The Use of Force
Wrong man tackled
- Susan Sward, Chronicle staff writer
Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Claude Reissner, a 52-year-old nurse, was walking through the Tenderloin on his way to work at St. Francis Hospital, when he suddenly heard the sound of running feet behind him.

Reissner turned to see a big man with a contorted face hurtling toward him. Having worked more than a decade in hospital emergency rooms, Reissner thought it was "a psycho who had come unhinged."

Soon, he thought he was going to die.

The man leapt on him, twisted his right arm behind him, smashed him against a wall, threw him to the ground, and jumped on top of him.

"I have no idea who the guy is -- I think he is killing me," Reissner, who weighs about 200 pounds and is 6 feet tall, recalled in a telephone interview.

A crowd gathered, Reissner said, and he screamed, "Help! Call the police!''

Someone in the crowd yelled, "He is the police.''

The attacker was 33-year-old Henry B. Yee, a 5-foot-8-inch, 180-pound San Francisco officer assigned to an undercover narcotics team.

Yee had a record as an officer who readily turned to force. He had made a string of narcotics arrests in which he used his baton, choked and tackled suspects. Two suspects had gone to the hospital with injuries. In 1997, his name had appeared on a department watch list of officers who reported frequent use of force.

On Aug. 11, 1999, when Reissner learned that Yee was a police officer, he told him that cards in his wallet would prove he was a nurse at the nearby hospital.

"I begged him for my life, and he kept saying, 'Shut up!' while attacking me for 15 minutes," Reissner recalled. Yee choked Reissner with his own shirt, Reissner said. He added that several times he almost lost consciousness when Yee pressed his knee into his stomach.

Once Yee had handcuffed him, Reissner said, the officer "gave out an animal growl and threw me backwards. He then pinned me to the ground face-up with all his weight and my weight pushing down on my handcuffed wrists."

Reissner said Yee handcuffed him so tightly that he screamed in pain.

'If you're here, you're guilty'

As he was being driven to the police station, Reissner said, he complained about being attacked without warning by an officer who didn't identify himself.

"I am going to find a lawyer," he told two officers in the patrol car.

At the station, Reissner said he was handcuffed to a bench. When he asked an officer if he could call his job to say he would be late, the officer told him no, adding that "we heard you were talking that lawyer s -- , and if you talk that lawyer s -- , you get nothin' around here. If you're here, you're guilty."

Yee came over about 10 minutes later, laughed, and began unlocking the handcuffs, Reissner recalled. He quoted the officer as saying "in a booming voice, 'It's a case of mistaken identity. Welcome to San Francisco.' "

Reissner said as he left the police station he passed Yee, who said to him in a caustic tone: "I guess all I can say is, 'Soorrrry.' "

The officers who had driven him to the station drove him to St. Francis Hospital, where he was treated for a strained right shoulder and other injuries. When the officers dropped him off, Reissner said, one of them told him: "Think of the story you'll be able to tell your grandchildren."

In his police report, Yee wrote that he thought Reissner was a drug dealer. From the beginning of the encounter, he wrote, he identified himself as a police officer. At no time did Reissner have any trouble breathing, because he was able to keep yelling, Yee said.

Yee, who now works out of Southern Station at 850 Bryant St., did not respond to requests for comment.

After his encounter with Reissner, Yee continued to use force regularly when subduing suspects. Between August 1999 and 2004, two more suspects received hospital treatment for injuries after being arrested by Yee.

In 2003, Yee was promoted to sergeant. By the end of 2004, he had reported using force 28 times since 1996 -- putting him in the top 1 percent of San Francisco police officers who reported using force.

Memories linger after relocation

In the months after the attack by Yee, Reissner said, he saw a counselor to try to stave off the panic welling up in him every time he returned to work. He had nightmares, flashbacks and outbursts of anger. He said his right hand was numb for six months because of the handcuffs. He had aching pain in his right shoulder.

Reissner said he finally quit his job at St. Francis Hospital because of his pain and the stress of being in the city.

He filed a complaint about his treatment with the Office of Citizen Complaints, and the agency did not sustain it -- a decision he called "a farce. I had voluminous medical records showing he beat me to a pulp, and they didn't sustain a complaint of unnecessary force. This agency is a joke."

Reissner filed a lawsuit, which the city settled in 2001 for $150,000. The Police Department says lawsuits are settled for various reasons, and settlements don't necessarily indicate police misconduct.

