XPost: alt.crime, ca.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics

<https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/shoplifting-crime-san- francisco-banko-brown-candy-18073871.php>

Last Friday, the San Francisco Police Department issued a press release
that said a security guard employed by Walgreens had shot and killed a
woman during an alleged shoplifting attempt at the pharmacy chain�s
downtown Market Street location.

Like much of the information that gets published in the immediate
aftermath of a prominent San Francisco crime incident, however, the
details were wrong. An unhoused 24-year-old transgender Black man named
Banko Brown had been killed. Police not only misgendered Brown, but the
Medical Examiner released his birth name.

That didn�t stop the incorrect information from spreading across the
internet. Nor did the ultimate correction of that misinformation give San Francisco�s online commentariat pause that there may be more to the story.
Of course, they should have learned this lesson; rumors around rampant
crime and homelessness leading to the death of Cash App co-founder Bob Lee
were debunked when one of his colleagues in tech was arrested and charged
with his murder. And a former San Francisco fire commissioner who made headlines after he was beaten with a pipe ended up being suspected of terrorizing homeless people with bear spray.

None of that seemed to matter. Bolstered by a weekend New York Times
front-page article on �San Francisco�s woes� � centered around the closure
of a Whole Foods � schadenfreude ran wild over the fact that an alleged shoplifter had been killed in the act in San Francisco. Elected officials, meanwhile, were largely silent until Tuesday � other than District
Attorney Brooke Jenkins, who announced on Monday that she would not press charges against the security guard.

Now, days later, a more complex, if still incomplete, tale is emerging �
as it almost always does.

Brown � his friends and family insisted at a vigil outside Walgreens on
Monday afternoon � was in possession of food when he was shot, and
possibly, even a receipt. He was not part of a violent theft ring, but a beloved intern at the Young Women�s Freedom Project, helping youth who�d interacted with the justice system. And he was also homeless, forced to
sleep on BART trains while desperately pursuing permanent housing.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, meanwhile,
announced on Tuesday that he hoped Jenkins would revisit her decision not
to charge the Walgreens guard, after learning more details of the
shooting.

�My understanding is that Brown absconded with $14 worth of candy,� Peskin
told me.

Of course, the full story of Brown�s shooting remains incomplete � neither
the San Francisco Police Department nor the District Attorney�s Office
would comment with details of the shooting. The District Attorney�s Office
did confirm with Mission Local that Brown was not armed.

Even without the full picture, however, it�s obvious that Brown�s plight
and subsequent death appear to be a tragedy of our city�s own making.

In many ways, Brown was a poster child for Mayor London Breed�s mission to
end homelessness in the transgender community, which she announced last
May. Citing statistics that trans people are 18 times more likely to
experience homelessness than the average person, she promised to be a
leader in supporting and protecting trans communities. Despite Breed�s
pledges to cut the population of homeless youth in half by this year and address racial inequity in our homeless response systems, the city is
clearly still failing.

Brown was not supported or protected by San Francisco. He couldn�t
navigate the city�s bureaucratic housing system, despite � his friends and family indicated � being ready and willing to receive help. He was
misgendered and deadnamed by city agencies, demonized on Twitter and
ignored by elected officials.

So deep are we in our obsessive narratives of crime and safety that the
most urgent solution presented in the wake of Brown�s killing was
investing millions more in policing. How that will help homeless youth who still sleep on our public transit systems remains a mystery. Instead, this
city seems primed to push people further into desperation and then punish
them for it.

At the Monday vigil, supporters of Brown lambasted the city for its
absolute failure to address the needs of its Black population. Julia
Arroyo, co-director of the Young Women�s Freedom Center, where Brown was
an intern, said he did everything he could to find housing, to no avail.

�He was turned away, and he was asked to sleep on the streets,� she said.

�This city has set this tone,� said Tinisch Hollins, a San Francisco
native and executive director of the criminal reform organization
Californians for Safety and Justice. �This is an example of multiple
failures, not just this corporation. It�s the entire culture in this city. Taking from a Walgreens is not worth capital punishment.�

At a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday afternoon, outraged members of Brown�s queer and Black community took the mike during public comment,
begging for action.

But Jenkins already said she doesn�t believe her office has a strong case.
So for Brown�s community, what�s left? Will this incident be written off
by the city, despite all evidence that its policies and lack of action
make it complicit? Will our leaders offer �thoughts and prayers� in hopes
the noise on all sides dies down quickly, supplanted by the next bad news story?

Or will Brown�s name and legacy, bolstered by the actions of his grieving, angry, friends and loved ones, spur change?

When a young, unhoused, hungry, Black trans person is shot and killed, allegedly for stealing food, it�s time for a serious moment of reckoning.

I�m not sure we�re going to get it.

Reach Nuala Bishari: [email protected]; Twitter: @NualaBishari

This story was updated to include information from the District Attorney�s Office that Brown was not armed.


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