Thank goodness there’s a federal judge, Hon. James Donato, who is “incredulous” that the US Attorney has presented a plea deal which will absolve the drunken driver who ran down beloved cyclist Ethan Boyes last April in The Presidio.
Seriously. What kind of message does this send? That it’s ok to use your several ton vehicle while drunk and kill a cyclist.
Shaken and distraught mourners at a memorial service in the Presidio at the site where Ethan Boyes was killed by a drunken driver
It’s horrible. This US Attorney needs to tear up this Deal and get Real.
One year in jail with no admission of malice or gross negligence.
The perp needs to pay the price for taking a life and causing so much grief to the tight knit San Francisco cycling community. Ethan Boyes was only 44 and a beloved figure in the bicycle world.
Ethan Boyes, a champion cyclist, was killed on a street in San Francisco’s Presidio.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 3.4.2024
“Isn’t being intoxicated gross negligence in itself?” Judge James Donato said, incredulous.
Arnold Kinman Low, 81, is facing one count of vehicular manslaughter and one count of driving under the influence of alcohol in the fatal crash that killed USA Cycling champion Ethan Boyes, according to court documents. Federal prosecutors and Low’s lawyer appeared in court Monday to discuss the possible plea and agreed to return at a later date.
A memorial in The Presidio a the spot where Ethan Boyes was run down by a drunken driver in April 2023
Assistant U.S. Attorney George Hageman told District Judge James Donato that attorneys had gotten “very close” to reducing the charges to misdemeanors that would carry a maximum sentence of up to one year in prison.
“For killing someone,” Donato replied. “Under the influence of alcohol.”
Under the terms of a plea deal, Low, 81, would admit he “did unlawfully kill a human being … without malice and without gross negligence.”
Cyclists gathered to mourn for Ethan Boyes
That question, Assistant US Attorney George Hageman said, was “up for interpretation.”
The judge replied that interpreting the severity of the alleged crime was Hageman’s job as federal prosecutor. He then asked Hageman about the length of possible prison time, to which the prosecutor said Low could spend up to one year in prison.
The People should stand up and shout out against the worldwide growth of antisemitism. Which has grown exponentially in the wake of of the State of Israel’s ferocious deadly reaction to the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel last October 7.
Israel’s five months long carnage has leveled Gaza and resulted in the deaths of 30,000 people by the Israeli military with weapons supplied by America.
In condemning The State of Israel with increasing antisemitism a dangerous bright line has been crossed.
People need to differentiate between Jewish people and the State of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). These are all State actors. Condemning Jewish people as a group is a dangerous activity which only breeds further hate and mistrust.
It’s the philosophy which bred Nazism, led to the rise of Adolf Hitler, his ascension to power in Germany in 1933 and the subsequent holocaust which took the lives of six million people.
It is one thing to support the people of Palestine and demand a halt to the carnage being imposed by the State of Israel. It is quite another matter to engage in blatant antisemitism.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 3.3.2024
“Can you hear me?” Sheryl Sandberg, former chief operating officer of Facebook parent Meta, asked the crowd at San Francisco City Hall before launching into a story about her gradual decision to speak out publicly against antisemitism.
Warsaw, 1943: SS troops bring a group of ✡️ people, including women and children to a railway–station collection point for deportation to Nazi death camps.
Describing how she initially asked her son to stop wearing his Star of David necklace out of concern for his safety, Sandberg, who is Jewish, said the months after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel had taught her the importance of reaching out to friends for support. Despite mounting fears for her family’s well-being, Sandberg said she had started wearing her own Star of David necklace in an effort to create a world in which the symbol can be worn “safely and proudly.”
Thousands of Jewish demonstrators and their supporters braved the rain Sunday afternoon at San Francisco’s City Hall to condemn antisemitism, especially in schools and on college campuses across the Bay Area.
Members of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) march to their rally near City Hall on April 17, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. An NSM anti-illegal immigration rally in October in Riverside, California resulted in fights between the neo-Nazis and counter-protesters. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
Addressing crowds huddled beneath umbrellas as rain clouds intermittently doused the event, speakers including California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Mayor London Breed and state Sen. Scott Wiener described escalating anti-Jewish rhetoric amid a stark rise in hate crimes against the Jewish community.
“It’s been shocking to watch how divided we have become,” Mayor London Breed told the assembled crowd.
The mayor said one-third of the city’s hate crimes last year had been directed at Jewish people, a trend she called “terrifying.”
