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After an activist approached Mayor London Breed on the street Wednesday, asking her to comment on a San Francisco woman who was slammed against the wall by police officers after jaywalking in July, the head of the city’s police union flipped off the activist with two middle fingers.
Lt. Tracy McCray, the head of the San Francisco Police Officers Association and a longtime ally of Breed, was walking alongside the mayor on Taraval Street Wednesday when Adroa Anderson, aka DoggTown Dro on social media, approached Breed.
In a video, Anderson begins asking Breed about Christiana Porter, the Black 34-year-old mother of five who was walking on Geary Boulevard on July 29 when police approached her and slammed her against a wall. Porter suffered a separated shoulder and a concussion.
About two minutes after he first approaches Breed, who ignores him and eventually drives away, Anderson turns toward McCray and calls her the “Pig Association Officer.”
“Fuck the POA,” he says, with a middle finger up. “Fuck your recall,” he continues, seemingly referring to the 2022 Chesa Boudin recall, which the Police Officers Association supported.
Immediately, McCray responds with two middle fingers up, and begins loudly repeating, “You don’t even know me!”
“You a shill for the Republicans,” Anderson says.
“You don’t know me, son,” McCray says.
The two speak over each other for a few moments before McCray walks away, escorted by Breed’s staffer.
The interaction started with Anderson asking about Breed’s lack of response to Porter’s situation during a Black and Brown Mayoral Forum held on Sept. 29. An NAACP Youth Council representative asked candidates about Porter’s situation and what they would do to address excessive police use of force, but Breed did not address the question directly.
“I grew up at a time when tensions were definitely very high between the Western Addition community and the police department, and over the decades,” she said in a video of the forum. Breed came onstage after the question was asked, and it is unclear if she fully heard it. “I’ve built bridges in order to ensure that there was a relationship between the police and our community.”
But today, she chose not to answer.
“Three white men said apologies to Christiana Porter and you said nothing,” Anderson says in the video. “They asked you what you going to do to hold the police accountable for what they did to Christiana Porter. And you said nothing. You gave her zero acknowledgment,” Anderson continues, following Breed and her staff as she walks down the sidewalk and into a cafe.
A smirking Breed ignores Anderson, and her bodyguard stands between the mayor and Anderson as he attempts to follow her into Tabita’s Cafe. “Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing right now?” Anderson asks the bodyguard.
“I’m not going to let you get that close,” the bodyguard replies.
“Don’t touch me, don’t touch me,” Anderson says back. “You a pig, you a sucka, you a bitch, and you a busta.”
Breed quickly leaves the cafe and is escorted a half block away to a waiting SUV. Anderson keeps asking about Porter, but Breed ignores him, enters the car, and drives away. McCray is left on the sidewalk, and that’s when Anderson flipped her the middle finger, and she returned the favor.
On Instagram, Porter herself seemingly weighed in on the video: An account belonging to Porter wrote, “I don’t understand what that smirk was for, when my brother @doggtowndro mentioned my injuries … Judgment day doesn’t miss NOBODY, remember that.”
The message was followed by pictures of raised Black fists.
“Tracy’s aggression, immaturity and unprofessionalism is emblematic of SFPD’s treatment of POC and poorer people,” Anderson wrote in a statement to Mission Local. “She is the SFPOA president and this is the model of etiquette she [is] setting for those under her. The implications are scary because SFPD officers are known to be gang-like vindictive on and off duty.”
McCray did not return a request for comment. McCray, in August, unilaterally pushed for the Police Officers Association to endorse Breed, according to several union members; past police union presidents decried the move.
Anderson and Breed are familiar with each other: Earlier this week, Anderson filmed himself interrupting Breed’s photo shoot, asking her about Gaza. Breed holds up her phone, filming Anderson back, saying he is disrespecting the people around her.
And other politicians have found themselves in similar situations with Anderson; Supervisor Shamann Walton last year flipped a middle finger at him during a rally for reparations.
Anderson, for his part, said that after hearing the candidates’ responses in the NAACP forum, he hoped for acknowledgement of Porter’s case.
“It’s common for politicians to be dismissive and ignore questions and concerns that warrant accountability or don’t flatter their image,” he wrote. “It’s also common for their entourage to use diversion tactics to disable the ability for honest discourse among constituents with dissenting narratives. I’m disappointed but not surprised.”
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Source: missionlocal.org