jeff managed an office of 93 lawyers and 60 support staff. the san francisco public defender's office represents over 23,000 people every year. 20,000 of my home boys. [applause] and provides a number of

innovative programs, including drug court, the clean slate program, and full-service juvenile divisions and a gang of c.b.o.s in san francisco that i know jeff supported. especially mo magic. as a highly collaborative team player, jeff did not work alone. here to represent the dedicated attorneys and staff of the public defender's office, is san francisco's chief attorney matt gonzalez. [applause] [ cheers ] >> good to see everyone. [ cheers ] thank you. [applause]

you know, it's been very touching for us to see the accolades pouring in for jeff. you know, the protector of the poor, the champion of social justice. at a vigil in front of our office last week, i said in the 28 years that i knew jeff, i never saw him run away from injustice, rather he ran towards it. it was something that he wanted to combat. in the principles he had were forged in sacramento, where he grew up, in the japanese community. and in the memory that his family suffered the injustice of internment during world war ii. to understand jeff, you have to understand that he was a story teller, not just a story teller about his trials, though. he wanted to tell the story of

what public defenders do. and there is a very romantic notion of what public defenders do, that we represent innocent, poor people who can't afford an attorney. and, yes, that's part of it. but there was another part of it. and jeff handled the hard cases in our office. i'm talking about cases where he represented people who have caused serious injury, even the loss of life. whether intentionally, whether the result of recklessness or when the accused is simply in close proximity to a chain of events that results in that harm. cases where people say or ask, how could you represent those people. the answer to this question, jeff believed in order to really get to it, you had to understand

context. you had to think about the lack of opportunity the accused might have experienced, maybe the violence in their neighborhoods, the substance abuse there, the adversity, the trauma that they had to contend with, whatever it might be. and if you did that analysis, you realized that your opinion would start to shift. over the years, i have seen many times the power of the state get harnessed to put somebody into prison for a lengthy sentence. the unlimited resources that are available, whether it be the police, whether it be the judges, whether it be the prosecutors. all doing their job, yes. but that is an awesome thing to stand up against. but jeff would ask where was society when that young person needed help. where were they when that young

kid, you know, didn't have lunch money or the family was breaking up, or the educational and job opportunities weren't there. when there wasn't money for a young person to even go see a movie at the theatre. and jeff was about exposing that hypocrisy. now if you do that, your ability to judge someone changes, because you and i bare responsibility as we live our lives of comfort. and it's all about our collective failure to protect the vulnerable, the victims and the accused. now, of course, you always hear about the cases where people lift themselves up from their boot straps and are able to make it. but jeff believed those stories got told precisely because they were the exception.

how did jeff come to understand this? the public defenders in this room know what i'm talking about. you go to jail to meet someone charged with a crime. you physically touch them, you sit down in close proximity, you breathe the same air, you look at each other's eyes and you try to reach understanding, you try to get to a point of empathy. and during that process, there's a bond of intimacy that is created that is real. meanwhile, it's often the case that society relegates the accused to the trash. they think someone has forfeited their humanity because of their crimes of the proximity to them. most people want to measure the accused at their worst moment, but jeff wanted to measure people by their potential.

now if the criminal justice system could be fixed by repairing past damage, it would be easy to work in it. we would all sign up for it. because welt wand to do everything -- we would want to do everything to make victims whole and reverse any harm committed. but jeff believed that having empathy for the accused did not betray victims. for whom we also must grieve for. when jeff walked in the courtroom and proudly ignored the sentiments that his client didn't deserve to have an attorney paid for by the state or the calls to send someone to prison for life, jeff was proud because he was representing a human being. not for what they did or might have done, but because they were a human being and deserved dignity in a meaningful life.

when he walked into court with someone reviled in the press or perhaps in the public space, he didn't judge their conduct. he didn't condone their conduct either. but he walked into that court, because he was as certain as his opponents were not that the system needed to change. jeff believed this to his core. now it's always bothered me that our system is premised on this -- the entry of a not guilty plea. somehow i think that there should be more pleas available. i think the defense should be able to enter a plea of understanding. i think that there ought to be a plea for shared blame in responsibility. or how about, your honor, the defense pleads systematic failure. thank you. [applause]

jeff's enemies think they are on the higher, moral ground. but he was trying to make the world a more just and egalitarian place, where acknowledging mistakes don't define someone's worth or their capacity for redemption. for this work, jeff was reviled by some, but he inspired many others. and on behalf of all of the public defenders here, from the past to the present, we have our former public defender jeff brown and the chief attorney peter keen, i extend to you mutsuko and lauren, my most sincere condolences and to sam and gladys and to stan, of course, and to the adachi and sada, family. jeff was a beautiful man, after

