My public records request a few weeks back to the San Francisco police for names, races and ages of all civilians who died in-custody or from an officer-involved shooting has produced responsive records.
In 2014, one person named Jonathan Mitchell, age 49, died in police custody.
During 2015 there were three deaths in-custody: Darnell Benson, age 40; Marvin Day, age 51; Filimoni Raiyawa, age 57.
The number of officer-involved killings in 2014 stood at three: Alex Nieto, age 27; Giovany Sandoval-Contreras, age 34; Oshaine Evans, age 26.
For 2015, six lives were lost in such fatalities: Matthew Hoffman, age 32; Emilcar Perez-Lopez, age 20; Alice Brown, age 24; Herbert Benitez, age 27; Javier Lopez, age 25; Mario Woods, age 26.
Fyi, Briseida Banuelos of the department's legal division explained the omission of races for the victims:
"Please find attached responsive documents to request number 3. With respect to your request for 'races of civilians,' under California Government Code § 6254(f)(1), the disclosure of race is not required. The SFPD declines to disclose the race of individuals as an unwarranted invasion of privacy. Please see California Government Code § 6254(c)."
There needs to be a community discussion and debate at the police commission about the tripling of in-custody deaths and a doubling of officer-involved fatalities.
On top of that, we need Mayor Ed Lee to get his sorry self to a few town hall meetings about police accountability. If he can travel to Hong Kong over the holiday season, he can take Muni to the Bayview.
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