Was shot and killed by an Oakland Police officer when he was only 18 years old, it happened in 2012 during a f ase. Noni saide wat in an exchange of gunfire that also injured the o acknowledged that blueford had not fired a gun and that the officer shot his own foot. Protests followed that incident as well. She will be joining us in a little bit but right now supervisor walton is shear with us. Thank you for jing us. Thank you for being me . This Judiciary Committee of Defunding Police departments its a conversation happening across the nation in many big cities, new york, minneapolis, philadelphia and San Francisco. Tell me about the step that you and mayor london breed announced today. So the mayor and i got together and announced actually last night that we are going to redirect resources from the San FranciscoPolice Department and invest in the black community. When we look at all the work weve been trying to do for reparations and make sure that we address the systemic and systematic oppression of the black community, this is an important tangible concrete step forward. All right. So tell me how that is going to work. First of all, i think the Police Budget in the last round was over 600 million. How much money would you propose taking away and which groups will it go to specifically . So were going to look at our entire sfpd budget, im going to work with my colleagues on the board of supervisors, we are going to work with the mayors office, were going to work with city leadership and be thoughtful about where we look at resources and opportunities that may be available and redirect them to invest in the black community, but we dont have the answer in terms of how much right now and exactly where were going to put our resources from, but that is the focus to make sure that we look at everything and do it appropriately, but its going to take some time to figure that out. All right. Will the public be weighing in in this conversation and which groups should be getting the money . We are going to be having conversations with leadership in the black community, obviously we will bring in the Human Rights Commission and were going to make sure that voices are heard. Weve been doing work around reparations and looking at the buckets of injustice that need to be addressed here in San Francisco. So whether its housing, unemployment, education, outcomes, how we deal with affordability and getting the black community out of poverty, all those things are going to be at the table and were going to be pushing to make sure policy is affected in that manner do you envision that money only going to groups that would serve the Africanamerican Community or also perhaps the latino or asian communities that are also socioeconomically disadvantaged in the city of San Francisco . Well, this focus of course is definitely specific to the black community, however, my office is always working to make sure we do things that affect all communities of color. We worked on the Family Relief Fund to make sure our undocumented immigrants and folks who didnt receive relief from the federal government or State Government during the covid19 pandemic was able to get resources and make sure that tangible opportunities were available for those families. So were always going to fight for all communities. This is specific to the black population, but there is so much were going to do for communities of color. You mentioned reparations and you talked about the economic lack of opportunity for africanamericans in this city as well. Give me some concrete numbers in terms of poverty and unemployment that would really show us and our audience who is watching just how deep that runs. Well, if we look at even pre covid numbers, we were down in San Francisco about 3 in terms of unemployment and it was about 15 to 20 in the black community. So that just gives you a little bit of insight in terms of the disproportionate negative affects that we see in the black community. So everything were going to do is going to be to positively impact change to make sure that that dynamic doesnt exist anymore. There are so many other negative percentages in terms of whats happening in our black community from gaps in achievement, not just in unemployment but promotions for jobs here in the black community, also arrests, also incarceration. Were going to focus on making sure that we change all of those outcomes and do better for black folks. All right. Supervisor walton, im going to bring into this conversation right now an ally you have in terms of Defunding Police budgets, and this is jerilisten blueford. If you dont know her you should. Shes an africanamerican mom in oakland who lost her son at the age of 18. You ma i not know her son alans name the way you know George Floyds name, but you should. Jeri lynn thanks for joining us, belated condolences to you. Thank you for having me. Thank you. I know this is not easy even now, even though its been over eight years, but even though the world knows George Floyds name most people outside of your Oakland Community dont remember your son alan. So tell us about alan, who he was, what he loved and how his life came to an end. Alan dwayne blueford was my 18yearold son, born on december 20th, 1993. He was a senior at skyline high school, he had a 3. 