SF Sheriff's Deputies Forced Inmates to Fight & Bet on the Outcome. Demand Justice!

Guards at San Francisco's County Jail No. 4 allegedly threatened inmates with rape, violence and food depravation if they did not fight each other or do forced exercise -- all for the entertainment of the deputies, who would bet on the outcome.

Please sign the petition to demand the U.S. Department of Justice investigate this jail for its alleged abuses.

I live in San Francisco, and I am horrified that public money has propped up this abuse. The details of the alleged gladiator-style fights the guards forced upon the inmates are truly horrific. Ricardo Palikiko Garcia was an inmate forced to fight another man twice his size. He said the guards created a culture of fear and harassed him by knocking over his food tray and threatening him with beatings and mace if he didn't fight. He says he may have fractured ribs as a result of the forced fighting, and could not sleep on his side because of the pain.

Deputy Scott Neu led the fights. He was accused in 2006 of forcing transgender inmates to perform sexual acts on him. The inmate Garcia was forced to fight, Stanley Harris, says Neu made him do 200 push-ups in an hour as part of “training.” As he did them, Neu allegedly threatened to anally rape him.

Neu and the other deputies involved -- Eugene Jones, Clifford Chiba and Evan Staehely -- have been placed on administrative leave, but that isn't enough. While the accused guards essentially take a paid vacation, the inmates have to live with the anguish and physical pain they caused. The allegations also raise troubling questions about what other systemic abuses could be occurring at this facility and California jails statewide.

Please sign the petition to demand the U.S. Department of Justice investigate this jail for its alleged abuses. San Francisco residents -- and any decent human being -- will NOT stand for systemic abuse of those who are vulnerable.