In the years since, he has slowly healed and has returned to work as an emergency room nurse. He lives in a house surrounded by pine trees in a city hundreds of miles from San Francisco.

He says he still can't swim, skip stones or play handball -- all activities he loved -- because of the pain he still suffers in his right shoulder. It takes only a loud noise or the sound of running feet for him to be right back to his stark terror of that day in the Tenderloin, he said.

"It all starts again in my head. ... Here's Henry," he said. "I try to get away from him, but I can't. I'm back in the Tenderloin getting the crap beat out of me."

About San Francisco police, he said: "It goes back to that biblical thing: How you treat the least of us is how you should be judged. It's the most unfortunate ones, the most vulnerable that the cops are preying on, and that's horrendous."

When The Chronicle informed Reissner that Yee had been promoted to sergeant, he said: "That's why I don't live in San Francisco anymore. In spite of what happened, Yee had the city attorneys there in his behalf at my deposition, trying to prove I was a liar.

"If this were a righteous city that was watching its officers, Yee never would have done this," Reissner said.

"How could he end up as a sergeant after this case?"

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/07/MNUFREISSNER.DTL&type=printable

Popcorn

Waiting for the Blue Meanies to assemble and scoff.  I'm sure they'll all find perfect justification for this incident.  

Exactly the kind of behavior I like to see, except directed towards the criminal predators.

The guy sounds like a skirt. He can't skip stones anymore? He probably lost his case because he spent all his energy on his "emotional trauma" and not on the facts of how he was assaulted. He and his boyfriend probably have a less-than-satisfying sex life now as well.

If the officer was/is out of line he should be fired. What constitutes a "use-of-force" incident? 28 incidents in 8 years doesn't sound like much to me if it's arresting violent criminals. Now if it's mistakes of identity where the beat-down was put on a citizen for nop reason, that's a problem.

So about once every 3.5 months a narcotics officer has to use force. Color me surprised.

Quoted: The guy sounds like a skirt. He can't skip stones anymore? He probably lost his case because he spent all his energy on his "emotional trauma" and not on the facts of how he was assaulted. He and his boyfriend probably have a less-than-satisfying sex life now as well. If the officer was/is out of line he should be fired. What constitutes a "use-of-force" incident? 28 incidents in 8 years doesn't sound like much to me if it's arresting violent criminals. Now if it's mistakes of identity where the beat-down was put on a citizen for nop reason, that's a problem.

damn, that's a pretty thick blue line


txl

"I guess all I can say is, 'Soorrrry.' "

The officer appoligized.  What more does he want?  

Let me get this straight, a big ass guy is running toward you with the perceived intent of doing you bodily harm, and all you do is curl up into a ball and scream.  Please, beat the shit out of the guy, then call the cops and sort the mess out.  

He got his $150,000 time for him to shut up and move on........

Too bad the nurse didn't have a CCW.  It would have been a good, thoroughly justified shoot.  And I for one would have applauded him.

Quoted: Let me get this straight, a big ass guy is running toward you with the perceived intent of doing you bodily harm, and all you do is curl up into a ball and scream.  Please, beat the shit out of the guy, then call the cops and sort the mess out.   He got his $150,000 time for him to shut up and move on........

But had he done anything to defend himself he would be up on charges of resisting arrest.

Lose / Lose

Quoted: Too bad the nurse didn't have a CCW.  It would have been a good, thoroughly justified shoot.  And I for one would have applauded him.

if he lived on his way to jail.........

Quoted: Quoted: Let me get this straight, a big ass guy is running toward you with the perceived intent of doing you bodily harm, and all you do is curl up into a ball and scream.  Please, beat the shit out of the guy, then call the cops and sort the mess out.   He got his $150,000 time for him to shut up and move on........ But had he done anything to defend himself he would be up on charges of resisting arrest. Lose / Lose

He sounds like to big of a pussy to resist.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Let me get this straight, a big ass guy is running toward you with the perceived intent of doing you bodily harm, and all you do is curl up into a ball and scream.  Please, beat the shit out of the guy, then call the cops and sort the mess out.   He got his $150,000 time for him to shut up and move on........ But had he done anything to defend himself he would be up on charges of resisting arrest. Lose / Lose He sounds like to big of a pussy to resist.

In no way am I disagreeing with you.  I'm just saying...

I'm really liking this series of investigative columns fom the Chronical. !!! Finally exposing what the police are really about.
And its not "public service".

Quoted: Waiting for the Blue Meanies to assemble and scoff.  I'm sure they'll all find perfect justification for this incident.

didn't have to wait long.

