[roll call] supervisor safai . I will come back. [roll call]. Supervisor yee is present and supervisor safai . Mr. President , you have a quorum. Thank you very much. Please place your right hand over your heart. Will you please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. [reciting pledge of allegiance]. Okay. Thank you. On behalf of the board i would like to acknowledge sfgtv for recording each of our meetings and make the transcripts available to the public online. Mr. President , i have two communications. The minutes will reflect that since covid19 pandemic the board of supervisors have been conducting their meetings through video conference, and present as if they were in their chamber. Around 9 23 this morning my office received a proclamation from the mayor terminating the local emergency issued on may 31, 2020, and the curfew order is terminated effective immediately. That is directly has significant r ramification on the motions that are before this body. Because the board recessed tuesdays meeting for the two items just mentioned, the board is reconvening in order to take actions on these two motions that were introduced by president yee and to formally adjourn the meeting. Public comment was satisfied on tuesday. If the members of the public, if you are interested in following along, you can watch channel 26 or watch the internet by going to our website at sfgov. Org. If you want to listen by phone, youre welcome to call 4156550001 and enter the access code 1458162064, press pound twice, and you will be able to listen to the meeting with your cellphone. Mr. President , we do have a communication from supervisor walton asking if he could be excused from the Board Meeting today. Thank you, madam clerk. Just one point of clarification. Would we have to take general Public Comments at the end of the meeting . No, mr. President. This is a recessed meeting, and the Public Comment actually occurred on tuesday afternoon. Thank you for the clarification. Youre welcome. Before we get started, just a friendly reminder for all the supervisors to mute their microphones when you are not speaking to avoid audio feedback. Can i have a motion to excuse supervisor walton for attending todays meeting [indiscernible]. So moved. Motion. So moved by supervisor peskin and seconded by supervisor preston. Yes. Im here. Sorry, im late. Thanks. We will mark you down as late. Mark him down as inappropriately dressed. Oh, look whos talking. And inappropriately in the wrong office. Okay, lets have a roll call on that. [roll call]. [roll call]. There are ten ayes. Okay, this motion passes. Supervisor walton . Madam clerk, lets go to our unfinished business. Please return to items 1 and 2 together. Okay. Item no. 1 is a motion to concur on the may 31, 2020 proclamation by mayor london breed declaring the existence of a local emergency related to the conditions of extreme soth safety of persons and property, and item two was a motion concurring in the mayors action to establish the current view to leave the state of emergency in place. Colleagues, as you know, the mayor has declared an end of the emergency and the curfew as of 5 a. M. This morning, i believe. And [indiscernible] i would like to take advantage of some updates on what occurred last night. It was one of the larger demonstrations that we had had regarding the last week or so. It would be good for us to hear if there was any incidents that we should know about. And so im really glad that i was able to hear from chief scott from the Police Department, and also undersheriff Matthew Freeman was here and also [indiscernible] is also here today to answer any questions on this item. Maybe i could call on chief scott at this point to maybe talk about what occurred last night and so forth. Chief scott . Thank you, president yee, and thank you members of the board to have me on again today to give you a recap of what occurred last night. So i also want to start by thanking all of you for your support over the last week, and always. Yesterday we had a demonstration that started out at 18th and dolores at about 3 p. M. We knew that this event was going to occur. It had been well publicized. We had heard from the sources of information that we had, we expected a very large attendance. We didnt know what exactly very large meant, but we knew that there would be a lot of response to this protest and this march yesterday. At 3 00 people started to assemble, and the march went to basically Mission Police station. Now as the day progressed, we dont have a we dont have an exact crowd size, but there were thousands of individuals. As president yee stated, it was probably one of the larger demonstrations that anybody could remember, and im sure probably everybody, like i did, saw the overhead news helicopter footage of the crowd size, which was significant. This demonstration, this president , by and large, people were there for the same issue that has been gripping our country over the past week or so following the death of mr. George floyd, and most of the protesters were there to demonstrate that issue. We also learned through feedback and input from the community that many of the protesters were also there to actually protest the fact that the city and county of San Francisco had a curfew. We understood there were a couple of dynamics, if not more, that were motivating people to be out there. Our priority from the start was to facilitate activities of the protesters, to protect lives, as it always is, to protect property, to ensure that we had order in our town during the protest and make sure that we were there to address any civil unrest, if that occurred. I must say that by and large overwhelmingly it was uneventful. The protest did move to the civic center area. It also [indiscernible] put out as a protest and a walk through the streets of San