On February 11, video was captured of a SFPD officer hitting and kicking a homeless man who was sleeping on a bus after it had reached its final stop in the Richmond District.
The officer, Raymond Chu, tried to wake and roust the homeless man, 36 year old Bernard Warren, from the bus. After a verbal altercation, the video shows Chu shoving Warren and kicking him through the exit. Once off the bus, Chu takes out his baton and hits Warren. After a few more hits, Chu pepper sprays Warren.
According to the Huffington Post:
“Chu has previously said that Warren came at him with clenched fists, according to documents cited by the public defender’s office.
Warren had deep bruises on his legs and burns on his face from the pepper spray, according to his lawyer.
“Force is never a pretty sight and the officer gave orders for Mr. Warren to walk away. The officer’s report is consistent with what we see on the video,” said San Francisco Police Department Sgt. Monica Macdonald in an email to HuffPost. “Mr Warren was asked/told to leave and he returned several times and he continued to threaten to beat the office which is a crime – which you can see and hear in the video.”
“This sort of force was totally unnecessary. It was completely over the top,” said San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, whose office is representing Warren. “If you find anyone sleeping on a bus, it’s reasonable to wake them up and ask [them] to leave. Sure, but is that reason to beat [someone] down?
After the incident, Warren was hospitalized and jailed for two weeks until a judge saw the footage, which was recorded on Feb. 11. He has been charged with threatening an officer, punishable by a year behind bars.
Read the full story at Huffington Post
Sarah B.
Fine by me. Do people realize you are not allowed to tell a cop your going to ‘beat his ass’? You’re not a McAteer anymore, man. You’re 35 years old and threatening and resisting a police officer. I think the guy got what he was asking for. Who doesn’t like to see a thug get a taste of his own medicine?
Ah yes, Jeff Adachi who let the man accused of chopping up his former roommate then putting the parts in a suitcase walk free.
When asked if Adachi was aware of the man’s criminal record Adachi said he wasn’t.
And yet he’s the DA….
@Derek
Jeff Adachi didn’t let that guy “walk free”, and he’s not the DA. George Gascon is the DA, and it was his decision not to charge the guy with a crime.
Jeff Adachi’s job is the public defender… it’s his job to represent these people. He does it well. I also totally agree that the cop acted appropriately right up until the moment he runs at the guy and strikes him with his baton. I really don’t see what precipitated that action.
I support this offer’s actions 110%.
@straver thanks for correcting me! Man, daylight saving time is *really* screwing with me….
Good to see that people are ready for the police state. I completely support whatever actions an officer has to take if he feels under threat. But pepper spraying and clubbing some unhinged dude because he tells you he’s going to “beat your ass” as he’s walking away ? It’s certainly a bad idea to threaten a cop but presumably cops are trained not to meet idle threats with force; arrest the guy for insulting you if you want, but beat up a guy who can hardly tie his shoe ?
I suppose it’s the law enforcement officer’s job to be able to be able to automatically gauge the intent and threat level of the scenes they get called to?
Seriously, this isn’t some drunk kid getting beat up and extorted for money by local cops in Cabo; or a black guy getting pinned down and choked to death by a cop with the public watching in horror.
This is a 36 year old man disrupting public transit, ignoring lawful orders from a peace officer, and threatening bodily harm to said officer. The officer has no idea what the suspect is capable of, and tell me you wouldn’t be cautious if confronting a grown ass man at night who’s threatening to hurt you?
Police state? Try China or the Russian Federation.
I think we should back up a second. As far as I know, police officers are not trained to BEAT people. Handcuff and arrest them, yes.
As everyone should know, the vast majority of homeless people are mentally ill and need medical attention. If this man were on crutches with a broken leg and the officer shoved and beat him, would that be acceptable? I seriously doubt it – we’d all take pity on him. But because his injury is (most likely) in his psyche, we accept it?
A bit of compassion and treatment goes a LONG way.
Let’s face it, for some groups of people in this country this is without question a police state.
