Request to Keep D.A. George Gascón Accountable for Investigating Police Shootings
Dear Supervisors,
We are José Góngora Pat, Luis Poot Pat and Carlos Poot Pat, brother and cousins, respectively of Luis Góngora Pat. We are accompanied by Adriana Camarena of Justice for Luis in writing this letter. Luis Góngora Pat was killed by SFPD officers on April 7, 2016. We have been demanding justice for his unlawful killing for two years and two months since. More information about Luis’s case can be found here: http://www.justice4luis.org
While there has been significant and ongoing talk about SFPD reform based on the DOJ review since 2016, there has been an insufficient focus on accountability, including criminal accountability for police misconduct.
In 2016, D.A. Gascón petitioned the Board of Supervisors (BOS) for a $1.8 million dollar budget to establish an independent bureau of investigations into SFPD shootings. To the best of our knowledge, D.A. Gascón has never used this budget to press criminal charges against an officer. In fact, he has used this budget to do the opposite of what he promised: The bureau of investigation has reviewed officer-involved shootings (OIS) since 2011 to justify the dismissal of all OIS cases without charges. Only pending since 2016 are the OIS cases of Mario Woods and Luis Góngora Pat, and now the new OIS cases including that of Adolfo Delgado killed in a hail of 99 SFPD bullets two months ago.
- See SFGate, Sept 2016, SF DA’s Office to Take Lead on Investigating Police Shootings
- See Officer Involved Shooting Investigations, Source: Office of the D.A.
- See D.A. George Gascon ’s Scorecard: 24 People Killed by SFPD—Since 2011 When Gascón Became The D.A.—and 0 Charges!
We still have hope that D.A. Gascón will make the right decision and charge the killers of Luis Góngora Pat, but we are also well aware of his record of never pressing charges against police officers who kill regardless of the circumstances. Of the 24 people killed by SFPD officers during D.A. Gascón’s time in office, whose race we know, 63% are people of color. Black and Latino people are disproportionately represented in OIS to the extent that a black person is 6 times more likely than a white person to be killed by SFPD, and a Latino person 3 times more likely than a white person.
We believe that until officers face criminal charges for shooting people of color they will not think twice about pulling the trigger against us. We ask what has D.A. Gascón done with a $1.8 million bureau of investigation?
We are writing to request a meeting with you to see if you would be willing to file a motion requiring D.A. Gascón to account to the Board of Supervisors, as a Committee of the Whole, for the $1.8 million dollar budget granted to him in 2016 to investigate police shootings. Similar meetings have been called with the Chief of Police requesting reports on progress in the reforms. This would be no different. Increased accountability is a significant part of police reform.
Thank you for your consideration and time. We await your prompt response.
José Góngora Pat, brother of Luis Góngora Pat
Luis Poot Pat and Carlos Poot Pat, cousins of Luis Góngora Pat
Adriana Camarena, member of Justice for Luis
Please note that a similar letter was sent individually to each supervisor of the BOS
Please feel free to write your supervisor to request she or he file or support a motion requiring D.A. Gascón to account to the Board of Supervisors, as a Committee of the Whole, for the $1.8 million dollar budget granted to him in 2016 to investigate police shootings.
Supervisor emails can be found here: https://sfbos.org/roster-members
Justice for Luis Góngora Pat 