'Justice 4 Mario Woods' Supporters Plan Grand Opening March To Super Bowl City
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Protesters demanding justice for Mario Woods are planning to march to the grand opening of Super Bowl City in San Francisco on Saturday.
The Justice 4 Mario Woods Coalition is planning a march from Union Square at 10:30 a.m. to Super Bowl City, which officially opens to the public at 11 a.m.
The December 2, 2015 fatal shooting by police of 26-year-old San Francisco resident Mario Woods has produced an outpouring of criticism against San Francisco police chief Greg Suhr and San Francisco mayor Ed Lee.
On Thursday, a letter from San Francisco district attorney George Gascon to Mayor Lee states that the mayor's office has failed to support the district attorney's efforts to investigate bias in the police department.
Gascon states that when racist text messages between San Francisco police officers surfaced, he "requested funds to hire staff to be able to analyze the approximately 4,000 police reports written by the officers in question."
In the letter Gascon continued, "You refused to fund the work and characterized my undertaking of this review as 'lawyering up' and even denied the existence of the thousands of cases that had been called in to jeopardy."
Gascon states in the letter to Mayor Lee that, in the absence of adequate funding, he launched a blue ribbon panel on transparency, accountability and fairness in law enforcement in June 2015 and that -- in the six months since forming that panel -- the San Francisco police department and Police Officers Association "have engaged in a dizzying array of stonewalling tactics."
The Justice 4 Mario Woods Coalition stated in a Facebook post that they are "demanding structural change to police policies and practices" to prevent further injustices and "to stop the trend of violence experienced by the black community in San Francisco at the hands of the police."
The coalition is continuing demands for Chief Suhr's resignation, as well calling for an independent investigation into Woods' death, and are also calling for criminal charges to be filed against all officers involved in Woods' death.
Saturday's march is expected to begin at Union Square at 10:30 a.m. and continue on to Super Bowl City, near the Ferry Building.
Additional Super Bowl-related protests are being planned by numerous groups leading up to the Feb. 7 event.
More information on Super Bowl-related protests can be found here.
By Hannah Albarazi - Follow her on Twitter
