Rough road for D.A.’s car break-in task force
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón’s call for an extra $1 million for a task force to fight the epidemic of car break-ins is getting a decidedly chilly reaction at City Hall — including a straight-up thumbs-down from the mayor.
“We do not need another task force,” Mayor Mark Farrell said. “We know what the issues are. We simply need action.”
Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, who sits on the Board of Supervisors’ Public Safety Committee, asked, “Why are we being asked to pay more for someone to do the job that we are already paying them for?”
“That’s pretty much my reaction as well,” said fellow committee member Supervisor Aar--
on Peskin.
“I mean, they claim that they are already charging all of the cases that the cops are making,” Peskin said of prosecutors. “And they claim that they are getting convictions. I haven’t heard one cogent reason for needing another million dollars.
“If anything, I’d rather spend the money for cops to make more arrests,” Peskin said.
The frosty feelings aren’t unanimous, though: The committee’s third member, Supervisor Hillary Ronen, said she is all for the district attorney’s call to address “a constant frustration,” even if it costs a million bucks.
“I think it’s great,” Ronen said. “I hope other city departments follow suit to finally make a dent in this problem.”
Gascón’s spokesman insists the money request is justified.
“If what we proposed was the status quo, then we would tend to agree” with critics, said spokesman Max Szabo. “But we’re asking for resources to conduct an investigation similar to the one we led in Operation Cold Day, a two-year operation with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that resulted in 75 arrests in 2017 on gun, drug and auto-theft charges.
Gascón’s plan would create a seven-member team, including four prosecutors, dedicated to busting up crime rings that the district attorney thinks were behind most of the 30,000 reported car break-ins last year in the city.
Of the 490 car burglary arrests in 2017, Gascón’s office prosecuted 400. He says more cases could overwhelm the single prosecutor assigned to car break-ins.
Hence, Gascón’s call for more firepower — and not just to handle the cases brought in by the cops. He envisions a unit that will track the “thousands of records, cameras, license plate readers, police reports, seemingly unconnected pieces of information, in order to understand the scope of the work.”
To which Sheehy asks: “Why can’t they just work closer with the police?”
Police spokesman David Stevenson said the department has been collaborating with Gascón’s office to combat property crimes, but that the district attorney didn’t give the cops a heads-up before proposing his task force at a news conference Wednesday.
“I feel like we are being held up,” Sheehy said.
Meet the mayor: Reaching into the Willie Brown playbook, San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell is bringing back sit-down sessions for which anyone can sign up and, if chosen in a lottery, talk with the mayor for 10 minutes — about anything at all.
The first Open Door Chat will be Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Farrell intends to hold them on the first and third Fridays of the month.
“I want to make sure my time as mayor is guided by the issues that impact the day-today lives of our residents,” Farrell said. “I have no doubt I’ll get an earful, but that is what I am hoping for.”
Brown, who now writes a weekly column for The Chronicle, used to open his doors on Saturday mornings. It was first come, first served, and there were doughnuts, coffee and orange juice.
“I ended up finding three or four appointees to various commissions, including Maria Ayerdi-Kaplan, who I later brought on to head the Transbay Joint Powers Authority,” Brown said.
It also exposed him to people who don’t often gain access to the halls of power.
“I’ll never forget the mother and her two children who were basically riding and sleeping on the midnight Muni run,” Brown said.
Street talk: San Francisco is getting rid of Columbus Day, renaming Justin Herman Plaza and ripping out the Pioneer Monument in reaction to nonwhite constituents’ protests. So is Kearny Street next to go?
After all, the street — which runs through Chinatown — is named after a notorious 19th century racist and leader of the Chinese expulsion movement. Right?
“I get asked that question about once a year,” said Vincent Pan, co-director of Chinese for Affirmative Action. “And every year I give the same answer — it’s not the same guy.”
The racist labor leader who often ended his speeches with the line, “And whatever happens, the Chinese must go,” was Denis Kearney. Kearny Street, Pan said, is named for Gen. Stephen Kearny, who served as military governor of California after the Mexican-American War.
“Given the times back then, chances are he may have been racist as well,” Pan said. “But he is not the famous one who everyone thinks of when they hear the name.”