by Marvin Ramírez
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom takes the oath of office to new SFPD Chief George Gascón at City Hall. (PHOTO COURTESY OF TODD YAMADA)
George Gascón was officially sworn in as San Francisco top cop on Friday, August 21, although he had been sworn in on June 17 when Mayor Newsom appointed him at the mayor’s office.
Surrounded by city officials and community people, Gascón, a Latino and the first outsider in 30 years, Gascón looked happy to assumed the post that former Chief Heather Fong was leaving upon retirement. (El Reportero previously reported that Gascón was the first Latino to serve as chief. However, Chief Tony Ribera served in 1992).
Gascon arrives from Mesa, Ariz., where he led that police department since 2006. Prior to that, he served 28 years in the Los Angeles Police Department.
News reports show that San Francisco’s first female police chief, Fong, oversaw changes including the implementation of foot patrols, new zone policing strategies credited with recent drops in violence, and efforts to foster better relationships between police and the community.
Former San Francisco Police Chief Tony Ribera, who led the department from 1992 to 1996, said that by selecting Gascon to replace Fong, the mayor’s offi ce and the Police Commission signaled that “it was time for a change.”
However, he said, outsiders face particular challenges when implementing reforms.
“The track record of outsiders has not been very good,” Ribera said in an interview Wednesday. “But that doesn’t mean that Chief Gascon won’t be good.”
The most recent outsiders include Charles Gain, who was Oakland’s police chief before taking over San Francisco’s police department in 1975, and Richard Hongisto, a former Cleveland police chief and San Francisco supervisor Gain served for fi ve years. Hongisto lasted 42 days before he was fired.
During the June 17 reception, Gascón answered questions on a variety of topics, including marijuana possession, how he’ll get witnesses to crimes to come forward (through officers getting to know residents), and whether he’ll take seriously the quality-oflife crimes that plague the Tenderloin (yes, because residents and businesses want it).
However, El Reportero hit him with a hot-bottom question: car confi scations, after the newly appointed chief suggested he would follow the Constitution.
This has been violated repeatedly by the SFPD for a longtime, even though the city prides itself highly on issues of civil rights and bill of rights, especially on the City Sanctuary status. The sanctuary mandates that no city resources shall be used to assist immigration officers in the enforcement of immigration laws.
He said that if any of his officers conduct themselves unethically or outside the scope of the law, “we need to talk.”
“You’re saying you’re going to follow the Constitution, is that right,” asked El Reportero’s editor.
“Yes,” responded Garcón.
“Well, San Francisco, its mayor and the police, have been confiscating the cars of the undocumented for lack of a driver’s license, and this is unconstitutional, it is illegal,” said the reporter.
“Unconstitutional in capital letter.”
The U.S. Constitution states that no private property shall be confiscated without due process.
This reporter handed in to the new chief a copy of an article by former and highly decorated ex police officer Jack McLamb of Arizona, whose articles exposing government and police corruption, have been read and republished in dozens of media outlets.
The article’s headline states that, “Despite actions of police and local courts, higher courts have ruled that American citizens have a right to travel without state permits,” meaning no one is obligated by law to be demanded a driver’s license.
Garcón promised El Reportero to look into it, and to discuss the matter later.
The actions of the police confiscating the cars from the undocumented have been followed and covered by the El Reportero during the past three years, with both, editorials and news reports.
In conversation with El Reportero, Supervisor David Campos said that he has been meeting with city officials to deal with the issue, and have found a legal way out to the impounding of cars, but that it was still on the works before it is implemented.
“It won’t stop the impounding” all together, Campos said, “but it will allow drivers to recover their cars immediately.” (SF Weekly, SFGate, and www.kron.com, contributed to this report.)
