People in supposedly tolerant and enlightened San Francisco may be loath to admit it. The harsh reality is that former Mayor London Breed is still out of work because of systemic racism all pervasive in America.
LURIE & LONDON – SF Standard Power Play 1.25. 2026
If the former Mayor was a white guy or gal he/she would have been swept up by a political action committee or consulting firm the day after leaving office. Not only was London Breed Mayor for over six years, she was twice elected Supervisor and was President of the Board of Supervisors.
London Breed is a black woman raised in the Western Addition housing projects just blocks from City Hall who worked her way up through hard work and political smarts.
Breed definitely didn’t enjoy the privileged upbringing of the white man who defeated her in November 2024, having spent millions of his own money to capture City Hall. The billionaire scion of the Levi Strauss & Co. family fortune, Daniel Lurie.
Mayor Breed on the City Hall steps at a rally decrying hate and bigotry
As Mayor Breed was definitely a fighter for the issues she believes in, mainly funding the police department and pushing for housing development. Breed brawled consistently with San Francisco White progressives whom she looked down at with thinly veiled disdain.
Perhaps Mayor Breed’s most crowning achievement was her advocacy for car free spaces. This advocacy resulted in the voter approved car free JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park, Sunset Dunes Park along the Pacific Coast shoreline and numerous car free streets throughout the city. That will will be her environmental legacy. One for which Breed has not received enough credit.
Then Mayor London Breed talks with Liz Heidhues at the 4th anniversary of JFK Promenade – 4.28.2025 – photo Lee Heidhues
Philosophical and political positions which one would think would be a calling card amongst the billionaire class for future employment.
Not, yet. Heather Knight, former columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle, and now New York Times reporter took a look at London Breed one year removed from office.
Excerpted from The New York Times 1.16.2026
London Breed has said little in the year since she left office. She has thoughts on the praise that the current mayor, Daniel Lurie, has received.
Mayor Breed and her most vigorous Progressive antagonist, then Supervisor Dean Preston, who represented the District she represented and catapulted her into the Mayor’s office in 2018. Both were voted out of office in November 2024.
Ms. Breed said that she wanted Mr. Lurie to be successful. It’s just that it has been hard for her to see him get so much credit, she said, and she wondered if race was a factor.
London Breed needs a job, and she wants you to know that.
A year ago, she left her post as the 45th mayor of San Francisco — and its $383,000 salary — after losing her re-election bid to Daniel Lurie, the heir to the Levi Strauss fortune.
London Breed puts on a smiling face with Daniel Lurie, the billionaire who defeated her, on his inaugural day – January 8th 2025
Past mayors have used the office as a springboard. San Francisco’s 38th mayor, Dianne Feinstein, became a longtime U.S. senator who once chaired the Senate Rules Committee. The 42nd mayor, Gavin Newsom, is finishing his second term as California governor and has his sights on running for president.
Ms. Breed, 51, is still unemployed. She didn’t serve long enough to qualify for a municipal pension and health care benefits, and is living off her savings.
“I need to get myself out there,” she said in an interview with The New York Times.
Mr. Lurie, a political neophyte, has reaped the benefits of strong poll numbers and praise for the city’s turnaround.
It is common for former elected officials to resent their successors, especially if a prosperous stretch follows. And in the glow of San Francisco’s recovery, Ms. Breed has been largely forgotten as she has retreated to the political wilderness.
Top photo: Mayor Breed with a group of San Francisco Police Department officers
Federal agents detain a protester outside of the Broadview ICE processing facility, after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered increased federal law enforcement presence to assist in crime prevention, in Broadview, Illinois, U.S. September 26, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Vondruska
Now that convicted Felon turned President has been unleashed, again, for a year he has turned loose his version of State sanctioned domestic terrorists on the immigrant population and citizens exercising their Constitutional rights.
Who are these well paid mercenary thugs? Deutsche Welle takes a deep look.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle – 1.17.2026
Donald Trump’s second presidential term has seen a rapid rise in the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. But who are these people, and where is the US government finding them?
Once a relatively obscure branch of law enforcement, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have fast become the sharp point of Donald Trump’s mass deportation initiative.
The Trump administration said it deported 605,000 people between January 20 and December 10, 2025, and 1.9 million immigrants had “voluntarily self-deported.”
America’s State sanctioned – ICE mercenaries on the job assaulting protesters
Such a significant upscaling of a branch of law enforcement is unusual — and unprecedented in the history of ICE, which was formed in 2002. The effort raises questions about screening and the suitability of candidates, of which DHS said there were 220,000 in the last year.