a life of so much action, he deserves to rest in peace. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, matt. thank you. [applause] if you see a lot of the guys walking around and you're not a player jackets or shirts, every single one of those dudes did a life sentence in prison. you see them standing around here, they're probably back there. but jeff loved all of these dudes and stood side-by-side, who people want to walk to. so thank you brother jeff for that. at this time i would like to welcome to the stage public

defender, adachi's brother, stan adachi. [applause] give it up, y'all, for stan. [applause] >> all i can say is, wow! pretty impressive. before i get started, i just want to say just hearing people talk, reading the different articles throughout the week, i got a different perspective of my brother. you know, when we were together, it was always about family. it was about, you know, really what family and brothers talk about. and a lot of what i have heard this week and his impact to the community, jeff never really talked a lot about.

and it's just amazed me this week and i learned a lot. on behalf of myself, our parents, sam, gladys, jeff's wife and daughter mutsuko and lauren, and the rest of our family, i want to thank mayor breed, the wonderful city of san francisco, the world's best public defender's office in san francisco. [cheers and applause] absolutely! all of the distinguished speakers, who spoke so eloquently. mayor brown, i understand you also had a loss in your family and our condolences to you.

and thank you for being here today with us. and to our special guests and to martha cohen and her staff, who helped us so much pull this together. and from everyone here from far and wide, that have come here today to share and celebrate in my brother jeff's life. we loved jeff as a husband, father, son, brother, colleague and friend. jeff gave us strength in times of trouble, wisdom in time of uncertainty, and sharing in time of happiness. he was and will always remain by our side. i come here before you today, i

think like all of you, with the heavy heart and just profound sadness, as we say good-bye to my brother. i think it is appropriate that we are here at san francisco's city hall, in the heart of san francisco, where jeff began his political career and a city, a community, and the people that my brother loved and cared for so deeply. love is not an easy feeling to put into words. nor are words like loyalty, dedication, tenacity, passion, pride, courage, trust or joy. but jeff was all of these and just so much more.

he loved life completely and he lived it intensely. i can tell you that these attributes and the words you heard today are not just representations of jeff's political persona, nor of recent developments, but rather they run deep into the core of jeff's being. it is who he is and what he always aspired to be. in elementary school, jeff was an avid correcter of monday -- collector of monster models, i think to the point it had our mom a little worried about her son. in middle school and high

school, jeff delved, as you heard from paul, in collecting stamps and coins. you heard about his newsletter. you also had the subscription. if anyone is interested. and you know, he started to learn to play the guitar. he always had an angle. he also started to learn martial arts i think with the aspirations of becoming the next bruce lee. i know him and his friends used to shoot 8-millimeter movies of themselves jumping off roofs, for some reason. [laughter] but to understand jeff, one would only need to look at his massive godzilla collection. some call it passion, you know, i call it obsession. it was also about this time that he began to learn about and ask our parents about the japanese internment and the japanese-american experience.

i think he struggled, like many of us, to make sense of how any government could intern its own citizens for no fault of their open, with exception to the race, color or creed. i think it was a journey that would ultimately transform him. it was the beginning of jeff's passion to serve his community and those who had lost their voices in society. he became an impassioned advocate, as you heard, for japanese internment reparations. and he joined the fight as paul mentioned, to seek justice for chol soo lee. i still remember the day when my brother called home to tell my parents that he wanted to change majors at u.c. berkeley from business management to

asian-american studies. as you can imagine, our mom was absolutely beside herself. [laughter] questioning what kind of career could jeff ever have with a degree in asian-american studies. after much discussion and debate, she finally relented. after my brother promised her that he would go to law school, following his graduation. [laughter] so perhaps you can say that the rest is history. but as i thought about it, i truly believe that practiceing law and being the public defender, as much as he loved his job, as much as he loved the

people he worked for and the people he represented, was always just a means to a greater end for jeff. it allows him the opportunity, as you have heard, where i believe he got the greatest pride and joy, for fight for those without voices, to be a positive, persistent voice within the community. to establish the american arts foundation, where it was set up to recognize and celebrate asian-americans in the arts, to be a writer, and a filmmaker. for my his -- for my brother, his approach to life was always all-or-nothing. this is the way he lived and this is how he leaves us today.

for a life cut short, a life's mission yet to be completed, jeff has now passed the torch to each and every one of us. i ask all of you to take a piece of jeff's spirit. if you leave here today with anything, take a piece of his spirit. and bury it deep within your hearts and your soul. and live your life with the same passion and love as jeff lived his. there's a passage from jeff's first book, that i'd like to share with you. i think it represents jeff. at his rawest.

there's an old japanese saying that curiosity can kill. quite contrary to this saying, there's a story of a little boy artist, who ventured into the haunted dwellings of the evil mice. the mice were known to be quite fierce. and only appeared in the wee hours of the night. the courageous boy outwitted the mice by paying 100 tigers on the rice paper, his artistry was so superb, that the tigers came to life and destroyed the evil mice. now i will leave it to each of you to decide for yourselfves whether my brother was the little boy artist or he was one of the fierce tigers. now i'll tell you that my brother always thought of himself as one of the fierce

tigers, who fought and killed the mice. i, on the other hand, saw my brother as the little boy artist, who through curiosity and courage, imagined artery and pure determination brought his tigers to life to defeat the evil mice. so in closing, i'd like to, if you'll allow me, paraphrase from robert kennedy's memorial. my brother need to the be idolized or enlarged by death beyond what he was in life. be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, who saw suffering and tried to heal it, who saw injustice and tried to stop it. for those of us who loved him,

and do take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others, will sum day come to pass for all of the world. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, stan. please know that the city and county of san francisco joins you and your family in mourning during the loss of our public defender. we are honored by your presence today, brother stan, and your family. jeff was a spirit of love, everybody. he's one of god's soldiers. i know, you know, there's a four-letter word that love is l-o-v-e. the way jeff spoke it, was straight n-o-p-e. he fought against and said no to the powers that be.

and people, when you think of love, you think it's a soft word. jeff metropolitan no! and so he was standing for the spirit of love and i truly believe that we honor his legacy by continuing showing the love that jeff showed. and so, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the adachi and sachi family, i thank you for attending this memorial service today for jeff adachi. i hope you will join mayor breed, mayor brown, and the members of all board supervisors and everybody who spoke today, in making a firm commitment by honoring jeff by the way we live. to preserve the legacy of jeff's life and for his work, so today we'll be closing today's service with the benediction from reverend ron, you guys. please give it up for reverend ron. [applause]

>> thank you for your patience and hopefully i join you in appreciating all the expressions of support, condolence and encouragement that i received from the speaks this morning. and that we can continue to share that spirit, as brother shared with us of love and determination to continue the life of wisdom, compassion that inspired jeff and will hopefully continue to sustain our community for generations to come. there's the little reflection about what's the difference between a buddhist and a non-buddhist. well, the response is a non-buddhist thinks there's a difference.

[laughter] and that's what i would hope we can appreciate. that differences are all things that we create in our heads. we make our own assumptions about the other. but the spirit that i think jeff truly manifested was the spirit of what we call the oneness of our life, that we're all absolutely interdependent, interrelated and responsible to each other. so this is the life, this is the spirit that i hope we can affirm that we have been inspired from the life of mr. jeff adachi. so with that, i would like to conclude with this closing reflection. as reverend bob did, close with a meditation bell. it will bring us into our deep sense of connection. and also to share with you a gesture in our buddhist tradition, where we join our

palms together in front of our hearts, as an expression of that sense of oneness. throughout history people have been comforted, inspired, guided by a spiritualty that never dies. today we have come together in tribute to the life and spirit that jeff adachi, to offer comfort to his family, encourage each other to continue his legacy of service to others, not because it was politically expedient, but because he truly cared and was aware that everyone is not treated barely and equally. whether it's referred to as buddha nature, christ, allah, should not matter. he has shown us that we all have

something worthy and meaningful to realize and live up to in life. rather than mourning our loss, let us celebrate and cherish what we have received through him in life. within us there is an intrinsic spiritualty that aspires to realize the unity between secular and sacred. , regardless of means or expression, he has shown us that there is a timeless call or energy that can transform ignorance to awareness, suffering to joy, conflicts to peace, injustice to integrity. may we continue to affirm in tribute the maximum that jeff has shown us. it is better to light one little candle of justice, than to curse the darkness. [bell ringing]

i take refuge in the boundless, immeasurable spirit of wisdom and compassion that sustains all beings in gratitude. >> thank you, everybody, for attending. when i say jeff, you say adachi. jeff. >> adachi. >> when i say jeff, you say adachi. jeff! >> adachi! >> jeff! >> adachi! may you rest in peace, brother.

thank you god for sending us a warrior for peace. [applause] thank you!

>> chairman: the meeting will come to order. welcome to the thursday march 711th meeting of the government audit and oversight. i'm supervisor gordon mar, and i'm joined by supervisor walton, to fill in for