San Francisco Bicycle Coalition says not to call police about stolen bikes because it hurts 'Black and brown' people

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Scott Mace

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Sep 12, 2022, 7:06:05 PM9/12/22
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Any questions?

Here's one: do bike thefts disproportionately impact black and brown people?

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition says not to call police about stolen
bikes because it hurts 'Black and brown' people

https://thepostmillennial.com/san-francisco-bicycle-coalitions-tells-members-not-to-report-stolen-bikes-because-it-hurts-black-and-brown-people

Scott Mace

John Eldon

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Sep 12, 2022, 7:29:55 PM9/12/22
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Next they'll tell us not to report car theft, either. 

I attended UCLA from 1968 to 1978 (I'm a slow learner :) ), where and when bicycle theft was rampant. 

I have lost two junkers to theft since moving to San Diego County in 1981, and I didn't report either of those because of their very low value, but my good bikes are registered, and I would not hesitate to report theft of one of them, on the slim hope of actually recovering it.  

John E.

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Jim Baross

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Sep 12, 2022, 8:12:32 PM9/12/22
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Is racist behavior by SF Police toward black and brown people so rampant that bicycle theft reports to police are to be discouraged? If so, we all are in trouble!
And, before this gets more off-topic, the CABO forum is for bicycling issues.

Jim Baross
Board Member, League of American Bicyclists
President, Calif. Assoc. of Bicycling Organizations
Board Member, San Diego County Bicycle Coalition

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Frank J. Lehnerz

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Sep 13, 2022, 12:02:57 AM9/13/22
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The SF Bike Coalition and other related supposedly "progressive" organizations are hotbeds for Luxury Beliefs, explained very briefly here as, "ideas and opinions that confer [social] status on the rich at very little cost, while taking a toll on the lower class.” ... “the wealthy displayed their social rank with physical status symbols.”

The Defund the Police movement as a whole gets the proper treatment here:




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Lucas Kurlan

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Sep 13, 2022, 4:34:52 AM9/13/22
to F Lehnerz, John Eldon, Cabo Forum, Scott Mace
As in the photo embedded in the article, here is the actual text from their website:

Considerations

Bike Theft and Policing:

Black and brown people are often deeply harmed or even killed by interactions with the police, and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition decided in 2020 to end any formal relationship with SFPD. Because policing is interwoven into nearly all current solutions to bike theft, some of our recommendations do involve minimal contact with the police, but we identify those and try to propose alternatives. We encourage everyone to consider the potential impact to human life of involving the police in any situation. 

A note about registries such as SafeBikes.org and BikeIndex.org:

These bike registries allow owners to register their bike’s make, model, and serial number, to help reconnect recovered bikes with their original owners. However, they also rely on the police for recovery, offering police departments increased access to registry information — which raises privacy concerns — and soliciting close police partnerships. Because both services rely heavily on the police to find and recover bikes, which may put Black and brown lives at risk, we do not recommend them.


John Eldon

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Sep 13, 2022, 8:08:23 AM9/13/22
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They are part of the "own nothing" movement, as well. Need a bicycle? Rent a bikeshare one. Need a car? Rent one or call a taxi. Need housing? Rent that, too, probably from Blackstone or from The State. Need freedom or independence? Sorry, you are SOL, and the other major party isn't going to help you in that area, either. 

Clinton Sandusky

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Sep 13, 2022, 11:31:29 AM9/13/22
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...staying on the topic of "bicycling," we here in this still GREAT country (not perfect to be sure) have "freedom of choice!"

Therefore:
  • Ride a bike (or legal e-Bike) or not
  • Seek out cycling in traffic education and training or not
  • Call the police or not if your bicycle gets stolen
  • Work with all stakeholders, including law enforcement, to make bicycling a more safe, legal, cooperative and fun experience!  Look at the City of Carlsbad and the involved various stakeholders addressing the e-Bike issues within the city.  A totality of efforts from bicycle education and training to enforcement and beyond!
However, it is EVERY bicyclist's responsibility to "a person riding a bicycle or operating a pedicab upon a highway has all the rights and is subject to all the provisions applicable to the driver of a vehicle by this division, including, but not limited to, provisions concerning driving under the influence of alcoholic beverages or drugs,..." (CVC 21200(a)(1).  Translated, ride (drive) your bicycle in a safe, legal and cooperative manner!  If you choose NOT to, don't let it affect anyone else out of the road or off-road!

