Justice for Mario Woods
Coalition members on Monday stood on the steps of City Hall, saying they won’t
budge until an independent investigation into the killing of Mario Woods is
underway. The group’s latest call to investigate a number of police-involved
shootings, including Woods’ Dec. 2 killing, rides on the coattails of efforts
by performers like Beyonce Knowles and Alicia Keys who over the weekend used
their Super Bowl performances to garner national attention around the issue of
police brutality. “Black lives matter and we all, of every color, need to come
together to end systemic racism,” Keys said during her Saturday night show at
Super Bowl City, where she specifically thanked the activists demanding action
over Woods’ death.
Beyonce performed her
new song “Formation,” which has been dubbed as stand against police brutality,
during the Super Bowl 50 halftime show Sunday afternoon. Members of the
singer’s dance troupe were seen holding signs supporting Mario Woods after the
performance, as reported by the SF Examiner. Supporters of the Justice for
Mario Woods Coalition said the federal Department of Justice review of the San
Francisco Police Department, which was announced last week, falls short of the
independent investigation they had hoped for. “This independent investigation
isn’t an independent investigation, it’s a review board,” said Phelicia Jones,
a Justice for Mario Woods coordinator. Last week, the SF Examiner reported that
the DOJ’s review would be a voluntary assessment of the Police Department’s
policies and procedures, resulting in a report with recommendations for the
department, and would not look into the specifics of Wood’s killing.
Protesters asked for
the reopening of several officer-involved shootings, namely that of Alex Nieto,
who was shot by police in March 2014 at Bernal Heights Park, Amilcar
Perez-Lopez, who was shot six times by plainclothes officers almost a year ago
in the Mission, and Kenneth Harding, the 19-year-old man who was shot by two
officers in the Bayview back in 2011. “Anything short of not mentioning and not
investigating these specific cases is going to fall far short of what we need
to do to build trust between public law enforcement and our communities,”
Supervisor John Avalos said to the crowd gathered at City Hall. Besides asking
for an independent investigation of Woods’ shooting, coalition members
continued to demand the resignation or firing of Police Chief Greg Suhr. They
also want murder charges filed against the police officers involved in Woods’
shooting. Christopher Muhammad, Bay Area minister of the Nation of Islam, said
Woods’ shooting was the product of a larger problem within the San Francisco
Police Department. Muhammad referenced the discovery of racist and homophobic
text messages exchanged by San Francisco police officers in 2011 and 2012, as
well as the officers accused in December of targeting black people, using
racial slurs and sexually harassing suspects in the Tenderloin district.
