Frisco Five Hunger Striker Drops Out of District 9 Race

Edwin Lindo, one of the “Frisco Five” hunger strikers who fasted for 17 days to protest police violence and call for the firing of San Francisco’s police chief, dropped out of the race for the seat of District 9 Supervisor today after missing a filing deadline on Tuesday.

In an interview, however, Lindo did not mention the missed deadline and said he thought the political process in the city too corrupt.

“It is awfully corrupt, so much so that, yeah, we need good people there, but I don’t even think it’s right to have to go through the ugliness that is what we see in San Francisco,” he said. “Nothing, nothing is going to let up, and me being one in 11 supervisors is not gonna change the world. If anything I’ll be more handcuffed, more constrained, and more compromised.”

Lindo was one of five candidates to replace termed-out Supervisor David Campos, including Hillary Ronen, Josh Arce, Iswari España, and Melissa San Miguel.

Lindo said that he had no concern about fundraising or popular support, though the latest campaign filings show he was outspent by tens of thousands of dollars. He said his time hunger striking greatly increased his visibility — and brought in thousands in campaign contributions — but also convinced him that electoral politics was no route for change.

Lindo, who also works as an education consultant and is a vice-president for external affairs at the Latino Democratic Club, announced his campaign suspension via Facebook, writing a longer post on Medium describing his background and giving more reasons for his withdrawal.

In an interview, he criticized elected officials for their muted response to the Frisco Five hunger strike and the call for the ouster of Greg Suhr, then the police chief. None of the supervisors called for Suhr’s resignation until a panel found widespread problems within the police department, days after the hunger strike ended.

The chief finally resigned the same day of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed black woman, Jessica Williams, in the Bayview in May.

“They aren’t willing to stand up,” said Lindo of the city’s supervisors. “They aren’t willing to make strong principled points until it’s politically expedient.”

Lindo said he would continue to be peripherally involved in city politics, though he did not give specifics. He did say that “every elected official in this city will be held accountable in a way that they never have before.”

He declined to endorse any other candidates for District Nine, but ruled out ever backing Ronen or Arce.

“I’m certainly not going to endorse Hillary or Josh,” he said, adding that he would be open to talking to España or San Miguel, the other two candidates.

Correction: This story did not originally note that Lindo missed a filing deadline for his supervisorial campaign.