Training time cut as numbers rise
ICE training has been cut from 16 to eight weeks in the drive. The requirement to learn some Spanish, the language of most of the country’s unauthorized immigrants, has also been axed. ICE did not respond to a series of questions from DW on its recruitment.
American Official thuggery on the job assaulting citizensexercising their Constitutional rights.
Recruitment poster Homeland Security @DHSgov· A Heritage to be proud of, a Homeland worth Defending. American Progress – John Gast
The advertising bill for what the DHS has described as a “wartime recruitment” drive in 2026 is $100 million (€86 million), according to a 30 page document seen by The Washington Post newspaper. The pace looks set to at least continue, given that Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” handed ICE a $170 billion budget over the next four years for border and interior enforcement.
America has come a long way from the 1963 film “The Great Escape” and its iconic opening theme. A time when the Nazis were the bad guys. Now these lawless thugs in the guise of ICE agents are running the American political terror circus. There’s no Great Escape for the democracy loving citizen in the United States.
Straight out of the 1930’s Nazi Germany playbookWall Street Journal – 1.7.2021Wall Street Journal 1.7.2026
It is nearly five years since Donald Trump led the insurrection and tried to violently overturn the November 2020 election.
The place Trump belongs. Prison
As rebellion flared up in the nation’s capitol America failed its biggest test. Putting this criminal insurrectionist back in the White House a year ago. He should be in prison.
The American sheep like people continue to suffer from Amnesia and are all too willing to let this abhorrent event fade into the historic background.
On this New Year’s Day I went into the PBS FRONTLINE archives. Resting there for all who care to view is the graphic documentary originally broadcast on January 26, 2021. Reasonable people thought this criminal would land in jail. Wrong.
Jack Smith, the former special counsel, defended his decision to twice indict President Trump, accusing him of “exploiting” violence on Jan. 6, 2021, to overthrow the 2020 presidential election, according to a transcribed interview released by House Republicans Wednesday.
Mr. Smith, a former prosecutor vilified by Mr. Trump as a partisan, spent much of the eight-hour, closed-door session on Dec. 17 before the House Judiciary Committee rebutting a range of Republican claims, including the accusation that he had improperly obtained metadata on phone calls involving Trump-allied lawmakers.
“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power,” Mr. Smith said, according to the transcript.
Bloviating mindless January 6th insurrectionists were pardoned by Donald Trump the first day he returned to office 1.20.2025
In the interview, Mr. Smith sought to undermine the narrative that the president was an innocent figure persecuted by partisans who weaponized federal law enforcement, a core belief among many Trump supporters.
How tone deaf is the Felon President Trump.A totally cruel malevolent luddite with no concept of the danger fossil fuels increasingly threatens the longevity of Planet Earth.
The rainstorm season is about to hit San Francisco.
Out of some warped sense of political animus Trump wants to dismantle and destroy one of the premier weather monitoring agencies. The National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Why? It’s based in Blue Colorado. An American State which has vigorously battled the Felon Trump.It is mind boggling that the spineless Republicans continue to bow down before this abhorrent man.
Excerpted from The Hill 12.18.2025
A Democratic senator involved in the negotiations over passing a five-bill package of appropriations bills before Christmas said that Donald Trump’s attempt to dismantle a premier weather and climate center based in Boulder, Colo., was like a “stick of dynamite” that exploded any chance of a bipartisan breakthrough on spending.
A potential deal to fund large swaths of the federal government, including the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, collapsed on Thursday night after Colorado senators demanded that Congress stop President Trump’s efforts to dismantle a key climate agency.
Out of some warped sense of political animus Trump wants to dismantle and destroy one of the premier weather monitoring agencies. The National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a leading Democratic voice on climate issue, called the research a “global crown jewel of science” that “helps us learn a great deal about whether which matters a great deal to everyone.”
Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet (D) and John Hickenlooper (D) objected to moving forward with the so-called minibus spending package that, if enacted into law, would result in 85 to 90 percent of the federal government being funding through September of 2026.
But Bennet and Hickenlooper took the lead in bringing the package to a dead halt by objecting to an agreement to set up date and amendment votes on the Senate floor.
And people ask why do drunk drivers literally get away with murder?
Let’s Talk about being rewarded for criminal behavior.
It is unconscionable that a drunken driver engaged in one of the most sordid, cowardly and shameful crimes. Hit and run.
The perpetrator ran over an 88 year old woman on increasingly dangerous Streets of San Francisco. She died.
