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Woman Vows to Sue SFPD For Violent Jaywalking Arrest That Left Her With a Concussion, Separated Shoulder

Joe Kukura — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 18:33:08 GMT

A mother of five was roughed up in a recent jaywalking arrest, and now there’s video of the incident, so she says she's going to sue SFPD for leaving her with a concussion and a separated shoulder.

It’s been in the news this week that a jaywalking arrest in the Inner Richmond last month turned violent, and now the woman who was arrested has lawyered up and is promising a lawsuit. According to KRON4, the incident happened July 29 at Geary Boulevard near Second Avenue, and the woman says SFPD’s use of force left her with a concussion, separated shoulder, and torn ligaments.

KTVU has pretty extensive video of the incident, and at first, the woman Christiana Porter is seen walking across Second Avenue with a pair of headphones on and not noticing that a police SUV has pulled over. (It’s not clear from the video if she had the right-of-way). So she continues walking down Geary Boulevard, and an officer pursues her driving the wrong way, then gets out of the SUV and pushes Porter up against a wall.

She begins shouting “I’m not resisting,” though the officer insists she is. Three more squad cars show up with their sirens blaring, and additional officers hold her to the wall. They cuff her up and drag her into one of the squad cars.

“Everything just happened so fast,” Porter, a single mother of five, told KRON4. “I was just terrified because the moment he charged at me out of his car and just seeing that look of just anger and I’m going to hurt you type look on his face, I immediately knew he didn’t have good intentions.”

“I still have a separated right shoulder, torn ACM ligaments that attach to my clavicle, I suffered a concussion,” she added. “I still am experiencing the aftereffects of a concussion as well as in my hips and in my back.”

The officer who originally pulled over for Porter was SFPD Officer Josh McFall. KTVU has additional video of passersby confronting McFall, who told them that Porter had refused to stop or produce ID, and wouldn’t keep her hands out of her pockets. “I didn’t want it to go this way, but when people put me in that position, I don’t have a choice,” he said.

Porter has retained an attorney, who’s filed a legal claim, which is likely a precursor to a civil lawsuit. “This was an unreasonable detention by way of the use of force,” that attorney Lateef Gray told the Chronicle. “SFPD has a policy that should prevent officers from using jaywalking as a pretext to conduct a deeper investigation, yet here we see that policy blatantly disregarded.”

The attorney is also asking DA Brooke Jenkins’s office to not file jaywalking charges against Porter. But according to KRON4, Porter does have a court date of August 23 for jaywalking and resisting arrest charges.

Image: A San Francisco Police Department vehicle is visible patrolling during a shelter in place order amid an outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus in San Francisco, California, March 23, 2020. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Octogenarian Jaywalker Pardoned For Being Struck By Vehicle

Andrew Dalton — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 11:21:13 GMT

An 86-year-old man received a jaywalking citation earlier this week after he was struck by a car on Geary Boulevard near St. Mary's Cathedral. The man sustained a fractured leg when the vehicle hit him outside the crosswalk, which apparently led to a moral conflict for the officer who was forced to issue the citation.

The officer was "very torn and troubled" about writing the ticket, the Examiner reports. But the officer was literally going by the book, following SFPD's official guidelines that said an officer must issue a citation to the party responsible for a collision.

However, when the officer brought it up to his commander at the SFMTA, the department realized they'd left off a couple key words from their guidelines that would let the responsible party off the hook, as long as they didn't cause anyone else to be injured.. When they realized the error SFMTA Commander Mikail Ali personally called the injured 86-year-old to let him know police had been advised to drop the ticket.

Lest we think we can all walk out into the street willy-nilly (don't, folks, it's super dangerous around here), Ali did say that jaywalkers can be at fault if a driver gets into an accident or injures another person while trying to avoid the illegal pedestrian.

[SFEx]

Pedestrian Struck And Killed After Fight On Van Ness

Andrew Dalton — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 09:50:51 GMT

A man jaywalking through six lanes of traffic on Van Ness Avenue was struck and killed near the intersection with Grove Street just outside city hall last night. According to San Francisco police, the victim was leaving an altercation with another man in front of the War Memorial around 6:20 p.m. when he tried to cross the street in the middle of the block.

"Based on the witness statements we have so far," SFPD Sgt. Eric Mahoney tells Hayeswire, "there was a gentlemen who was in a verbal argument with another person, walking northbound on Van Ness on the west side of the street. Some verbal altercation had happened and then the altercation had ended. One party crossed Van Ness and was gone from the scene. As the second party crossed Van Ness — a significant period later — he made it all the way to the northbound lane when he was stuck by a vehicle."

The pedestrian was struck by a light-colored Honda sedan and was pronounced dead at the scene. KRON4 reports the driver will not be charged by police because the man was clearly jaywalking.

KRON4 had the report from the scene last night:

[Hayeswire]
[KRON4]

Etiquette Week: How To Walk On The Sidewalk Like A Reasonable Human Being

Andrew Dalton — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:05:35 GMT

As readers have no doubt noticed, it's National Etiquette Week here at SFist. After yesterday's lesson in the unspoken rules of public transit, we're stepping off the bus and walking the rest of the way for a refresher course on how to act while navigating the city's sidewalks, plazas and other public spaces on foot. Because pretty much everything out there is going to try to run you over, eventually.

