Lawsuit Accuses SFPD of Storming Apartments Co-Owned by Black Panther Leader
San Francisco police raided a West Oakland apartment building and failed to produce a required warrant before shattering a glass entrance door, handcuffing a security guard who tried to intervene and searching a resident’s unit on the fifth floor, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court.
The civil rights complaint alleges that over 20 San Francisco Police Department officers, who first arrived in plain clothes and unmarked vehicles at The Black Panther, a 79-unit affordable housing complex, marched “like commandos into the building.”
The search, connected to a robbery investigation in San Francisco, recovered only a pair of tennis shoes and a jacket, said Adanté Pointer, an attorney for the building’s owners, including a former leader of the Black Panther Party, and two staffers.
“They assaulted the building, they assaulted the residents, they violated people’s rights. So we want to vindicate their rights,” Pointer told reporters at a press conference outside The Black Panther. “You must present a search warrant, and you must conduct that search in a reasonable way. Those SFPD police officers on that day refused to abide by their training in the law.”
The complaint, which charges SFPD with illegally surveilling the property for 30 days and accessing its internet servers without residents’ consent, names the department and the city of San Francisco as defendants. It seeks damages for the security guard, the property manager, and 7th & Campbell LP, which owns The Black Panther property, for violations of the Fourth Amendment, trespass, vandalism, battery, unlawful arrest and other charges.
SFPD and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office referred questions to the city attorney’s office.
“Once we are served, we will review the complaint and respond in court,” said Alex Barrett-Shorter, deputy press secretary at the Office of City Attorney David Chiu.
The Black Panther, which opened two years ago, sits on 7th Street, a corridor formerly known as the “Harlem of the West.” The area became a thriving arts and business mecca for the Bay Area’s growing Black population during the 1940s and 1950s.
The street now features elevated BART tracks with trains emitting ear-piercing, screeching sounds every few minutes during the day. Still, The Black Panther residents, including single mothers who spoke at the press event, said they are grateful for the affordable apartment units their children live in, and the building’s community events, free Wi-Fi and other amenities.
“In this so-called high-crime neighborhood, the only time we’ve ever had any windows broken or any damage to the building has been by the police themselves,” said Elaine Brown, 83, the primary co-owner of the five-story building.
Brown, who characterized SFPD’s operation as an “assault,” was the first and only woman to lead the Black Panther Party in the 1970s. Another party leader, Huey Newton, was shot and killed not far from the housing complex.
“I say to the San Francisco Police Department and all who supported them actively or on the down-low that we know your predecessors did not crush us, and you won’t crush us,” said Brown, the chief executive officer of Oakland & the World Enterprises, a housing nonprofit that is part of 7th & Campbell LP. “I’m still standing. The people are still standing.”