Mayor Breed plays the race card

London Breed

Letter to the editor in today's SF Chronicle:

Breed’s comment inappropriate

Regarding “S.F. Mayor Breed defends controversial move to arrest drug users: ‘You’ve never lived in it’ ” (San Francisco Chronicle, June 13): 

Mayor London Breed calling Supervisor Dean Preston, who criticized her policy to arrest drug users, “another white man who’s talking about Black and brown people as if you’re the savior” is repulsive and beneath any leader’s response to criticism.

Preston is an honest and passionate civil servant whose constituents voted for him, not because of his race or gender but because he represented their values. It was those values that he was advocating for when he disagreed with the mayor’s approach to handling San Francisco’s drug crisis.

Further, is the mayor suggesting that only Black and brown people are users of illicit and dangerous drugs? Not from what I see. The age and ethnicity of those on our streets include all races, ages and genders.

We need all public servants to provide their views and input to help solve the drug plague that has gripped our wonderful city. 

What the mayor has done to date is not working. Shame on her for cutting off public debate with this language.

Sherry Gendelman

San Francisco

See also Another post-mortem on the District 5 election.