The SFPD finally corralled the perp. What does the Judge do? Grants ‘home detention’ until the Trial. Blowing off the District Attorney’s Motion to keep this killer in jail until Trial.
San Francisco Chronicle 12.11.2025
A man suspected in an Ingleside hit-and-run that killed an 88-year-old woman in October has been charged with murder, prosecutors said Thursday.
Prosecutors asked that Le be held without bail while awaiting trial, but a judge ruled that he would be released to home detention with electronic monitoring, officials said.
Hai Van Le, 48, faces additional charges involving driving under the influence and leaving the scene of the crash. He was arraigned Wednesday and pleaded not guilty, according to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.
On the evening of Oct. 26, victim Lau Sim Lui was struck by a driver at the intersection of Ocean and Ashton avenues. Police arrived at the scene just after 6:40 p.m. and found the woman on the ground in a crosswalk.
Medics declared Lui deceased at the scene a few minutes later, from what officials later said was a severe head injury.
A witness at the scene provided police with dashboard footage of the incident, which showed Le’s vehicle stopped at a red light and then proceeding through the intersection after the light turned green, prosecutors said.
The vehicle is then seen running over Lui, who was in the opposite crosswalk, officials said. Officials said the video shows the vehicle’s brake lights briefly activating before the driver continues east on Ocean Avenue.
More seriously—more sinister—the White House has just put up a wall-of-shame webpage tracking media outfits and reporters who “misrepresent” or “lie” about the administration. Names are named, outfits identified and shamed. All this is meant to intimidate; it institutionalizes attacks on the media and, considering the broader context, potentially prompts and gives permission to unstable people who might want to act in the president’s supposed defense. The webpage, paid for by taxpayers as part of the White House website, looks not like an insult but part of a sustained campaign. It is a threat. It should be taken down.Peggy Noonan in Wall Street Journal 12.6.2025 – https://www.wsj.com/opinion/were-in-an-era-of-political-violence-cc359449?mod=hp_opin_pos_3
Donald Trump is a Clear and Present Danger to democracy.
I don’t know what’s more distressing.
The White House launching a Media Offenders Website titled ‘Hall of Shame’ https://www.whitehouse.gov/mediabias/ or the general silence with few exceptions from the American media whose First Amendment rights are being trampled.
The shock of all this is that the publishers should be at the proverbial barricades. Press freedom and the First Amendment are under attack.Journalists, editors and publishers must be aware that when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 he destroyed the free press in Germany.If they’re not unaware they’re deluding themselves.
‘Art of Catastrophe’ – Charlotte Salomon
Trump will never get that far. But his intimidation tactics using the power of the Federal government is sending a chilling message
Trump’s genuine Nazi like assault on the media. Utilizing the White House to intimidate journalists
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 12.5.2025
A new government website lists journalists and media outlets that Donald Trump’s administration considers liars. Experts say the move endangers free media ― and thus erodes democracy in the US.
The website set up by the Trump White House amounts to threatening media outlets, Jonathan Katz, a fellow in governance studies at the think tank Brookings Institution, says, too.
“It can have a chilling effect on free speech, on independent media,” Katz told DW. “We’re watching carefully to see how this affects press freedom in the United States.”
And in a press briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt talked about how much of her job is taken up by dealing with what she labeled inaccurate characterizations published by White House correspondents.
“The fake news that we see pumped out of this building on a day-to-day basis — it’s honestly overwhelming to keep up with it all,” she said.
In response to what Leavitt said were “fake news and … attacks” being spread by reporters, the White House has created a website that lists media outlets and reporters who, according to the government, publish false, biased or misleading stories.
The new “Media Offenders” website includes featured “Offenders of the Week” as well as a “Hall of Shame” that consists of four pages (at time of publication) of media reports the White House has sorted into the categories bias, lie, false claim, malpractice, omission of context, mischaracterization, circular reporting, failure to report and left-wing lunacy.
In a statement released on December 1, the White House said by creating the website, it “dropped a flamethrower on the Fake News Media.”
Adolf Hitler addressing fellow Nazis – The crushing of the press in Nazi Germany is something Donald Trump would like to do in America
It’s no surprise that Felon Trump is best buddies with Russian thug war mongering president Vladimir Putin. The former KGB agent who has no problem with his compliant courts jailing Russian journalists and political foes.
Vladimir Putin with his KGB ID circa late 1980’s
What Putin does to journalists in Russia is something that Felon Trump would like to do in America.
