Close observers of Mayor Daniel Lurie have noticed over the last year an unusual behavior from him, albeit one that is likely refreshing for San Franciscans frustrated with the city’s street conditions.
Multiple (opens in new tab) sightings (opens in new tab) on (opens in new tab) social media show him standing beside homeless residents trying to offer them services and get them off the streets, outside of the protective bubble of the self-funded Rivian SUV that zips him around town, and with his protective security detail lingering by his side.
It’s a powerful image for a mayor who has sold himself as a leader committed to bread-and-butter issues, and one who wants to move the needle on one of the city’s most intractable problems. It also serves to dispel some of the critiques his opponents have levied at him, painting Lurie as an out-of-touch mayor with a wealthy background.
But the uplifting narrative shifted Thursday night, when an officer in the mayor’s security detail was injured after a confrontation broke out in the Tenderloin, raising questions about why the mayor was out on the street as a brawl took place just feet from him.
The incident, in tandem with an unprovoked daylight stabbing (opens in new tab) in Chinatown on Thursday, has cut against the public relations campaign that Lurie has been trying to cultivate since his inauguration: that the era of pandemic mayhem is of yesteryear, and that his leadership has turned a new page on the city’s streets.
According to Mission Local, Lurie’s vehicle was blocked by three individuals around 6 p.m. Thursday. The mayor exited the car, asked them to move, and some of the group complied, while the third became unruly.
One of Lurie’s bodyguards then got into a physical confrontation with the person and was injured after slamming his head on the pavement. Lurie was unharmed.
A TikTok video posted on Friday (opens in new tab) shows Lurie’s bodyguard shoving one of the individuals to the ground.
Two people were arrested, identified as Tony Phillips, 44, and Abraham Simon, 33. Phillips has a history of run-ins with law enforcement, with an arrest in 2019 on suspicion of murder (the case was eventually dropped), and another two arrests last year in July and August on drug charges, an outstanding misdemeanor warrant, and a petty theft charge. It appears that Phillips was the one in the physical struggle with Lurie’s bodyguard, based on the charges against him.
A 26-second video from Mission Local shows the encounter, with Lurie, hands in his pockets, walking away as his bodyguard is in a physical struggle. The clip has since gone viral on social media, allowing San Francisco’s online bashers to capitalize on the moment and claim the true character of the city was captured — with the mayor right there.
The incident raises a few questions: Why did Lurie exit the vehicle on Thursday? And will he continue to step out and engage people on the street while driving around the city? The Standard posed those questions to the mayor’s office, which declined to comment.
In comments made to reporters on Friday at City Hall, Lurie said, “I feel like the people who are on our streets are part of my business,” according (opens in new tab) to the San Francisco Chronicle. “I was worried about them, and I was worried about (the) safety of pedestrians and cars coming.”
Multiple executive protection experts who spoke with The Standard said Lurie’s exit from the vehicle on Thursday violated security protocols.
“It was a failure of basic protective methodologies,” said Don Mihalek, a former senior Secret Service agent and former Presidio park police officer. “He should have never gotten out of the car.”
Mihalek said Lurie’s police detail should have instructed him on proper procedures, like when he can exit his vehicle.
Caleb Gilbert, a Silicon Valley-based executive protection expert, concurred. “I’ve never seen a protocol where that is appropriate,” he said.
Both agreed that the best move would have been for the driver of Lurie’s vehicle to either back up and drive in the opposite direction or to call additional police to the scene to clear the individuals blocking the car.
Retired San Francisco Police officer Paul Lozada, who runs Exodus Protection Group, said that the mayor’s security unit should be beefed up if Lurie continues his unscheduled encounters on the streets.
“I understand that Mayor Lurie is a very public figure and wants to be out in the open and wants to hold babies,” he said. “But when you are dealing with the homeless community and very crime-ridden areas of the city, you have to treat him like he is the president.”
He added, ”I think that may have been a big wake-up call.”
While the security pros may not like it, there’s a good chance that San Francisco residents still approve of the mayor’s off-the-cuff engagements. “I have never seen the mayor of any city get out and talk with random citizens without a press corps in attendance,” wrote one commenter on Reddit in response to a photo someone snapped of Lurie on Octavia Boulevard in February.
Another wrote, “I’ve seen him do this without a camera crew. It was really awesome to see.”
