{"id":31588,"date":"2022-05-10T00:20:31","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T00:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/10\/amid-a-police-reform-movement-london-breed-picked-s-f-police-spokesperson-it-wasnt-an-accident\/"},"modified":"2022-05-10T00:20:31","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T00:20:31","slug":"amid-a-police-reform-movement-london-breed-picked-s-f-police-spokesperson-it-wasnt-an-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/10\/amid-a-police-reform-movement-london-breed-picked-s-f-police-spokesperson-it-wasnt-an-accident\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid a police reform movement, London Breed picked S.F. police spokesperson. It wasn\u2019t an accident"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<\/p>\n<p>Mayor London Breed\u2019s appointment of new District Six Supervisor Matt Dorsey \u2014 who served as spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department \u2014 signals she\u2019s leaning into the tough-on-crime image she\u2019s been burnishing for months.<\/p>\n<p>Breed is embracing a pro-law enforcement pick for a downtown neighborhood that has long been a political battlefront just a year before she runs for re-election and weeks before a historic recall vote for the district attorney.<\/p>\n<div id=\"paywall\">\n<p>Her decision comes at a moment when she needs to rally allies on the Board of Supervisors and steer the city\u2019s economic rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic. She and Dorsey are pushing for a multifaceted approach to the city\u2019s street conditions, arguing that support for police and public safety can go hand in hand with more treatment and support for those struggling with addiction.<\/p>\n<p>Introducing Dorsey at his swearing-in ceremony Monday, Breed highlighted what she saw as his core values: \u201cWhat has been important to him is recovery, safety, and the ability for people to live in a community where they feel safe and secure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- hearst\/article\/content\/embed.tpl --><\/p>\n<section class=\"article--content-embed fullwidth\">\n                        <iframe frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" data-progressive=\"true\" data-component=\"misc-iframe\" data-url=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm?e=SFO7464207955\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><!-- e hearst\/article\/content\/embed.tpl --><\/p>\n<p>In talking to District Six residents before making her decision, Breed said she heard repeated concerns about street conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery single person I talked to, for the most part, at the top of their mind was public safety,\u201d she added, facing city politicians, power brokers and TV news crews who gathered at the Delancey Street Foundation in a courtyard surrounded by residential buildings for people recovering from addiction.<\/p>\n<p>The location was symbolically freighted, Breed noted in her speech. Dorsey has been outspoken about his personal history with substance abuse, and will likely emphasize that piece of his identity when he runs for election in November.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Missed: ad --><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough I\u2019ve spent most of my adult life in recovery, I\u2019ve had setbacks,\u201d Dorsey said, moments after he was sworn in. \u201cThat\u2019s why I feel personally invested in reversing the record-shattering crisis of drug overdose deaths we have seen in San Francisco since 2020. And it\u2019s largely why I asked Mayor Breed to consider me for this appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- hearst\/article\/content\/relatedStories.tpl --><\/p>\n<section class=\"relatedStories\" data-progressive=\"true\"\/>\n     <!-- e hearst\/article\/content\/relatedStories.tpl --><\/p>\n<p>When Breed declared the emergency in the Tenderloin in December, she said that the city should always offer treatment and services to those struggling with addiction, but that law enforcement can have a role to play in some instances. Dorsey hasn\u2019t yet laid out policy specifics, but he told the Chronicle that \u201cit\u2019s hard to say that we are holding drug dealers accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In many senses, Dorsey \u2014 an HIV-positive gay man \u2014 does not fit neatly into the city\u2019s tribal political categories. He\u2019s run on progressive slates at the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee and served on the left-leaning Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, though many viewed his move to the Police Department\u2019s command staff in 2020 as a conservative shift, in a city where crime has become one of the most hotly contested political issues.<\/p>\n<p>Dorsey\u2019s appointment came as voters gear up for the recall election of District Attorney Chesa Boudin in June, the next major probe of residents\u2019 views on public safety and their desire to stay on a path that emphasizes criminal justice reform. Several leaders of the recall campaign attended the swearing-in ceremony, as did Boudin, who stood off to the side and said he was trying to get a sense of the mood at the event.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Missed: ad --><\/p>\n<p>If Boudin is recalled, Breed will appoint his replacement. Since she appoints the police chief, she\u2019d then be seen as responsible for the city\u2019s crime problems \u2014 including car break-ins, organized retail theft and in-your-face drug dealing, much of which is clustered in the South of Market Area of District Six. In picking Dorsey, Breed indicated that she is ready to take ownership of these challenges.