In God´s Country

Joinakin päivinä tuntuu, että elämässä ei ole mitään mieltä. Mikää ei voi enää jatkossa muuttaa asioiden tilaa. Silloin kannattaa törmätä Sensational Alex Harvey Bandin unohdettuihin klassikoihin "Next" ja "Fragile". Niiden jytistessä kammarissa jaksaa soittaa jäähyväiset hallintomiehelle ja viereisen huoneen vanhalle piialle. Jaksaa olla varma, että vahtimesteri Liukkonen niminen pirulainen voi hyvin jossakin salaisessa lymypaikassaan. Eikä tällöin edes haittaa, että jouluna ympäristössä paukkuvat muuutkin kuin kraketit, kuten San Francisco Chronicle jaksaa päivitellä Gun Nationin nykytilaa:

" San Francisco supervisors turned their attention to the city's surging homicide rate Monday, holding an inaugural meeting of a new committee on gun and gang violence and receiving a grim briefing on the scale of the mayhem and failure to hold perpetrators accountable.

Statistics compiled by San Francisco police for the committee show that in 74 of the 94 homicides recorded through Monday afternoon in 2005, no arrest has been made and the cases remain open and under investigation.

Police have made arrests in eight cases that resulted in prosecutions, the data show. In four other cases, the district attorney's office decided not to prosecute due to evidentiary shortcomings, authorities said.

The eight remaining cases are deemed closed due to deaths of suspects, among other reasons, according to the data.

Part of the explanation, police said, for the low rate of arrests and prosecutions is the reluctance of witnesses to provide testimony given their exposure to retribution.

"Asking people to sever all ties with their community is tough," said San Francisco Police Capt. Kevin Cashman in explaining the difficulty of keeping witnesses safe through relocation programs and other measures.

Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier suggested that a reward tip line, which has helped cut crime in New York and other cities, might be worth trying again in San Francisco.

The 94 homicides so far for 2005 is a 10-year high.

The figures provided by the police reiterated previous reports -- that homicide victims are disproportionately black and the crimes repeatedly occur at federally subsidized apartment complexes for low-income residents owned and operated by the San Francisco Housing Authority.

According to the statistics provided by police, 64 percent of homicide victims during the past two years were African American. Less than 10 percent of San Francisco residents are black, according U.S. Census figures.

About 20 percent of the 94 homicides recorded through Monday afternoon for 2005 took place at public housing properties.

That last number prompted supervisors to ask why a program begun last year that tasks 16 officers with patrolling four housing developments in the southeast part of the city hasn't been expanded to other locations.

"I'm a little stunned," said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who represents District 5, which includes the Western Addition, a hot spot for the killings. "I'm just trying to figure out what the body count has to be in terms of what lessons are learned."

Greg Fortner, the San Francisco Housing Authority executive director, said the Police Department makes the ultimate decision on how it deploys officers. He said his department is trying to encourage more community policing in the city's Western Addition neighborhood and other areas.

"We are in discussions with the Police Department now to try to advance those principles," Fortner said. "The best bang for our buck is some sort of relationship with the San Francisco Police Department. The housing authority has limited resources."

Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, whose represents District 10, which includes Bayview-Hunters Point and Potrero Hill federal housing projects, said it shouldn't be up to Fortner to ask for help from police. "They should be there already," she said.

Mirkarimi said he wants to see a regular flow of reliable statistics on how San Francisco's Police Department is performing. Suggesting police officials are reluctant to submit to closer oversight, he characterized getting good information out of the department as a "cat-and-mouse game."

Supervisor Chris Daly, along with Supervisor Tom Ammiano, is calling for a performance audit of the department's homicide unit. In a memo sent to the committee on Monday, Daly said the department has been slow to respond to a request for information from his office.

He said he will introduce a city charter amendment today to establish a homicide prevention council, which would include 21 members of the public and would offer non-voting seats to city officials. The council would be responsible for drafting a plan to curb murders in San Francisco."