♪ proudly we watched at the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ oer the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪ and the rockets' red glare ♪ ♪ the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪

♪ over the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ [applause]

>> i was remiss in not introducing the great mission high school jrotc who did the colors today. thank you for giving them a big round of [applause] ! [applause] >> good evening, everyone. my name is gina and i'm a district vice president for the ymca of san francisco and executive director of the bayview hunters point ymca. i am so honored to be here tonight and to be part of the swearing-in ceremony for district attorney gascon. in my years of experience working in the community, i know that the most effective

way to prevent crime is to invest in our city's young people now. most people think of the d.a.'s office as strictly a prosecutorial agency. i would like to convey today is that the d.a.'s office is so much more. for the last two years, the d.a.'s office has provided critical funding for the bayview hunters point ymca's center for academic re-entertry and empowerment, a truancy project in the form of a school that helps teens get back on track to finish their education. 35 youths have graduated from high school. note, a majority of these youths have been out of school for two years. over the past 2 1/2 years, we served over 500 youth with 70% getting put back on track towards graduation. we are very excited this past summer when 10 care students got to participate in an internship program through the

d.a.'s office where they experienced the ins and outs of the criminal justice system. on behalf of the ymca of san francisco, the wonderful partnership between our offices, i want to thank district attorney george gascon for his leadership. we look forward to continuing our work together by providing youth, the services and resources they need to be successful. [applause] >> i would like to introduce senior pastor aurelius walker. [applause] >> to the honorable and district attorney george gascon, distinguished leadership guests, ladies and gentlemen of the city of san

francisco by the golden gate, a world class city and you cannot have a world class city if you do not have a world class leadership as well as a world class people and a world class district attorney in the person of george gascon. will you be so kind to indulge with me in a prayer by bowing your heads. mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. truth shall spring out of the earth. the righteousness should look down from heaven. let judgment run down like water and righteousness as a mighty stream. as st. paul said, i quality,

therefore -- exalt, therefore, suspect my indication, prayer, intersession be made to all men. kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. for this is the will, this is the good and acceptable in the sight of god, our savior, who have all men to be saved and come into the knowledge of his truth. amen. [applause] >> well, it's my great pleasure to be a part of today's celebration and to district attorney george gascon, i want to welcome you to being the -- and good luck. [laughter]

as the next chief elected law enforcement officer of the great city and county of san francisco. it's a great job. it's a great job. it's so great that i always have a smile on my face as i'm traveling between san francisco and sacramento listening to kcbs and they talk about some horrific crime and they want comments from the district attorney and of course, i'm always like, did we respond and i realize that is george's job. but it really is a great job, george. you get to work with wonderful people like, of course, our now newly elected and soon to be inaugurated mayor ed lee. you get to -- [applause] >> you find that when you're the district attorney of san francisco, you definitely want to have friends in sacramento, in particular in the legislature because we have a very active office that is often finding ways that we can improve the laws and so we have

found a great leader in senator mark leno who is here, of course. [applause] >> it's always helpful when the president of the board of supervisors was a former member of the office and that of course, is david chiu. [applause] >> and then when you got someone like dennis as city attorney who is always find his way into prosecution is helpful. so it's a great job. it's a wonderful job. i remember when gavin as mayor talked to me about the fact that he was going to bring in this new police chief and i had actually heard about him from bill bratton, who was the police chief of los angeles before the current police chief, charlie beck. bill called me up and says there is this guy george gascon, he is considering to be the chief of san francisco police department. he is a really great guy, would you talk to him? and i did. and then he was appointed as police chief. i have to tell you, he would

come down to the office at least on a weekly basis and we had many conversations over the course of a couple of years. and his perspective, the perspective of george gascon has always been the perspective of a leader in law enforcement who has, as a first priority public safety, but always with a mind toward how we can do the work better, how we can think about reform and how we can always aspire to that goal that we often call the smart on crime approach to criminal justice policy. and so when he decided to run after being appointed by then mayor newsom, when he decided to run as district attorney, i was very excited to support him. and what i knew then was what we saw during the course of the last several months, which is that he understands the community. he has a way of understanding the power that we have as law enforcement to make decisions that have a very direct impact

on the most vulnerable among us, but he also understands that that power must be respected and treated with a great deal of respect and regard in terms of how it can be used to empower our communities. i know that george gascon is the kind of individual as a leader in law enforcement who will make one of the greatest district attorneys of san francisco. [applause] >> he has talked with me many times about the men and women of the san francisco district attorney's office who are the support staff, who are the attorneys, who are the investigators and about his desire to support their work and to continue its excellence. so as the former district attorney of san francisco, i know that we are in good hands as a person who lives in san francisco and cares still about this city no matter how far we travel and how big the state is.