0 grad point average. He loved sports. He was the all american boy. He two weeks before his graduation and right after he had gone to senior prom he was with a couple of friends, another 18yearold and a 15yearold africanamerican who were watching the Floyd Mayweather fight in oakland. The fight didnt last very long, floyd knocked the guy out in one round, and they walked to the store. He was accosted by a Police Officer, miguel masso, with the lights turned off. He was supposedly on his way to a Domestic Violence call, he saw the three africanamerican males, jumped out without the lights, he threw one guy on the ground, one guy up against the fence and my alan ran. He commenced to running and chasing alan like a madman. He was brandishing his weapon, taking out his weapon, he shot himself in the foot and to his admission in deposition he said he blacked out because of the iraq war. My alan fell on the floor on the ground, he was his last words was, as he was running, i didnt do anything. I didnt do anything. Officer masso went over the top of alan with his leg bleeding and shot him three times center mass. Alan said, why did you shoot me . We did everything that we could because they lied, they victimized alan, they said that he shot officer masso, which was a complete lie. Officer masso shot himself. I point to the fact that the city of oakland, the First Responders that was there on the scene, the Police Department came and they dismissed him. They brought in their own people. They washed up dna. They got a story. They threatened witnesses. They had a young girl come up and say she saw alan with a gun, which was not true. There was never any physical evidence. The gun they had found was placed on the side of the fence which had a partial left hand print, a partial left thumbprint. My alan was righthanded. It was not his fingerprint at all. He had no gun residue. Any of that. They made up lies, they covered up, they did everything. I had to with the help of the community and my personal attorneys, we got together, we did our own investigation and our investigation we found out that there was no gun powder on alan. That his hands were up when he was shot. That the stories that was told were not true, that officer masso shot himself. That they took alans body and put him as an assumed name in the hospital, never notifying the family, never telling us anything. When we went to get information from the Police Department they kept us there in the waiting room for hours. They denied every fact, again, cover ups within the department. That blue shield. The Police Officers association protected officer masso. Even the chief of police did not get to interview him, they kept him away from interview for two weeks before they even said anything. He fought with the city for workmans comp. They did everything they could to cover it up. Subsequently we had to sue for the coroners report, we had to go to the city council and fight them for the Police Report and Nancy Omalley said it was justified when it was not justified. And that is the its just one thing after the other. As you see we didnt have a video because they still havent given us alans property. Weve never seen any video footage. Theyve kept that away. And the thing about it is what i want to say is had i did see video i might not be here today because it is absolutely devastating for someone to steal your son in the middle of the night. I mean, and not tell you and keep him away from his mother. As george floyd called for his mother, i dont know if my son was calling for his mother, which he probably was. He had just called his father and his father said, come on home. He said, dad, im on my way, im waiting for the girls to come give me a ride. He never made it home that night. My husband and i Adam Blueford we walked the stage for alan receiving his high school diploma. Alan did not deserve this. I believe that the Police Department had they been more thorough they would have got to the bottom and knew that officer masso was a repeated offender in the state of new york. He beat and denied an inmate medical treatment when the city of new york filed charges against him he left and went to oakland and six months later he killed my alan. And not only that they left him im sorry, im going to just interject for a moment becaus i want to hear how youve turned this pain into action and what youre doing to keep alans memory alive, but were going to take a short break on the air, go ove well many people have such a misunderstanding as to how a reverse mortgage works. People think that the bank takes your home, but that is not true. Thats absolutely 100 wrong. The home is ours. We can sell it if we want to at any time. I like the flexibility of not having a payment, but i can make the payment if i want to. Youre responsible for keeping up your property taxes and youre responsible for paying yo ianthe prop a securi b the value of our house, ce. Or go online to request your rfree information kit. Without a doubt, one of the best financial tools ive learned about. Everybody should be taking a look at it. If theyre over 62, they should at least investigate it. For years, reverse Mortgage Funding has been helping customers like these use the equity from their homes to finance their lives. Ey weve got great peace of mind. Whatever comes up. Were ready. I advise you to call them. Make an appointment so they can tell you how it works. Its a good thing. Reverse Mortgage Funding. Access your equity. Stay in your home. With other mothers who dont know how to connect with their pain and we try to find justice for them as well. So the center is a place to help heal the community, we do awareness, we have workshops, we do things through art for healing. A lot of the children know alan who are trying to find solace because theres a lot of sadness and no hope in oakland. I must