Activist Equipto detained for filming and chiding police during arrest
Chaos descended in front of Mission Station on Wednesday night as some 60 activists chanted โfuck the policeโ and charged that police had been violent against a suspect they were arresting and unjustly detained a witness filming the arrest.
The incident began around 6:30 p.m. in front of Everlane, the clothing store at 461 Valencia St., when a pedestrian got into an argument with a couple. The man called the police, who then arrested the suspect, a young African American man. As they detained him, a group attending a meeting of the Black and Brown Club for Justice and Equality had been alerted and arrived on the scene.
A local rapper and activist Equipto, or Illych Sato, began filming the incident. In the video, witnesses are screaming at police, โheโs not going to do anything, what the fuck are you doing.โ (The full 18-minute video is below. Sato is arrested more than halfway into it.)
At one point, an officer pushes the suspect down and the crowd erupts again.
For the most part, officers stay calm and try to establish a perimeter around the suspect and the officers arresting him, but the crowd wonโt have it. One protester yells, โThey slammed him when he was cuffed.โ
โGet your hands off me, get your hands off me,โ another says.
The officers get the suspect on his feet and he stands against a wall. He then drops again once more before being walked way to a police car.
Minutes after he leaves, police arrest Sato and take him to the Mission Station where the crowd gathers to protest his arrest.
At around 8:30 p.m., Sato was released from Mission Station. By his telling of the events that led to his detainment, the young man was โgetting his ass beatโ and getting โhit with a clubโ while in handcuffs when Sato and the others arrived โ although Satoโs video does not show a man getting beat with a club.
Filming the whole time, Sato then confronted the cops.
โI was saying thatโs wrong โ you all shouldnโt be hitting this kid while heโs handcuffed,โ he said.
Sato said he and the others were trying to โhold spaceโ as the arrest of the young man continued, while his mother, Gutierrez, brought out a bullhorn and began chanting from it. Sato said he then saw the officers โgrabโ Gutierrez, and he โcame to her aid.โ
Thatโs when six officers, according to Sato, said: โtake him down.โ Sato said they took him to the ground, put him in handcuffs and took him to Mission Station where he stayed for several hours. Sato was not charged, he said.
Following Satoโs release, protesters gathered at in front of Mission Station, blocking off Valencia Street. โPolice are violent, we will not be silent,โ they chanted.
The protesters and police then flowed into the intersection of 17th and Valencia, where they continued to chant and taunt a line of police officers. Eventually, the 20-odd police officers walked away from the protesters and back into the station.
Equiptoโs video of arrest in front of Everlane from Mission Local on Vimeo.
yeah 20 odd Police doing nothing don”t they have work to do how many cops does it take to arrest one person and why can’t citizens watch them and be on the sidewalk in their community Huh
This is stupid. Mission local shouldnโt publish this crap. Eqipto should have been arrested. And his mother what a joke. Thank you SFPD for trying to get this trash off our streets.
It is against the California Penal code to interfere with police activity. Ignorance is dangerous. Who do you call when you need protection, the men and women in blue. Please american’s use “common” sense. Thank you Mission PD.
This guy has serious anger management issues and probably doesn’t belong on the streets. Will he go off like this on the next person that he imagines looks at him wrong? I can’t say I’ve ever heard a man screeching like a lunatic like this, not even in the Mission District. I hope someone that cares about his longer term well-being pulls him aside because he is on borrowed time quite likely. Someone should let him know how seriously lucky he is SFPD didn’t take stronger action. It would have been embarrassing if one of those female officers had cleaned your clock and it may not be here nor there but I’ll bet every single one of them was chomping at the bit to do just that. That shouting at the top of the lungs behavior was one of the most cowardly acts I’ve ever witnessed. That aside, Monsieur Sato obviously picked up this anger from his mother, a piece of work herself. Bullhorn in cop’s face? Really? Nice work, mom. I seriously doubt Sato ever had a strong, positive, male role model – and that’s a pity. “Leave my mother alone.” “Take your hands off my mother.” What was that all about? Flashbacks to your father beating your mother? A boyfriend of hers that’s left you scarred? And squealing that this is your neighborhood, as if that means anything at all? This neighborhood belongs to many of us, including most of us who hold the utmost respect for the SFPD. Dude, do you have any fishing buddies or is your crowd ALL wannabe revolutionaries? When’s the last time you got away with just the boys to blow off a little steam? When’s the last time you got out of the big city, seriously? And watch out for those angry catwomen ax-grinders, Something tells me they’re way too much in your circle.
Wow .. my BP was up just watching the video. Julian, can you see that the cops exercised amazing restraint?