Respectfully,

Clint
-------- Original message --------
From: Scott Mace <sc...@wiredmuse.com>
Date: 9/12/22 4:06 PM (GMT-08:00)
To: Cabo Forum <caboforum@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [CABOforum] San Francisco Bicycle Coalition says not to call police about stolen bikes because it hurts 'Black and brown' people

Any questions?

Here's one: do bike thefts disproportionately impact black and brown people?

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition says not to call police about stolen
bikes because it hurts 'Black and brown' people

https://thepostmillennial.com/san-francisco-bicycle-coalitions-tells-members-not-to-report-stolen-bikes-because-it-hurts-black-and-brown-people

Scott Mace

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-------- Original message --------From: Scott Mace <sc...@wiredmuse.com> Date: 9/12/22  4:06 PM  (GMT-08:00) To: Cabo Forum <caboforum@googlegroups.com> Subject: [CABOforum] San Francisco Bicycle Coalition says not to call police about stolen bikes because it hurts 'Black and brown' people Any questions?Here's one: do bike thefts disproportionately impact black and brown people?San Francisco Bicycle Coalition says not to call police about stolen bikes because it hurts 'Black and brown' peoplehttps://thepostmillennial.com/san-francisco-bicycle-coalitions-tells-members-not-to-report-stolen-bikes-because-it-hurts-black-and-brown-peopleScott Mace-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CABOforum" group.To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to caboforum+unsub...@googlegroups.com.To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/caboforum/0b3eeced-9a35-c507-b872-386242a7fd8c%40wiredmuse.com.

Ramon Zavala

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Sep 13, 2022, 6:02:21 PM9/13/22
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Bike thieves are people who steal bikes from other people. The process normally happens with zero direct interaction between the thief and the victim thus race, ethnicity, and skin color are purely demographic and incidental in the process. It is exceedingly unlikely that the thief targets a particular race and similarly unlikely that the victim cares about the thief's race.

The issue that the SFBC is concerned about is the assumed disproportionately physical interactions the police have with black and brown people. So let's address that.

Roland Fryer is a professor at Harvard and has a great 2017 study spanning numerous metropolitan areas and found that while there isn't a significant race-based difference in police use of deadly force, Black and Hispanic people were 50% more likely to experience some form of physical force in their interactions than other racial groups. That's significant. That matters. That needs to be addressed-- but not in the complete elimination of the enforcement of law. The corrective action needs to be in the method of enforcement not in the existence of enforcement.

The race of the offender (particularly the stereotypically assumed race) cannot rationally provide a shield against accountability. That is not an option we want for anything.

Turning off the primary avenue for justice only serves to protect offenders (bike thieves), perpetuate victimhood, and reduce preferred actions (biking). It really seems as though the advice from SFBC is born of the privileged groups who can just go buy new bikes and replace cut locks if theirs gets stolen.

Ramon

Frank J. Lehnerz

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Sep 13, 2022, 8:25:51 PM9/13/22
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Nailed it, Ramon! Thank you! 

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Sand Geo

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Sep 14, 2022, 3:24:09 PM9/14/22
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Ramon, this is how we find solutions to social issues.
Thank you!
Sandrine.



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Mike Lasché

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Sep 19, 2022, 3:09:14 PM9/19/22
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Well done, John, to identify the SF Bike Coalition as members of the “own nothing” movement.    By so doing, they probably imagine themselves to be great revolutionaries.

Also, a well done to Frank Lehnerz to identify the SF Bike Coalition as “luxury believers”.  Here

But, I will also identify the SF Bike Coalition as part of the “enforce nothing” movement.    Their primary assumption is "Black and brown people are often deeply harmed or even killed by interactions with the police….”    Certainly, black and brown people have been killed or harmed in interactions with police but this does not mean that they are disproportionately harmed or killed.    The SF Bike Coalition presents no evidence to suggest disproportionate effects.    Indeed, any such evidence, in order to be credible, would have to present detailed evidence of exposure……the percentage of suspects who are brown, black, white, and otherwise……as well as other important factors.