And not to only journalists. Felon Trump wants to prosecute his political foes. Trump has been successful in 2025 in making the once independent Department of Justice led by his flunkie Attorney General https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pam_Bondi a revenge sledge hammer.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 12.4.2025
A Moscow court on Thursday upheld five-and-a-half year prison sentences for four Russian journalists, including two former Deutsche Welle reporters who previously worked for the organization’s Moscow bureau.
Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin, along with Antonina Favorskaya and Artyom Kriger, were convicted in April on charges of participating in an “extremist organization” — a reference to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), an NGO founded by opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, died in February 2024 while imprisoned in an Arctic penal colony.
Russian authorities classified the FBK as an extremist organization in 2021, a designation that has since been used to prosecute journalists, activists and opposition figures associated with Navalny’s movement.
Prosecutors said the group created materials for the FBK YouTube channel. All four journalists denied the charges, saying they did not work for the foundation but merely reported on its activities.
Following Thursday’s judgment, the group is now expected to be transferred from pre-trial detention centers to penal colonies to serve their sentences.
Their conviction has sparked international criticism and raised concerns about press freedom in Russia.
Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin, along with Antonina Favorskaya and Artyom Kriger, were convicted in April on charges of participating in an “extremist organization”
More seriously—more sinister—the White House has just put up a wall-of-shame webpage tracking media outfits and reporters who “misrepresent” or “lie” about the administration. Names are named, outfits identified and shamed. All this is meant to intimidate; it institutionalizes attacks on the media and, considering the broader context, potentially prompts and gives permission to unstable people who might want to act in the president’s supposed defense. The webpage, paid for by taxpayers as part of the White House website, looks not like an insult but part of a sustained campaign. It is a threat. It should be taken down. Peggy Noonan in Wall Street Journal 12.6.2025 – https://www.wsj.com/opinion/were-in-an-era-of-political-violence-cc359449?mod=hp_opin_pos_3
Donald Trump is now utilizing the extensive power of the federal government to clamp down on First Amendment free speech rights. Make no mistake. Trump is a master of the media. Now, with all the levers of power at his disposable, this convicted felon, racist, misogynist is shredding the media.
People need only to look at Hitler’s Germany, Putin’s Russia for guidance on how to suppress the media. Dictators are Trump’s favorite leaders and he is utilizing their perverse playbook to quash free speech.
Where is the American media in reporting this real threat to First Amendment and its own livelihood?
Deutsche Welle 11.30.2025
The Trump White House launched a new page on its website on Friday called “media offenders,” listing news sites, reporters, and stories it claims misled the public.
US President Donald Trump calls lawmakers’ actions “seditious” and “treason.”
This week, Trump called a female reporter from The New York Times “ugly” after she co-wrote a data-driven report about the president showing signs of aging.
The president, who is 79, drew fire two weeks ago after telling a Bloomberg reporter to be “quiet, piggy” when she tried to ask a follow-up question about disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s emails.
The top publications cited as “media offenders of the week” were the Boston Globe, CBS News, and the Independent. Reporters from those outlets were singled out for stories about a controversial video released last week by six Democratic lawmakers.
The lawmakers, all of whom are military veterans or former intelligence officials, reminded service members they are not obligated to follow illegal orders.
In a video posted online last week, the lawmakers said, “Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home.”
“Our laws are clear: You can refuse illegal order. … You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution,” they added.
What the ‘media offenders’ page looks like
The page included an “offender hall of shame” with a list of stories the White House considers mistruths.
Each story is explained and categorized under labels such as “lie,” “omission of context,” or “left-wing lunacy.”
The White House described the site as “a record of the media’s false and misleading stories flagged by The White House.”
The page also features a leaderboard of news sites the administration claims reported stories incorrectly.
The Washington Post tops the list, followed by MSNBC (recently rebranded as MS NOW), CBS News, CNN, The New York Times, Politico, and The Wall Street Journal.
There’s also a section with “repeat offenders” with outlets that the Trump administration objects to.
Trump administration escalates fight with media outlets
All outlets on the leaderboard, along with others, turned in their Pentagon press badges last month after rejecting new rules imposed by the Department of Defense.
The rules would leave journalists vulnerable to expulsion if they reported information, classified or otherwise, that had not been approved by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for release.
Trump has also been involved in court battles against The New York Times, CBS News, ABC News, The Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press over the past year.
Trump widens hostilities against female reporters
The administration’s broader conflict with media outlets has also taken a personal turn. In recent weeks, Trump has faced criticism for insulting female reporters.
