A Failed War on Crumbs:
SFPD Chief Gascón’s Crackdown in the Tenderloin
is the Wrong Answer

SFPD Chief George Gascón with District Attorney Kamala Harris.
Gascon’s plan to clean up the streets of San Francisco
includes a crack-down on street level drug sales in the Tenderloin.
Photo by Luke Thomas

By Tal Klement, special to Fog City Journal

Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this article are the personal views of Mr. Klement.

September 3, 2009

Promising to clean-up the streets, newly appointed Chief of Police George Gascón has recently initiated a crack-down targeting street level drug sales in the Tenderloin. As a Deputy Public Defender in San Francisco, I know about Gascón’s crackdown because I have witnessed a huge surge in arrests from sting operations, called “buy-busts”, in which undercover cops pretend to be addicts and buy drugs on the street.

Gascón’s plan won’t work, targets the wrong people and wastes valuable public resources: you simply cannot win the “War on Drugs” one or two crack rocks — or crumbs — at a time.

It is already a problem that Gascón, District Attorney Kamala Harris and U.S. Attorney Joe Russoniello are measuring success by the number of arrests made and not the quantity of drugs seized. This false measurement encourages police officers to target vulnerable addicts by offering them outrageous prices for their personal stash — rather than focus on real drug-dealers who actually sell in larger quantities (usually behind closed doors).

I represent an African-American woman arrested in the crackdown on a charge of selling drugs to an undercover – for which the maximum penalty is five years in prison. This 40-year-old woman has a documented history of mental illness. She was in possession of 0.04 grams of crack (the equivalent of 4/100ths of a “ Sweet ‘n Low” packet – which weighs a gram) which she allegedly sold to a white police officer after he pretended to be a fellow addict desperate to get high. He told her he was willing to pay her $20 for the crumb of crack she had just bought for $5. The woman will likely be offered probation or prison for a conviction that makes her ineligible for housing or benefits and could result in her homelessness. My client is not the exception – my colleagues all represent clients with similar backgrounds and stories. Come down to the Hall of Justice and you will see.

The operation to arrest her, like each undercover sting operations, involved approximately ten police officers. Spend time at the Hall of Justice and you will see that it is the same cadre of officers – many of whom can be found amongst the top 100 earners in City government because of their overtime pay – who show up to testify at these cases. One of the ten officers involved in the arrest I describe above, Ferrando, is listed as making $30,000 in overtime in the first six months of this year. Gascón’s crack-down encourages more of this expensive injustice.

Not all those arrested are addicts selling their personal stash. Some of those arrested in Gascón’s crack-down are low-level “crumb dealers” who are caught with a few grams of drugs or pills and a few dollars in their pocket. Several studies suggest that the street level dealer makes minimum wage. Those on the street=2 0are often unemployed and undereducated teenagers: the special ed kid or high school drop-out raised by his grandmother because his parents have also been incarcerated. Others are indentured and paying off debts to the “coyotes” that bring them here.

Whether these youngsters are from San Francisco, Oakland or Honduras, convicting them of drug-related crime usually means an inability to get a job, ineligibility for a student loan, and consignment to the margins of society forever. Even if you are not sympathetic to their situation, you cannot ignore the fact that for the last twenty years of this war, every naive or desperate youngster taken off the street has been quickly replaced by somebody else. Much like the “War on Terror,” the “War on Crumbs” is unwinnable.

Descriptions of the offenders as on parole or probation is both misleading and, at the same time, telling. The D.A. puts people on probation without addressing their issues and with a felony conviction and they fail. Others who are on parole have been released from prison which – no surprise – didn’t rehabilitate them.

I am not suggesting that the crackdown is racist, but looking at the mugshots and hearing constant references by certain cops to “Oakland” suggests that the police may be targeting African Americans or Latinos disproportionately because they match their preconceived stereotypes.

Meanwhile, the SFPD doesn’t seem to be able to track down the larger source. While it takes ten police officers to conduct a “buy-bust, ” the Department doesn’t seem to have the time to follow someone on BART or bus to see where their stash of crumbs actually came from. Perhaps that would mean less overtime pay?

Police sources quoted in the Chronicle often suggests a sophisticated organized crime network of dealers that engage in violence to protect their turf. While that may be true on The Wire, I just don’t see it in the cases actually prosecuted from the Tenderloin. Even if you believe the police story, Gascón’s plan may actually lead to more violence: a disruption of the drug market caused by the increased enforcement could result in skirmishes over vacant street corners. Despite the rampant cocaine and meth dealing that goes on in the Castro, the Haight or Pacific Heights, there is no violence in those communities because the police hardly do any enforcement there. Those drug markets are never disrupted.

So what is to be done? First we have to be honest about what “the problem” actually is. The hard truth is that the police ignore most of the middle class drug use and dealing occurring out of private homes in every neighborhood or other public venues in the City – bars, nightclubs or concert halls. More drugs are being transported to Burning Man as we speak than will probably be seized during Gascón’s entire crackdown. Certain folks in San Francisco can20basically buy and sell drugs with impunity.

People don’t like the drug use and dealing in the Tenderloin because it is on the street and in public: it is bad for small business, terrible for raising children and its depressing to look at. While street-level dealing is a problem then, it is a quality of life issue worthy of a misdemeanor conviction rather than a felony offense requiring prison.

If the problem is drug-dealing in public on the street, existing police officers from “buy-busts” could be assigned to be in uniform and visible on a block. By their presence, the officers could dissuade outsiders from coming in to the neighborhood to buy drugs. They could even get to know the street-level sellers and addicts and direct them to services – without necessarily arresting them. According to the Seattle Times, the new Chief of Police there has recently implemented such a program – offering known street-level dealers a panoply of services before they are arrested and caught up in the system.

There should also be greater flexibility in crafting alternative resolutions for street-level offenders. Despite the proclamations of some in the police department, the evidence shows that sending offenders to our broken prison system is not going to result in less drugs or violence on the streets: the offender will come back more desperate, hardened and unemployed.

Existing alternative programs controlled by the District Attorney need to be expanded and more resources for drug t reatment or job training need to be provided – rather than additional courts and attorneys duplicating referrals to existing scarce resources (the Community Justice Center). Cases should be routinely dismissed if an offender stays out of trouble, goes to school or gets a job regardless of whether they are caught with two grams or ten.

The “War on Crumbs” is exacting tremendous costs on the Tenderloin, the people of San Francisco, and most of all the poor people of color we send to prison every day. Rather than continue a crackdown with the same failed strategy and tactics, I hope Chief Gascón and other local officials will choose instead to embrace innovative solutions, end this failed war and, as a result, save a great neighborhood and community.

FCJ Editor

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