Editors’ note: This report aired on KQED News on Sept. 26, 2012. KQED’s STEPHANIE MARTIN: A new investigative reporting series is questioning San Francisco’s record in tracking and prosecuting domestic violence cases. The investigation by KQED News Associate S.F. Public Press found the District Attorney’s Office prosecutes fewer domestic violence cases per capita than any […]
Category: Social Justice
Posted inCity Hall, Law & Justice, Public Safety, Social Justice
Poor Record Keeping Hinders Analysis of Domestic Violence Policing Practices
As statistics go from tick marks to laptops, police struggle to make sense of trends
The San Francisco Police Department cannot precisely measure the number of domestic violence cases it handled before 2011, because investigators in the Special Victims Unit hand-tallied monthly records, and used changing and inconsistently understood categories of crimes. This story appeared as part of a special report on domestic violence in the Fall 2012 print edition of the San Francisco Public Press.
Posted inDomestic Violence, News, Public Safety, Social Justice
San Francisco Trails Bay Area in Domestic Violence Prosecutions
Far fewer charged than across the region, even with strongly worded ‘no-drop’ guidelines
Though San Francisco’s so-called “no-drop” policy requires pressing domestic violence charges when evidence is sufficient to convict, the District Attorney’s Office pursued just 28 percent of cases through to trial or plea bargaining over the last 6 years. This story appeared as part of a special report on domestic violence in the Fall 2012 print edition of the San Francisco Public Press.
Posted inEducation, Social Justice
Community college chancellor’s advice for City College met with lukewarm reception
The chancellor of the California community college system came to town to offer some advice on tackling City College of San Francisco’s problems, but found few takers for his counsel.
Posted inCity Hall, Law & Justice, News, Open Government, Public Safety, Social Justice, Social Services
Despite political nature, Mirkarimi case in San Francisco brings spotlight to domestic violence
In a hearing room in City Hall last week, reporters scrambled to get play-by-play reaction from followers of suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, sporting blue-and-white “Stand With Ross” stickers, and organized opponents, with purple signs saying, “There’s no excuse for domestic violence.” The complex game of personality, politics and procedure has for the most part eclipsed larger policy questions about the city’s approach to handling thousands of cases of domestic violence each year. But as the city’s Ethics Commission continues to debate whether Mirkarimi is fit to hold his elected position, advocates for victims say the hearings are helping generate awareness about the wider problem of domestic violence, and the needed response from social service agencies and law enforcement.
Posted inBay Area, Bay Area Smart Growth, Land use, Social Justice
Tea partiers and Occupiers make strange bedfellows opposing sprawl control
So far, Plan Bay Area — an ambitious regional blueprint for dense urban communities convenient for walking and public transit — seems to have more strident critics than defenders. Some libertarians, liberal Democrats, environmentalists, professional urban planners and anti-capitalist Occupiers have all found issue with parts of the plan, and the way its authors have sought public opinion.
Posted inHomelessness, News, Social Justice
Thousands of tickets handed out to homeless
Ignoring ‘quality of life’ fines can lead to warrants, jail
San Francisco is an expensive place to find an apartment, sure. But it can also be a costly place to live outside. Police served homeless people in the city with almost 40,000 citations over a five-year period, according to records compiled by the city agency that provides homeless services.
Posted inEducation, Social Justice
Against all odds, former foster kid dons graduation cap
The last time Lerone Matthis was released from the Division of Juvenile Justice in April 2008, he feared he had reached bottom. “I was discouraged by the [diminished] prospects for a meaningful future,” Matthis recalled. He didn’t have a place to rest his head, bathe or change his clothes. He wore the same jeans and white shirt “that was dingy around the neck” because it hadn’t been washed for a month. Since he didn’t have a place to store his clothes, he bought socks from a neighborhood liquor store. He relied on relatives and friends for food and shelter. Other times, the former foster youth simply went hungry.
Posted inAging, Food Systems, Social Justice
Little old ladies set up shop selling ‘free’ food on streets of S.F.
With the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market gearing up across the street at 8:30 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, six elderly Asian women line up their wares across the front of the Grant Building and entreat pedestrians, calling softly: “Buy. You buy.” Canned Bartlett pears, bagged carrots and onions, boxes of Land O’ Lakes American cheese, packages of whole-wheat bagels, jars of Algood peanut butter, dried beans, sesame crackers and squat cans of evaporated milk were neatly displayed at their feet, along with grape juice and orange juice in plastic liters — clearly food obtained from community agencies’ free distribution programs.
Posted inData Privacy, Public Safety, Social Justice
S.F. mayor signs civil rights ordinance into law
San Francisco civil rights advocates concerned about what they call domestic spying on the city’s Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian communities are celebrating new legislation signed into law by Mayor Ed Lee. The Safe San Francisco Civil Rights Ordinance requires San Francisco Police Department officers working with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force to be bound by local and state laws strictly governing intelligence gathering of First Amendment protected activities like religious worship.