Sam Spade's San Francisco

I respect the San Francisco Police Department. My family first came to San Francisco in 1849 during the Gold Rush. Since that time some of my relatives have been police officers and a number of officers were close personal friends of my family.

That was back in the days when police officers lived in San Francisco and had roots in the City. Today many of our police officers live outside San Francisco and do not have any real connection with San Francisco other than employment. They are commuters who come here to work and call someplace else their home community. Many of these commuter police officers are unfriendly, very poor at dealing with tourists, seldom smile, and whenever they walk in public in uniform, they tend to strut themselves like constipated roosters.

There are a few officers who are still gentlemen and are still friendly and are still very San Franciscan, but they are a diminishing minority. As they retire they are often replaced by young men who come here from other cities and states. These transplant officers bring with them the small-minded, closed, distant and sometimes arrogant behavior that was commonplace in the places from which they came.

Mayor Newsom wants to end the growing "secret community" that exists in today's SFPD and the mayor wants to un-pin badges from the angry violence-prone officers we unfortunately hear so much about ... the renegades.

Today the Chronicle covered a very disturbing story. It was also covered in the San Jose Mercury News and all the way down in San Diego through their Union-Tribune newspaper. There is little doubt that it will shortly appear in dozens of newspapers across the country, on television news and on a great many blogs.

SFPD Sergeant John Bragagnolo and Officer Scott Biggs wanted to search the home of a parolee. Parolees typically have search and seizure clauses written into their parole agreements. This enables police to search their person or home at any time without the need of establishing just cause. In this instance, however, the parolee lived in a single room in a home owned by a citizen who is not on parole and who has all his civil rights intact.

The homeowner refused to permit Bragagnolo and Biggs to search any of the other rooms in his house. Bragagnolo and Biggs ignored the homeowner and searched the homeowner's daughter's room and other rooms as well. As they conducted their illegal search, the homeowner repeatedly told them to stop and told the officers they did not have his permission to search. Bragagnoloa and Biggs ignored the homeowner and searched anyway.

Later, at the station, they forged a consent form and told superiors it was signed by the homeowner. They told the Office of Citizen Complaints that they both witnessed the homeowner sign the release form.

After SFPD forensic experts determined that the signature on the consent form was not only forged, but the homeowner's name was even mis-spelled. As a result of this evidence, both Bragagnolo and Biggs have been charged.

These two police officers are renegades. They are lawless criminals. The only uniform they should be wearing is an orange jail jumpsuit. John Braganolo and Scott Biggs are the kind of scumbags that give an honorable and excellent police department a very bad name. They have violated their oath. They have trampled on Constitutionally guaranteed civil rights. They have tarnished their badges and they have disgraced their uniforms.

The San Francisco Police Commission is now on the hot seat. What are they going to do with these two felons in uniforms? Will they fire them as they should and refer the case to the District Attorney for prosecution, or will they passively look the other way?

What action, short of termination, could possibly be just for two men who lied to the police department brass, lied to the Office of Citizen Complaints, committed forgery, conducted an illegal search, violated a citizen's civil rights and humiliated the City and County of San Francisco? Terminating their employment seems too light for those thugs-in-uniform.

They need to be fired and tried in court.

San Francisco Police Officers do a job nobody else would want to do. On a daily basis they deal with anti-social career criminals and, on balance, they do an outstanding job of protecting us all. The command structure of the SFPD is capable and qualified. The Chief, Heather Fong, is working to restore the SFPD to what it once was ... a respected, local, friendly, capable, talented, honest, responsible and effective law enforcement agency with broad public support. The people of San Francisco deserve and demand absolutely nothing less.

John Bragagnolo and Scott Biggs just don't measure up to our standards. We need them off the City payroll ... NOW!

Time will tell.