When San Francisco police and sheriff’s deputies raided Jefferson Square Park in February, detaining 86 people, officials touted it as a show of force illustrating newly elected Mayor Daniel Lurie’s tough approach toward open drug dealing and use.
However, when the smoke settled, no one was convicted of a serious crime. The only man charged with dealing narcotics was acquitted.
Newly released footage of the sweep appears to show officers using questionable tactics to round up people lingering on side streets.
The three-minute video from an officer-worn body camera on the night of Feb. 26, released by the San Francisco public defender, shows cops on foot commanding people in the area to walk to the park, without providing an explanation. Some try feebly to refuse police orders; others are more vigorous in their efforts to avoid detention. Few make it past the lines of police.
“Nope. No one’s going. Stop. Hands out of your pocket,” an officer says to a group on a sidewalk, pushing some of them. “Let’s go. Walk your way back to the park.”
A man on a scooter is forced to head back to the park after trying to pass the police blockade, the video shows. At the park, the suspects are lined up, and many are zip-tied.
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As officers encircle a group of people sitting on the sidewalk, one yells at a woman, “Grab your shit, let’s go.” He then tells a man, “Stand the fuck up. You ain’t running things around here.” When the man protests, the officer tells him: “No one cares.”
The raid employed significant city resources, including drones, motorbikes, a jail bus, and floodlights. Of the 86 people detained, 29 were booked into jail — most on charges of loitering. The man who was arrested for dealing was acquitted last week, according to the public defender’s office.
“What became clear through police body-worn camera footage is that raids like these — where officers are pushing people, cursing at them, and rounding them up like cattle — are dehumanizing and ineffective,” Public Defender Mano Raju said in a statement.
Robert Weisberg, a Stanford Law School professor (opens in new tab), said officers are required to meet certain standards to make arrests.
“To have probable cause, either the police need to have an arrest warrant in hand or they need to be observing something on the street that establishes probable cause,” he said.
The San Francisco Police Department in February released a highlight reel (opens in new tab) from the operation and said such tactics would be deployed anywhere in the city plagued by similar issues.
Charles Lutvak, a spokesman for Lurie, called the raid a success because it sent a message to drug users and dealers.
“We will bring this strategy anywhere in the city to send the message loud and clear: San Franciscans deserve safe, clean streets, and that’s what they are going to get in every neighborhood under this administration,” Lutvak said in a statement after the raid.