New SFPD Chief - Gascon from AZ

[CA Cop]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/16/MN29188GUH.DTL&tsp=1

Have any coppers on here personally worked with this guy? I heard lots of negative rumors about him when he was with LAPD. Are we in ***** up creek with no paddle?

[FJDave]

If I were you, I'd go out to REI and buy the biggest friggin paddle you can! Seriously though, he'll fit right in with that city and the amnesty for illegals, etc....

[MCSD]

Where is Chief Heather Fong going? It reads that your new chief is advocate for sanctuary policies for illegal immigrants. What a waste of a chief. He's supposed to be your top law enforcer for your department but condones illegal immigration. I guess he couldn't win at Mesa PD with Sheriff Joe running the county. Hopefully Mesa PD will get a great chief that doesn't believe in illegal immigration being legal. Yes, it does look like your up doodoo creek with no paddle. He couldn't win at Mesa PD so he's moving on, hopefully he will be a professional chief instead of personal chief if you know what I mean.

[QRF]

There were two Gascons at LAPD. Dave and George. Don't confuse the two... One left under a cloud.

[ateamer]

At least his uniform fits.

[FlyByWire]

He'll fit much better there than he did here.. for sure.. But standby for policy change after policy change......

I do NOT work for his current (former) agency, more like his rival agency.. but I have many many friends and neighbors on with his department, who are elated by the news.

[OliverR]

http://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=444
live conference going on now!

[Kieth M.]

There were two Gascons at LAPD. Dave and George. Don't confuse the two... One left under a cloud.

Yeah, one was a sniveling, sycophantic, Parks-loving, egotistical guy who played favorites, could care less about anyone not on his team, and above all was just out for himself....

Oh, wait, that might describe them both!;)

Last I heard, nobody missed either one of them.

Edited to add: The only real difference, between them, is that one absolutely loved Metro/SWAT cops, the other despised them and seemed as though he was out to destroy them, if at all possible.

[LA Copper]

Yeah, one was a sniveling, sycophantic, Parks-loving, egotistical guy who played favorites, could care less about anyone not on his team, and above all was just out for himself....

Oh, wait, that might describe them both!;)

Last I heard, nobody missed either one of them.

Edited to add: The only real difference, between them, is that one absolutely loved Metro/SWAT cops, the other despised them and seemed as though he was out to destroy them, if at all possible.

What he said!

As far as the SWAT stuff, that would be the guy in San Fran.

[Kieth M.]

Have any coppers on here personally worked with this guy? I heard lots of negative rumors about him when he was with LAPD.

Part One - I worked alongside him about 25 years ago. He was an FTO and I was a P-II. I remember him asking me, one day, how to list property. Something his trainees were expected to know. I thought to myself, he outranks me, why, exactly? When he soon left LAPD to pursue his other interests (can't recall if it was getting a law degree, or running a family business) I said we weren't losing much.

Part Two - Then a couple of years later I see him on the transfer, coming back on. A few months later, I wondered where he would go when he returned to LAPD. Did he come back on to work the streets with me, and those like me? Nope. he came back to take a senior officer spot in recruitment....no streets for him. He was no sooner back than he made sergeant. And saw very little in the way of doing the heavy lifting.

Part Three - Within a year of my retirement, I was still with the Honor Guard. One day, I get a call asking to help fill a detail. It was for the publisher of the Los Angeles Times. "Oh, was he former LAPD?" I asked. "No," came the reply. "Oh, was he some sort of military veteran?" I asked. "No," came the reply. "Sorry, I'm not available...by the way, who's asking for us to do this detail?" "Chief Gascon's office...he promised the get the LAPD Honor Guard to the Times publisher's funeral." "Good luck with that," I replied.

So when Gascon's aide called to ask how the detail was being filled, he was told "Sorry, everyone's....uh, busy." Gascon delevered a message to get them un-busy and at the funeral. So the coordinator called again and got a group together. When the detail commander called the church to find out where they wanted the guard and the Flags placed, the church's funeral service coordinator replied, "Sorry, we don't allow the display of the Flag in our church." The detail commander got the church coordinator to excuse them as they would have not a thing to do at the service.

That was purely a political feel-good effort wasted on someone who really would not have appreciated it when they were alive, much less dead.

In the end, personally, I describe George Gascon as nothing more than a light-weight pretty-boy. A politically ambitious guy who does not wish to get his hands dirty. One who will step on his troops, grinding them under the heal of his Ferrigamos, to make points with any mayor, council people/board of supervisors and whatever "angry oppressed community" is crying out in the media for whatever reason...and that's the nicest thing I can say about him.

[OliverR]

I worked alongside him about 25 years ago. He was an FTO and I was a P-II. I remember him asking me, one day, how to list property. Something his trainees were expected to know. I thought to myself, he outranks me, why, exactly? When he soon left LAPD to pursue his other interests (can't recall if it was getting a law degree, or running a family business) I said we weren't losing much.

Then a couple of years later I see him on the transfer, coming back on. A few months later, I wondered where he would go when he returned to LAPD. Did he come back on to work the streets with me, and those like me? Nope. he came back to take a senior officer spot in recruitment....no streets for him. He was no sooner back than he made sergeant. And saw very little in the way of doing the heavy lifting.

Personally, I describe him as nothing more than a light-weight pretty-boy. A politically ambitious guy who does not wish to get his hands dirty. One who will step on his troops, grinding them under his heal, to make points with the mayor, council people/board of supervisors and whatever community is crying out for no justifiable reason...and that's the nicest thing I can say about him.
That's been the characteristic it seems of many chiefs in today's era-Its disgusting.