Starting October 8th, 15 wildfires broke out in the North Bay forcing 20,000 people to evacuate. We responded with a donation drive to bring material aid to evacuation shelters in Sonoma County. What started as a one day drop-off turned into a fully staffed four day effort that ended in 4 car loads and $500 donated to the Santa Rosa IWW.
Fighting the pointless “chop shop” bill.
We showed up to oppose the “chop shop” ordinance, introduced earlier this year. This bill authorizes the arbitrary confiscation of property from our most vulnerable citizens, those living on the city streets, and does nothing to stem bike theft.
The bill continues to target individuals rather than organized operations, and create an opaque bureaucracy with no real due process. Shifting the enforcement of this law from SFPD to DPW does nothing more than change the uniforms of the City employees conducting unconstitutional seizures; it does nothing to change the fundamental unfairness and cruelty of this bill. It allows the DPW to act as judge and jury of citizens’ claims to the property they possess and maintain. It creates a storage and paperwork nightmare for the already overworked department. It is a civil asset forfeiture bill that will subject our citizens to unwarranted, unconstitutional seizures.
Many San Francisco citizens, homeless or otherwise, depend on bicycles for transportation and the conduct of their work. Their use of public space to repair their vehicles infringes upon no other citizens’ rights. This ordinance would create a framework for arbitrary enforcement of a law for the convenience of the DPW, at the expense of people who are already subject to routine harassment, dispossession, and administrative citation.
The existence of illegal bicycle sales operations is not in dispute, with thousands of bicycles reported stolen in San Francisco annually. However, the city already has the means to address illegal bicycle trafficking, including the SAFE Bike serial number registry and laws prohibiting semi-permanent operations blocking public spaces.
This ordinance will have little impact on bike theft but will serve as another tool of abuse against the poorest among us. It will deepen the class divides in a city already riven by inequality and a profound housing and transportation crisis.
SFPD Does Not Need Tasers
DSA SF has joined a coalition of community groups in standing up and fighting back against a push from the right-wing San Francisco Police Officer’s Association to equip the San Francisco Police Department with deadly Taser weapons, and we need your help! Reuters has reported that over 1,000 people have been killed by police using Tasers, and we’ve seen some of those deaths occur here in the Bay Area, including a man killed by police using Tasers in Oakland this Fall. Studies show that Tasers don’t reduce police shootings, they simply add another weapon to the arsenal, at a time when we should be focusing on de-escalation tactics and community-led violence reduction programs that actually work.
Tasers, like all police violence, target the most vulnerable members of our community, including the poor, the unhoused, people of color, and those experiencing physical or mental health crises. DSA SF is committed to standing in solidarity with the poor and working class against police violence and racism.
DSA SF members have been organizing with community groups, researching Taser studies, and meeting with members of the San Francisco Police Commission, the body that will ultimately decide whether or not to allow the police to carry electroshock weapons. The Commission hastily arranged two “community meetings” on Tasers, and despite the lack of publicity or lead time, many DSA SF members turned out to both meetings. Although the stated goal of the meetings was to seek feedback from the public, uniformed and armed officers were on hand to push back against any criticism of Tasers. DSA SF members acquitted themselves well, armed with knowledge against anecdotes, and refused to back down.
DSA SF has begun collecting postcards to send to the Police Commission, to demonstrate, once and for all, that the community wants less violence, not more weapons. Look for these cards at our events and please make your voice heard! DSA SF members have also been showing up to Police Commission meetings, and will keep showing up, and ratcheting up the pressure. The vote on Tasers may happen as early as November, and we’ll need all hands on deck. Please, join us!
For more information and updates, contact: justice@dsasf.org
To tell the Police Commission you don’t want these weapons, email them at: sfpd.commission@sfgov.org
Or call: 415 837-7070
KPFA radio
KPFA radio (94.1FM and online at KPFA.org) features listener sponsored programming, much of which is relevant to the interests and goals of DSA. Programs of special interest include:
Economic Update, hosted on Friday mornings at 10am PST by economics professor Richard D. Wolff. Professor Wolff and his guests “discuss the current state of the economy, locally and globally. The program explores alternative ways to organize, markets, and government policies.”