Vanishing SFPD Stats Patient Abuse Questions at LHH? Will Durst Lou knows where the bodies are Patrick Monette-Shaw wrestles with Our friend Will Durst is on the mend, buried, but the stats? ...................2 the remaining questions ...................4 but may not be back for a while ........... 5 Quentin Kopp Westside Fire Readiness Vegeworld DA Boudin, the POA, NRA, and cer- Nancy Wuerfel sees some move- Kathy Howard takes in the 20th Annual tain Supervisors get an earful ...... 3 ment, but too little, too late? ...........5 Vegefest —Yum! .......................................10 Northern California Society of Professional Journalists’ 2019 James Madison Freedom of Information Award Volume 32 • Number 10 Celebrating Our 32nd Year www.westsideobserver.com December 2019 / January 2020 Edgehill Mountain: Here We Go Again! by: Former Supervisor Tony Hall nce again, we have an ill- Oadvised, poorly planned, and incredibly myopic proposal to build Monster homes on what is one of the last areas of Supervisor Gordon Mar opens the hearing investigating the Joint Terrorism Task Force open forested space in A Precarious Partnership: San Francisco. Edgehill Mountain is an oasis SFPD and the FBI of natural beauty located almost geographically in the center by Dr. Derek Kerr of San Francisco. It is nestled n its July report, Joint Terrorism Task Force: Balancing Public between Mt. Davidson and For- Neighbors protest five monster homes on rock-slide site Photo: thebaycitybeacon.com Safety with Civil Rights1, the Civil Grand Jury recommended est Hill, and presents stunning Ithat the SFPD reconsider its expired counter-terrorism part- panoramic views from Twin nership with the FBI. Although the Jury did not recommend for or Peaks to the Pacific Ocean. I did not witness any evidence against re-affiliating with the FBI, the Mayor, Police Chief and Police The Edgehill Mountain Open put forth by proponents of the project Commission responded cautiously. Not mentioned was the turd in Space is a protected mountain- the punch bowl – a secret FBI White Paper2 acknowledging grave side created in 1985 by the City that indicated that this proposal was conflicts between SFPD policies and those of the FBI’s Joint Terror- to preserve what is left of our anything more than the result of bad ism Task Force (JTTF). The SFPD received the White Paper in 2017, natural habitat. There is basi- but couldn’t disclose it. Superior Court ruled it was “property of the cally one trail running across planning, very little research, no neighbor- FBI.” (Case CFP-19-516706) The FBI released it to Supervisor Gor- the park from Knockash to hood concern, monetary greed, and worst of all, ignorance don Mar this October. Edgehill Street. Native Monterey of the facts and construction history of the mountain.” Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) are FBI-led partnerships with pines and cypress trees, spread local police and other law enforcement agencies that address national over a mystifying labyrinth of security threats. After the events of September 11, 2001 the SFPD beautiful Franciscan chert rock, unique spot of the city should setting, now and in the future. joined the regional JTTF in 2002. That arrangement was secretly frame the landscape where red- be preserved for residents who Originally part of Adolph renewed3 in 2007, adding tighter FBI controls and secrecy, without tailed hawks hunt and nest. This enjoy the peace and charm of its Sutro’s San Miguel Ranch, the notifying the Police Commission. When its contract with the FBI Cont. p. 2 expired in February 2017, the SFPD bailed out amidst mounting civil rights concerns and the turmoil of switching its Police Chiefs. Proposed Laguna Honda . Supervisors unanimously passed the . Housing Ignores Dire Short- transparency and accountability provisions . age of Skilled Nursing Beds In effect, the law authorized SFPD brass and by Patrick Monette-Shaw City officials to oversee its FBI-driven Joint hirteen days after San Fran- Terrorism Task Force investigations.” cisco voters passed the $600 Tmillion Affordable Hous- ing Bond on November 5, and also San Francisco Taxpayers Tapped Previously, the SFPD had usu- approved allowing construction of 100% afford- A New Oceanview Library ally assigned 2 full-time investigators to able housing and teacher housing projects on pub- the JTTF under the direction of the local lic land zoned “P, Public” that previously barred Presents New Problems FBI Office, and ultimately the US Attor- residential housing on public parcels, the Mayor’s ney General. However, City taxpayers paid Office of Housing and Community Development by Glenn Rogers their salaries. These officers received Top- released a Request for Proposal (RFP) to build t has been decided that the present Oceanview Secret security clearances and access to housing on Laguna Honda Hospital’s (LHH) cam- Library on Randolph Street is too small and a classified data. Their identities were secret. pus on November 18. Neither the Health Com- Inew 20,000 