Police lives don’t matter in San Francisco
Two San Francisco police officers responded to a report of a man who broke into an apartment, then fled and was witnessed trying to break into several parked cars. When the officers tried to make contact with the subject, he ran towards one of the officers and began beating him in the face and head with a 200ml glass vodka bottle. When the other officer ran over to assist, the suspect rushed towards him with the bottle, then ran down the sidewalk. Both officers chased the suspect and demanded several times that he drop the bottle and get on the ground. They were repeatedly ignored. The suspect ran in and out of parked cars, and back and forth across the street. When the suspect again rushed towards one of the officers with the bottle in hand, the officer fired his weapon and hit the suspect. He momentarily fell to the ground, then stood back up. The officer fired another shot which immobilized the suspect. Both officers immediately rendered aid.
Sandy Malone and Christopher Berg reported for Blue Lives Matter that when medical personnel arrived, body cam video of the officer who fired at the suspect showed that he was visibly upset: “The video showed that Officer Flores, clutching an ice pack to his bleeding face, stood with Officer Hayes and kept a hand on his arm as his partner wept. ‘I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to do it,’ Officer Hayes told a female sergeant who arrived on the scene. “I tried to pepper spray him – I got myself.”
The suspect was initially charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and vandalism. On Friday, however, all charges were dropped:
“Newly-elected District Attorney Chesa Boudin has dropped charges. . . against a man who was shot while beating a police officer with a vodka bottle. The move comes after community outrage over the shooting and claims that the shooting was unjustified, despite the video evidence showing otherwise. Boudin says that he dropped the charges. .. because his office is investigating the officers for shooting Hampton.”
Let’s break this down – a man breaks into an apartment, then tries to break into several parked cars. He attacks and violently beats a police officer, refuses to drop his weapon, and refuses to stop running from the police. He is being criminally charged with…nothing. Instead, the police officers are being investigated due to “community outrage over the shooting.”
Crime rates in SF continue to rise, the new DA abolished cash bail, he fired several senior prosecutors within days of taking office, and now he won’t prosecute crimes committed against police officers.