Why You Can’t Trust SFPD: Update on Police Shooting of 19 year old Kenneth Harding
Here’s a few stories and updates on the recent tragic shooting of 19 year old Kenneth Harding this past Saturday in the SF Bayview district… First we have our Hard Knock Radio coverage where we spoke to several witnesses to the shooting along with community activists. Folks we talk to in the Bayview vehemently refute the accounts given by the police who claim Harding shot at them. Witnesses we spoke to in the Bayview say that’s not true.
Others also want to know why we have not seen the multiple witnesses the police have laid claim to.. Why have they not step forth to speak? Why haven’t other news agencies discovered these witnesses and brought them forth for us to hear and see?
SFPD also claims to have found gun residue on the hands of Kenneth Harding. My question is what news outlets have independently verified this?
SFPD has recently been rocked by one of the largest scandals in its history
Some may ask why be so distrustful of SF Finest? Well as SF Film maker and Bayview resident Kevin Epps pointed out SFPD has already lost credibility with the public. Many have forgotten it was just 3 months ago SFPD was rocked with a scandal that involved dozens of felony cases being dropped because cops were shown on video behaving in unethical manners ranging from falsifying reports, illegally searching suspects, stealing from victims etc. What was shown was believed to be the tip of the iceberg and as results a federal investigation was launched.
If that wasn’t enough the scandal which was the largest in recent history of SFPD wasn’t discovered and ‘policed’ by the department itself. It was Jeff Adachi, the city’s public defender, and private defense lawyers who did the heavy lifting. Much of the scandal took place during the tenure of former police chief George Gascon who now serves as district attorney-Talk about conflict of interest. At last count a whooping 57 felony cases were dropped.
With all that in mind, there’s no way the citizens of SF, especially those in the Bayview can confidently trust the police are gonna be forthright in their findings especially if something egregious took place.
19 year old Kenneth Harding shot
It’s interesting to note that many who staunchly support the police while overlooking these recent scandals are hell bent on suggesting that because Harding had a criminal past he deserved to be shot. That’s wrong on all angles. As community advocate and SF City Commissioner La Mesha Irizarry pointed out, it doesn’t matter if Harding was the poster child for a chain saw massacre, he gets to have his day in court like anyone else. Police are not judge , jury and executioner no matter what. Even if he shot at them as alleged by the police, once he was taken down, medical aid was to be immediately administered. Police are trained to be first responders.. The graphic video along with witness statements shows the police didn’t aid Harding, they let him die.
Anyway you can peep the coverage we did the other day in the Bayview by accessing the following links
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/71633
The archive will be available up till August 1 2011..
You can also peep the archive on Swift FM
http://swift.fm/mrdaveyd/swift/129819/
Below are a couple of stories we encourage folks to peep including this one from Tiny Gray-Garcia of POOR Magazine titled
Killed for riding while Poor
We sat together: elders, youth, workers, students, and folks. We were on our way to a low-paid job, an overpriced university, a pre-gentrified home and a public school. There was laughter and shouts, murmurs and silence. Then suddenly, there were nine heavily armed police officers and fare inspectors walking through the crowded 14 Mission Muni line. One stopped in front of me and my son.
“I don’t have a transfer, I lost it,” I tentatively answered a cop who asked to see my paperwork as I clutched my son’s stroller and tried to see how close I was to the back door of the bus.
“We will have to write you a citation and you will have to step off the bus — now.” He was yelling at me and was flanked by another officer. I knew I couldn’t make a run for it, but I almost tried.
I thought of this moment when I heard about the 19-year-old man shot by the SFPD while running away from a Muni bus because he didn’t have a transfer in the Bayview July 16.
Shot and killed for not having $2 bus fare.
At a press conference held July 18 at the scene of the shooting, Joanne Abernathy from People Organized to Win Employment Rights made the point: “No one should be shot for not having enough money to ride the bus.”
You can continue reading the article at SF Bay Guardian.
You can also check out footage of the protest in SF tonite where 35 were arrested
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/07/19/18685332.php
Over 35 people were arrested for protesting the shooting of 19 year old Kenneth Harding
Interesting points. Seems clear there is no evidence that the SFPD can bring that will be deemed valid. We are at an impasse.
Why no witnesses that support police? Because if they come out and support the police they will be harassed, that’s why.
The article clearly explains that the SFPD have a history of falsifying evidence against citizens. So, why would anything they offer as evidence be deemed credible without independent verification?
It is the flip side of pronouncing that a victim deserved to get shot b/c of past criminal history, or b/c the victim didn’t have the proper transfer while riding the bus. If suspicion is predicated on past deeds, then the SFPD certainly does not deserve the benefit of the doubt.
As for John’s comment that police witnesses would be harassed, that’s purely a product of his imagination. There is no history of these controversial shootings producing witnesses (supporting law enforcement) that have been harassed. It’s a pathetic lie. It’s a pernicious lie. It’s a lie born of willful ignorance and an authoritarian view of society. Of course, when it finally hits home for people like John–and make no mistake, when the extra-judicial killings & victimization of one group is condoned it invariably spreads across all segments of society–then he will be singing a different tune.
If the picture being painted of Kenneth Harding is true, then I can see why people might feel that justice has been served.
