Lee Heidhues 5.4.2023
The heartfelt testimony at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors hearing on the murder of Banko Brown by a hired gun security guard at Walgreens and the despicable refusal of DA Brooke Jenkins to prosecute is beyond shameful.
DA Brooke Jenkins and Mayor London Breed are putting their total hypocrisy on full display for all the world to see. All too ready to scream law and order these two women of color are criminally silent when it comes to the blatant murder of a young black transgender citizen.
A murder committed by a corporate rent a cop. Being excused by DA Brooke Jenkins.
A murder which occurred just footsteps away from the Westfield Center where corporate giant Nordstroms just announced it will be shuttering its mega department store. What is happening in San Francisco is the continuing disintegration of this once proud City.
Tim Redmond put it succinctly in 48 Hills earlier this week.
“Breed, Jenkins, Wiener, and their allies, along with the San Francisco Chronicle, the local TV stations, and a lot of other news media, created the deadly narrative that crime is so out of control in this city that we need more cops, more people in prison, and more crackdowns on small-scale theft. (Walgreens can afford to lose $14).
Now a young Black trans man is dead.
This is what happens when you create a racist, pro-cop, tough-on-crime narrative, and when you, like Jenkins, refuse to hold the shooters, whether they be cops or security guards, accountable.”
Excerpted from SF Standard.5.4.2023
San Francisco police cleared up some of the details surrounding the deadly shooting of a suspected shoplifter by a security guard outside a Walgreens in a case that spurred widespread outrage.
Banko Brown, 24, was unarmed when the security guard shot and killed him outside the drugstore near Market and Fourth streets last Thursday, Police Chief Bill Scott told the Police Commission on Wednesday.
An altercation broke out when the security guard, Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, tried to stop Brown for shoplifting, the chief said. Anthony, 33, was still inside the store when Brown stepped outside and turned toward him. Brown then allegedly spit on the security guard and raised his arm toward him before Anthony drew his gun and fired, Scott said.
The shooting and subsequent decision by District Attorney Brooke Jenkins not to charge Anthony with murder sparked outcry from Brown’s supporters, who said Brown did not deserve to die for allegedly shoplifting. They viewed the killing of Brown, who was Black and transgender, as an extension of the challenges facing those communities in San Francisco.
The shooting is putting police at odds with prosecutors.
While police booked Anthony on suspicion of murder last Friday, prosecutors soon after declined to charge him, and he was released.
Scott told The Standard last Friday that his department decided to arrest Anthony on suspicion of murder because security guards “have to use force appropriately within the law,” even if they have a firearms license.
“If that’s not the case, regardless of whether you are a security guard or police officer or not, you are subject to that,” Scott said.
However, Jenkins said Monday that she would not be able to prove a murder case against Anthony to a jury based on witness statements, statements from Anthony and video footage of the incident.
“The evidence clearly shows that the suspect believed he was in mortal danger and acted in self-defense,” Jenkins said in a statement.
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