The demonstration, billed as a “unity march” against antisemitism, drew people from across the Bay Area. Many present told the Chronicle they chose to attend amid what they viewed as worrying trends playing out in the region’s schools and college campuses.
The recent buzz about Donald Trump’s criminal indictments has been about how successful he’s been in delaying the inevitable. His day in criminal court.
Apparently lost in all the hand wringing by pundits that Trump will not be facing a jury soon is one undisputable fact. Trump goes to Trial on March 25 in a Manhattan courtroom.
At issue. A 34 count criminal indictment. The hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels. In an effort to stop news of Trump’s relationship to become public before the 2016 presidential election. It worked.
Soon a jury of 12 New Yorkers will soon decide if Trump is criminally responsible for these hush money payments.
The Trial will make for great legal, political and tabloid reporting.
Excerpted from The New York Times 3.2.2024
Donald Trump faces steep odds in his first criminal case, which was brought by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg. Mr. Trump’s belligerent courtroom antics might not resonate with a jury in Manhattan, where only about 12 percent of voters supported him in the 2020 election.
Donald Trump mugshot – 2023
Mr. Bragg’s evidence is extensive, featuring documents, tape recordings and testimony from Mr. Trump’s onetime confidants.
“I would expect Trump to try to act up,” said Ty Cobb, a veteran lawyer who worked in the White House Counsel’s Office during the Trump administration and who has since been critical of the former president. He added: “He needs to be aggressively muzzled by the lawyers if he is to avoid offending the jury.”
To avoid conviction, his defense team, led by Todd Blanche and Susan R. Necheles, will have to be stellar. They will most likely argue that the evidence does not directly implicate Mr. Trump, and that the witnesses are liars.
Lawyers who have represented Mr. Trump view the prospect of him testifying before Justice Juan Merchan as potentially disastrous. The judge is a no-nonsense jurist who presided over the conviction of Mr. Trump’s family business in a tax fraud trial.
If Mr. Trump insists, he could pose a make-or-break challenge for Mr. Blanche and Ms. Necheles.
The headlines – April 5, 2023
They recently appeared before Justice Merchan at a pretrial hearing with their client mostly silent beside them, and seemed to test the tightrope he will walk during the trial. Mr. Trump wanted to delay it, but the judge promptly set a March date.
Mr. Blanche lodged objections, none of which swayed Justice Merchan, who quickly bridled. “Tell me something you haven’t already said today,” the judge said.
Shortly thereafter, Justice Merchan asked Mr. Blanche if he was done talking. He was not, but the judge cut him off, instructing Mr. Blanche to “please have a seat.”
“Yes, your honor,” Mr. Blanche replied, sitting down with Mr. Trump.
It’s been nearly two years since London Breed and her handpicked mercenary Brooke Jenkins led the Recall, funded with 8M in MAGA money, which resulted in the political lynching of progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin.Replaced by scheming political climber Brooke Jenkins. An ambitious prosecutor who betrayed the man for whom she worked and was rewarded for her treachery by Mayor London Breedwith the top law enforcement job in San Francisco.
San Francisco is reaping the whirlwind for embedding itself with the most reactionary fascist leaning elements in our country.
After a long hiatus from the public forum Chesa Boudin has now put in writing what the result of this political coup d’etat has resulted in for San Francisco.
Published in The San Francisco Standard 3.2.2024
Chesa Boudin is the founding executive director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at Berkeley Law School and the former district attorney of San Francisco.
Chesa Boudin being sworn in as District Attorney by Mayor London Breed. She would be the behind the scenes leader in his ouster
For the last eight years, politicians in San Francisco and California have used Donald Trump as a foil. “Standing up to Trump” has been a rallying cry meant to motivate voters and showcase democratic bona fides. It’s, therefore, all the more offensive that some of those same politicians are looking to Trump-appointed judges to excuse their own failures on homelessness.
San Francisco’s elected political elite protested outside the federal courthouse while Gov. Gavin Newsom mused about doxing the federal judge who had issued the ruling. 8.23.2023
By turning to the Trump-packed U.S. Supreme Court for relief, these politicians are admitting, once again, that they prefer sound-bite policies—policies that have repeatedly failed in the past and will actually harm our ability to address other crucial needs in our community.
It didn’t have to be this way.