square foot library should be built They signed non-disclosure agreements that mission nor the Board of Supervisors held public to replace it. Presently, the location the City favors barred information sharing without FBI ap- hearings before the RFP was issued. is at the Brotherhood Way Greenbelt. Originally, proval, and underwent polygraph exams. the Greenbelt got its designation because there was As federal deputies, they could operate any- historically a stream here, with organic soils and an ACLU Lawyer John Crew where in the US. As such, they could ma- ... the City has dumped at least earthquake fault. Today, the caution of building on neuver beyond local civilian oversight and local privacy and civil 1,659 San Franciscans into out-of- a problem site has been dismissed. rights laws. Nominally, they were expected to abide by such laws, county facilities between July 2006 Transportation Problems notably SFPD’s Department General Order 8.10: Guideline for First In addition, the new Oceanview Library will be Amendment Activities.4 and June 2019 ... Despite having been adjacent Orizaba Avenue, an extremely narrow Supervisors Weigh In DGO 8.10 was designed in 1990 to prevent asked repeatedly to sponsor legislation street. To provide a public building here, would police intrusions into religious gatherings, protests, and politi- requiring all facilities report their increase a traffic load to a street already overbur- cal assemblies. In the post-9/11 era, unwarranted JTTF practices dened. The neighbors in front of the new library began impinging on civil rights. Alarming reports and warnings number of out-of-county discharges would likely permanently loose parking in front were issued by the Human Rights Commission,5 San Francisco Bar annually, Yee has failed doing so.” of their homes. Safe to say, the more this library Association,6 ACLU7, and 79 civic groups8 represented by the Asian is successful, the more difficult traffic will be to Law Caucus, Council on American Islamic Relations and the ACLU. overcome. Accordingly, in 2012 the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed Project Proposal The RFP claims the project will Why Build In The Greenbelt? the Safe San Francisco Civil Rights Ordinance9 to govern SFPD par- include everything but the kitchen sink, includ- One of the reasons the site was chosen is that the ticipation in federal counter-terrorism activities. The Ordinance ing an unspecified number of independent senior land is owned by the City, therefore, the purchase enshrined within City law the gist of DGO 8.10’s transparency and housing rental units in studio and one-bedroom of land is not necessary. The land is described accountability provisions. It also mandated Police Commission ap- apartments restricted to those earning 30% to as “free”. However, numerous site problems will proval of agreements between the SFPD and FBI. In effect, the law 80% of Area Median Income ($25,850 to $68,950 need to be addressed to build here. I believe the Cont. p. 6 for a one-person household). Another portion of building of a library here would be the first step Cont. p. 9 Cont. p. 7 Page 2 December-January 2020 The Chronicle’s Vanishing Crime (Stats) Fewer Arrests Don’t Represent Reduced Crime by Lou Barberini, CPA une 1997: An off-duty police officer was riding on a MUNI bus when he saw two juveniles steal a tourist’s purse. The officer exited the bus Jand followed the juveniles until backup from Northern Station arrived to arrest the juveniles for “grand theft.” August 2016: The same off-duty police a thief if the victim must agree to make a officer was bicycling on Phelan Avenue citizen’s arrest first, and the outcome most when he saw a man dart from Ocean likely will be a misdemeanor citation on a Avenue into the bushes of an empty City traffic ticket. College campus. The man’s face nervously Predictability, more traumatized victims scanned right and left, as if he was at cen- are not reporting crimes, resulting in San ter court watching a Ping-Pong match. The Francisco’s larceny crime wave ascending off-duty cop continued biking. The next to national records, while arrests collapsed day the officer learned the man had stolen to historic lows. Declining arrest rates a woman’s purse. are a reflection of San Francisco politics, Edgehill Development (Cont. from p. 1) Kensington Way to this day. Prop 47 implicit demographic Edgehill Mountain land was sold follow- Now, here we are in 2019 with yet Were these exam- arrest quotas, and a ing his death in 1898. The land became another proposal to build on Edgehill ples of how indiffer- disconnected police one of the city’s first subdivisions, known Mountain. This time the plan is for five ence gradually creeps chief. as Claremont Court, and houses were built Monster homes to be built on the steep, into police officers’ In this environment, on the mountain’s western and southern rocky bluff along Kensington Way where it attitudes over time? in March 2019 the San slopes and eventually on the mountaintop.