Black police chiefs come under sharp criticism

Black police superintendents in two of California’s largest cities have come under intense criticism for their officers’ handling of two high-profile incidents.

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott recently defended his officers’ raid on the home of a freelance videographer who was suspected of stealing a police report concerning the death of public defender and San Francisco mayoral candidate Jeffrey Gordon Adachi. He was found dead of a drug overdose February 22 in his Telegraph Hill apartment.

Police critics charge the cops carried out a legally questionable raid May 10 at the home of Bryan Carmody, but Chief Scott defended the officers’ actions, arguing they executed search warrants issued against Carmody.

Scott argued Carmody exceeded his role as a journalist when he obtained and sold a police report concerning Adachi’s death. Carmody admits he sold the story of Adachi’s death to numerous news outlets, but he said he did not buy the report, according to various news reports.

The San Francisco PD has come under criticism for obtaining the search warrants, which is a possible violation of state and federal laws protecting journalists from having search warrants issued against them.

Scott declined to disclose the evidence against Carmody, who the San Francisco DA charged with being involved in a criminal conspiracy. Two judges had to approve the warrant.

In Sacramento, police have come under intense criticism for their arrest of a 12-year-old Black boy who was handcuffed and slammed face first to ground where he was then restrained by several cops.

The boy is 4’ 8” tall and weighs 80 pounds. Police also applied a spit mask over his face to prevent him from spitting at the cops after he allegedly threatened to spit on them.

A security guard at Walgreens charged that the boy was trespassing because he was asking shoppers to buy undisclosed items from him. Police arrested the boy on April 28.

Police said they are reviewing the child’s arrest. Police later released him to his mother. Daniel Hahn is chief of the Sacramento Police Department.

In March, Sacramento police shot to death an unarmed Stephon Clark.

This article originally published in the June 3, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.