In 2018, despite the opposition of Mayor London Breed, voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition C, which levied a tax on big business to fund solutions to homelessness. Thus, San Francisco’s homelessness budget for 2021-2022 was nearly $700 million, fully half that of New York City, which serves a population 10 times our size. Given these substantial resources, San Francisco had a unique opportunity to make progress on homelessness by creating more shelters, transitional housing and expanding essential services.
MAGA cadres disrupting Chesa Boudin rally. Alamo Square Park – March 5, 2022
Unfortunately, whether because of corruption, indifference, incompetence or bad policies, San Francisco’s approach is failing. Numerous news stories have detailed how: Slow referrals and poor conditions have left available single-room occupancy units empty; those who did get placements were too often kicked out for minor rule violations; hundreds of positions needed to address the crisis remain vacant; poor community outreach hamstrung opportunities to create new treatment or living centers.
Instead of grappling with that failure, San Francisco’s leadership has chosen to double down on another sound-bite strategy—criminalizing poverty and homelessness.
Drunken delirious supporters celebrate the political lynching of DA Chesa Boudin – June 7, 2022.
Other Western cities have tried handcuffs rather than homes in response to housing crises. In 2022, in a case out of Grants Pass, Oregon, the Ninth Circuit prohibited prosecution of people setting up tents on public property when no alternative shelter was available, deeming it cruel and unusual punishment. Despite the dissent of a Trump-appointed judge, that decision was binding on most of the American West.
In light of that and similar rulings, San Francisco’s Coalition on Homelessness asked a federal court to enjoin the city from a police response to tents. A federal judge agreed and ordered the city to stop punishing sleeping in public unless there were available shelter beds. This decision should not have been a surprise to anyone who was paying attention—the lower court was following established precedent, and San Francisco was clearly violating its own regulations. But what happened next is shocking.
Blatant red baiting campaign which politically lynched DA Chesa Boudin on June 7, 2022
In behavior reminiscent of Trump’s attacks on a judge whose ruling he disagreed with, San Francisco’s elected political elite protested outside the federal courthouse while Gov. Gavin Newsom mused about doxing the federal judge who had issued the ruling.
It is totally understandable that government officials want more power to address real problems. But it is becoming dangerously common for members of the political branches to blame the judiciary for long-standing policy failures. And let’s be clear: That’s exactly what happened here. The court ruled that people cannot be prosecuted for setting up tents if there is no alternative shelter. The inability to create that shelter is a failure of San Francisco, not the courts.
San Francisco leaders lean on Trump judges
That reality, however, didn’t stop San Francisco from rushing to Trump justices to escape its responsibility. San Francisco has joined with some of the most conservative voices in the country in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review and reverse the Grants Pass decision. The Court promptly agreed to review the case (leading to the pending case against San Francisco being paused). In a brief filed Friday, San Francisco tried to take a middle-of-the-road position, conceding that a “total prohibition on sleeping outside”—precisely what the ordinance they ask the court to reinstate does—“would effectively criminalize unhoused,” but still urges the court to reverse.
Indeed, Trump appointees are expected to reverse and rule that, even if there is no other available shelter for the unhoused, local governments may freely arrest and prosecute people for sheltering on public property.
To be sure, many taxpaying residents are sick of seeing tents and associate visible poverty with other real public safety challenges. But the power San Francisco’s politicians seek from the Supreme Court will be no solution at all. California law enforcement agencies are spending more but solving fewer crimes than ever before.
DA Boudin in the courtroom.
The San Francisco Police Department is solving just 20% of reported robberies and even lower percentages of rapes, burglaries and car break-ins. Meanwhile, hundreds of cases the police did solve are now being dismissed because of the DA’s failure to prepare and limited courtrooms. It’s hard to see how clearance or conviction rates will improve if we divert limited resources to the impossible task of policing and prosecuting poverty.
In a few months, when the Supreme Court overturns Grants Pass, San Francisco will double down on its refusal to invest in housing or even short-term shelter in favor of handcuffs and prosecutions. The city will surely succeed in making life for the unhoused more “uncomfortable” and undermining our collective humanity while giving Trump, his tactics, his pundits and his judges the last laugh. The city’s actions in this moment will not only affect the lives of all those who call San Francisco home but also will define our legacy as a beacon of progress or a cautionary tale of lost values.
And when, inevitably, these same politicians tout how they “stand up to Trump,” just remember they were more than happy to seek refuge in his justices to cover their own failures.
