Video: SFPD officer slams Black woman into wall during jaywalking stop

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A San Francisco police officer slammed a Black mother of five into a wall during a July 29 jaywalking stop in the Richmond District, according to camera footage from a nearby corner store. The incident resulted in multiple hospital visits, the victim said.

Christiana Porter, 34, was walking down Geary Boulevard around 7 p.m. that Monday. She had just visited Office Depot and was wearing headphones.

Surveillance camera footage from the store shows Porter using the crosswalk to cross Second Avenue. Whether traffic signals were red or green at the time of her crossing is not shown on the video, but no cars passed in either direction as she crossed the street.

But the video shows that a San Francisco Police Department SUV immediately flashes its lights after Porter crosses the street. The next four minutes of footage document the escalation of a stop made ostensibly for jaywalking. Under California law, officers can only stop jaywalkers and issue a citation for an immediate “danger of a collision” as of Jan. 1, 2023.

In the video, SFPD officer Josh McFall pulls up near Porter, lights flashing. Porter, wearing headphones, keeps walking, seemingly oblivious to the officer. McFall then drives the wrong way down Geary in pursuit, parks, exits his vehicle and approaches Porter. The two speak and begin to circle each other before McFall grabs Porter and slams her against the wall. More police vehicles arrive — at least three are visible in the video — and Porter is handcuffed and moved into one of the cars, surrounded by multiple officers.

In a subsequent interview this Wednesday, Porter said McFall asked her for her ID and she reached into her purse to retrieve it. As she attempted to do so, McFall told her to remove her hand from her purse; soon after, he pushed her against the wall. She recalls being surrounded by a group of three or four more officers as she was being handcuffed.

Porter was ultimately released with a citation for resisting arrest — a misdemeanor for which her attorney Adante Pointer, a civil-rights trial lawyer, said she will be required to appear in court. A copy of the citation reviewed by Mission Local also dings Porter for crossing on a red light.

In a video taken by an onlooker, McFall can be heard telling onlookers that he first tried to stop Porter at the intersection and she ignored him, and that Porter refused his commands to provide her ID and keep her hands out of her pockets and purse. McFall adds that he gave Porter “very clear commands” and “many opportunities to comply,” which she “refused every single step of the way.”

“Finally, when she started walking away from me, I had no choice but to put hands on her and make the arrest,” McFall can be heard saying.

The SFPD wrote in an email that it was unable to locate an incident report for the jaywalking stop and cannot “confirm or provide any information” without an incident report. But, the department said, “we generally do not confirm any use of force used during incidents, especially in open investigations.”

Retired sergeant Carl Tennenbaum, a 32-year SFPD veteran, reviewed the videos at Mission Local’s behest. He said the stop was handled “very poorly,” calling the amount of violence, personnel and ensuing paperwork a “disproportionate response to a petty infraction.”

The surveillance footage also shows a small black item falling on the sidewalk as McFall grabs Porter. In additional videos taken by onlookers, the item appears to be the officer’s body-worn camera. After Porter has been moved into the police car, McFall picks up the item and appears to attach it to his chest.

It is SFPD policy to activate bodycams to record encounters with citizens, which include traffic and pedestrian stops.

During the Wednesday interview, for which Porter’s attorney was also present, Porter said that following the incident, she noticed tightness in her neck, blurry vision and lightheadedness, prompting a trip to the emergency room the next morning. The incident left her with a separated right shoulder, concussion and back pain for which she has now made three trips to the hospital, she said.

Porter is a domestic violence survivor and had been visiting the Office Depot to print out forms related to an ongoing domestic violence case.

Pointer, Porter’s attorney, called the incident an “unreasonable detention by way of the use of force.” He noted that “SFPD has the policy to not use jaywalking as a reason” to stop someone to conduct a deeper investigation. The policy restricting pretext stops went into effect this month. Pointer added that Porter recalls McFall first asking her “what she was doing” and “where she was going.”

Last Monday’s incident is not the first of its kind involving McFall. In September 2018, McFall was one of several officers involved in a use-of-force incident while arresting a homeless man for trespassing at a hospital. An SFPD incident report states that the man resisted arrest, that McFall “held him against the wall” and that McFall and another officer handcuffed him, leaving him with two broken arms.

“We’ve already filed a complaint with the Department of Police Accountability,” Pointer said. “We’re hoping that they do a thorough investigation and also work to hold this officer accountable.”

Porter and Pointer said they plan to pursue a civil case against McFall.