Closing time - Buster's Place - SF's only 24 Hour Drop In Center Closed By Mayor Newsom- Who Hides from Open Meeting With Elderly, Disabled Homeless

San Francisco's Mayor Newsom shuts down San Francisco's only critical 24-hour homeless center which served mearly 150 women and men, elderly, disabled and poor residents.

The Mayor's proposed replacement (150 Otis Street) is short sided, at best. It has only a fraction of the capacity as Buster's Place and will NOT serve women, who are our residents at the greatest risk of abuse, rape and violence.

And Mayor Gavin Newsom actually 'locked the door' to the Mayor's Office, when these nice people came to talk to him, peacefully.

We all know from history, that the closing of Buster's Place will likely result in our very most 'at risk' residents (including veterans, women, elderly & frail) being put into harm's way immediately, with no safe place to go, especially at night.

Any man or woman trying to escape from domestic and elder abuse, drug dealers will be forced back onto the streets -- because they have no place to 'be' safe.

The same streets where untrained police officers often mistakenly 'handle' mentally ill people with 'command and control' techniques (read: roughing up, using intimidation and force) which triggers trauma and violent reactions (when applied to mentally ill human beings) which result in 'accidental' shootings and death to innocent people -- whom are mentally ill.



On the way to the rally held on City Hall stairs, we stood and watched for about 10 minutes as a resident was being taken into custody by two police officers.

It was obvious the man was 'high' on heroin (or methadone) and appeared to be slightly mentally ill or not in control of all his senses, like a stupor.

When one officer started to be too aggressive in his 'handling' of the man, the man reacted and shouted, hey 'stop that, you don't have to be so rough'.

That natural reaction caused the officers to 'get rougher' and they yelled at him; spun him around fast and 'slammed' him, face first, down onto the trunk of their police car.

This is called use of un-neccesary force because a well trained officer would have used another technique because the man was already handcuffed, and raised his voice but made no move to 'hit' an officer.

The man was merely vocally expressing his oposition to being 'roughed up' while he was already -- being compliant. It was a natural and predictable reaction when we feel threatened without cause by any man, but especially one with a badge and a gun.

Ignorant people can spin that to 'say' he was resisting arrest but he was not.

He not resisting arrest. He was 'at bay' during the pat down but he did resist the one officers' overly aggressive handling (that is an assault).

Now, had these officers been properly trained to deal with mentally ill and other persons unable to control themselves under stressful circumstances, they would have used completely different techniques, to safely get this man to comply.

They would have used smarter and wiser 'soft vocal tone' techniques to make the man feel safe, which almost always causes the subject to respond in kind.

It works like a charm. This is called 'de-escalation' which prevents violence and accidental death by officer shootings and police brutality.

Invariably, when force and intimidation are employed on people that are not prone to violence, they react violently because they are not used to being 'forced' or beaten into submission. They will resist.

When any self-respecting person is being 'pushed' by an overly aggressive person (police or otherwise) we will always defend ourselves and demand respect, even during a 'roust' or 'arrest'.

A wise, professional officer will acknowledge his own mistake and apologize and then everyone calms down.

An ignorant or violence prone officer (egotistical bully incapable of empathy of 'admitting fault') will NOT apologize.

Ignorant, bully-like or untrained officers often 'escalate' their use of intimidation and force which in turn, causes an escalation of violence leading to brute force and possible death by officer shooting.

Later, they will lie and say 'he was resisting arrest' and everyone else will cover it up because they are unable to admit when their own officers are the cause of escalating situations that could have been prevented, had wiser or

When smarter, higher level techniques are used that appeal to a person's intellect and logic, as they 'feel' safer, they are much more compliant and docile.

This is not rocket science. This is proven fact based on several generations of case studies in hundreds of communities.

So, when we arrived at City Hall, this is what we saw...

A fairly large group of men and women (elderly - leaders of the Gray Panthers, disabled and mentally ill) residents having a peaceful public rally on the steps of City Hall.

They were determined to excercise their right, during this life and death crisis, to meet face to face with the man that decided (without community meetings or public support) to put them and all San Franciscans, at great risk for no good reason other than 'it's the Mayor's Will'.

All they wanted was their right to redress the government which means to meet with the Mayor, face to face to talk and listen to each other about this matter.


But, just like last year, when families with children sought out the Mayor for leadership, guidance and support 'to talk' by 'knocking on his door' last year -- this week -- the elderly, mentally ill, poor and homeless residents tried to knock on his door to meet with him.

These sick, elderly, mentally & physically ill residents walked calmly through security and made their way up the stairs to go to the Mayor's Office, which is usually open to the public, during office hours.



