Richard Hongisto

Richard Hongisto (1937 - 2004) was a San Francisco, California politician, law enforcement official, and businessman.

Related Topics:
1937 - 2004 - San Francisco, California

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Born in Bovey, Minnesota, to Gladys and Raymond Hongisto, the descendants of Finnish immigrants, Hongisto moved to San Francisco with his family as a young boy, growing up in the Sunset District, graduating from George Washington High School.

Related Topics:
Bovey, Minnesota - Finnish - Sunset District

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After attending San Francisco City College, he became a police officer, serving in the SFPD while completing a Baccalaureate at San Francisco State University. As a police officer, Hongisto earned a reputation for activism against discrimination on the force and police brutality. He was a co-founder of Officers for Justice, an organization of officers who were primarily racial minorities or gay.

Related Topics:
San Francisco City College - San Francisco State University

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Hongisto's activism made him controversial among the ranks of the SFPD but a popular public figure. He ran for Sheriff in 1971, and was elected in a surprise that shocked the San Francisco political establishment. His predecessor, Matthew Carberry, had been a 4-term sheriff, was well-connected politically, and had been considered a shoo-in for a return to the job.

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The election of Richard Hongisto had been organized in a methodical way by computer analyist Les Morgan, using the then new idea of precinct analysis of voting trends. Richard Hongisto was considered the first candidate for public office in San Francisco to be elected largely by outsiders: gay, Latino, and other minority voters who had a strong voting presence but had been ignored by the political establishment.

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He was the first Sheriff to hire gay and lesbian deputies, and was later embroiled in controversy when he deliberately delayed the eviction of residents from the International Hotel, a residential hotel in Chinatown. After a long period where he refused to carry out the eviction, which included time spent in his own jail on contempt of court charges, Hongisto eventually carried out the mass eviction, which earned him the enmity of some of the very people he tried to protect.

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After serving as Sheriff, Hongisto briefly moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1977, where he served as police chief under Mayor Dennis Kucinich. His penchant for controversy and conflicts with Kucinich eventually led to his return to San Francisco.

Related Topics:
Cleveland, Ohio - 1977 - Dennis Kucinich

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Upon his return, Hongisto ran for and was elected to the County Board of Supervisors, where he helped to place Proposition M, a measure which would limit construction of high rise commercial buildings, on the public ballot. The measure passed overwhelmingly and has to this day continued to impact the conservative development of San Francisco's skyline.

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Hongisto vacated his seat on the board to be appointed to the office of Assessor by then Mayor Art Agnos. He was later re-elected, but then left that office to be appointed as Chief of Police by the subsequent mayor, Frank Jordan in 1992.

Related Topics:
Art Agnos - Frank Jordan - 1992

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His tenure as Chief, which lasted only six weeks, was punctuated by controversy over his handling of demonstrations and riots which occurred in the wake of the Rodney King police brutality trial in Los Angeles. Instead of merely citing and releasing demonstrators who failed to comply with police orders, Hongisto ordered that they be arrested and processed at the Santa Rita jail in Dublin (Alameda County), thus ensuring that they would not be able to return to San Francisco before police had a chance to restore order. This enraged progressive activists, who then campaigned for his dismissal.

Related Topics:
Rodney King - Los Angeles - Dublin - Alameda County

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Soon thereafter, a gay and lesbian community newspaper, The San Francisco Bay Times, published a cover graphic of Hongisto's head pasted on the body of a lesbian activist. The activist was dressed in a police uniform and held a baton near the belt line, the headline screaming "Dick's Cool New Tool: Martial Law", in reference to the police actions. What happened afterwards is subject to dispute. Hongisto claimed that he had asked members of the police union to gather copies of the paper to show members of the rank and file what he was enduring in the activist press, in reaction to their criticism of his supposedly failing to properly defend their conduct of the arrests during the King riots. Around 2,000 copies of the free papers were taken from newsracks and later found stored at the Mission police station. Hongisto was publicly accused of ordering the confiscation of the papers in attempt at censorship, a charge he continued to deny up to his death. After a hearing which many considered to be highly politicized, the San Francisco Police Commission found him culpable, and Mayor Jordan dismissed him.

Related Topics:
San Francisco Bay Times - Censorship

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Hongisto left public life to become a full time businessman and real estate investor, apart from an unsuccessful run for County Supervisor in 2000.

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Hongisto died of a heart attack on November 4, 2004, at the age of 67, leaving behind a son and daughter. He married four times, and was living with a girlfriend at the time of his death.

Related Topics:
Heart attack - November 4 - 2004

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