Love how they attack the victim to 'defend' the officer.

Quoted: Quoted: Waiting for the Blue Meanies to assemble and scoff.  I'm sure they'll all find perfect justification for this incident.   didn't have to wait long. Love how they attack the victim to 'defend' the officer.

Noted.  Frankly, it doesn't matter whether or not the "dude" was light in the loafers, a young Rocky or an old partially disabled fart like me.  In any case, the cop has all of the advantages, plus the shield.  One false move on the part of the "perp" and he/she is at risk, at the least of very painful incapicitation, and at the most, death by JBT.

Someone pls 'splain to me why our society has become the enemy of those sworn to SERVE AND PROTECT?  

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Waiting for the Blue Meanies to assemble and scoff.  I'm sure they'll all find perfect justification for this incident.   didn't have to wait long. Love how they attack the victim to 'defend' the officer. Noted.  Frankly, it doesn't matter whether or not the "dude" was light in the loafers, a young Rocky or an old partially disabled fart like me.  In any case, the cop has all of the advantages, plus the shield.  One false move on the part of the "perp" and he/she is at risk, at the least of very painful incapicitation, and at the most, death by JBT. Someone pls 'splain to me why our society has become the enemy of those sworn to SERVE AND PROTECT?

Man, if you never did the job, you JUST WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

____________________________________________

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Waiting for the Blue Meanies to assemble and scoff.  I'm sure they'll all find perfect justification for this incident.   didn't have to wait long. Love how they attack the victim to 'defend' the officer. Noted.  Frankly, it doesn't matter whether or not the "dude" was light in the loafers, a young Rocky or an old partially disabled fart like me.  In any case, the cop has all of the advantages, plus the shield.  One false move on the part of the "perp" and he/she is at risk, at the least of very painful incapicitation, and at the most, death by JBT. Someone pls 'splain to me why our society has become the enemy of those sworn to SERVE AND PROTECT?   Man, if you never did the job, you JUST WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ____________________________________________

It's us versus them, man!

And what kind of Homo skips stones anyway? Man you must be some kind of commie if you skip stones! He deserved the beating!!!

Quoted: Exactly the kind of behavior I like to see, except directed towards the criminal predators.

The moral of the story: If you are gonna lay down an asswhoopin', be sure of who you have....

We're from the SFPD, and we're here to help you.

I don't see anything wrong with this, as long it is contained to SF and other liberal meccas. They are getting what they deserve. LEOs in VA and other gun firendly states are much more respectful... at least that is my perception and opinion.

Quoted: Quoted: The guy sounds like a skirt. He can't skip stones anymore? He probably lost his case because he spent all his energy on his "emotional trauma" and not on the facts of how he was assaulted. He and his boyfriend probably have a less-than-satisfying sex life now as well. If the officer was/is out of line he should be fired. What constitutes a "use-of-force" incident? 28 incidents in 8 years doesn't sound like much to me if it's arresting violent criminals. Now if it's mistakes of identity where the beat-down was put on a citizen for nop reason, that's a problem. damn, that's a pretty thick blue line txl

Try again, I'm not a police officer. I do think for myself every now and again tho.

So, what constitutes a "use of force" incident?

He has the bastard's name, and the Bible does not explicitly condemn vigilantism, certainly not where the law has been weighed and found wanting. If I were on a jury, I would not convict the nurse if he were on video digging the cop's eyes out with a dirty spoon and burning him alive - not that I advocate such behavior. I condemn it in the abstract. However, I do think that those who engage in reckless abuse of power should find it personally painful to do so. I guess the cop's prayer should be "Thank you, Lord, that I did not do this to a man whose father is healthy and living in the same town."

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Waiting for the Blue Meanies to assemble and scoff.  I'm sure they'll all find perfect justification for this incident.   didn't have to wait long. Love how they attack the victim to 'defend' the officer. Noted.  Frankly, it doesn't matter whether or not the "dude" was light in the loafers, a young Rocky or an old partially disabled fart like me.  In any case, the cop has all of the advantages, plus the shield.  One false move on the part of the "perp" and he/she is at risk, at the least of very painful incapicitation, and at the most, death by JBT. Someone pls 'splain to me why our society has become the enemy of those sworn to SERVE AND PROTECT?

I'm not trying to be a police apologist but just look at it from their point of view.  The police see the worst of human behavior every single day.  After years of busting the perps they deal with all day long, it's possible that they can lose sight of the fact that not everyone is a criminal.

