All Intensive Purposes

The San Francisco Chronicle has been reporting, among other things, that SF officers racked up more use-of-force allegations than their counterparts in San Jose, Oakland, San Diego and Seattle -- whose combined population is four times larger* -- and that the SFPD doesn't seem to do much to identify problem officers or get them off the street.

Under fire, the San Francisco Police Department took a tip from the Bush Administration. Police Chief Heather Fong called a news conference to attack the San Francisco Chronicle for running an "irresponsible" series about the Police Department's use of force, and called the series a "disservice" to the city.

Fong said she found inaccuracies in the stories but declined to detail them. Instead, she said they portrayed the department with a broad brush and gave an incomplete picture.

"I just think it's irresponsible,'' she said.

Also, "Fong suggested the series was biased. "'It was not the intention of this article to look at good things,'' she said.'"

If she has ESP, I can think of better ways to use it.

Presumably the danger here is that criminals will learn through the press about how the SFPD is training its officers to avoid violence, and will exploit that information to do more crimes. Living in a society with a free press just keeps getting more and more dangerous.