Debate over use of force on homeless man by SFPD officer

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Did a San Francisco police officer go too far when he kicked a man off a Muni bus late at night? Bus security cameras captured the confrontation pretty clearly but what they actually show is up for dispute.

The end result of what happened in this clash is not in dispute. The suspect, a homeless man, was hit in the legs five times with a police baton and pepper sprayed. But whether that was an appropriate response is called into question.

The confrontation started on Muni and was captured on bus surveillance cameras. It happened around 11 p.m. on February 11.

The driver called police to get a sleeping man off the bus when it came to the end of the line near Ocean Beach.

Officer Raymond Chu ended up striking Bernard Warren five times in the legs with his baton and squirting pepper spray in his eyes for resisting arrest.

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi says the 36-year-old man's injuries required hospital treatment.

"According to the Use of Force Policy of the San Francisco Police Department, officers are supposed to defuse situations, not escalate them," Adachi said.

"Officers get a substantial amount of training dealing with those people that are mentally ill all the way to people that are in crisis," SFPD Chief Greg Suhr said.

Suhr believes Officer Chu responded appropriately to someone who was threatening to harm him.

"He continues to tell the officer that he's gonna beat his behind, which is a crime. You can hear the officer continue to say, 'Get on the ground, get on the ground, get on the ground' and there's no compliance," Suhr said.

The public defender finds similarities between this case and one last month in which a paralyzed man says officers tried to dump him from his wheelchair.

Adachi says both show officers overreacting to minor conflicts.

"We want to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else," Adachi said.

"There is a process when somebody believes that the officers have acted other than they should and that's making a complaint to the OCC," Suhr said.

OCC is the Office of Citizen's Complaints. Suhr accuses the public defender of trying this case in the media because his client has been ordered to stand trial.

Adachi says the misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest should be dismissed.

The District Attorney's office says the evidence, including the video, is being reviewed.

For now, Officer Chu is still on patrol.