i know that in george gascon, we will have a future for san francisco that is really in large part in part of what we all are as the legacy that starts with the san francisco's d.a. office at least going back to pat brown which is having a d.a.'s office which is a model of what our state can do in terms of law enforcement and the smart on crime approach. so, george, i want to congratulate you and wish you good luck. you probably have that phone like i had, there is a phone that you have as elected d.a., greg in the audience knows this as police chief, if it rings between 10:00 at night and 6:00 in the morning, it is never a good call. it is the work that also is incredibly gratifying in terms of knowing that whenever you stand before a jury or anyone else, you represent the people of the state of california and more importantly and equally important, the people of the city and county of san franciscoment thank you for that and thank you for the work on trunesi and back on track

and wish you much success. i'm going to introduce a young man who represents a lot of what george stands for and cares about. his name is brandon santiago. he is a member of youth speaks. he is a high school dropout who will talk about his experience in the world and he is certainly an example of what george reminds us of all the time which is that we want to focus on public safety in a way that is about not only prosecution, but also prevention. brandon, why don't you come out here. [applause] >> i am honored to be here tonight. i'm going to share a poem about my experiences in education in san francisco, so i hope you enjoy it. i was kicked out of my first high school the day before class. that's a true story. [laughter] >> and nowadays i wake up to the soft sound of a nostalgic

regret playing over my morning prayers. dear god, thank you for this day and direct my path. working for youth development organization, i spend most of my time telling young folks to stay in school. the irony feels like a swift punch to my ego every time i catch myself given that typical i have made those mistakes already speech. so i have learned to disguise them with phrases like, yo, homey, school will get you paid or all the cuties go to college. [laughter] >> they usually reply with a youthful pessimism. i say, look, just don't follow in my footsteps. learn from the path i have already taken and create your own. i'm reminded of where i come from when i walk into most high school, faced with that unholy deja vu with students shifting between classrooms, haulways become a permanent purgatory for failures. some might call that line segregated. pardon me for a moment while i digress.

i can't help but notice that classrooms look liked red sea, spread in half separating students by more than color, but it's funny how brown folks still find their way to the back. when test scores reflect budget cuts, teachers play hot to pay toe with kids that can't read. special education is the new segregation while standardized tests are the sequel to separate but equal. [applause] >> but test scores can only reflect accessibility to information. we can't get the answer right if we don't understand the question, so every day i pray for wisdom while s.a.t.'s play god separating saint from sinner, student from statistic, private from public, and in a city as diverse as san francisco, people of color make up 50% of the population and almost 90% of the public schools. it's no coincidence, perhaps it's beautifully deliberate. this state invests almost $250,000 for every juvenile in prison as opposed to $6,000 for a student in the oakland public

school system. in other words, they invest more in us when we fail so they won't send us to study hall. they would rather send us to jail. fire our teachers and replace them with correctional officers, turn or public schools into playpen ten shares, 1/3 of our generation to be incarcerated. there is no such thing as segregation. young man, you will always be brown versus the board of education. [applause] >> and i can't help but see myself in you. i was bred to be a worker, too, taught to fill out a job application before i learned to apply for college. my counselor suggested i stick with something special. garbage brings great benefits. i threw away my education. stuck at community college, a place where more than often not dreams of higher education go to die and classes fill up faster than emergency rooms. students fall like flies. there i was in one more class

that i didn't need. i'm thinking if junior college is hell, heaven must be something like stanford. every day i pray to be forgiven. sometimes i feel like brown skin is the cardinal sin. and sometimes i feel like moses wandering in an ocean of dust searching for some promised land when my people pray to idols replacing golden calfs or golden bears. i don't have the heart to tell you that berkeley is only public to folks who had a private education. maybe we were just born behind the curve or perhaps we missed the bell, but i wonder if at this moment he can smell the hypocrisy on my breath when i say do your best knowing i will graduate from a colleject him, my life story in three pages and let them call it my personal statement. let me test them until i am standard and one day they can see me as some kind of equal. i remind myself i'm doing it for this community so that no institution, whether it's public school or prison, will ever validate who we are.

so nowadays, i go to sleep to the uneasy sound of an apprehensive retribution rising over my evening prayers. dear god, let us never forget that we are all sacred but equal. [cheers and applause] >> i now would like to complement what kamala has done in terms of introducing some of the people that are here in the hall. i think of particular importance is the fact that the los angeles city attorney, carmen, is here with his wife noreen. if you would give them a round

of applause for coming up, that's very special. [applause] >> also, alameda district attorney nancy o'malley, san mateo d.a. steve wagstaff. kamala introduced senator mark leno. you can give him another round if you would like. [applause] >> someone who is going to have his hands full and is totally ready for the job, our new mayor, ed lee. [applause] >> our new chief of police. [applause] >> kamala mentioned our city attorney, dennis herrera. public defender, assessor, treasurer jose sis narrows. of course, kamala who is here, give her a round of applause. united states attorney melinda

hague. [applause] >> sovereign lano county d.a., sonoma county d.a., supervisors mark farrell, malia cohen, charmen chu. judges, i understand they were all invited. i hope some are here. members of the council core and our fire chief, our wonderful fire chief joanne hayes-white. i met the person i'm going to introduce next way back in the 1960's and he had tried to buy a house in san francisco in forest noles. and he was refused because of