They climbed up the stairs, very slow, calm and orderly. There was not rush. Why wouldn't the Mayor be in his office. We saw his car parked out front when the rally first started.

The Mayor's new homeless czar, Dariush Kayhan was sitting outside on the steps with the residents while they were getting ready to go inside, to meet with Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Surely if the Mayor was going to refuse to see us, he would have been kind enough to tell us that, before the people begin to walk up the stairs to his office.

Jennifer Friedenbach, Director of the Coalition on Homelessness had the microphone and was very reluctant to turn the mike over to Dariush Kayhan, when he asked to speak to the people gathered there.

The crowd started to protest and shouted 'let him speak', 'equal time', so she relented and gave him the microphone. He suggested that everyone go on over to the grassy knoll and 'talk about' the new 24 hour center being opened on April 1st, 2008. But, this crowd was well informed and already know that 150 Otis is NOT an equal replacement.

This is a 'taking' of safe spaces by the Mayor's Office, which is contrary to the 'will of the community' which is at the heart of this whole conflict. Decisions are being made without public participation and contrary to 'the good' of all San Franciscans.

Why would any public servant go down a path that is harmful, destructive, more expensive (because putting people in harm's way is very expensive for emergency response and innocent, desperate people die when you do this) and goes against the will of the entire community and the service providers that know all of this ?




So, they knocked and they knocked and they knocked but the door was locked right before they walked up the stairs, in a slow and orderly manner to the office door.


It's like that Phil Collins song.... 'who can it be knockin at my door.... tap, tap, tap.
... don't make a sound -- tip toe across the floor. If they hear us they'll knock all day... and here we'll have to stay.... oh, oh, who can it be now... who can it be now... '
After several minutes of knocking, it was clear that once again, the Chicken Mayor was afraid or unwilling to simply meet with the people his decisions were going to cause great risk and harm to.

That's when Abdallah, a homeless advocate who is elderly that has a letter from the Mayor's Office stating he has had several heart attacks and needs a place to be safe, such as Buster's Place.

He cannot stay in a shelter because he is in danger there because of his age, his health and his work to expose abuse in the shelters.

Again, Mayor Gavin Newsom apparently, did not have the desire; the free will or the courage to face the people -- whom are most dis-affected by his harmful and soon to be expensive decision to cut down the only 24 hour crisis center in San Francisco.

This is not good leadership, is it ?

Does Our Mayor work for 'himself' ? Does he work for the 2 largest shelter providers ? Are they holding private talks and meetings behind our backs ?

-- Historical Note: The Mayor told us in a press release, a few weeks ago, he wants to eliminate all shelters, except for those two -- MSC South and Next Door Shelters.

This will create an illegal, virtual monopoly for St. Vincent DePaul and Episcopal Community Services, whose shelters have been shown to not perform as well as shelters operated by Central City [ Hospitality House ] or the Dolores Shelter (which went from last place to near first because they regularly attended public meetings and work groups).

They actively 'worked with' the community to improve their shelters, even before the new standards were passed by our Supervisors. Next Door & MSC South have historically had the most outrageous and abusive complaints made by their residents (higher than the others on a per capita basis).

This means even though their shelters are larger, they had a disproportionately higher rate of complaints per person, than most all other shelters. This is per outreach talks with residents at all shelters and from the study of official government documents and reports).

So, why would anyone want to eliminate shelters that the people want; the people need; that are performing well ?

Why would anyone want to shut down the good shelters that are doing more with less and doing a better job than the other two largest shelters ?

THIS IS BACKWARDS AND CONTRARY TO APPARENT LOGIC, SO THERE MUST BE SOMETHING ELSE HAPPENING, BEHIND THE SCENES, THAT WE ARE NOT BEING MADE AWARE OF. THEIR (THE MAYOR, EPISCOPAL COMMUNITY SERVICES, ST. VINCENT DEPAUL) PLANS DO NOT MATCH UP WITH WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT. THEY ARE ACTING AGAINST OUR OWN BEST INTERESTS. WHY ? FOR THEIR OWN PERSONAL, POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL GAINS, WE SUPPOSE. FOLLOW THE MONEY....

Or does Mayor Gavin Newsom honestly and truly, work 'for the people' ?

He is Our Servant, isn't he ? Do we work for him or does he work for us ?

Wouldn't you fire servants on your payroll, if they refused to meet with you, face to face, to discuss life and death issues ?

He Our Mayor 'All-Knowing' ? Is he 'above' meeting with 'the people' ?

That smacks of arrogance doesn't it ?

And Mayor Newsom's office locked his door, to shut out the people most dis-affected, from meeting with him 'face to face', 'eye to eye' to discuss the matter.

