Hello, Justice Community –
In the Trumpian era, people are feeling emboldened to show their racist and misogynistic views. Hate speech is not free speech. It’s never right and it’s especially egregious coming from the officers who are sworn to ‘protect and serve’ us. Sergeant Garza is a San Francisco Sheriff’s Office Sergeant. He posted this post to his Facebook account (post showing photos of the faces of Monica Lewinsky, Colin Kaepernick, and Senator Kamala Harris with the caption “When nobody knew who you were until you got on your knees”).
Please write to our elected officials: San Francisco Sheriff Miyamoto [email protected] as well as Mayor London Breed [email protected] [email protected] and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (BOS – see contact info below) to demand accountability. Please cc us at [email protected] so that we may see your emails. Sergeant Garza must be disciplined and this behavior should be condemned, prevented, never tolerated. We have also notified the press.
It is no wonder that US citizens everywhere are calling for defunding police departments to reallocate funds toward real community benefit. We demand better in San Francisco than city-employed officers, even those with rank, feeling free to espouse hate speech. Please take a few moments to send your emails no later than Tuesday, September 15, 2020.
Please send thirteen emails -- an individual, separate email each for the mayor (email above), Sheriff Miyamoto (email above), and each supervisor. On each one, please cc [email protected]. Also if you live in a supervisor's district, you might indicate it in the signature line of your email, and it would also be great if you call your supervisor as well to make this same request, and leave a voicemail if they do not pick up (same discussion as what is in the email/letter text below). If you do make a phone call, please email us to let us know you have. Thank you!
To: (email as per above)
(attach screenshot image)
Suggested email -
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Subject: San Francisco Sheriff's Sergeant Garza's Racist, Sexist post
Dear _________:
In a time of worldwide outcry for justice for Black Lives, ironically at the same time, in the Trumpian era, people are feeling emboldened to show their racist and misogynistic views. While San Francisco as a city and even its police and sheriff departments have been espousing Black Lives Matter and a commitment to equity in policing, at the same time, old racist and sexist attitudes continue in the ranks, and accountability for outrageously bad behavior continues to be a problem.
Sergeant Jorge Garza is a San Francisco Sheriff’s Office Sergeant. He posted this image to his Facebook account (post showing photos of the faces of Monica Lewinsky, Colin Kaepernick, and Senator Kamala Harris with the caption “When nobody knew who you were until you got on your knees”). What is Sergeant Garza implying? – particularly about Senator Kamala Harris? Why and when was Senator Harris “on [her] knees” and to what end? Is Sergeant Garza accusing U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of sexual behavior of some kind? We would like an official statement as to what is being suggested with this post. It appears that Sergeant Garza is making sexist or racist comments about all three of his targets in this post, and both sexist and racist attacks in the case of Senator Harris.
Hate speech is not free speech. It’s never right and it’s especially egregious coming from the officers who are sworn to ‘protect and serve’ us. We’re demanding that city leaders as well as Sheriff Miyamoto publicly decry this behavior. Furthermore, Sergeant Garza must be disciplined and this behavior should be condemned, prevented, never tolerated.
It is no wonder that US citizens everywhere are calling for defunding police departments to reallocate funds toward real community benefit. We demand better in San Francisco than city-employed officers, especially those with rank and authority over others, feeling free to espouse hate speech.
Thank you,
___(name)____
In solidarity with
Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community
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Thank you,
Core Team
Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community
