SDPD Sergeant escalates another situation into violence at Chicano Park

​A few nights ago, I watched a video and was outraged, as I saw a man being violently arrested by San Diego Police in Chicano Park. There were seven officers, four on the man who was already restrained on the ground. One of the officers, a bald one, started punching the man, landing nine kidney blows. The other officers didn't stop him, as they were only concerned with the other people who began rushing over with their cameras to film what was obviously police brutality. Finally, a woman in a green vest explicitly points out that the man is being punched to the Sergeant on scene, who looked familiar. He calmly put his hand on the officer to signal him that it was enough. 

​It became clear as more video angles came out, that the man was indeed already restrained and offered little resistance - SDPD should be well enough trained to handle that situation without resorting to punches to the kidney. It was later learned that the arrest came over the filming of another arrest. The community of Barrio Logan was angered and rallied in front of SDPD's downtown jail, demanding the release of the two people arrested. While they were indeed released on bail, the "felony charge of obstructing and resisting an officer, and a misdemeanor for resisting an officer" still stand. 

​Yesterday morning I saw a second video from Chicano Park that I later learned happened about 5 or 10 minutes before the incident. This one involved an SDPD Sergeant and another officer who had pulled someone over. One woman, Georgina Mercado, went and filmed the incident. It's very common for people to film police while they perform their duties, at a time when video evidence has proven that incidents usually happen differently than how an officer reports them. Mercado began to inform the man who was pulled over that he had rights. The Sergeant seemed annoyed by her and told her to stand further back, walking to the spot where he wanted her to stand and she complied. She did continue to exercise her free speech and in response, he gave her a very dirty look. 

By the look in his face, he took it personally. This Sergeant needs thicker skin.

​For some reason, this Sergeant choose not to simply ignore her and finish doing his job, he then told her to step behind some line, which confused her. He then said something like "this is the last time" and pointed at a general direction. Mercado does indeed move back and the last thing she says to the audience before the video ends is, "Hey, you guys need to come over here". When I took another look at the Sergeant however... wow, did he look familiar. 

Wait a minute, they said that the man who was punched was arrested after filming another arrest, therefore Mercado's video and arrest must have come before the one everybody caught. Yet, all of that for "obstructing and resisting an officer"? Did this Sergeant think that telling a man that he has rights was grounds for obstruction and an arrest? Was he even thinking about the community at this point or about his ego? I later confirmed that it was indeed Mercado's arrest that came first. ​​

​Then I watched the punching video again and as the bald officer was punching the man, this same Sergeant was seen standing around and looking out for people filming, turning a blind eye to the man being punched until somebody explicitly pointed it out to him. Then another thing hit me... he still looked very very familiar. Wait a minute... I then checked my Facebook friends list and realized that I know this guy!

Meet Sergeant Art Scott when he's not terrorizing Chicano Park.

Back in 2015, a San Diego Police Sergeant named Arthur Scott sued the city of San Diego over retaliation after he complained about certain racist cartoons in SDPD's training. He lost the case in 2017, but did gain a lot of activist friends for that. Apparently Sgt. Scott, friended me June 30th last year during the Earl McNeil controversy - because he stood with us I guess? Since I was getting many requests during that time, I only accepted those with mutual friends and without knowing his occupation, I saw Scott had many activists on his friends list and accepted him. 

Realizing that I knew one of these guys, I immediately tagged Sgt. Scott on the video where Mercado hurt his pride and told him how disappointed I was at him for the way he responded to it. He responded to that by blocking me, like any fake friend would. When he did answer people privately, he would start off by asking them if they supported anarchy, as if that had to do with anything. In this particular message, he then contradicted his actions by saying he doesn't support poorly trained violent officers. 

​I don't see anarchy on either videos, but I do see a bit of fascism on Sgt. Scott's part. Why? Because Mercado did nothing illegal or dangerous. She was exercising her first amendment rights and he should have allowed her to do that. He arrested her simply because she had embarrassed him or got under his skin and because he had the power to retaliate, he chose to do so, making up the excuse of "obstruction". It turned a normal day into another event, in a long list of them, that would traumatize the community of Barrio Logan and Chicano Park. When male police officers are pulling a woman out of the women's restroom over the fragile ego of a Sergeant, people are going to notice and film. When that happened, SDPD with Sgt. Scott standing right there, violently took down and arrested one of the camera people, Eddie Alvarez and later charged him with a felony​ because he wanted to vouch for ​Mercado's children, but had a bandanna over his face. ​

​Minutes after Sgt. Scott got upset over a woman with a camera, yelling that a man had rights, he and his officers then had a whole crowd of people surrounding them with cameras, cursing at them, calling them every name in the book and challenging them ten-fold, because Sergeant Art Scott didn't know how to deescalate an otherwise non-violent situation. This incident had nothing to do with safety or anarchy: Sgt. Scott's selfish decision to have this woman arrested, escalated an otherwise peaceful scene into the violent arrest video we would all see. 

​I am truly ashamed that I let this garbage into my circle. He goes to board meetings and talks about things like "protecting law enforcement and the public during use of force situations", then completely fails to protect the public in this use of force situation.

Sgt. Scott did send out a post recently, venting frustration because SDPD tried to have "diversity training" in Chicano Park a week before, only to be asked to leave, once again referring to "ANARCHY". The San Diego Police Department knows damn well that they need to get permission from the Chicano Park Steering Committee to have their "diversity training" held in the park. To do so otherwise is an open challenge to their authority. How about somebody give Sgt. Scott some F'ing deescalation training instead? 

To Sergeant Scott:
​Art, did you see the hurt in those people's eyes when you started to question them? Did you feel the anger as they yelled in your face louder and closer than Mercado was? Did you see some of them shake as they tried to calm themselves? Did they start to call you names?

​That's because they have experienced a traumatic experience. A traumatic experience that you caused a community over your bruised ego. YOU caused it. Families are hurting because of YOU and the actions of officers under YOU. If you can't get that through your head, then maybe it's time to call for your resignation. You may have blocked a few of us, but you can't block the whole community. We see you now for who you truly are, and will call you out on it. 

​I hope Mercado's children recover from this traumatic incident. 

​Shame on you.