But, the credible research concludes that there is not disproportionate enforcement.    The most credible research was done in a 2015 National Academy of Sciences study which covered, I believe, over 680 American Police Departments.    It found no link between the race of officers and their treatment of suspects.   To quote the opening paragraph:

"We find no evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparities across shootings, and White officers are not more likely to shoot minority civilians than non-White officers. Instead, race-specific crime strongly predicts civilian race. 

Here is the link to the NAS study.    https://archive.is/wuc2c

Should anyone have a problem with the link, I have also saved the text.

As Ramon has mentioned, there is also the research of Roland Fryer, a black economist from Harvard, the youngest professor ever to be granted tenure at Harvard, which also confirms that there is not widespread, or systemic, disproportionate investment.

There is much more research which confirms that there is no widespread disproportionate enforcement which I will not cite at the moment.

All that said, I identify the SF Bike Coalition as part of the “enforce nothing” movement because, if you accept their proposition that black and brown people are harmed or killed by police interaction, and that this justifies suspending enforcement of bike theft……………..then that same logic applies to all other crimes.

Do we really want a society where no laws are enforced?

Mike Lasche
Florida Walks and Bikes



Frank J. Lehnerz

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Sep 19, 2022, 3:33:59 PM9/19/22
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If there's a single city in the world whose police aren't walking around on eggshells regarding police + race issues, San Francisco has got to be high on that list. 

Sad thing about Fryer is that his conclusions are heterodox in the echo chamber of modern academia and he's been given a lot of grief over the years. In a sensible world, other academics would actually try to replicate his claims to verify them and to tell him where his analysis went right or wrong. Instead he's given the Thomas Sowell treatment on steroids. 
Interestingly enough, he initially believed in the initial BLM-influenced narrative about policing and race and set out to complete his study to back those claims, not to refute them. 

SF Bike Coalition, et.al's narrative w/ San Francisco police gets even more complicated too: 

Last March, in a motion to the San Francisco Superior Court, on behalf of one of their alleged drug dealing clients, the Public Defender accused SFPD Sergeant Daniel Solorzano, who is himself of Mexican and Nicaraguan heritage and whose first language is Spanish, of racism against Latinos. Their evidence: he arrested 53 suspects over a two-year period for drug dealing, all of whom were Latino, while declining to arrest 43 other people who were otherwise implicated in drug transactions, all but two of whom were non-Latino. This discrepancy, they claim, is evidence of unlawful racial discrimination in policing.
 
Of course, it could also be evidence of something else that anyone with a passing familiarity with the Tenderloin already knows: the full-time dealers are almost entirely Latino — specifically, Honduran. The cartel, which is not committed to diversity in hiring, recruits young men from Honduras, smuggles them into the U.S. and supplies them with the dope they peddle on San Francisco’s streets. If you arrest one of these cartel-backed dealers, you’re going to be arresting a Latino. As for the 43 people Solorzano did not arrest, an obvious explanation is that they were merely drug addicts guilty of low-level offenses like drug use or holding drugs for the dealers. These are not law enforcement priorities; the police are after the dealers, not some addict who the dealers bullied or bribed into holding their stash.
 
The Public Defender, awkwardly, is also accusing former DA Chesa Boudin of racial discrimination in his prosecutions of the Honduran drug dealers. This is laughable and almost certainly a bad faith, cynical allegation. Boudin comes out of the Public Defender’s office himself. As District Attorney he operated as a veritable Manchurian candidate for the Public Defender, and famously refused to charge (Latino) drug dealers with any serious offenses. It defies credulity that the lawyers with the Public Defender actually believe that Boudin was a racist or ran his office in a racist manner. The allegation, like that against Solorzano, is insincere, but legally useful for obtaining what they’re really after: confidential information about the SFPD’s narcotics enforcement operations.
 
In order to assess whether Solorzano, the SFPD, and the DA’s office have acted in a racist manner, the Public Defender is requesting that the judge order the SFPD to turn over a staggering amount of information to the attorneys of Tenderloin drug dealers. The request includes “all records or memoranda regarding any investigation, by SFPD or San Francisco District Attorney’s office, of drug sales enforcement activity in the Tenderloin District.” That’s just one of 15 items on their wish list.
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