Posted on 11/15/2007 7:36:21 AM PST by SmithL
Three weeks after she was beaten bloody by a homeless man in Justin Herman Plaza, San Francisco Police Sgt. Paget Mitchell is up and about, although using a cane for a knee that may need surgery.
The two men who rushed in to pull the attacker off her, software salesman Bill Mutch and bicyclist Michael Waring, were accepting awards Wednesday afternoon from the San Francisco Police Officers Association for stepping up and helping when others stood by.
Richard Jaworski, the "Sign Guy" who is accused of attacking Mitchell, is in jail, facing two felony counts for assault. Mitchell says her best guess is that he will plea bargain and probably get five years in prison.
"I don't have any anger toward him," Mitchell says. "It's just unfortunate that he was in that place in the condition he was in."
As discussed in an earlier column, even before Mitchell's name was released, there were plenty of red flags. A ferry commuter, Mariah Baird, e-mailed me to say she called city officials to warn them that Jaworski was seeming more and more dangerous and delusional.
For many people in the city, this is where there is a disconnect over the homeless issue. Whenever there a mention of the "homeless problem," advocates complain about "criminalizing the homeless." Yet who among us would say that a greater good was served by having Jaworski sitting on the sidewalk at 1 Market St., in front of a Subway Sandwich shop, hanging up cardboard signs that offered, among other things, to "kill a (member of an ethnic group) for $50?"
Oddly enough, Mitchell was as big a supporter of the Sign Guy's rights as anyone.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Although she's been a police officer for some 21 years, and walked a beat for most of it, in the last two years she's been working inside. But a new policy states that officers like Mitchell must hit the street one day a month. As it happened, that Thursday morning was the first time she'd been on foot patrol in 2 1/2 years.I would love to find out how much street-beat time the moronic half-witted imbeciles who wrote the "policy" put in every month.
Why should a 21-year veteran working a desk job be forced out on the street? They don't have younger officers? There isn't enough paper-work to keep her legitimately busy? These stinks of moron bureaucracy to me. But then: San Francisco. What to expect?
Her Captain needs to put her on leave. Pull that gun out and use it or next time... well, lets just say she's lucky she's alive to have a next time.
You reap what you sow, and SF has sure had a fine harvest!
Well, even the moron-socialists can’t screw up the weather. (Karl Rove would never lend them his evil-weather machine!)
SF still has great weather.
Really. She has no inclination to use her gun in self-defense... she definitely should not be out on the street.
It's only a matter of time until this does happen. And then, they'll excuse the homeless, blame the dead victim, and go back to business as usual.
God Bless this woman, but if you aren’t physically powerful enough to dispatch a homeless person you SHOULD NOT be a cop!
This kind of politically correct statement makes me want to puke. She would have been justified in killing this crazy bas**** but of course she "has no anger". This type of statement is especially reprehensible coming from an officer of the law. Sounds to me as if this perp should be in a mental institution for the rest of his life.
The Chronicle demands that San Franciscans do nothing about the scum on our streets until it deems to criticize those who do nothing.
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