Everyone is guilty until proven innocent.  The officer in question said exactly that..........

At the station, Reissner said he was handcuffed to a bench. When he asked an officer if he could call his job to say he would be late, the officer told him no, adding that "we heard you were talking that lawyer s -- , and if you talk that lawyer s -- , you get nothin' around here. If you're here, you're guilty."

Quoted: Too bad the nurse didn't have a CCW.  It would have been a good, thoroughly justified shoot.  And I for one would have applauded him.

Even though the officer was wrong, the  nurse would have a hard time trying to convice anyone he was defending himself against a uniformed officer in the performance of his duties.  

Quoted: Let me get this straight, a big ass guy is running toward you with the perceived intent of doing you bodily harm, and all you do is curl up into a ball and scream.  Please, beat the shit out of the guy, then call the cops and sort the mess out.   He got his $150,000 time for him to shut up and move on........

I don't know what part of Texas you're in where they grow everything big but 33-year-old Henry B. Yee, a 5-foot-8-inch, 180-pound doesn't sound like a "big ass guy", sounds more like a little guy with a little mans complex.

Whaddya expect? He's a male nurse!

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Waiting for the Blue Meanies to assemble and scoff.  I'm sure they'll all find perfect justification for this incident.   didn't have to wait long. Love how they attack the victim to 'defend' the officer. Noted.  Frankly, it doesn't matter whether or not the "dude" was light in the loafers, a young Rocky or an old partially disabled fart like me.  In any case, the cop has all of the advantages, plus the shield.  One false move on the part of the "perp" and he/she is at risk, at the least of very painful incapicitation, and at the most, death by JBT. Someone pls 'splain to me why our society has become the enemy of those sworn to SERVE AND PROTECT?   Man, if you never did the job, you JUST WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ____________________________________________

No I guess not...but you on the other hand, with your amazing knowledge of my personal past, can make a perfectly worded statement implying my ignorance WRT the daily life of an LEO.  

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Waiting for the Blue Meanies to assemble and scoff.  I'm sure they'll all find perfect justification for this incident.   didn't have to wait long. Love how they attack the victim to 'defend' the officer. Noted.  Frankly, it doesn't matter whether or not the "dude" was light in the loafers, a young Rocky or an old partially disabled fart like me.  In any case, the cop has all of the advantages, plus the shield.  One false move on the part of the "perp" and he/she is at risk, at the least of very painful incapicitation, and at the most, death by JBT. Someone pls 'splain to me why our society has become the enemy of those sworn to SERVE AND PROTECT?   I'm not trying to be a police apologist but just look at it from their point of view.  The police see the worst of human behavior every single day.  After years of busting the perps they deal with all day long, it's possible that they can lose sight of the fact that not everyone is a criminal. Everyone is guilty until proven innocent.  The officer in question said exactly that.......... At the station, Reissner said he was handcuffed to a bench. When he asked an officer if he could call his job to say he would be late, the officer told him no, adding that "we heard you were talking that lawyer s -- , and if you talk that lawyer s -- , you get nothin' around here. If you're here, you're guilty."

I agree...and THAT is a problem.  

Quoted: Quoted: Let me get this straight, a big ass guy is running toward you with the perceived intent of doing you bodily harm, and all you do is curl up into a ball and scream.  Please, beat the shit out of the guy, then call the cops and sort the mess out.   He got his $150,000 time for him to shut up and move on........ But had he done anything to defend himself he would be up on charges of resisting arrest. Shot by a police officer who would later testify "I was scared" Lose / Lose

Quoted: Quoted: Too bad the nurse didn't have a CCW.  It would have been a good, thoroughly justified shoot.  And I for one would have applauded him. Even though the officer was wrong, the  nurse would have a hard time trying to convice anyone he was defending himself against a uniformed officer in the performance of his duties.

1. I guess you missed this part:

The attacker was 33-year-old Henry B. Yee, a 5-foot-8-inch, 180-pound San Francisco officer assigned to an undercover narcotics team.

2. Attacking people who haven't committed crimes and aren't about to commit crimes is not a police duty.

Why did the officer take the guy down in the first place?

Also, I doubt he was "attacked" for 15 minutes.

And whats up with all these stories of old police incidents from SF?

Quoted: Why did the officer take the guy down in the first place? Also, I doubt he was "attacked" for 15 minutes. And whats up with all these stories of old police incidents from SF?