Chesa addresses his supporters on the night of the political coup e’tat which drove him from office – 6.7.2022
Top photo: DA Chesa Boudin on the night of his inaugural accepting congratulations from his supporters. January 8, 2020
It’s true. President Biden will deal with whomever he needs to secure allies in the fight against Putin’s aggression against Ukraine. Now it in its third year.
Biden’s latest ally is Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The far-right prime minister elected two years ago and the subject of derision at the time.
The President is in a tough place. The Republicans in Congress refuse to approve additional funding. Wannabe president again Trump, whose control of the GOP is unassailable has terrorized his troops with his opposition to more funding.
So, Biden is happy to receive support from wherever he can find it.Drink the cappuccino.
Excerpted from The New York Times 3.1.2024
President Biden turned to an unlikely ally on Friday in his drive to build support for Ukraine’s war effort as U.S. aid falters, declaring during a White House visit by the far-right prime minister of Italy that the two leaders “have each other’s backs” and “have Ukraine’s back.”
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni holds her end-of-year news conference in Rome, Italy, December 29, 2022. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo
The warm tone, a striking departure from Mr. Biden’s assessment of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni when she was elected, extended to a number of foreign policy fronts, as the leaders sought to portray themselves as united on topics including confronting global migration and trying to prevent a broader war in the Middle East.
Mr. Biden’s embrace of Ms. Meloni has come as a surprise after he expressed concern for democracy when she rose to power. Her party, the Brothers of Italy, has roots in the neo-fascist factions that emerged after World War II.
“She hails from Europe’s far right, and her coalition contains influential voices that are much more pro-Russian and sympathetic to Putin than the European mainstream, yet she has bucked that trend and located Italy firmly in the trans-Atlantic camp that is committed to supporting Ukraine,” said Charles A. Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Europe adviser on the National Security Council in the Obama administration.
“As you said when we first met here in the Oval, Giorgia, that we have each other’s backs,” Mr. Biden said. “We do, and you’ve demonstrated that from the moment you took office.”
Mr. Biden highlighted their unity on Kyiv’s efforts to fend off an invasion by President Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia, creating a contrast with conservatives in Congress. “We also have Ukraine’s back,” Mr. Biden said. “That’s why I’m urging the House of Representatives to pass legislation” that would send billions of dollars to fund the war effort.
Vladimir Putin lectured an audience of subservient Russian apparatchiks.
Sitting on their butts for two hours hearing their Fearless Thug Leader threaten that he is not adverse to using nuclear weapons to achieve his war aims in Ukraine.
This is the way this punk terrorist Putin maintains control. Eliminating and imprisoning his domestic adversaries. Imprisoning Americans on Trumped up charges as a terror tool.Waging war against Ukraine. Like a spoiled kid in the playground Vladmir waves his nuclear stick for all the world to see.
All business as usual for this unhinged KGB operative.
Putin in his true life’s calling – KGB agent in Dresden (former East Germany) circa 1980’s
Mushroom cloud from the world’s first hydrogen fusion blast. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Us Air Force/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)
Excerpted from The New York Times 2.29.2024
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said the West faced the prospect of nuclear conflict if it intervened more directly in the war in Ukraine, using an annual speech to the nation on Thursday to escalate his threats against Europe and the United States.
Mr. Putin has repeatedly made veiled nuclear threats against the West since he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, seeking to leverage Russia’s enormous nuclear arsenal to deter Europe and the United States from supporting Ukraine.
Mr. Putin said NATO countries that were helping Ukraine strike Russian territory or might consider sending their own troops “must, in the end, understand” that “all this truly threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and therefore the destruction of civilization.”
“We also have weapons that can strike targets on their territory,” Mr. Putin said. “Do they not understand this?”
President Vladimir Putin of Russia delivering his annual state of the nation address in Moscow 2.29.24. Credit…Alexander Nemenov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The Russian leader alluded to comments by President Emmanuel Macron of France this week raising the possibility of sending troops from NATO countries to Ukraine, a scenario the Kremlin said would lead to the “inevitability” of a direct conflict between Russia and the Western alliance.
Mr. Putin is showing no sign of slowing his crackdown on the opposition, which suffered a crushing blow with the death of its imprisoned leader, Aleksei A. Navalny.
Top art: Vladimir lights the match of nuclear war?
Cycling home up Anza Street from my daily walk in Sutro Park I came upon a posse of San Francisco cops, health department and emergency medical staff.