admit that its okay to stand up, its okay to speak up, but to tear up is one thing, but you have to understand the pain of the community. When you do everything youre supposed to do, we met with the mayor, we met with the police chief, we listened to their lies, we listened to their story and i understand the pain of the people. Still today we found out at opd they are not keeping the numbers of the misconduct of the police. The people who are turning off their cameras. And im working on a bill called the alans bill that any Police Officer that impedes the function of their lapel camera or turns it off must be prosecuted. And their pension forfeited and given to the family of the life of that they took. So i want to ask you, though, do you have any concerns with Defunding Police in the sense that if it goes to Community Groups that works towards positive change, everybody supports that, but in the meantime is there some worry that Public Safety might be endangered in some way if there are fewer police out on the streets or perhaps less training perhaps due to less funding of Police Departments . Is that something that you think can be done immediately or is that something that needs to be step by step . I think that the funding can be budgeted in a way where police can get the proper treatment. I mean, they can get the proper training. It has to start in the academy. I think when you come out of the academy you need to work within the community, where are you going to be working before you become and take that oath because the oath is to protect and serve, not shoot to kill. And i feel that if some of the money is budgeted to the libraries, to the schools, its unheard of that in the city of oakland students have to share one textbook. Its unheard of the hours of the libraries are closed. Its unheard of, yes, we need organization, we need proper protection in our cities, but at king theoney and doing whatever. That money could be budgeted in a way where it can help the community. All right. Jerry lynn blueford, you lost your son in 2012 at the age of 18, alan blueford, you now have a foundation for him. Yes. In his name and doing good work. I appreciate your time and this Defunding Police conversation will be continuing in the weeks and months to come. So we welcome you to be a part of it however you stand on the i wish auto s wish. Thank you so much. The air. When we come back its the photo youve seen, im sure, its been seen around the world, we will talk to the bay area doctor who took this photo. Hear his message one month and we are back. Now, you might have heard today thatmeirlines 74 in 4,igedo th 300 is ggres signal yet that travelers freed from shelter in place orders are taking to the skies more quickly than expected. Our next guest has a warning about this, he is a ucsf cardiologist, dr. Ethan weiss, doctor, how are you doing . Good to see you. Can you hear me . You might have to unmute or something. I think youre currently muted. We can no longer hear you. Lets how is that . Thats great. Thank you so much. Sorry about that. . In case the audience is wondering why is a cardiologist talking about disease transmission while flying. The reason is you took this photo that went viral about a month ago. You were on a united flight back to San Francisco after spending two weeks volunteering in a new york City Hospital treating Covid Patients. What did you see when you worded that flight . A lot of people. More people than i thought i was going to see, i guess. Every seat packed, filled, middle seats, everything . I mean, i maybe counted a handful of seats that were empty, but pretty much every seat was full. You tweeted something. What was it you said about the lack of social distancing there . I think i said something snarky like united has relaxed their social distancing policy. I know you spent the two previous weeks working in a New York Hospital during the peak of the pandemic treating Covid Patients but did this scare you just as much . I mean, it was unusual, it was unexpected when we flew out two weeks earlier, the flight was much less full and so i think it was just unexpected. No one had told us there were going to be people in the middle seats so i think it was really just you were expecting an empty flight, right . But did everybody at least keep their masks on throughout the flight . Yeah, i mean, i wasnt going through the cabin checking on everybody but it look looked like people had their masks on most of the time. This conversation is timely because air travel is picking up again, even though airlines have taken more measures since your flight perhaps in part because of your tweet theyre saying theyre requiring masks or they will do their best to avoid booking the middle seat. We see a lot of pictures on social media showing thats not happening. So i guess my question is how concerned are you about summer flying picking up and what would you advise travelers . Well, i want to be careful because im certainly not an expert in travel. I can tell you what i would do with my family and i think i said it in the twitter thread that i posted that day. I probably wont take a vacation that would involve getting on an airplane for a little while. It doesnt mean that i wouldnt get on an airplane if i needed to get on an airplane for an important reason i would, but i think it can be done safely. I think its to be determined yet how risky it is. Honestly im not entirely sure how much of a difference it makes having the flight be twothirds full versus completely full, but i personally dont want to get on an