San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission held a series of hearings in September to address the concerns of civil rights groups and members of the Muslim and Middle Eastern communities in regards to profiling and surveillance by the police. Activists, attorneys, speakers, and citizens gathered to discuss the difficulties being encountered in the day to day life of a San Franciscan Muslim. From being stopped and questioned for no apparent reason to being a target of investigation for donating to their mosque, they’re constantly on edge for doing nothing more than practicing their faith.

Much of their motivation comes from Police Chief George Gascon’s plan to reinstate a controversial surveillance program that was shut down in 1993 after pressure from civil liberties groups at the time. It doesn’t help matters that Gascon’s obvious insensitivity to the Muslim community came spewing forth this past spring when he said the city’s Hall of Justice was at risk of a terror attack from members of the “San Francisco Middle Eastern community.” His apology for the blunder wasn’t any better when he assured the city that he wasn’t referring to “all Muslims” but just those from Yemen and Afghanistan.

The San Francisco Police Department has a policy on profiling. Currently it protects people from being unnecessarily targeted based on their race or ethnicity. Let’s join activists in San Francisco in demanding the Department add religion to their protected classifications in the profiling policy. If a citizen is doing nothing wrong and there’s no basis for an investigation or questioning other than their suspected belief system, the police should not be able to bully their way into the citizen’s life.

Another policy at issue is that which requires police to request the permission a police commander and commissioner before investigating people at protests, religious gatherings or otherwise exercising their First Amendment right to free speech. The sheer number of complaints in the city over the past several years spotlights numerous cases in which this policy seems to be getting overlooked. The authorizations are surprisingly low and the review and auditing process of these investigations has proven to be largely ineffective.

Protecting our cities from attack, both foreign and domestic, is crucial for our future. However, protecting our cities without infringing on the basic human rights of its innocent citizens is equally crucial. Pride and patriotism are much harder to come by when we cannot trust the government authorities to look out for our best interests. In order for a systematic organization like the police to carry out investigations on the people who might actually be worthy of investigating without canvassing the entire Muslim population in the process, such protections must be written into policy. Call on the Mayor of San Francisco and Chief Gascon himself to protect their citizens from profiling on the basis of religion by signing the petition below. 

Photo Credit: Beth Rankin