Tony Montoya - SFPOA President

In preparation for the greatest flood the world had ever known, Noah built an ark. Noah didn’t start to build it after the flood waters raged, nor did he start after the heavy rains. Noah built the ark before the storm.

Two years ago, as crime began to surge and the defund the police movement gained momentum, police departments began to lose more and more officers. At the same time, police recruiting floundered. Unfortunately, too many of our leaders chose to look the other way or make speeches about “reimagining” policing.

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines a pendulum as “a body suspended from a fixed point so as to swing freely to and fro under the action of gravity and commonly used to regulate movements (as of clockwork).” The pendulum, driven by gravity, is so completely in sync with the Earth’s movements that the pendulum clock, invited in the mid 1600s, was the world’s standard for timekeeping until the 1930s.

It appears that the Defund the Police tide maybe turning.  Across the nation, exponential rises in violent crime, and acute shortages of law enforcement professionals has caught the attention of the voters and therefore those of our reasonable and responsible elected leaders.  With that in mind, I am happy to relinquish my Page One spot to this article about President Biden' effort to address violent crime and dwindling police recruitment.  -- Tony Montoya 

Veterans Day. It’s the holiday that so many people seem to forget. They forget when it is. “Didn’t we celebrate that in the summer?” It’s the same day, every year. They forget what it’s for. No, it’s not to remember the fallen who gave their lives in battle. It’s even a holiday that is respected in some labor contracts and not in others. As this Veterans Day approaches, as our country works through so much political turmoil, it seems appropriate to take some time and reflect on what Veterans Day is to us.

He’s a bully. He’s biased. And he’s out of control. It’s time for him to go. San Francisco Police Commissioner John Hamasaki should be removed from his seat.

Mr. Hamasaki has made it clear that he not only has a low opinion of those who work in law enforcement, but he’s openly aggressive to our very existence. The irony of the entire situation is that he holds one of the top positions of the San Francisco Police Department as a Commissioner, where he helps set policy as well as votes on ultimately whether a police officer should be fired. The whole thing is absurd.

There’s a metaphor in the mental health community that likens the act of re-exposing yourself to trauma to putting your hand on a hot stove and leaving it there. How do you stop the pain and begin to heal? You take your hand off the stove.

September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and unlike other “affinity” months dedicated to a topic, this issues truly affects every American in a deeply personal manner. For police officers and our families, the awareness of suicide and mental well-being seems to chase us through our careers and into retirement.

By now, it seems that everyone in America has seen the video of one of San Francisco’s serial shoplifters stuffing a giant bag full of beauty products as he scoots a bicycle down the aisle and nonchalantly out of the door of a Walgreens. It’s become the video symbol of what’s wrong in some of our country’s largest cities: a total lack of fear of and disrespect for the law.

We hope the reopening of our city leads to the resurgence of our local businesses, the return of tourists, and the beginning of normalcy since the COVID-19 pandemic turned our world upside down last year. The one thing we know for sure is that San Francisco criminals wasted zero time getting back to work, ripping off residents, workers, and tourists alike.

There’s a large misconception about police reform in the minds of members of the media, the public and our lawmakers. The assumption is that police officers, police departments and police unions are opposed to improving who we police our country. That’s one hundred percent wrong.

Outrage. Pure outrage. That is what many of us felt when we watched the video of a 67-year- old man being beaten and robbed while trying to do his laundry. The outrage did not come solely from watching three cowards jump a senior citizen. It also came from knowing that this attack was not unique. That an attack like this would almost certainly happen again. It came from knowing that San Franciscans of Asian descent are being targeted every day, for profit and for hate, by thugs who do not fear repercussions.