{"id":50292,"date":"2025-11-12T23:10:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T23:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/50292\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T23:10:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T23:10:06","slug":"watch-the-video-of-sfpds-high-profile-low-impact-drug-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/50292\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch the video of SFPD\u2019s high-profile, low-impact drug raid"},"content":{"rendered":"

When San Francisco police and sheriff\u2019s deputies raided Jefferson Square Park<\/a> in February, detaining 86 people, officials touted it as a show of force illustrating newly elected Mayor Daniel Lurie\u2019s tough approach toward open drug dealing and use.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, when the smoke settled, no one was convicted of a serious crime. The only man charged with dealing narcotics was acquitted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Newly released footage of the sweep appears to show officers using questionable tactics to round up people lingering on side streets.<\/p>\n

The three-minute video from an officer-worn body camera on the night of Feb. 26, released by the San Francisco public defender, shows cops on foot commanding people in the area to walk to the park, without providing an explanation. Some try feebly to refuse police orders; others are more vigorous in their efforts to avoid detention. Few make it past the lines of police.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Francisco Police Department round up people who were dealing and using drugs at Jefferson Park on the night of Feb. 26, 2025. | Source: Courtesy Public Defenders Office<\/p>\n

\u201cNope. No one\u2019s going. Stop. Hands out of your pocket,\u201d an officer says to a group on a sidewalk, pushing some of them. \u201cLet\u2019s go. Walk your way back to the park.\u201d<\/p>\n

A man on a scooter is forced to head back to the park after trying to pass the police blockade, the video shows. At the park, the suspects are lined up, and many are zip-tied.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As officers encircle a group of people sitting on the sidewalk, one yells at a woman, \u201cGrab your shit, let\u2019s go.\u201d He then tells a man, \u201cStand the fuck up. You ain\u2019t running things around here.\u201d When the man protests, the officer tells him: \u201cNo one cares.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The raid employed significant city resources, including drones, motorbikes, a jail bus, and floodlights. Of the 86 people detained, 29 were booked into jail \u2014 most on charges of loitering. The man who was arrested for dealing was acquitted last week, according to the public defender\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat became clear through police body-worn camera footage is that raids like these \u2014 where officers are pushing people, cursing at them, and rounding them up like cattle \u2014 are dehumanizing and ineffective,\u201d Public Defender Mano Raju said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robert Weisberg, a Stanford Law School professor (opens in new tab)<\/a>, said officers are required to meet certain standards to make arrests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have probable cause, either the police need to have an arrest warrant in hand or they need to be observing something on the street that establishes probable cause,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The San Francisco Police Department in February released a highlight reel (opens in new tab)<\/a> from the operation and said such tactics would be anywhere in the city plagued by such issues.<\/p>\n

Charles Lutvak, a spokesman for Lurie, called the raid a success because it sent a message to drug users and dealers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will bring this strategy anywhere in the city to send the message loud and clear: San Franciscans deserve safe, clean streets, and that\u2019s what they are going to get in every neighborhood under this administration,\u201d Lutvak said in a statement after the raid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When San Francisco police and sheriff\u2019s deputies raided Jefferson Square Park in February, detaining 86 people, officials touted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[723,2781,101,103,102,104,106,105,4736,32451],"class_list":["post-50292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-crime","tag-drugs","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sfpd","tag-western-addition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}