Why does the American public let Felon Trump continue to get away with his misogynistic attacks on female journalists? These verbal assaults are being dutifully reported but where’s the outrage and disgust coming from the American public?
America writ large is so tranquilized by the abhorrent Felon Trump that this 79 year old racist abuser of any woman, particularly a journalist, who calls him out continues toget away with this despicable behavior.
Felon Trump, who incited a gang of thugs to besiege Washington on January 6, 2021 to overturn the 2020 election continues his personal and political assaults without suffering the consequences. Due to a sycophant like majority on the Supreme Court the Felon is a free man. Trump should be in prison.
The Felon deserves the fate of Bolsonaro in Brazil. A country which knows how to enforce the law even at the highest levels. Bolsonaro just began serving a 27 year prison term for inciting the mob and overturn his election defeat.
America is a democracy on the decline. The country has disgraced itself by putting this insurrectionist abuser in power, again.
“[T]he Radical Left Lunatics in the soon to fold New York Times did a hit piece on me that I am perhaps losing my Energy, despite facts that show the exact opposite,” the 79-year-old raged over Tuesday’s story. “They know this is wrong, as is almost every thing that they write about me, including election results, ALL PURPOSELY NEGATIVE. This cheap ‘RAG’ is truly an ‘ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.’”
Trump then rounded on Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers, who co-authored the story and who the president claimed “is assigned to write only bad things about me [and] is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out.”
I have been saying for months that “Interim” San Francisco Chief of Police Paul Yep is no “Interim” Chief.
When Mayor Daniel Lurie named Paul Yep as interim chief of the San Francisco Police Department in June, both said the appointment was temporary.
Finally, the mainstream media has laid out the truth. Paul Yep will be the next permanent SFPD Chief.
The search for a new Chief of Police Is it all cosmetic and the Deal has already gone down for Paul Yep?
The entire San Francisco Standard article is printed herein.
Jonah Lamb – 8.25.2025
In less than two months “Interim” San Francisco Chief of Police Paul Yep has made dramatic moves to reshape the department in his own image, appointing a command staff, reshuffling station captains, cutting civilian reform leaders, promoting a raft of officers to the rank of sergeant and lieutenant, and this week announcing a department reorganization that reduced its bloated leadership.
Over the last two weeks, Yep’s dismantling of the Strategic Management Bureau has raised eyebrows among current and former officers. The civilians who led the bureau had been elevated by Scott and led much of the department’s reforms, including increasing transparency and reducing and tracking things such as use of force incidents.
Catherine McGuire, who headed the Strategic Management Bureau, had been with the department foralmost 10 years; Scott had put her in charge of department finances and reform efforts. Yep divided the defunct bureau’s responsibilities among the remaining bureaus.
In an interview, McGuire said gutting her unit will harm the department in the long run. “This reorganization removes the resources that would allow the department to monitor reforms,” she said. “If you have the internal checks and balances you are able to prevent the external scrutiny, and public scandal, which distracts the department from doing mission-critical work.”
Several of McGuire’s former underlings have been demoted or dismissed from the SFPD, including Kara Lacy, who headed constitutional policing, and Diana Oliva-Aroche, who liaised with city politicians and headed the department’s transparency and equity initiatives. Neither responded to a request for comment.
Another former officer said disbanding the reform unit will set the SFPD back after years of progress and millions of dollars meant to transform the department.
Supervisor Jackie Fielder said she is concerned about where the department stands on reforms, how to handle detentions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and protests against them, and how to address overtime abuse.
“There’s a change-up of leadership in SFPD right now — a cross between [Police Officers Association] and anti-reform people,” Fielder said. “I am confused. Why are changes being made before a real chief is being found?”
Smiles all around.Paul Yep and the man who put him in the Chief’s seat, Mayor Daniel Lurie
The boldness of Yep’s moves suggest to former SFPD command staffers that the chief, who served as an officer for nearly three decades, is interim in name only.
“He came in, and he changed basically the whole upper management of the police department. That doesn’t strike me as the actions of an interim,” former SFPD Commander Rich Corriea said. “Wouldn’t you leave [the] status quo for the next person to set up their command staff? So it suggests to me he will be the next chief.”
Yep maintains that he is only a caretaker, saying the changes he is making will continue reform efforts while setting up the next chief for success.
“As I’ve said numerous times, I’m not a candidate for the permanent position,” he said in a press release. “There is a process for the search for the new chief, and I am confident that the best candidate will be selected.”
