San Francisco Public Safety Committee: Graffiti Relief & Hearing on Anti-Asian Violence (April 8, 2021)
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San Francisco Public Safety Committee: Graffiti Relief & Hearing on Anti-Asian Violence (April 8, 2021)
The Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee met on April 8, 2021, to consider two items: an ordinance to suspend graffiti abatement citations and waive fees for small businesses during COVID-19, and a hearing on crime and violence targeting Asian-American seniors and the rise of anti-Asian racism. The committee heard from community organizations, city agencies including the Human Rights Commission, Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs (OCEIA), Street Violence Intervention Program (SVIP), San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), and the District Attorney's Office. The meeting included extensive public testimony and culminated in unanimous votes to recommend the graffiti ordinance to the full board and to continue the hearing with commitments to develop a coordinated citywide safety plan and prioritize funding for AAPI community safety.
Graffiti Abatement Ordinance (Item 1)
- Ordinance (File 210258): Suspends provisions of the Public Works Code that allow citations to property and business owners for graffiti on private property during the COVID-19 emergency, and waives pending fees and fines back to January 1, 2021. Sponsored by Supervisor Ronin.
- Supervisor Ronin stated that small businesses are struggling and should not be re-victimized by city fines after being vandalized. Co-sponsors Supervisors Haney, Chan, Stephanie, and Melgar expressed strong support. Supervisor Haney noted that the city should take responsibility for graffiti rather than penalizing victims.
- Public comment: Elizabeth Vasquez (owner of Tio Chilos) described repeated graffiti and a city “consultation visit” with threat of citation; Nas Horam (Mission Merchants Association board member) supported the ordinance but raised concerns about whether the city would use appropriate matching paint. Other commenters expressed full support.
- Vote: Motion to recommend to the full board (April 20 meeting) passed 3-0 (Chair Maher, Vice Chair Stephanie, Member Haney).
Hearing on Anti-Asian Violence (Item 2)
- Hearing (File 210156): Addressed crime and violence targeting Asian-American seniors and other vulnerable groups, including crime prevention, investigations, victim services, and anti-racism strategies.
Community Perspective
- Cynthia Sin (Chinese for Affirmative Action / Coalition for Community Safety and Justice): Reported that Stop AAPI Hate tracked nearly 3,800 incidents nationwide from March 2020 to February 2021, with 359 in San Francisco (39% of Bay Area). Women and elderly are especially targeted. The Coalition proposed a three-pronged approach: dedicated victim assistance fund, expanded citywide safety infrastructure with coordinated city-community responses, and cross-racial healing and solidarity programs. Challenges include lack of formal referrals from SFPD and DA’s office, inadequate language access, and stigma around mental health services.
- Sarah Wan (Community Youth Center): Noted that the Coalition launched victim support services in 2020 with Board funding, and has assisted eight victims. They conducted safety walks in Chinatown and are partnering with SVIP.
Non-Law Enforcement Agencies
- Human Rights Commission (Shakira Simley): Described the Office of Racial Equity’s work including the Stand Together SF initiative (launched fall 2020) and a solidarity event on April 17, 2021. Emphasized upstream (preventative education), in-the-moment (bystander training), and downstream (coordinated culturally responsive reporting) strategies. The HRC has convened community roundtables weekly since March 2020.
- Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs (Adrian Pond, Richard Whippo): Presented the Community Ambassadors Program (CAP), created in 2010 after an earlier surge in anti-Asian violence. CAP employs 25 ambassadors (budget ~$1.5M, reducing to $1.1M next year) providing multilingual safety escorts and engagement along commercial corridors in Bayview, Chinatown, Tenderloin, Mission, Visitation Valley, and Portola. Ambassadors work Monday–Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Supervisor Chan questioned metrics of success and coordination with similar programs; Director Pond acknowledged need for better citywide coordination and noted the absence of a lead violence prevention coordinator (James Caldwell in Mayor’s Office was mentioned later).
- SVIP (Arturo Carrillo): The Street Violence Intervention Program, under DPH, serves youth aged 10–35 with outreach, crisis response, and conflict mediation. In response to the anti-Asian violence surge, SVIP has begun partnering with CYC on safety walks (Chinatown, San Bruno Avenue) and plans to hire culturally competent staff. Funding and timeline depend on Mayor’s Office allocation.
Law Enforcement
- SFPD (Chief Scott, Acting Deputy Chief Vaswani, Commander Fong): Reported that violent crimes against Asian Americans decreased from 2019 to 2020 but are trending upward in 2021. Hate crimes: 7 cases identified in 2021 (4 charged, 3 open investigations); overall hate incidents increased 14% from 2019 to 2020 and 40% from 2020 to 2021. A new Community Liaison Unit (CLU, established October 2020) has assisted in 57 cases year-to-date. The department created a crime dashboard (internal) to track AAPI victimizations, updated policy to track prejudice-based incidents (effective April 7, 2021), and expanded an anonymous tip line to include multiple Asian languages. There are 286 certified bilingual officers (Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, Tagalog, Russian) plus 111 in other languages. Community safety walks have been conducted in several districts.
- District Attorney Boudin: Reported that in 2021, his office filed 6 hate crime cases (5 with AAPI victims). Victim services: 24 victim advocates carry caseloads of 300–400 each. The office has language capacity in 12 languages (3 Cantonese, 1 Mandarin). Budget proposals include a 24/7 victim hotline ($650,000), two credible messenger advocates, clinical social workers, victim advocates for property crimes, and an emergency victim fund. He noted that victims often fall through the cracks because the office only learns of crimes when police clear cases (roughly 10% of reported crimes). Stressed need for coordination and local funding.
Public Comments
- Multiple speakers, including David Wu (Soma Pilipinas), Jenny Box (API Council), Nikita Sani (Public Defender’s Office), Ashley Lennick (Safe & Sound), youth from Chinese Progressive Association, Crystal Van (translating for Joyce Lee), and Con Hun Win (Southeast Asian Development Center), called for increased investment in community-based safety solutions, language access, cross-racial solidarity, and mental health services. One speaker criticized the DA’s proposal to expand victim services within the DA’s office, arguing it should instead refer to social services.
Key Outcomes
- Item 1 (Graffiti Ordinance): Unanimously recommended to the full Board of Supervisors for the April 20, 2021 meeting.
- Item 2 (Hearing): Continued to the call of the chair. Chair Maher committed to:
- Making funding for AAPI public safety a top budget priority, including community safety infrastructure, victim wraparound services, street outreach, restorative programming, and cross-racial organizing.
- Developing a coordinated citywide plan to prevent violence and support victims, with a first meeting convened in April, a proposed plan by the end of May, and a follow-up hearing in June.
- Supervisor Chan urged city departments to formalize partnerships with community organizations rather than relying on ad hoc relationships. Supervisors Haney and Stephanie pledged support and prioritization in budget discussions.
- Motion to continue: Passed 3-0.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the Thursday, April 8th meeting of the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee. I'm Supervisor Gordon Maher, the chair of this committee, and I'm joined by Vice Chair Catherine Stephanie and committee member Matt Haney. And today we're also joined by Supervisors Ronin. Um and we will be and soon. I'm Supervisors Chan, Safi, and Melgar. Um thank you to this committee's clerk John Carroll. And I'd also like like to thank SFGov TV for staffing this meeting. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements? Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. In order to protect the public, board members and city employees during the COVID-19 health emergency, the Board of Supervisors Legislative Chamber and Committee Room are closed. This precaution is taken pursuant to all various local, state, and federal orders, declarations, and directives. Committee members will attend the meeting through video conference and participate in the meeting to the same extent as if they were physically present in their committee room. Public comment will be available for each item on this agenda. Both San Francisco Cable Channel 26 and SFgovTV.org are streaming a public comment call-in number across the screen at this time. Your opportunity to speak and provide public comments during any during any of today's public comment periods will be available to you via phone. You would reach our meeting by dialing 415-65501. Once you're connected and prompted, enter the meeting ID for today's meeting, which is 18781. Following that, press the pound symbol twice to be connected to the meeting. When you're connected, you will hear the meeting discussions underway, but your line will be muted and in listening mode only. When your item of interest comes up, dial star followed by three to be added to the speaker line. Assistant prompts will indicate that you have raised your hand. Please wait until the system indicates that you've been unmuted and you may then begin your comments. Best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly, and to turn down your television, your radio, or your streaming device. Everyone must account for potential time delays and speaking discrepancies that we may encounter between live coverage and streaming of today's meeting. Alternatively, you may submit your public comment in either of the following ways. You may email me. My name is John Carroll, and I'm the clerk of the Public Safety Neighborhood Services Committee. My email address is J-O-H-N, period. C-A-R-R-O-L-L at SFGOV.org. If you submit your public comment by email, I will include it as part of the legislative file for the matter that you are commenting upon. Alternatively, you can also send your written comments to our office in City Hall. Our office is the clerk's office, room 244, City Hall. One, Dr. Carlton B. Goodlit Place, San Francisco, California, 94102. And additionally, Mr. Chair, we have coordinated today interpretation services to be provided by a gentleman named David Chu, and I'd like to ask at this time if David Chu can provide uh a brief introduction of himself in Chinese. Yeah, hello everyone. Good morning. Uh I'm David Chu. I am an interpreter who can speak um both Cantonese and Toisani. So uh during the public comment section, I will be available to assist any uh person who would like to make public comments that need um uh uh interpretation of support. So I and I will be there. Thank you. Mr. Chu, could you provide those comments uh in in Chinese for any Chinese listeners we may have on the line or folks who are watching the show already?
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