SF Cops: Fish Stinks from the Head
February 28, 2003
Is it coincidental or was the departure of former Chief Fred Lau a harbinger of the downhill slide we’ve seen at SFPD?
At the time, some wondered why Lau would want to leave and move on to work for the feds, as head of airport security at Oakland International Airport. Maybe he did it because he knew the politics of checking for bombs with an x-ray machine is a lot easier than the inbred politics of a major city.
Now Lau’s strategy seems to have paid off: ‘Get the pension and move on’ is a winner.
Meanwhile last week’s grand jury indictments of San Francisco’s top cops, including Chief Earl Sanders and Assistant Chief Alex Fagan, Sr., have left the department in shambles and everyone doubting SFPD’s ability to assure public safety.
Of course, Asian Pacific Americans of Filipino descent in San Francisco didn’t need any more bad news on SFPD. They know instinctively that fish stinks from the head.
And when it comes to SFPD, they definitely know how bad things can get.
VINCENTE PASCUA
When you want a cop in San Francisco, they’re never around.
Where are they? Busy harassing innocent people as if they were common criminals.
Last week, two glaring examples involving Filipino Americans prove the point.
Vicente Pascua was an 81-year-old news vendor walking from his Tenderloin apartment to his “news hut” at the Montgomery Muni/Bart station.
I love these guys. Whenever I walk past them, they always smile at me and say something endearing. Like, “Hey Amok.”
Some remember me from my Channel 4 days (when it was the NBC affiliate). Or my recent days as host of New California Media.
When I see them, I smile and think of my father, who came to San Francisco in the twenties, lived in a Tenderloin apartment, and worked in the kitchens of San Francisco restaurants. My dad was much younger than them. But when he was their age he used to tell me stories of the old San Francisco, when his friends were beaten and robbed by people out of work, mostly whites, who resented the young immigrants coming to this country.
My, how things haven’t changed much.
Pascua was one of those Filipino American WWII vets, a fighter still waiting for Congress to give him the benefits promised to him. In the meantime, he made a living hawking the headlines, not making them.
Until last week.
As he made his way to his “news hut,” someone beat and mugged Vicente Pascua of $400 on Sixth and Market, early last Monday. Pascua then dragged himself back to his apartment and died.
The police are clueless. But where was the SFPD when it could have saved Pascua’s life? More than likely, police were harassing an innocent person like Rodel Rodis.
No doubt, you’ve heard Rodis’ tale by now.
THE CASE OF THE NOT-SO BOGUS $100 BILL
Rodis was attempting to buy cold medicine at a Walgreens store two weeks ago. He paid with a $100 bill. The efficient, yet unempowered Walgreens cashier dutifully applied the marking pen test to the bill and it passed. Yet, the bill did not have the Treasury Department’s watermark.
Of course, it didn’t. Watermarks are a recent addition to the money. Rodis was using an old bill that pre-dated the change.
But facts don’t matter when your marching orders are to act like a hardass first. That’s how the police acted, and if it weren’t so serious, you’d want to laugh it off, like some scene out of those stupid Police Academy movies.
But this isn’t that funny. It’s too real. Rodis was cuffed, detained, and treated like a criminal. He was humiliated.
And then someone discovered the bill was legit.
Sorry doesn’t mean much when civil rights are at issue.
Good thing Rodis is a lawyer. If you’re a lawyer, you can sue. You don’t need to hire one on contingency. You can do it yourself. Passing the bar makes the law your legal Home Depot.
Rodis knows the ups and downs of the law. He’s won big cases. He’s lost big cases. It happens. There’s no dishonor. But when you’re an activist like Rodis, being harassed unfairly could be a ticket to mini-martyrdom. This was a gift from the legal gods.
Despite apologies from the City of San Francisco and Walgreens, Rodis has the path laid out. He’ll sue and soon own a piece of City Hall (maybe a few offices and doors). And then maybe Walgreens will give him the profits from an aisle or two or three. Or maybe he’ll show his magnanimous nature and settle — and then, in a big P.R. gesture, give it back to the financially ailing city or school district. But it’s a safe bet he’ll use the suit’s notoriety to run for higher office.
And then maybe Filipinos will finally have a legitimate voice on the inside.
Until then, the lesson is this: No matter what your position, public official like Rodis, or elderly news vendor like Pascua, we’re all equal to the SFPD. Which is to say, the police are on the side of the good and true blue, and everyone else without a badge is on the other side.
Are we bad people? No, just not ìbadge people.î This seems to be the current mind set of the SFPD, a jaded hard-ass force with an ìus versus themî mentality.
And that may be at the bottom of all the indictments: It’s all about cop culture protecting its own. When some young, hothead, off-duty cops get in a fight, covering up seems like a natural reaction, especially when one of the hotheads is related to the top brass.
Things didn’t always work that way. According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, in the six months Chief Sanders and his Assistant Chief Alex Fagan, Sr. have been in charge, the department has sent only one case to the Police Commission for a disciplinary hearing. Under Chief Lau, a dozen cases per year were forwarded.
Did the police all of a sudden become angels? Or did they suddenly start dealing with things “internally”?
Perhaps this really is the time to ask, “Where’s Fred Lau when we need him?”
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