However, the police didn’t know who he was when they shot and killed him.
That should be cause for concern to us all because it means it could just as easily been you or yours.
@Isome,
I just want to take one exception with your thinking. Your belief that John’s comments are purely his imagination or a lie seems a bit overzealous. Have you never seen the Anti snitch campaigns? There are t-shirts and songs and various statements and practically a whole culture to the idea that “snitches get stitches”. What are witnesses if not snitches?
With that in mind it seems plausible to some degree or another that people that want to come forward wouldn’t or would do so as anonymously as possible.
I’m not a person that sees the police as infallible and I’ve just learned of this shooting recently, the only thing clear at this point is that this is a confusing and heartbreaking situation. It’s likely that more investigation (and an open mind) will be required before we condemn the entirety of a police force to the gallows.
@Mark
1) Again, there has been no history of witnesses of any of these controversial shootings being harassed. Saying it doesn’t make it so. I stand by my assertion that he’s either making it up or he’s imagining that it must be true based on his personal biases or beliefs. If I am wrong someone will be sure to point me to a source supporting the claim.
2) Not snitching is not the same thing as harassing witnesses.
3) I ask you to please for one moment think about the origins of the phrase the “blue wall of silence”, or the “blue code of silence”. Do either of them sound familiar? I’m sure they do. I’m quite sure you know they both refer to law enforcement’s ongoing propensity not to SNITCH on each other, and to go so far as to lie to other LEOs and to the courts to protect one and other.
Given that, and to use another popular phrase, albeit one less popular with the younger generation, it merely proves that the **fish rots from the head first. If a group believes itself to be frequently victimized by law enforcement and that victimization is covered up by law enforcement, do you honestly expect they will be viewed as honest brokers, or as a legitimate agency that can be trusted? At some point self-preservation was bound to kick in.
You mentioned the anti-snitch campaign w/out considering that law enforcement has had a defacto anti-snitch campaign in place for as long they have existed. It is an indicator that without critically examining the framing of issues like these we are prone to assume or accept the fallacy that the worst behaviors are an exclusive or predominant trait of the targeted group.
I recently saw on the news that the senors around the area picked up 10 rounds of shots, that being said, where are the recordings of the police dispatching shots being fired at them? Isn’t that a part of protocol, and there were plenty of cops on the scene, why wouldn’t just one call it in????
Secondly, they were shooting in broad day light between two centers that were activly running youth programs. These centers did not even have time to gather the children and go on lockdown for their safety. Why wasn’t this addressed?
It’s all truly disheartening and saddening no matter if he was a criminal or not, life was lost/taken and could have been prevented.
[...] gun at a parolee’s home and gun powder residue on Harding’s hand. However, skepticism over SFPD’s claims that contradict witness accounts has lead to several protests [...]
I think it’s good to hold the SFPD’s feet to the fire and demand an investigation of every part of this shooting, but I do not think that the SFPD really has it together enough to instantly conspire to frame the shooting victim.
You would have to believe that in the 5 minutes or so timespan of Harding running from MUNI, to being shot, one of the officers produced a spare gun, placed it on the ground without being seen, and then went back to his previous post of holding a gun over Harding as he layed on the ground dying.
I guess you could say the police had a gun just for this occasion stored in their vehicle, but I don’t think they would have had enough time to retrieve it.
You could suppose that SFPD cops on patrol always carry spare guns for framing purposes. I don’t believe they are quite that corrupt yet.
What standard of laboratory tests would satisfy the community that Harding had gun residue on his hands? I remember the lab tech doing all of the cocaine in the SFPD evidence lockers, but she’s long gone. Plenty of heads have rolled over this incident. The entire evidence analyzing operation of the SFPD can’t be written off like that now.
Also I suggest that if you are a fugitive felon on parole, wanted for questioning in a multiple shooting in completely different state, and you’re carrying a concealed gun that you’re not even old enough to purchase, pay your bus fare. be smart. avoid suspicion.
[...] at mrdaveyd@aol.com. Visit his website, daveyd.com, and his blog, Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner, where this story first [...]
The guy took advantage of young girls…
This article is amazing. You detest the police for protecting themselves against, mostly, amoral and lawless individuals on a daily basis, but protect this pimp and ask the “media” to give second opinions on gsr tests?
“I almost tried to run” With your son in tow?? This warrants an investigation over cops doing their jobs
I almost sent this link to many of my friends, but I would upset them with your lose adherence to the truth. Several problems I will point out.1. Blondie is not a person, but the name of the band. Deborah Harry, “the pretty little girl” in the photo, was the lead singer in that band.2. The lyrics in the song Rapture, have absolutely nothing to do with God or Christianity. The song is a homage to two rappers that came before Blondie. The first is Grandmaster Flash (black guy), the lines”Flash is fast, Flash is coolFrancois sais pas, Flashe no deux;” refer to him.The second rapper is Fab Five Freddie (another black guy), the lines”Fab Five Freddie told me everybody’s flyDJ’s spinning I said my, my”are references to his DJ abilities.3. Your timeline is so wrong that an entire article, comedy article, could written on that.4. You completely fail to mention Death Row Records and its owner it the death of Tupac and Notorious.
how can a 9 year old make money…
keep it up….