Why would an SFPD Sergeant Practice Elder Abuse, in violation of human rights and common decency ?
This is about Individuals choosing to mis-apply power and laws only 'as written' without thought or reflection upon Duty to Constitution, Intent of the law and stated City, Public or Department policies and guidelines.
This is about a law that Stands in Violation of Internationally Recognized Human Rights, called the Sit - Lie Law. This is about Elder Abuse. This is about power and control and drug, alcohol and psychological problems inside every town's police and every county's sheriff's department, as evidenced by this incident and others we've seen over the years.
During today's encounter, we saw and experienced real life elder abuse, under color of authority, contrary to public policy and the promises made to us all, when police and city leaders told us it (sit-lie law) would only be applied 'as needed' (for folks who are sitting and bothering others) -- not to be used on anyone we feel like, without just cause or complaint.
You can check local news archives and city department archives to verify all they said as they ramped up support for these inhumane laws that are used as stepping stones to 'push people around', move folks from one place to another against their will who are not harming others or breaking any just laws, at all. Another fraud and betrayal of public trust to 'legalize' abuses of our people, especially the disabled, elderly and veterans among us.
Also, the medical cannabis laws, 'lowest priority' ordinances and police department policies are clear -- to not bother folks medicating, unless they are causing a harm, disturbance or breaking other laws (ie. not just cases where an elder attorney, sits with client where they live and socialize and have bankers and neighbors walk by seeing two law abiding residents being harassed by a uniformed officer in public).
Here's what happened and we saw how easy it could be for a child to be shot only because the officer chose to bother folks not bothering anyone else. He was looking for trouble and a child could have been shot or we could have.
That's why our blood pressure goes up when we're not bothering anyone and approach us for no good cause by officers, who today, have reputations for beating, stealing and murdering and lying and fostering all kinds of hate and biases in endless streams of text messages.
Today, our attorney was talking to us and we saw the CLOSED sign on Mission Hiring Hall across the street from the cafe where we hang out.
When we wish to speak in private without cafe security cameras and laptops everywhere, we walk or hobble across the street. Karla is very old and she sits down on her $25 stool while I medicate on medical cannabis.
We do this usually when the hall is closed in front of inoperable windows, close to the alley so the smoke blows away from sidewalk. We watch for kids and also watch others who may be harming themselves or others and keep medication on the down low, as we've been doing for generations now.
This was the case today. We were discussing legal matters and saw a strange man lurking at the door and then arguing with a woman they walked towards the bank and kept arguing which interuppted our legal chat.
Then an officer (Sgt. Petuya #1712) walked right past them, paying them no attention, spoke to some african american gentleman in the alley, then saw me and said, 'Hey, do you know that's against the law to smoke there ?"
I said, "no. As far as I know, smoking in front of inoperable windows is not illegal and there are no posted No Smoking Signs visible."
He said, 'No. I mean that's not a regular cigarette, right ?'
I replied, 'no, it's medical cannabis (for my knee pain), and I don't know any just law that says I can't smoke outside for medical neccessity.'
Then he turned his attention to my elder, lady attorney, resting on her $25 stool which she needs due to many causes that I'm not sharing publicly. As its really noone's business, why any person, let alone a very old person has to justify sitting on their own stool to rest upon, not bothering anyone.
But, being bothered by an expensive and often potentially corrupted or deadly police officer (and not a rookie, but a Sergeant), is a very bad, nerve wracking proposition no matter how you look at it.
A person her age, one 'fall' down a stair could kill her. Her blood pressure shot way up as mine did because this story got weird.
As we were there, a young child about 8 years old, sneaked up on us -- while this Sgt. was harassing us and was 'hiding and playing' behind a wall of the alley that the officer could not see... I was terrified and tried to get the child to go away.
The father was busy on cell phone not paying attention. If that child had pulled out a TOY GUN, the cop, being apparently with a chip on his shoulder (or judgemental bias he had before he even saw us) or under influence of drug, alcohol or mental impairment (for wanting to bother us for no reason and no complaint is abnormal) -- we could have all been shot dead.
In 2015, we'd prefer to not be near any cop unless they have a legitimate cause or truly reasonable suspicion of a crime involving harm to others... not petty no-harm reasons they make up, as they go. It's now dangerous to be near any cops, especially cops who are not your local neighbors or whom you already know isn't bias, judgemental, corrupted or prone to violence and crime.
Think about it. Our streets are packed. Tension everywhere. 10,000 extra unskilled drivers taking local cash flows, 4,000 local businesses folded this past year, 10,000 more new homeless and impoverished by high tech and bad city policy alone. How much are we going to tolerate ?
If John F. Kennedy's grandmother was on a stool resting, what officer in their right mind would even bother her ?
Then this Sgt. (who by that rank should be very detail oriented -- unless under an undue bias, influence or conditioning or mal condition) after checking her California State BAR Card and State ID, knew she was a she, kept calling her 'Sir.' Many time. Very embarassing and her and I are both well known, fairly respected long time members of the community. Known to not cause harm or be a danger to anyone.
Quite the contrary. We (myself, the elderly attorney and our network of peers) spend our time reducing harm, exposing abuse and saving lives, not for a living, but as a long time way of life.
So, we are calling for Mandatory Drug, Alcohol and Psychological Evaluations for all taxpayer paid law enforcement officers who carry lethal wepaons or this kind of 'nazified' apply all laws to all people mentality of the lowest order and the affects of elder abuse and abuse of all who are in need of rest will never end.
Right now, her blood pressure is way up and we had to cancel tonight's legal meeting with the groups we came here to meet tonight. I apologize to the members of the cannabis patients' union and the other clients who planned to meet up with us tonight.
I suspect we need mandatory testing and we need to have much more sensitivity training for these officers who are clueless about 'who' the should be wasting taxpayer time and money on and who not to.
Folks bothering and endangering folks (as were the bad uber drivers all around us and the couple fighting and many other known, visible hazards that are violations of law around us that go directly to saving lives and reducing harm) are the only folks that laws should be applied to first.
After you remove all the renegade ride share drivers who cause real harm and all the folks who are on big pharma causing harm are in safe places then you can go hassle elders in peace sitting quietly if you must, but first you should be drug, alcohol and mental health tested while on taxpayer payrolls, because when you are out of conrol, innocent people go to jail and die, by your hands, not ours.
Don't be petty or robotic in a world class city with real human beings who care and cause no harm. It's almost always the folks who don't live here that come here to harm and steal from us all... living far away cops are no exception. Easier to beat and steal from strangers than people in your own neighborhood.
J. Leonard, Client for K. Gottschalk, Atty.
SF Community Advocate
Afterthought: Folks who don't understand Elder Abuse or right to rest issues are often in denial and fall back on 'just doing my job' which is like an excuse as to why one feels a need to harass others not causing harm, in the first place. Especially when our streets are filled with known dangerous distracted ride share drivers and others, en mass, all around us.
