20 officers ordered suspended -- mayor condemns 'sexist,' 'racist' films, vows probe of department
About 20 San Francisco police officers will be suspended because of their alleged involvement in what the mayor and police chief describe as videos that mock minorities and treat women as sex objects, the officials said Wednesday night.
"This is a dark day -- an extremely dark day -- in the history of the San Francisco Police Department for me as a chief to have to stand here and share with you such egregious, shameful and despicable acts by members of the San Francisco Police Department,'' Chief Heather Fong said at a City Hall press conference.
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An officer at the department's Bayview Station, who is among those ordered suspended, produced the videos over the past two years using other officers and acquaintances and intended them as morale boosters, he and his attorney said Wednesday night. The officer denied he had done anything wrong, and his attorney said the suspensions were a politically motivated attack on free speech.
Many of those ordered suspended are connected to Bayview Station, including its former captain, Rick Bruce, who went on leave three months ago for unrelated reasons. He appears in one of the videos, which was shot while he was still on duty.
The five videos shown at Wednesday's press conference with Fong and Mayor Gavin Newsom depict officers, some in uniform, responding to a variety of mock calls. One video shows a homeless black woman railing against white people after apparently being hit by a patrol car, followed by an officer grumbling about having to deal with her. "They get us involved with their business,'' the officer said.
Another video depicts an officer ogling a woman he has stopped for a traffic violation. One shows two officers attempting tai chi to vaguely Asian music. The two later go into a massage parlor and radio dispatchers try unsuccessfully to reach them -- the suggestion being the two are having sex with masseuses.
One video, with the theme to the old TV show "Charlie's Angels" as the soundtrack, shows various officers saying, "Oh, captain," and flicking their tongues suggestively. The captain involved, Bruce, flicks his tongue in apparent response -- although the officer who produced the videos said Bruce had not known what the shot was to be used for.
One of those depicted in that sequence is the same homeless woman who was earlier shown yelling about white people. Another is a police officer dressed as a transgender person.
In another video, a female officer is shown putting on lipstick in the middle of a mock drug raid.
Newsom called the videos the tipping point that will lead to changing the culture of the Police Department.
"Enough is enough,'' said Newsom, who promised dramatic changes, including the creation of a panel to review the entire department's operations.
The mayor, who consulted in his office with his chief political strategist, Eric Jaye, before starting the press conference, said he would convene the panel today. He also has asked the city Human Rights Commission and the city Commission on the Status of Women to conduct their own investigations.
The videos have the potential to turn into one of the biggest crises of Newsom's 2-year-old administration. Their revelation comes as the mayor faces demands from African American leaders, in particular, to do something about a homicide rate that is at its highest level in a decade. The Bayview Station serves Bayview-Hunters Point and surrounding neighborhoods with large black populations, where many of the slayings have occurred.
Newsom said lawyers in both the city attorney's and district attorney's offices have reviewed the videos, which suggests that officials are looking at whether criminal charges should be filed.
Newsom said the videos mocked African Americans, Asians, women and transgender people.
The conduct, he said, "is shameful. It is offensive, it is sexist. It is homophobic, it is racist, and we're going to make sure it ends.''
Fong said she was first made aware of the videos Tuesday afternoon after a captain alerted her that they had been posted on the producing officer's private Web site.
"The investigation will reveal who knew what, who did what, who told who to do what,'' Fong said.
She said command staff would fan into all the district stations and investigative bureaus starting today to make clear that the department has no tolerance for conduct that makes fun of others. The department already requires that all officers undergo sensitivity training.
Officer Andrew Cohen, 39, who works at Bayview Station, said he was the producer of the videos. He was suspended without pay Tuesday.
In a phone interview, Cohen said he had worked as a liaison to the department's public affairs unit and had produced nine videos in his 10 years on the force, some of them humorous but others dealing with training issues.
The videos that got him suspended "started out as a fun-and-games thing to give a sendoff" to Bruce, Cohen said. "It was supposed to show the cute characters we have at the station, kind of to make fun of ourselves."
He said the goal of the videos was "to boost the morale of law enforcement" and that they were never intended to be shown outside the ranks.
Cohen expressed amazement that "this micromanaging chief" would be worried about videos with the homicide total for the year nearing 100. "She has bigger fish to fry," Cohen said.
"We're outgunned. We're outmanned," Cohen said. "The fact of the matter is that she has an out-of-control department. She lives in the Bayview and has never stopped by the station to see her own officers.
"She doesn't have much confidence of the rank and file. She's putting a nail in her coffin."
The video came to the attention of department officials after Cohen posted scenes of it and other films he has done on the Web.
"My mistake was deciding a lot of cops wanted to see funny video clips," he said. "I put a few clips on there and boom."
Cohen said he had carte blanche with police chiefs going back to Fred Lau to make videos for the department. "In fact, this is the fourth humorous one I've done and I've never had any flak," he said. "I've never been in trouble before in my life. This is not me."
He has retained attorney Daniel Horowitz, and said neither of them had been told about Wednesday night's press conference in advance.
Horowitz managed to get to the tail end of the event and in interviews berated Fong and Newsom. "They're cowards. The mayor is a coward, and so is the chief,'' he said.
Horowitz, who said he has been friends with Cohen for 20 years, said the officer was raised a Berkeley liberal and "is the opposite of a homophobe, the opposite of a racist.''
He called the suspension unjust and said he will ask members of the Bayview community to "rise up and support Officer Cohen.''
Horowitz said he had seen all the videos and denied they were in any way insensitive. He said they amounted to art and commentary about the department.
Malaika Parker of Bay Area PoliceWatch called the videos an outrage. "They were absolutely disgusting, there were assaults on women, people of color and the transgender community," she said. "I hope they bring deep, deep changes to the department.''
E-mail the writers at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com, rgordon@sfchronicle.com and tbyrne@sfchronicle.com.
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