The tension between San Francisco’s police officers’ union and the city’s new district attorney is tightening as the POA now wants federal prosecutors to intervene in a recent alleged assault and officer-involved shooting.
That is the case of Jamaica Hampton, who allegedly attacked two San Francisco police officers last month in the city's Mission District. Police shot Hampton during the incident. He remains hospitalized.
District Attorney Chesa Boudin has withdrawn the charges against Hampton while the officers who shot him are being investigated. That doesn't sit well with the POA.
San Francisco Police officers' association president Tony Montoya said the officers were doing their jobs.
“They responded to a distraught resident, who said a person had just broken down their front door. While they were in the area, they encountered Mr. Hampton,” Montoya said. “They were simply going to go talk to him to see if he was involved, and he’s the one who immediately ambushed the officer in the passenger side of the vehicle that led to the subsequent officer-involved shooting.”
San Jose police sergeant Steve Slack says both the San Francisco and San Jose POA's are part of a national coalition of law enforcement officers known as UCOPS.
“UCOPS is requesting U.S. Attorney William Barr to direct the federal Justice Department to intervene in the Jamaica Hampton case,” Slack said.
In a statement, the DA's office says no assumptions should be made about the prosecution of Hampton, and that it would be unfair to ask officers under investigation to testify in a case against him.
Boudin took office this month as on a reformist agenda. He previously worked in the city's public defender office.