Regardless, his actions represent a shift around policing in San Francisco, reversing course on some of the reform efforts that in many ways shaped the career of his predecessor, Bill Scott, according to several former officers. These people, some of whom held high-ranking positions, told The Standard that Yep’s actions indicate that he is auditioning to be the next chief and will return the department to the tough-on-crime model that predated Scott.
At an all-hands meeting soon after taking charge of the department, Yep repeated that he had no interest in taking the job and would not make any major changes to the department, said one person present at the meeting.
“Well, one of those isn’t true,” the witness said, “so I’m not buying the other one either.”
Bill Scott stepped down as SFPD chief in the spring. | Camille Cohen/The Standard
‘Streamlined and efficient’
As soon as he was appointed, Yep moved to replenish a command staff that had been emptied by retirements, elevating four people to deputy chief and eight to commander. Two new deputy chiefs, Derrick Jackson and Derrick Lew, have been rumored to be potential chief candidates.
Yep also elevated outgoing police union boss Tracy McCray to commander, paving the way for the election of a popular longtime cop, Louis Wong, as the new leader of the Police Officers Association.
Yep said the reorganization of his command staff couldn’t wait, and will help to modernize the department. As part of the ongoing reorganization, Yep has reduced the number of bureaus from six to five. He added that his moves will put more cops on the street, but declined to say how many.
“The San Francisco Police Department is more streamlined and efficient than ever,” Yep said early last week in a press release. “These necessary changes will give our officers the support they need to keep our city safe.”
Further down the ranks, Yep has promoted 13 officers to captain, reshuffled all 10 of the station captains, and replaced the head of the police academy. These moves came in addition to a raft of promotions of officers to sergeant and lieutenant, effectively creating a bench of future department leaders hand-picked by Yep.
Even in smaller ways, Yep’s moves have affected the city. He recently assigned additional lieutenants to stationhouses to stabilize leadership, due to the SFPD’s practice of shuffling captains every couple of years.
Not all of Yep’s efforts to shape the department have been successful. In mid-July, his attempt to revert the name of the Community Violence Reduction Team to the Gang Task Force failed after community pressure.
Yep and Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie speak to supporters in November at St. Mary’s Square. | Source:Jason Henry for The Standard
Head coach, interim chief
As interim chief, Yep’s moves are akin to creating a sports team and farm system, then saying he plans to hand the team to another coach. Few insiders buy that he doesn’t want the job of full-time chief.
The last interim chief, Toney Chaplin, who was appointed in 2016 by Mayor Ed Lee, kept much of the department structure in place despite saying he planned a top-to-bottom assessment.
Like Yep, Chaplin initially said he did not want the chief position, only to backtrack and put his name in the running.
After Scott was appointed as chief later in 2016, he expanded the command staff, creating two assistant chief positions, a chief of staff, and a civilian director who was essentially at the same rank and received $350,000 in compensation, equal to a deputy chief. Scott also hired a civilian communications director, Matt Dorsey, who was later elected supervisor for one of the city’s most crime-plagued districts.
Scott’s efforts were focused on shepherding the department through reforms that were only recently completed. The former chief announced his departure in early May, and much of his command staff followed suit. His second in command, Assistant Chief David Lazar, retired that same month.
Happy rank and file, worried reformers
Yep’s changes appear to be popular with the rank and file, who admire his choice of cops with street experience as leaders, according to current and former officers who spoke on condition of anonymity. Many are pleased that Yep has not insulated himself behind a huge command staff, as they believe Scott did. But some former officers worry the department is backsliding on reforms and contemporary policing practices.
One former cop said the promotions were popular among officers, as they involved “real cops,” who are not afraid to get their hands dirty.
A former department leader said Yep’s actions are meant to “right the ship” by getting rid of dead weight and putting into leadership officers who are popular among beat cops. Consolidating responsibilities and getting rid of some civilian leadership is “actually a good thing,” said the former officer.
But others worry Yep’s actions are a step backward, or simply cosmetic. A former department leader said none of the moves made by Yep are fundamentally changing the department: “This is smoke and mirrors.”
As Yep continues to transform the department, the city’s Police Commission is searching for a new chief. It has hired a search firm, Ralph Andersen & Associates, that has released material on the kind of chief the city is looking for, with an emphasis on reform and transparency initiatives and quality-of-life issues like homelessness, the mental health crisis, and open-air drug dealing.
The commission will choose three finalists to put in front of the mayor, who will ultimately decide on the hire. One of those names could very likely be Yep’s.
Lee's Perspective 