Like a spoiled child. Anyone that 'runs away' must be sounding something like this:

'Waaaaaah! I don't wanna meet with those angry elderly and poor men and women.... Why don't they just all go away.... I don't know what to say to them.... Hey, I'm paying the homeless czar $160,000 bucks a year.

Why doesn't Dariush just take them over to go sit on the lawn, away from my office and deal with them.

I have more important things to do.... It's all about me.

I have more important things to do than meet with 'the people' that I serve.....'

Now we know why they call him 'the chicken Mayor'....

He cannot see how he is being perceive by his own people or he simply does not care. When a man cares about his people, he does not send out 'middle men' during a life and death crisis. He either walks out alone or with his right hand man (Dariush) to meet with the people, himself.

That is what a true leader would do. That is how you build trust.

That is how you lead. That is how you SHOW that you really do care. It's about standing up and meeting head on when you really do not want to. When it's scary. When it's difficult. That is how you measure a man in power.

Anyone can look and sound cool and be a 'hero' when times are going great. But, it takes real courage to step up to the plate when the chips are down... when the people are counting on YOU, as the elected leader to 'guide' them and comfort them and listen to them.

What is the only reasonable conclusion we can come to, when an elected leader hides from 'speaking' with the people when it's his own decisions that are harming them, in less than 50 hours from now.

Sadly, Mayor Newsom 'comes out' when he wants 'glory' and recognition in controlled press conferences (just like Bush) but when the going gets rough, he runs away like a child.

Disgusting, isn't it ?

Is that the right thing to do?

What would you do if you were Our Mayor ?

Leaders worth following do not fear 'the people'. Good Leadership is what we need to keep our community together.

DEFINITION: leadership

Main Entry: lead·er·ship

Pronunciation: \ˈlē-dər-ˌship\

Function: noun

Date: 1821

1 : the office or position of a leader
2 : capacity to lead
3 : the act or an instance of leading
4 : leaders leadership>

Good leaders at least sit down, talk and listen but not this type of 'superficial' leader. He hides when the topics are not to his liking.

He appears to have a great need to 'be in control' because of pride, ego, fear.... many of us, when we were young, ignorant and foolish, used to do that. Run away when others that were upset wanted to talk to us.

But, as we matured and gained wisdom. We learned to be honorable men and women that do not 'run away' from anyone. We stand up.

Even when we are sick, poor, disabled and homeless with no resources or luxuries or common comforts to speak of, what do we do ?

We have what's called R-E-S-P-E-C-T and D-I-G-N-I-T-Y and L-O-V-E which all work together to give us COURAGE.

The courage to stand up against all odds, to work together as one community, one voice and take back the reins of a chariot that is out of control.

If some of us have been abused and thrown out into the streets because we refuse to give in to fear and refuse to submit to abusive authorities than what kind of man.

What kind of human being, is our Mayor, who has wealth and fame and nice cars and a luxurious life far beyond what most us will see in our lifetimes.

How can a human being with 'so much' material wealth, be in such a state of mind to refuse to open his door (that we paid for) to talk with our elderly, poor, sick, mentally ill and women residents, who need his help now ?

Indeed, we are richer in spirit, richer in soul and have more heart and love than this man will ever have.

We need to find another man or women among us that truly shares our values of honesty, courage, respect, love and caring to replace this man who has shown his colors today. He is acting like a coward.

We are not saying he is a coward. Only he knows who he really is.

But, we are saying that his actions (or lack of appropriate action) show cowardice.

A true leader, when faced with the same situation, would 'rise above' the negativity and 'prove' that he is capable of courage by coming forward to meet personally, with the clients (former clients come victims of absue) of Buster's Place.

Actions speak louder than words.

Good Leaders Do Not Run Away Or 'Act Busy'Iin Order To Avoid The People They Serve, Especially In Times Of Crisis.

Very self serving behavior for an elected -- public servant.

SF may need a 'regime change' (recall election) to emplace someone with more courage to respect the people's right to 'converse' about issues, especially life and death issues, into that office. We need a Mayor that will NOT lock his doors when the people excercise their right to meet during a crisis.

What if a Father or Mother refused to meet with their children during a time of crisis ? Isn't this kind of shameful behavior -- that divides instead of unites a community ?

Think about it.

If you cut services that put the most 'at risk' members of your community into the streets, wouldn't YOU have the guts to at least come out, be a man, and speak with the people you were about to harm ?

That, ladies and gentlemen is the difference between 'substance' and 'superficiality'. It's the difference between 'being real' and 'being slick'.

Trust is an issue with this Mayor and This Administration. Refusing to meet with the people causes more distrust. Meeting with the people shows that you care and that you are willing to 'be there' 'with them' when the going gets tough.

They say, when the 'going gets tough' the 'tough get going' and the chickens run out the back door every time....

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