Here is the letter I sent to the OCC, as well as to the Mayor’s Office and the
office of Police Chief Lau:
Office of Citizen Complaints
Dear Sir or Madam:
The first part of this letter is a description of events I witnessed last July
31st, during the Critical Mass bike ride through San Francisco. This is
followed by my reaction to those events. I am willing to testify to
everything in this letter.
I left Justin Herman Plaza with a large number of other riders heading down
Market Street. When the ride reached Church Street, I noticed roughly a
hundred cyclists gathered on the west side of the intersection, near the
subway elevator on the north side of Market. There were also several police
motorcycles present, which led me to believe that a cyclist had been stopped
for running a red light.
When the light turned green, I crossed Church and joined the crowd surrounding
the police. The police had one man in a standing hold with his arms behind
his back. While I was watching, the man seemed to try to pull away from the
police. The officer in front of the man then struck him in the stomach. The
detained man fell to the ground. The same officer then kicked the man twice
in the stomach area.
At that point, a woman came out of the crowd, obviously distraught, and
started pleading for the police to stop their beating. She was crying. One
officer who was standing in front of the woman then punched or clubbed her
across the face, and she fell to the ground.
One officer kneeled on the neck of the man who was being kicked, and pressed
his face against the concrete with one hand. A ring of police surrounded the
woman facing outwards, and I could not see what was happening with her or her
condition.
I am a recent resident of the City, having bought a home in SoMa last
December. This coincided with moving the software company I founded to San
Francisco’s South Park neighborhood. What I saw last Friday shocked me. I
have never before witnessed such brutality outside of war documentaries. In
my opinion, some members of the San Francisco police force have taken it upon
themselves to ‘teach a lesson’ to bicyclists via the inappropriate use of
force. It is my hope that the officers responsible will be relieved of duty.
They are not serving the public – they are only playing out their own emotions.
Sincerely,
Ron Lussier
CC: Mayor’s Office, Chief Lau
coyote@likeminds.com