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Quoted: Quoted: Why did the officer take the guy down in the first place? Also, I doubt he was "attacked" for 15 minutes. And whats up with all these stories of old police incidents from SF? Tuesday, February 7, 2006

On Aug. 11, 1999, when Reissner learned that Yee was a police officer, he told him that cards in his wallet would prove he was a nurse at the nearby hospital


That equals an old incident.  

Quoted: Why did the officer take the guy down in the first place? Also, I doubt he was "attacked" for 15 minutes.

From the officer's "mistaken identity" comment, I'd guess the nurse was taken for a neighborhood regular the officer knew to have a warrant out for him.

As to the 15 minutes, I join you in a hearty  . When somebody estimates the length of a physical fight in professional discussions with me, they usually say something between 2 minutes and 10 minutes. If accuracy is important,  I tell 'em to go get a baseball bat or a short piece of 2 X 4, beat on a tree trunk continuously for a minute, run around the the tree for a minute, then beat on the tree continuously for another minute, and guess again as to the length of that street or marital fight. There's a reason that bouts between the best athletes in the world only go 3 minutes at a time. 15 minutes of "attacking" would probably put the "attacker" in the hospital.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Waiting for the Blue Meanies to assemble and scoff.  I'm sure they'll all find perfect justification for this incident.   didn't have to wait long. Love how they attack the victim to 'defend' the officer. Noted.  Frankly, it doesn't matter whether or not the "dude" was light in the loafers, a young Rocky or an old partially disabled fart like me.  In any case, the cop has all of the advantages, plus the shield.  One false move on the part of the "perp" and he/she is at risk, at the least of very painful incapicitation, and at the most, death by JBT. Someone pls 'splain to me why our society has become the enemy of those sworn to SERVE AND PROTECT?   I'm not trying to be a police apologist but just look at it from their point of view.  The police see the worst of human behavior every single day.  After years of busting the perps they deal with all day long, it's possible that they can lose sight of the fact that not everyone is a criminal. Everyone is guilty until proven innocent.  The officer in question said exactly that.......... At the station, Reissner said he was handcuffed to a bench. When he asked an officer if he could call his job to say he would be late, the officer told him no, adding that "we heard you were talking that lawyer s -- , and if you talk that lawyer s -- , you get nothin' around here. If you're here, you're guilty."

Oh, my. Well, well.

Reminds me of our now-retired, all-knowing, all-seeing authoritarian police chief in our small town here in Massachusetts who would not give out discretionary CCW permits to anyone. He only tolerated the non-discretionary lo-cap long gun licenses (FIDs) because he had to, by law. He went on record as saying, Only "my boys" should have guns, if he had his way.....

If you dared to apply for a CCW, you had to go through The Interview with him as to why in God's name (speaking of whom, did I mention he was the head of the local Mormon stake, BTW?) you would want to, of all things, have a handgun, let alone, carry one?? I tried to meet with him, arranged interview times, well in advance, only to have him postpone the interview at least four times, two of which he did through his staff, while I had been waiting for over an hour after our appointed time. Once he didn't even bother to show up. Turned out he was on vacation and had, ummm....forgot to tell me and his secretary about my appontment....

When I finally did get in there, I saw on the wall behind him in his office, two large drawings. One showed a new cop, naive, who wanted to keep everybody safe, solve crimes, and save the world, and the other showed a hardened veteran cop who was just trying to get his pension, put everybody in jail who got in his way, and under the cop's face it said, "There are no innocent people. Only criminals we haven't caught yet."

The interview went downhill from there. I didn't get a CCW until, after a lot of grumbling from gunowners, and other disgruntled citizens in town, esp. with a change in selectmen (town gov.) that the chief suddenly got a call to go Spread the Word in foreign countries.

Then we got a new police chief.

The new chief is a veteran cop and a stand-up guy, believes in the RKBA, and stands up to corrupt public officials. He stood up to our county DA and the state Atty. Gen'l., who tried to squash a recent investigation involving a local teen drunk driving accident with fatalities. Turns out the dead girls were daughters of local Dem. campaign contributors....

Quoted: Why did the officer take the guy down in the first place? Also, I doubt he was "attacked" for 15 minutes. And whats up with all these stories of old police incidents from SF?

Apparently the SF paper all these articles are out of is doing/has done a multipart expose' of reportedly overzealous policing in the city.

Quoted: Quoted: Too bad the nurse didn't have a CCW.  It would have been a good, thoroughly justified shoot.  And I for one would have applauded him. if he lived on his way to jail.........

Exactly.


Oops...shot while struggling with the officers as he tried to escape.