race. and that was a long time ago, but this is a fact and so some of us went out, my daughter who is now a judge was in her stroller and we picketed the developer which was sun stream homes then on 19th avenue and finally that was put to rest. but it gives you and idea of how things change over time and how necessary it is to have people who care about these rights and who were willing to work for these rights. we became fast friends and we have for at least three decades now. i ran for the board of supervisors in 1969, no public official would support me but one. and it was willie brown. and since that time -- [applause] >> i think it's fair to say that willie and i have been fast friends. and i watched him, three years in the california assembly, 15

years at speaker. those were the days when speakers didn't change every few years. it was the time when a speaker could do an agreement or even with a minority party, a speaker could find three or four votes. last time i talked to willie, we were talking about the budget and he said to me, oh, i would have known in january where there were three or four republican votes. and i believe him. i believe him. he is an incredible human being and so this man has walked the walk and talked the talk decade after decade. he was a fine mayor for this great city. like all of us, he served two full terms. he did his job and he is still doing his job. he is a great friend of everyone in this room. i hope you will warmly welcome the honorable former member -- former mayor, former speaker of

the california assembly, the one and only willie brown. [cheers and applause] >> diane, thank you very much for that very kind introduction . diane as newsom would say, is incredible when she presents people, but it's usually dead people. [laughter] >> am i ok? [laughter] >> diane is obviously as lieutenant governor newsom said, a very rare find. she was a rare find in 1969 when first elected directly to the board of supervisors, not appointed, directly elected,

got the highest number of votes of anybody ever run for that job. and in those days, the highest number of votes made you the president of the board. you can imagine the other 10 people on that board trying to figure out what is going to happen to them with diane totally and completely in charge. she is intolerant of people who are not committed to addressing the issues effectively and with principal and she ran that board with an iron hand. and she still -- i am. see, she is still giving orders, you understand that. that's the nature of who she really is. and by the way, it's been all those years she talked about i am the co-chair of her campaign for re-election to the u.s. senate statewide. [applause] >> and there is only one other person that is co-chair, two of

us, co-chair, one in southern california and one in northern california. we're going to make sure that diane gets re-elected. but my role tonight is a very simple one. when then mayor newsom called me to tell me what he had in mind for the d.a., i, too, said to him, you're going to appoint a nonlawyer to the job? he said, see, you're not as smart as i thought you were. the guy is a lawyer. i knew that going out. i want you to urge him because he didn't accept when i offered it to him. he wanted to think about it. now, i never appointed anybody who wanted to think about it. do you think mark leno wanted to think about it when i appointed him. newsom wanted to think about it when i wanted to appoint him?

not at all. they thought it was their divine right! [laughter] [applause] >> but not george. he really was very, very thoughtful. he called me and we chatted and i, of course, was really encouraging him because you don't know when you're going to need a d.a. [laughter] >> and in my lifetime, i have always stayed close to every district attorney, every attorney general all over the country. i don't take any chances whatsoever. i remember exactly what jack kennedy said when on "meet the press" and he had named his brother bobby to be his attorney general, u.s. attorney

general. and they were upset with mr. kennedy, then the president, and they said, mr. president, nepities many this and nepities many is that. why did you name your brother the attorney general? . he said very simply, because my mother was not a lawyer. [laughter] >> he appointed the best qualified, most loyal, most direct person and gavin newsom did exactly that. and it's interesting, of course, you see gavin held off a whole week so that he could let kamala go so he would be able to fill her job. if he had taken the oath of office on the same day she had taken the office, somebody else would have been able to name the district attorney. but gavin newsom is to ever be

rewarded for holding back because his holding back for the week in-between his eligibility and when he was sworn in directly produced the opportunity for him to exercise such good judgment and name george gascon the new d.a. of san francisco. so round of applause for gavin newsom and that extraordinary effort. [applause] >> in just a few minutes, the swearing-in ceremony will take place and it is most appropriate that the man who will administer the oath of office will be administering it to george. carlos marino, i had the great pleasure of participating in his swearing-in ceremony for

the supreme court of california. he left a lifetime appointment, dianne, that you had participated in clearing him for in the u.s. senate in 1998. he left a lifetime judgeship appointment to assume the awesome responsibility to be one and a member and an associate justice of our state supreme court. his career is really unusual in that after leaving yale university, graduating and coming home and going to work, his friends and relatives were on his case full-time. his mind was so agile and so able to understand insurance policies and other kinds of complicated things that it prompted him to go back to school. he didn't have a license to practice law. what he was being asked were the kind of things that a quality lawyer should do, but there is nobody in the

community with those skills. went to stanford university, yale and then stanford. stanford, he got the law degree. went out and practiced, was recruited by the major firms in california to work with them after he left the city attorney's office in los angeles. then the governor and a great colleague of mine in the legislature appointed marino to the muni bench in of all places, compton, california, compton, california, at that time was like oakland on steroids. it was a tough operation. he brought some sense of justice under the law in compton, california. he was elevated to the superior court by pete wilson, appointed first