Hundreds of Bay Area Muslims cheered San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón as he publicly apologized Friday for comments he made a week earlier referring to the susceptibility of the Hall of Justice to a terrorist attack by local Middle Eastern residents.
Gascón spoke for about five minutes after a Muslim prayer service held in a hotel conference room and attended by Yemeni, Afghan, Pakistani and Middle Eastern community members.
Friday’s event capped a weeklong string of mea culpas offered by Gascón to those communities.
“I’m sorry that I’ve offended you, that I’ve offended the Afghan community and other Middle Eastern communities,” he said to loud applause. “It doesn’t matter where we come from, who we pray to. The responsibility for our safety is a joint effort.”
Yemeni Consul General Mansoor Ismael formally accepted Gascón’s apology to even louder cheers from the men assembled in a large conference room at the Holiday Inn on Van Ness Avenue. Dozens of women listened through speakers set up in another room. Organizers decided to hold the prayer service in the hotel this week to accommodate the expected large turnout for Gascón’s apology.
The chief hoped his apology would be well received, but he wasn’t quite sure what to expect, said department spokeswoman Lyn Tomioka.
“They were very gracious,” Tomioka said after the chief’s remarks. “We had hoped for the best, but this was better than we hoped for.”
Those in attendance pulled out cell phones to take pictures of the chief and record his speech.
Tomioka said the department would continue sensitivity training already given to officers.
Organizers said the public apology was not the end of the discussion, but the beginning of an effort to address interaction between Arab Americans and city departments.
Over the last several days, the chief has held a handful of meetings with Arab Americans and visited the Republic of Yemen Consulate to discuss the comments he made at a March 24 meeting with about 150 City Hall officials and members of the building trades regarding a June 8 seismic retrofit bond.
During that event, Gascón reportedly said that the Hall of Justice is susceptible to terrorist attack by members of the city’s Middle Eastern community, including an Oklahoma City-style explosion caused by a van parked out front.
Gascón denied lumping Middle Easterners or Arab Americans together, saying he referred specifically to those from Yemen or Afghanistan as potential threats.
“There was no need to single out the two countries, and I recognize that, but it’s not because it was not accurate,” Gascón said a day later. “The reality is this is the area where we’re seeing most of the international terrorism coming from. ... I think certainly in this case, people are reading too much into it.”
He soon realized the size of the hole he had dug for himself.
Community outrage was immediate, with members of San Francisco’s Arab American organizations calling the remarks degrading and inappropriate.
“I felt that by making the statement, he was bringing back old wounds,” said Iftekhar Hai, president of the United Muslims of America Interfaith Alliance. He was sending a message that “you cannot trust Muslims.”
Gascón’s week of meetings, apologies and his brief speech Friday appeared to go a long way in that regard.
“I really respect him now,” Hai said. “Our people are very forgiving.”