Christiana Porter, the alleged jaywalker slammed to a wall by San Francisco police officer Josh McFall in late July, said she continues to live in fear due to the incident.
“There is no way I should have been brutalized the way I was for merely walking across the street — in the crosswalk,” said Porter, a 34 year-old Black mother of five at a Thursday morning press conference held at the Third Baptist Church.
Porter today said she feared that her four daughters might be targeted while walking to school or that her non-verbal son might be unable to communicate if faced with a similar situation. “It shouldn’t have to take someone being shot, someone dying, for an outcry.”
The press conference drew government officials and community members to denounce a series of anti-Black incidents in San Francisco. Other community members shared stories of being targeted by anti-Black hate crimes in recent weeks.
Porter, who suffered a separated shoulder during the stop and had her arm in a sling on Thursday, said that as a third-generation San Franciscan, she has never experienced “so much hate” from being a Black person in the city.
San Francisco NAACP President and Third Baptist Church Pastor The Rev. Amos Brown implored public policymakers to take tangible action, calling their failure to create a “just social order” and enact measures like reparations a form of violence.
Brown invited a number of government officials, including police chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, to the stage following the community members’ comments.
Scott called recent hate crimes — including Black Alamo Square dogwalker Terry Williams receiving racist packages at his home before a suspicious fire — “disturbing” and said the department is “committed to holding people accountable” for such acts. “We are all on the same page in terms of standing up against this,” Scott said. But he did not address the jaywalking incident while onstage.
San Francisco NAACP Youth Council youth advisor Cheryl Thornton stood and addressed Scott directly at the conclusion of the press conference.
“I’m not against the police, but what happened to Ms. Porter was wrong,” Thornton said. “I hope you hold those officers accountable, because she’s a mother of five, a Black woman like me, and she has been harmed. And we need to wrap our arms around Ms. Porter.”
Scott made his way to Porter after the press conference to apologize to her personally. Asked for comment on the incident, he said an investigation by the Department of Police Accountability is ongoing and the department will wait for the results and “take it from there.”
Porter said she believes officer McFall should be suspended without pay or fired while the investigation is ongoing, calling it a “more just way of doing things.” Porter has been unable to return to work since the incident, she said.
Thornton, who was standing by Porter, said more is needed than an apology. “We want to see real reform,” Thornton said.
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