Francisco. At the end of all of this, when everything boils down, there were protesters that went back to mission station, probably several hundred, to say the least, went back to mission station at the end of the protest to continue protesting. Now all those protests were by and large peaceful. There were sporadic incidents of protesters throwing objects, bottles and rocks and the like, at the officers who were assigned to protect the protesters, and there was at least one instance of a vandalism of a vehicle that happened. There may be other reports, but thats what we know about right now. So by and large they were peaceful, very, very goodspirited crowd, very peaceful. And our officers were facilitators. We had our motorcycle officers and our patrol officers out there and our command staff and our captains that were out there supervising and overseeing these protests. A couple of things i want to point out and im going to wrap this up for questions, our officers had on their personal protective equipment pretty much during the whole event, and just so the board and the public is aware as to why that was, we feel we are in the grip of a country that is very frustrated and angry. And what we have seen since the start of these protests, and each and every one of them, there is at least one point where an officer is assaulted either by an object being thrown at him or her or other types of assault. So we expected that to happen last night, and it did. So our officers had on the personal protective equipment, the helmets and the like to make sure that we keep our officers safe from harms way. We know with the public that sends a certain image. You know, some people like to call that equipment riot gear, but i want the public to understand the reason, the why behind why we came out with that equipment on. And for good reason. The other thing that i want to talk about is the curfew, because i know that was an issue. At the end of the event, around somewhere between 10 and 11 00, it culminated with less than 100 people out, and in that group, some of the individuals in that group began to dump garbage on the streets, and within that same group other individuals were trying to clean it up. That group actually splintered, and about half of that group went to dolores park and remained peaceful, and we let them do whatever they wanted to do, as long as they remained peaceful, we didnt bother them. The other half stayed in the street, in the area of 24 mission, or in that vicinity, anyway. Our officers during this course of the night observed what they believed to be protesters with in the possession of accelerants, lighter fluid or something of that nature. We dont know because we werent able to make any arrest to confirm that, but thats what they observed. There were two fires previously during the night, one at the hall of justice where an American Flag was burned and one where garbage was burned. So we already knew that somebody in that crowd had the propensity to light fires. At the end of the night, when this group boiled down to probably less than 30 it was less than 30, actually, we started to see the garbage being dumped in the street, and again, officers at the scene believe that there was an attempt to start fires. At that time, the Incident Commander or the person in charge of that particular scene decided to arrest those individuals, and those arrests were made. Those arrests were made under the curfew ordinance. Out of those, 23 26 people were detained, 23 were cited, and one was a juvenile. That juvenile was never handcuffed. That juvenile was released, was taken to a station and released to a responsible party, and the other 23 were cited and released. There were no uses of force during that part of the event. There was that part was once we made the decision to arrest, it was uneventful. But i want to reiterate the reason that that decision was made. It was because we believed that destruction and the danger of fires being lit was imminent, and the person in charge made the decision and failed to take that action. The captain is here with me. He was out in the field, seeing, hearing and feeling what was happening. I have him available if enough any questions for him. But at this point, i will turn the floor back over to the president for any questions that you all may have of me. Okay, thank you, chief scott. Before we get into questions, i have received a few claegs on the roster colleagues on the roster. What i dont want to get lost is i really want to thank the organizers that put the rally, the demonstration together yesterday stressing that they wanted to have a peaceful demonstration, and not only was it for the most part what i saw was pretty peaceful. They were able to get 10,000 people to come to this. A lot of credit i want to give to whoever the youth organizers were. So just really want to get that dont want to have that get lost into our discussion. Before i get to my colleagues, i guess, undersheriff, did you have any comments . President yee, members of the board, chief scott, thank you for the opportunity to address you today. I am standing in for sheriff yamamoto who unfortunately was called away on a personal matter. The Sheriffs OfficeDepartment Operations center has been active for well over two months in response to the pandemic, and in recent days we have activated our Emergency Services unit, Law Enforcement mobile field force and response to the civil unrest and some act of civil disobedience occurring in the county and city of San Francisco. Last night the Sheriffs DepartmentEmergency Services unit deployed in defence of San Francisco city hall, the hall of justice, and in response to mutual aid from region two coordinator almeda county Sheriffs Office to support the Oakland Police department. I can tell you that the demonstrations in oakland were very