Texting, Tweeting and Other Distractions
If you really need to Instagram that picture of your latte leaf so bad, maybe you should just get out of the middle of the sidewalk and go lean up against a lamp post while you do it. Otherwise, you will one day end up running in to said lamp post and the rest of us are going to get a good laugh out of it. (On second thought, keep texting.) And for heaven's sake, don't step out in an intersection with your eyes trained on your iPhone, no matter what the person in the corner of your eye is doing. Always assume that person is trying to lead you in to an open manhole.

Stay to the Right
We covered this in terms of escalators and stairs, but it bears repeating especially for crowded thoroughfares on busy days. If you absolutely must gush over that Valencia Street window display, kindly resume walking on the right when you're done. Saturdays at the Ferry Building should be dealt with like busy intersections. If you're headed straight for someone, both parties should calmly take a step to their right and we can avoid awkward sidewalk dances forever.

Large Groups of Slow Walkers
Don't be a jerk. No one likes a slow walker, much less a group of them four abreast. Let some other people around, OK?

Crossing the Street
At stop signs, when a driver gives you the go-ahead nod, don't be all weird and hesitant about it. Assume if you do that driver will hate you and then try to run you over.

San Francisco, being a progressive city full of high-tech devices and all, has installed handy countdown timers at nearly every intersection with a stop light. You, intelligent human being that you are, can use these timers to gauge whether or not you have enough time to cross all those lanes of traffic before the taxi waiting at the light starts honking at you to get out of the street. As a general rule of thumb three seconds left on the clock is not enough time to cross Market without leaving you in the path of an oncoming Muni bus. Which brings us to...

Jaywalking Happens
Look, we're all busy people here with plenty of important places to be and sometimes we just can't be bothered to wait for the light to change. We're not going to tell you to do anything illegal, but don't be a dummy, okay? Jaywalking at any intersection with more than two traffic patterns (Oak and Octavia, Market and Noe/16th come to mind) is just a terrible idea. On the other hand, maybe you don't feel like waiting for the light to cross 17th Street at Mission? At least check for traffic, cross where there's actually a crosswalk, don't linger in the street and certainly don't expect drivers to stop and wait for you if you jump in front of them. Always assume motor vehicles are out to kill you. Which they are, but no one wants to read about that later.

Walk Your Bike
Are you over the age of 13? Yes? Then why the hell are you riding your bicycle on the sidewalk? By now we all know city streets can be terrifying for cyclists, and we can sympathize (If you're crapping your pants over vehicular traffic on a particular street, you might want to look in to a different route. Otherwise, just get back on the bus.) We once nearly got shoulder checked by a biker on the sidewalk mere feet from the bike lane behind the Market Street Safeway. There is literally zero car traffic there. Inexcusable. You get about a six-foot buffer zone to dismount on the sidewalk and even then, you're pushing it. (It should also go without saying that bike lanes are not sidewalks. That's not how bike lanes work.)

Everyone Hates Your Grownup Razor Scooter
No, seriously. What are you doing?

Previously: Etiquette Week: How to Behave on Public Transportation

Jaywalkers, Doing God's Work?

Brock Keeling — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:57:33 GMT

Brittney Gilbert at Eye On Blogs brings our attention to what could be our new favorite blog, The Pedestrianist. More than any driver or cyclist, the delicate pedestrian is the single most maligned minority in the history of the world, ever. (Examples: Where are our energizer stations? Where are our street closures? Where are our coalitions? Where in the hell are our biergartens with porta-potties?) Apparently, jaywalkers make streets safer. We're living speed bumps, if you will. The Pedestrianist says:

Motorists sacrifice the safety of other road users in exchange for speed; bicyclists do too, to a lesser extent; pedestrians do not endanger anyone else by their choice of transportation. When breaking a traffic law further exaggerates these differences it's far worse, IMHO, than when breaking a traffic law results in a more even - and safer - playing field.

Genius in its accuracy and logic, yes? But wait, there's more:

When a driver blows through a red light, he's sacrificing the safety of others for his own speed even more than the already high baseline of driving. That's worse than when a bicyclist blows through a stop sign (assuming no pedestrians are around) not because bicyclists are morally superior, but because the bicyclist's behavior makes everyone slow down, which makes everyone safer.
And when pedestrians jaywalk (assuming they are not oblivious to their surroundings) they make both bikes and cars slow down. And that's a great thing.

It is a great thing, agreed. Except for the whole hit-by-a-truck-and-killed thing, that is.

That said, who wants to start the SF Pedestrian Coalition? Also, check out WalkSF for more on pedestrian issues.

Jaywalking-- Smart or Darwinism?

Jon — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:46:56 GMT

How many ways does this piss us off? Like the fact if she just crossed Valencia Street, there's an actual crosswalk there. Or the fact that she still has to jaywalk Market Street even after jaywalking the lane, making it not a very smart place to jaywalk to begin with. Or just the sheer fact that she thought it was cool to jaywalk in the middle of incoming traffic.

Look, we jaywalk too. A lot. But we consider ourselves good jaywalkers. We don't mind jaywalkers who are smart, but we hate jaywalkers who are stupid-- they give jaywalking a bad name (bad name). See, us good jaywalkers know that there's two basic rules to jaywalking:

-Don't jaywalk in the middle of traffic
-If you're jaywalking with traffic headed your way, don't saunter across the street with a latte in your had and an attitude that there's nothing wrong with asking a bunch of cars to slow down just for you-- move your ass.

See, this way you don't piss off drivers. Not to mention get friggin hit by a car.

Anyways, to you, Jaywalking Lady, since we didn't do this while driving yesterday, we'll do this now: