SF Supervisor Apologizes After Seen Chanting 'F*** The POA' With Election Party Crowd
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) -- San Francisco supervisor Sandra Fewer issued a public letter of apology after she was seen on video chanting profanities about the union for San Francisco police officers.
It happened Tuesday night at an election party for district attorney candidate Chesa Boudin. The video was recorded on the cell phone camera of KQED reporter Mary Franklin Harvin, who then posted it on Twitter.
As Supervisor Fewer took the podium, the crowd began to raise middle fingers and chant profanities about the police union, the San Francisco POA.
"F*** the POA," the crowd repeatedly yelled.
Several other elected officials--past and present--are also seen in the video, including Supervisors Matt Haney and Hillary Ronen and former Supervisor Jane Kim, though it wasn't clear the degree to which they participated in the chanting.
The POA had funded attack ads against Boudin in favor of his opponent, Suzy Loftus. They are political enemies.
"I wasn't in the room when that chanting happened," said Boudin. "I wasn't part of the chanting and neither was my campaign team. But I think it speaks to the real frustration that many voters and many elected officials, even, have with the POA, with the really problematic role it has played in this election and other elections."
SFPOA President Tony Montoya says the profane remarks make it difficult for police officers who already have dangerous jobs.
"Ms. Fewer's unhinged attack on the 2200 members of the Police Officer's Association was repugnant," Montoya said. "She is an elected official so when she speaks she's a representative of our city And I don't think that's San Francisco values whether she got caught up in the moment or not, that's unbecoming of an elected official."
Supervisor Fewer apologized to officers in a written statement: "I would like to issue an apology to the 2,000 officers of the San Francisco Police Department; I am sorry for any offense that my comments may have caused."
But she made it clear she has no apologies for the union's leadership by evoking President Trump, saying, "the most recent example of the organization's tone-deaf and poisonous rhetoric attempting to influence city elections. There is simply no room for this type of Trumpian bullying and fearmongering in San Francisco politics."
Loftus, the other DA candidate, had no comment on the matter.
