1/ This afternoon I and @moatman will be attending the #GeorgeFloyd/systemic racism protests in the Mission district of SF (where I live). This is a...pre-thread? 
2/ The Mission is a history and conflict-rich part of San Francisco. The protests begin at Mission High, which is next to the literal Mission (San Francisco de Asís or Mission Dolores) built in 1776 (ahem). Cite of terrible atrocities to Native Americans.
3/ Mission High had been deemed a "faiing school." Actually as @KristinaRizga wrote in MoJo and expanded into a book, it's an amazing school, full of really innovative teachers and leaders and kids: motherjones.com/media/2012/08/…
4/ The Mission District is today, and since the 1970s, a majority Latinx community, but also a place where a lot of young techies settled. Before that, but obivious long after the Spanish colonized the Native Americans, it was Irish/German ~working class neighborhood which...
5/ ...and this is my favorite piece of trivia about the Mission, had its own twang, "the Mish," said to be kinda akin to a Brooklyn accent.
6/ So a lot of peoples have washed through this neighborhood. Today, though, if you had to characterize it it's split between working class Latinos and mostly white far more affluent folks. It's home to amazing food, low and high, and murals and it's super lively.
7/ It's also both over-policed and under-served. The police sit in bunkers (the Mission police station, where this protest ends up) and drive around in squad cars. In 18+ years of living here, I've seen "walking the beat" type patrols less than 10 times. Think on that.
8/ The new Mission police station, Valencia btw 17th and 18th, is a hideous bunker. You could not design more unwelcoming architecture if you tried. Picture a parking lot and a bomb shelter.
9/ Now the Mission does have a fair bit of gang activity. It's fairly invisible if you're not young and Latino or out late. But there are some horrible shootings here. Including recently of a young Twitter employee walking home in early evening from Dolores Park.
10/ But again, there's little visible attempt at community policing, just squad cars and rapid response. And it does not inspire confidence:
11/ @MLNow just published a fantastic overview of attempts to reform SFPD and the Mission precinct and where that sits. Following some terrible police shooting there has been some progress but
12/...like so many PD's there's just a fundemental denial of how bad the problem is missionlocal.org/2020/06/amid-c…
13/ As in Minneapolis, we have a police union that is EXTREMELY reactionary and resistant to any reform or oversight, the @SanFranciscoPOA
14/
15/ Today's protest is student led. Mission High students will likely be among protesters, who'll walk to the police station. These kids are most likely to be victims of both police violence and neighborhood violence.
I expect it to be firey but peaceful. It starts at 4 pm.
I expect it to be firey but peaceful. It starts at 4 pm.