<\/p>\n<p>While Dorsey declined to take a position on the Boudin recall, he laid out several public safety priorities, including pushing for drug treatment and, potentially, supervised injection sites, and bolstering what he sees as a short-staffed police force. He tried to portray himself as a compromiser on the often fractious board.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no shortage of examples of cities \u2014 whether it\u2019s Lisbon or Amsterdam or Barcelona or Frankfurt or Zurich or New York City \u2014 where they\u2019re having better interventions in preventing drug overdose crises,\u201d he told reporters after the ceremony. \u201cAnd the one thing they all have in common is they\u2019re not fighting like we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tom Wolf, a formerly homeless addict in recovery who works with the Boudin recall campaign, praised Breed\u2019s pick, saying Dorsey would shepherd recovery in multiple forms, not only for drug addiction, but also for the city\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo bring someone in who\u2019s going to bring people together from all sides, and take a pragmatic approach to helping our city and this district get better, I can\u2019t think of a better person than Matt Dorsey,\u201d Wolf said.<\/p>\n<p>Gary McCoy, co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, who is also a former addict and works for the city\u2019s largest provider of drug treatment\u2014 and an adamant supporter of Boudin \u2014 said he had faith in Dorsey\u2019s ability to mediate between warring political groups and ideologies.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Missed: ad --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"article--content-inline\">\n<aside class=\"zone\"><!-- src\/business\/widgets\/hearst\/collection\/widget.tpl --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- e src\/business\/widgets\/hearst\/collection\/widget.tpl --><\/aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI have known Matt Dorsey personally for a long time,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cI\u2019m confident that he\u2019ll be able to bring folks to the table and kill this idea that different options for treatment or recovery and for harm reduction are oppositional to each other. They\u2019re actually part of a continuum of care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet Dorsey\u2019s appointment also inflamed critics who view the new supervisor as an apologist for law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re having both local and national conversations about police media units, and what\u2019s informally been referred to as \u2018copaganda,\u2019\u201d former Police Commissioner John Hamasaki said of Dorsey\u2019s former role as a police spokesperson. \u201cFor those of us who are more reform-oriented, Mr. Dorsey\u2019s tenure there is something that raises red flags.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hamasaki pointed to Dorsey\u2019s role in shaping the Police Department narrative around a recent feud between Boudin and Police Chief Bill Scott, the city\u2019s two most powerful law enforcement officials, over an agreement that allows prosecutors to take the lead in investigations of officer shootings and other serious use-of-force cases.<\/p>\n<p>Dorsey will have to work with another police critic on the Board of Supervisors to tackle the drug and homelessness crisis that now straddles two districts: SoMa and the Tenderloin. Supervisor Dean Preston is now<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/S-F-s-Tenderloin-has-a-new-supervisor-Can-17150881.php\" rel=\"noopener\"> the Tenderloin\u2019s supervisor<\/a>, after the troubled neighborhood was moved out of District Six and into District Five during a contentious citywide redistricting process. Just last week, Preston held a hearing to air concerns on \u201ccopaganda\u201d emanating from the city\u2019s Police Department.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Missed: ad --><\/p>\n<p>Preston, who has frequently clashed with Breed, did not show up to the swearing-in ceremony, though several mostly moderate colleagues attended.<\/p>\n<p>After the swearing-in, Breed underscored that her choice of Dorsey came down to conversations with District Six residents, including some San Franciscans she grew up with who now live there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re talking about people who grew up in affordable public housing like I did, and are talking about safety,\u201d Breed said. \u201cThat means we got a lot of work to do and we need someone who has the courage to do what\u2019s necessary in order to protect the people of San Francisco.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n<i>Chronicle staff writer J.D. Morris contributed to this report.<\/i>\n<\/p>\n<p>            <em><\/p>\n<p> Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/mailto:rswan@sfchronicle.com\" rel=\"noopener\">rswan@sfchronicle.com<\/a> Twitter: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rachelswan\" rel=\"noopener\">@rachelswan<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n<section id=\"articleBottom\" class=\"article--content-zone bottom\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/Amid-a-police-reform-movement-London-Breed-17160765.php\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Mayor London Breed\u2019s appointment of new District Six Supervisor Matt Dorsey \u2014 who served&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}