Mission PD protesters packing up. They say #Frisco5 are at hospital. pic.twitter.com/cAZAufKwi0
— Evan Sernoffsky (@EvanSernoffsky) May 6, 2016
Welp, some people wondered after yesterday's unproductive phone call with Mayor Lee if the hunger strikers were going to give up the fight, and it looks like the answer is maybe, but not quite yet. We see via a few tweets that activists are packing up the tents that appeared two weeks ago outside the Mission Police Station, and reportedly the Frisco Five have all gone to the hospital.
Mission Local has video below of a spokesperson saying that the five will "continue to strike" at the hospital, but their health can now be monitored more closely.
Growing increasingly weak on day16 of strike all members of #Frisco5 have been taken to hospital to be monitored pic.twitter.com/uZwtxRzTMY
— Mission Local (@MLNow) May 6, 2016
SF Weekly notes today that the Frisco Five's act of nonviolent protest is the longest hunger strike in recent memory, and almost definitely the longest in San Francisco history, now in its 16th day.
Whether or not they will take doctors' orders to eat, or get hooked up to IV's, is unclear at this point, but the public visibility of their strike is ending, and just in time for today's rain.
The strikers have pledged not to eat, and only to consume coconut water and water, until the mayor agrees to fire SFPD Chief Greg Suhr, in recognition of the department's responsibility for the lives of four men fatally shot by officers in recent years under questionable circumstances: Alex Nieto, Amilcar Perez Lopez, Mario Woods, and most recently, homeless man Luis Gongora. Weirdly, however, in a statement on Thursday (via Indybay), the strikers also included the 2011 death of Kenneth Harding, who was determined to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound initial reports and a video suggested he had been killed by police, however an investigation concluded that Harding, who was armed with his own gun, had accidentally shot himself in reaching for the gun to shoot at the police, and the police only fired after he had discharged his weapon. His fatal wound to the neck came from a .38 caliber bullet, and SFPD officers only carry .40 caliber weapons, as was revealed just days after his death. Possibly none of the officers' shots actually hit Harding, though he was struck in the leg by a bullet of unknown caliber. But try telling that to Indybay.
Previously: Mayor Lee Has Phone Call With Hunger Striker And Little Is Accomplished
