ANGER SPEWS FORTH AGAINST POLICE

Department defends tactics in raid at housing complex

Outraged residents of a Western Addition housing complex complained of
police brutality, unfair searches and racial slurs they said they were
subjected to during an early-morning drug raid last week.

About 50 residents from the Martin Luther King Jr. apartment complex spent
hours at Wednesday night's police commission meeting recounting the horror
they say they endured at the hands of 90 local, state and federal law
enforcement agents who broke into homes early Friday morning to serve arrest
warrants on suspected gang members.

"I would like to say thank you for the terror you have put on my 2-year-old
son," said one woman. She told the commissioners she was forced onto the
floor of her apartment partially clothed, and handcuffed while her son
screamed.

"He runs and hides under the table with any noise," the woman said. "I'm not
a gang member and neither is my child."

After the meeting, Police Chief Fred Lau told The Examiner that the
department would fully investigate the matter and consider a number of new
ideas to stem such criticism in the future, including videotaping the raids
and providing crisis intervention teams.

Lau expressed skepticism about the residents' allegations, but said he was
eager for the results of the investigation.

If the charges pan out, Lau said, "we'll never be able to take back the
things that occurred that day. But we can make plans for the future."

Deputy Chief Richard Holder defended the raid during the meeting. He
explained that police had been preparing for the sting for a year because of
increasing complaints from residents that they were being subjected to a
reign of terror from members of the Knock-Out Posse, a gang that police say
operated from the complex.

Eleven alleged gang members were arrested in the predawn raid, and police
confiscated seven handguns, a large quantity of marijuana, some cocaine and
crack cocaine and about $4,000 in cash.

Representatives of the district attorney's office, the Bureau of Alcohol
Tobacco and Firearms, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the departments
of Justice and Housing and Urban Development and probation and parole
officers accompanied police on the raid.

Lau refused to comment on the police tactics employed during the raid
because he was not involved in planning the operation, but he wanted to
assure residents that police had their best interests at heart.

"We're hoping that the people will understand that there was a basis for
serving the warrants," Lau said. " . . . It was difficult to sit there and
listen to so much emotional confusion and not be able to say that we do care
about the community."

But resident after resident complained to the commission that the police
unfairly searched their apartments, harassed them when they complained and
frequently used racial slurs.

"I didn't feel protected," said Barbara Gidrey, a grandmother who said she
had been held at gunpoint and forced to lie on the wet floor outside her
daughter-in-law's apartment. "I don't feel it was in my best interest. I've
been through lots of traumas in my life, but nothing compared to this."

Ten-year-old Jelvon Helton told the commission he has been haunted by the
killing of the family's pit bull, which police said had lunged at them.

"Every time I walk out of my house, I think about my dog," Jelvon said. "All
I do is dream about him in my sleep."

Van Jones, executive director of Bay Area PoliceWatch, said the residents
would file formal complaints with the Office of Citizen Complaints and see
them to their conclusion.

"This is not going to go away," Jones said. "These are the wrong people for
you to be messing with. They are victims of violence."

Neighborhood resident Sharon Jones said she understood the need for a police
crackdown, but she said it didn't need to be that heavy-handed.

"Now I realize there are some areas of the community that are not what they
are supposed to be," Jones said. "But, nonetheless, this is far from the war
zone that they came prepared for."

Carrie Christian said her three children are now terrified of the police
following the incident. "My kids used to like the police," Christian said.
"Now they're scared of them. I don't know what to tell them. I'm
speechless."

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst