Civic

In 2009, BART police officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant, later claiming he had meant to use his Taser and not his gun. In April 2021, Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter shot and killed Daunte Wright — and police say this, too, was due to getting the less-lethal weapon and the gun confused. To get a better sense of how much these two shootings blamed on Taser confusion more than a decade apart have in common, and how the trial of Derek Chauvin is changing the conversation about killings by law enforcement, we hear from journalist Demian Bulwa, now director of news at the San Francisco Chronicle, who covered Oscar Grant’s death and Johannes Mehserle’s trial extensively.

Many people are unsure how to respond when they find themselves observing a conflict, or when someone might be bothering, harassing or even about to attack another person. In response to a wave of violent attacks against Asian-Americans, two organizations have partnered to offer an adapted bystander intervention training, which has been in very high demand. Paul Ocampo, development director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice/Asian Law Caucus, and Dax Valdes, a senior trainer with Hollaback, share their experiences with and strategies for safely de-escalating tense situations.

Members of San Francisco's Homeless Outreach Team — also known as the “HOT team” — walk neighborhood beats to offer support, information, and referrals to services for people living on the streets. During the pandemic, the resources available, particularly shelters, changed significantly. Meanwhile, our collective understanding of what would work best to contain the spread was changing too. Mark Mazza, outreach manager for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, shares how those changes have affected members of this team.

A youth-led, youth-run initiative called San Francisco Communities who Help Advance the New Generation of Education — or SFCHANGE — is offering workshops to young people on topics that might not be taught in their classrooms otherwise, from organizing their finances to organizing around climate change. Adrianna Zhang, founder and executive director of operations for SFCHANGE, and Samantha Chu, an 8th grader who has attended one of the workshops, share their experiences.

Redistricting, the process by which electoral districts are drawn, will happen locally as well as at the state and federal levels. San Francisco will use Census data but also, crucially, resident input, to redraw its supervisorial districts. Alison Goh, president of the League of Women Voters of San Francisco, explains how the process will work and outlines the transparency and outreach the League wants to see from the city.

At the uprisings sparked by the killing of George Floyd last year, demonstrators all over the country were calling on their municipalities to “defund the police.” In Oakland, a Reimagining Public Safety Task Force in March approved a long list of recommendations, many of them made by the Anti Police Terror Project, an organization that has been calling for reducing police budgets in order to fund alternatives to law enforcement for years. As former police officer Derek Chauvin, accused of murdering Floyd, is tried, we hear from James Burch, policy director for the Anti Police-Terror Project and the Justice Teams Network and president of the National Lawyers Guild Bay Area.

Under California's Proposition 22, passed last year, companies whose apps dispatch gig workers aren’t considered those workers' employers, so they are exempt from providing benefits for them like unemployment protections, minimum wage, and sick leave. The proposition did provide for a minimum earnings guarantee and some health care benefits like stipends and insurance for on-the-job injuries. Still, drivers and labor organizers have said that they’re left choosing between paying the bills and managing their coronavirus exposure risk, because they lack full employee protections. Cherri Murphy, a lead organizer for Gig Workers Rising who has also worked as a Lyft driver, explains.

Violence against Asian-Americans has sparked discussions about the racist policies, animus and attacks that have been part of US history for a long time, from exclusionary and segregationist policies to harmful myths and stereotypes about Asian people. Author Jeff Chang has written extensively about this history, and politics and race in America, and unpacks the ways in which white supremacy influences narratives about recent anti-Asian violence.

Nearly 4,000 attacks on Asian-Americans — including verbal and physical assaults — were reported to Stop AAPI Hate, a national tracking project launched by a coalition of activist groups last year, as of late February 2021. Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, one of the founding partners of Stop AAPI Hate, reflects on the increase and how this violence can be addressed.