Results tagged “policecommission”

Assuming the seat vacated by Theresa Sparks, who stepped down to become human rights commissioner, former Assistant District Attorney Jim Hammer was sworn in yesterday as the City's first second openly gay male police commissioner. Hammer was approved by a unanimous vote of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, and will serve the remainder of Sparks' term which ends April 30, 2011.

Hey, do you like to relieve yourself in public? If so, "urine" luck! The golden-shower-loving perverts at the Department of Public Works just denied the dangerous lunatics calling themselves Citizens for Halloween a permit for portable toilets, so you're going to have to make do with the neighbors' bushes, local storefronts, and taxis. Or you could just dress up as Louis Leakey and tell people it's all part of the costume.

--Civic Center's SFMike reports on a Hayes Valley-themed mini-golf public art installation. That's the eponymous Mr. Hayes (not Rutherford B., but another guy named Thomas) to your right.

And that's your Judas Priest reference for the day.... By a 5-0 vote, the Police Commission last night voted to install twenty five of those anti-crime cameras throughout the Mission, SoMa, and the Tenderloin. As expected, last night's hearing was pretty heated as over 100 people attended. According to reports, the crowd was about 50-50 on what to do.

As we all know, Gavin is up for re-election this year (and why 2007? Aren't big elections supposed to be in even-numbered years? Is this one more "only in SF" type of thing?). So today's Examiner gets all up in Gavin's grill and checks him out. They recap his bout of recent bout of bad news, interview him (blue tie sighting!), and hand out report cards on his 2003 campaign promises.

-Majority of SF Police Commission call for investigation on why there's a high percentage of blacks arrested. -Judge says Hearst and MediaNews Group Inc deal can't go forward as of yet.

Alright, let's go back to the SFPD video story as the big boom was lowered yesterday. Out of the thirty-five officers involved, twenty-eight of them are being disciplined. No word on what disciplined means, although it'll probably be some sort of suspension. As for the remaining seven, including video auteur Andrew Cohen, they will go in front of the San Francisco Police Commission to have them decide their fate.

-Union and police commission not getting along after two on the commission said that cops occasionally kill people. -Ammiano's bill to decrminilize dope moves forward.

There's lots to be said about this election (we won the House!), and lots to be learned about local politics (YouTube -- the wave of the future), and that's for political scientists that are sharper than us to figure out -- but the one totally obvious point that this election's highlighted is that Gavin Newsom can't get his friends elected.

Last night's Police Commission meeting [RealPlayer] started off with rollicking public comment from officers and the public. Officers were particularly upset over the termination of officer Anthony Nelson. Nelson was terminated after breaking the arm of an anti-war protestor and then filing a report with erroneous information about the circumstances. One of the two commissioners who voted against his termination was Peter Keane, who is also the dean of the law school at Golden Gate University (hence his nickname, "The Professor").