KGO-TV reported that protesters want Mayor Ed Lee to fire Police Chief Greg Suhr over alleged police brutality and unjust officer-involved deaths. All five strikers were taken by their doctors to the hospital for monitoring and said they will continue their strike from there.
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The five increasingly weak activists – Ike Pinkston, Edwin Lindo, Maria Gutierrez, Sellassie Blackwell, and de-facto leader, rapper and teacher Ilyich “Equipto” Sato – who have refused to eat for over 16 days, plan to continue their protest from the hospital where they were taken on Friday, after they became malnourished from lack of substantial nutrition. As they rallied at City Hall, Lee posted photos on Twitter of himself at events elsewhere in the city. Police arrived in riot gear, pushing out the protesters, and arrested 25, according to ABC7.
The strikers demand that the mayor fire the police chief as justice for police killings and racism in the department.
Welp, some people wondered after yesterday’s unproductive phone call with Mayor Lee if the hunger strikers were going to give up the fight, and it looks like the answer is maybe, but not quite yet. Lee, however, backed Suhr’s record.
There, they continued chanting for another hour, referencing the hunger strikers and their hospitalization earlier in the day.
When sheriff’s deputies closed the doors to the building at around 5 p.m., the protesters instead moved the protest to the main entrance inside city hall.
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He stood by Suhr, and said the chief was working on making reforms to the department. At one point, traffic was blocked in both directions on Valencia Street between 17th and 18th streets, and one tech shuttle was halted and had to back out of the block to be rerouted.