airplane now, but im also more conservative when it comes to things like this and dont want to go get in a crowded restaurant, either. I mean, you have reason to be because youve seen what covid does to people. In the past week weve seen americans packing not on airplanes but on to the streets to protest George Floyds death. What advice do you have for people going to protest . I know you have some your colleague put together some bullet points that you thought were very useful. Yeah, i thought that they did a great job putting together very comprehensive list of things that they recommend for people to do and really its sort of common sense stuff that we have all learned now for the most part about what youre going to do if youre going to be in a situation where youre going to be around a lot of other people. I think you want to maintain as much distance as you can. We see these protests its hard to maintain 6 feet of distance when packed in there with a bunch of other people. The most important thing we all can do is everybody can wear a mask. I think i told you my two teenage daughters and my wife went to the protest at Mission High School the other day and they said that pretty much everybody was Wearing Masks and people were handing out masks to those who werent wearing it. I was comforted and reassured by that. Those were two of the points of course, wear a mask and also carry masks for others. One that i hadnt thought of before was finding alternative noise maker instead of shouting and screaming, which could, i guess, that could promote transmission. Find a drum or something. Yeah, i mean, weve seen this now, these super spreading events tend to happen in places where theres a lot of droplet production. We have heard about the choir practice and churches and sporting events and other places where you are going to be making a lot of droplets. Obviously chanting and cheering loudly wouldnt be ideal. Realistically if you are at a protest i dont know how how much how likely it is to convince people not to want to chant and cheer, but i did like the idea of like maybe do some drumming instead. Yeah. No, thats a good idea. Hey, so you are a cardiologist and its well documented that africanamericans have a much higher risk of dying due to heart disease. Can you talk about the size of the disparity and what are the factors that produce that dispari disparity . I dont think we know the factors. There are colleagues of mine working on that now through the centers for vulnerable populations and other organizations here at ucsf and i think its a really important question. I think how much of it has to do with racial and ethnic things versus socioeconomic things is could be determined. Its definitely not an area of expertise of mine but something i think thats more than important than ever for us to sort out. What do you think the mediCal Community yourself included can do in the fight for more Health Equity . Well, i mean, the first thing to do is acknowledge that its absolutely necessary that we prioritize it. I think its something thats become put it this way, i had never heard of it before. I had never heard of the term Health Equity before a few years ago. I think already its become part of the lexicon at major Academic Medical Centers and universities and i think its becoming something thats thats receiving a significant amount of funding and attention. People now come here to train in an area like this and there are leaders and its something i think thats become a priority of not just our institution but other institutions like ours and i think thats important. All right. I think were just about out of time, but, do you know what, im going to lay out one more question and hopefully folks can follow us over on to our live streams to watch. I want to find out if united reached out to you after that picture you posted, but thank you. Thank you so much for your insight into Health Equity and what the fed Cal Community can do and also protest safety and of course Flight Safety as all right. Well, thats going to do it for this edition of our show, getting answers. Its an interactive show and what makes this show different is that we keep the conversation going on our live streams while we take a commercial break on air. Now, if you were watching on television, then you saw earlier jeri lynn blueford an oakland mom who lost her son continuing to talk about Police Reform and use of force as we came back on air, i know it may have been just a little bit jarring but i didnt want to interrupt her as she was sharing something very personal and very meaningful to her after losing her son alan. But that, again, is what makes the show different, the conversation never stops so were glad youre here, were here every day at 3 00 on air and on live stream answering your questions. See you on m tonight, the violent clashes between police and protesters across this country. Some officers tonight accused of going too far. The disturbing confrontation now seen by so many. The Police Officer shoving a 75yearold demonstrator down to the concrete in buffalo, new york. The man bleeding from his head. Officers claimed he tripped. Governor cuomo tonight saying the scene made him sick to his stomach. Two officers suspended and then the fallout from that. Police officers standing with them, 57 of them resigning in protest after those suspensions. Also tonight, the series of cases that happened in the weeks before george floyd now coming to light. An officer in florida seen kneeling on an africanamerican mans neck during an arrest. In tacoma, washi