peaceful, and the platoon that we sent there, while they were put on lines, there was no use of force. The crowd was in very good order, very peaceful, and that platoon returned fully in tact, once again with no uses of force, no staff injuries, and a very peaceful demonstration. The platoon that was on the line in defence of city hall did a fantastic job in defence of the building. We encountered very minimal graffiti on the sidewalks surrounding city hall, and its my understanding that that has already been cleaned up. Unfortunately we did have a couple of unfortunate incidents. A Sheriffs DepartmentUnmarked Police vehicle had an incendiary device thrown on it, and there was a fire. There was significant damage to the vehicle. An investigation is under way. I can tell you that that incident occurred sometime before any protesters actually arrived at city hall, and an investigation is under way. A Sheriffs Department marked Police Vehicle was spray painted. The Sheriffs Department has made an arrest in that matter, and that arrest was made without incident. Sheriffs Department Emergency unit also responded to the hall of justice in defence of the h. O. J. And worked very well in concert with the San FranciscoPolice Department and district station captains in that area. We also had very good collaboration and coordination with the district station in the northern and the district station captain, as well as the mutual resources that were brought in out of county and requested through the Police Department. Also encouraging was in response to the defence of the hall of justice, nonmembers of the Emergency Services unit Deputy Sheriffs from our courts, Community Programs and jail facilities were successful in deployment and taking up defensive positions of the h. O. J. The Sheriffs Department, other than the one arrest for the graffiti on our vehicle, that was the sole arrest. There was no uses of force last night, and although we although the crowds were very loud and very passionate, by and large it was peaceful and uneventful. Thank you very much. Thank you. Do you have any comments at all . Thank you, president yee. No, not at the time. All right. You have to make a comment. Just joking. Lets turn to my colleagues now. Supervisor haney, youre up first. Thank you, president yee. Thank you, chief and Deputy Sheriff or undersheriff, for being here. You know, i just first want to also thank the youth organizers and the many thousands of protesters who were out yesterday. I was there and was just blown away by what was one of the more extraordinary and powerful demonstrations that ive ever seen or been a part of in San Francisco. As you said, it was overwhelmingly peaceful. It was very strong and direct in the messaging, and defence absolutely youth led. I think it also demonstrated very clearly why exactly the curfew needed to be lifted and why curfews themselves are ineffective and even dangerous ways to limit peaceful protest and free speech. I know that many people were terrified as 8 00 got closer and there were still thousands of people out on the streets. It is just very concerning to think that the law would have allowed us to arrest people just for being out there at that time when obviously this is something that we should be promoting. This is something we should be supporting. And i appreciate you, chief, sharing from your experience what happened last night. I do think, president , respectfully that it is important to hear from others as well. And i would respectfully ask that we open up for Public Comment and hear from people about the experience yesterday and more about their perspective on the curfew. I think its important that based on what i saw and what i heard from people who were out there, that they have an opportunity to share with us. It is important that we hear from our police chief. Its equally if not more important that we hear from the people of the city. I would make that request, and i have a few questions for the chief, but i dont know if you want to wait to respond to that, president. Well, i can respond right now. If theres no objection, ill open it up. I ask my colleagues, is there any objections . Okay, then i will do so when its appropriate, okay . Thank you. Appreciate that. I wanted to ask just a couple questions, chief. One is about what seemed to be based on the reports that i saw and heard, and i think it was a part of the incident that you mentioned, a journalist, a wellknown journalist in San Francisco who was at least detained and maybe even threatened in other ways, threatened with arrest. Can you speak to that particular incident . And in general the commitment that i hope you can give to protect the rights of journalists, you know, journalists who are unable to whether its during a curfew or not, be out reporting on things that are happening is one of the most critical rights that we have in this country, and when we start detaining or arresting journalists, that goes into the realm of authoritarian police states. Id love to hear your policies on that and how we can make sure that Something Like that does not happen again. Sure. Chief . Thank you, president. And supervisor haney, yes, thank you. So during that last portion, there was a journalist among the crowd, and he was detained briefly, probably for about 20 minutes. I can tell you this. To your question about a policy, journalists have a right to be anywhere else that the public has a right to be. And of course nobodys excluded from committing a crime, but in terms of curfew, our Department Bulletin or our Department Notice laying out the curfew policies and the guidelines, journalists are excluded from curfew enforcement. So i hope that answers the first part of your question. In the event a journalist is detained, the course of action is to confirm that the person is a journalist and release