@RichmondWow: If police aren’t not trained to beat people, why would they carry a billy club, a tool designed specifically for beating people, at all times? Basically everyone is mentally ill in our society. It doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a whooping. This guy is an idiot. No one relishes the existence of people in our society whose first impulse is to say ‘i’m gonna beat your ass.’ Who cares if they get a few swings with the billy club? I’m not saying it’s correct police procedure, just that it is satisfying to watch if you dislike the thug mentality and see too much of it. I know you’re all gonna come back and say ‘being an idiot doesn’t warrant a beating’ but in my mind in kind of does, in some circumstances. Not that it should be made into policy or anything, just…
If someone tells me they’re gonna ‘beat my ass,’ I generally believe them. I have run into some variation of this cartoon character a few too many times in city life.
@Karl Young: He also wasn’t exactly walking away, he was doing everything he could to stay on the bus, including clinging onto the bar with his full arm.
RichmondWow –
Let’s say for example this guy is mentally ill. Does that make him LESS likely to attack a cop (or for that matter a random person on the street)? I’m guessing most people would say that it makes him MORE likely to do so. By definition, mentally ill people can’t and don’t make good, rational decisions.
How would you react if you were a cop by yourself and a person who was mentally ill/drunk/high threatened to “beat your ass”. Big difference between someone like that saying those words versus someone who is on crutches with a broken leg.
Based on what was visible in the video, it looks as if the officer comported himself appropriately the application of force seems measured. Is it really for the police to bear the burden of our societal failure to deal with homelessness and mental illness? This guys actions sure look belligerent to me.
From a residents perspective I applaud this officer for doing is job. Shame on you Jeff Adachi.
I see the fact that this man may or may not have a home as basically irrelevant to the events that occurred.
Potentially a difficult situation for a single officer to handle by himself safely. Why wasn’t a 2nd officer present at the same time? Most of these types of situations I’ve observed have always had 2 or more officers respond as a “Show of force”. Why didn’t SFPD wait until there were two or more officers? There didn’t seem to be any immediate threat that would been aggravated by a delay in waiting for a 2nd or 3rd officer.
RIchmond Resident: I think rousing a sleeping person at the end of the line is probably a nightly or bi-nightly occurrence. Probably usually fairly routine. No reason it would be expected to elevate.
Slight clarification – I didn’t say we live in a police; I said “people are ready for the police state”. Sure that was snarky and I deserved whatever I got for that, but I’d appreciate not having words put in my mouth.
And a guy sleeping on a bus with no passengers sitting at the end of the line is disrupting public transit ? I know that was only one of the list, but that’s a pretty liberal interpretation of disrupting public transit; I’ll have to let the folks that park in the stairwells on the buses know that there’s a more effective means of disrupting public transit… (sorry I just can’t seem to completely suppress the snark…).
The the sleeping guy was clearly drunk, and the “Club Richmond” cop was impatient. Dealing with wasted people is like arguing with a two year old. Cop should have called for backup or just let the guy make his own way out. As far as threats-obviously empty.
What kind of beating did he get if he was in the hospital for two weeks?!
I also applaud the police officer for doing a great job. Sometimes the bad guys needs a little beating.
Looks like the cop did a great job.
Hey everybody don’t forget to send your list of bad guys to SFPD.
This ain’t police brutally, good job police officer!
This is an example of good, solid police work and I commend the officer. Officer Chu has this Richmond residents full support.
I can’t say I understand when people applaud violence. It is actually a separate issue from brutality/proportionality but to me there’s no falser virtue than to see someone hospitalized or beaten and to express smug satisfaction.
It’s honestly not even political, force and coercion are a part of justice, but if it were your sister or your father regardless of what they did to anger you or what state they were in, would you sit there and commend breaking their bodies?
When I think of medieval torture, forced castration, internment camps, I think of illness, punishment, good intentions and I tell myself of past ignorance, but at other times I see an unbroken arc of frailty and suffering greeted by the warmth of a perennial complicit mob.
I guess I’ll never understand it.