A blurry shadow of the woman on the rooftop – December 2023
For at least a year a woman has stood on the balcony of a four story building shouting out at all hours of the day and night. I live blocks away and the sound of her voice can easily be heard. Talking with the neighbors we learned the woman is a former member of the military. She suffers from PTSD.
The situation has exasperated the neighbors who, while generally empathetic, are frustrated. The authorities have responded to the building. But nothing was done legally to stop the constant disruption.
Disruption which was not good for the peace of the neighborhood. Nor for the health and personal well being of the woman herself.
The City workers and Police at the scene of the HSC 5150 Hold
Until today.
What I learned in talking to a neighbor who lives across the street is that the cops had no probable cause to enter the premises. So, the authorities waited for the bi-weekly ‘street sweeper’ day.
When the woman came out to move her car she was met by the authorities. Placed in an ambulance under a California Health and Safety Code Section 5150 Hold.
(a) When a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is a danger to others, or to themselves, or gravely disabled, a peace officer, professional person in charge of a facility designated by the county for evaluation and treatment, member of the attending staff, as defined by regulation, of a facility designated by the county for evaluation and treatment, designated members of a mobile crisis team, or professional person designated by the county may, upon probable cause, take, or cause to be taken, the person into custody for a period of up to 72 hours for assessment, evaluation, and crisis intervention, or placement for evaluation and treatment in a facility designated by the county for evaluation and treatment and approved by the State Department of Health Care Services. The 72-hour period begins at the time when the person is first detained.
I stood by and watched after the woman was placed under custodial care. I could hear her screaming from inside the ambulance.
The open door of the ambulance. The woman, obviously distraught, is screaming from the inside.
Hopefully she will receive the care and attention she obviously needs.
Lee Heidhues with editorial assistance from Liz Heidhues 2.26.2024
The Buzz flying around San Francisco City Hall political circles is that District Attorney Brooke Jenkins already is scheming her next move. A knowledgeable source told me Brooke is plotting a run for Attorney General in 2026.
Incredulity is the first word that comes to mind.
The DA office is just a Stepping Stone for this aspiring pol from Union City.
Steppin’ Stone by Paul Revere and the Raiders – a political anthem for Brooke Jenkins
Brooke Jenkins is a total political creature who owes her good fortune to Mayor London Breed, City Hall insiders and the dark monied contributors who fueled her meteoric rise.
Brooke Jenkins is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mayor London Breed and her City Hall apparatchiks
Critics call S.F.’s new D.A. corrupt. Supporters say she’s a savior. Who is the real Brooke Jenkins?
Headline: SF Chronicle article by Heather Knight 8.26.2022
This is Brooke Jenkins, fawningly portrayed in The Chronicle, who was a substantial factor in the political destruction of her one time boss DA Chesa Boudin.
A political destruction which Heather Knight, now San Francisco bureau chief for The New York Times, was a significant media operative.Utilizing her twice weekly columnto regularly trash DA Boudin.
Jenkins.Quitting Boudin’s office in 2021 and doing political chores as a “volunteer” in the June 2022 Recall. Jenkins only admitted after the fact that shewaspaid153K forthese“volunteer” services.
DA Brooke Jenkins and Mayor Breed doing some on the job shopping for clothes. For whom will Brooke do shopping chores next?
The Brooke Jenkins who disingenuously told the world she is not a political person. “I’m solution oriented.”Destroying Chesa Boudin as a stepping stone to the DA’s office.
There’s a faction of people that are more interested in politics than in the solutions. That is something I’m having to get used to. I’m solution oriented. – Interview with Han Li. SF Standard September 2022
Rewarded for her “volunteer” treachery by being named DA by Mayor London Breed.
London Breed. Behind the scenes leader in the recall of nettlesome DA Chesa Boudin. Never seen as a team player by Breed and her political cronies.
San Francisco now has a DA who walks in lockstep with the Mayor who made her career.
In the late 1930’s the Nazi Party was making inroads in America. In Donald Trump’s hometown New York City.
Nearly 100 years later, we have Donald Trump exhorting his followers at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). As he completes his takeover of the Republican Party. And boldly vows to decimate his foes should he win the election this November.
The shocking Academy Award nominated documentary “A Night at the Garden” tells the earlier story all too well.
20,000 Americans gathered in Madison Square Garden, New York City – February 20, 1939
Donald Trump styled himself as a “proud political dissident” and promised “judgment day” for political opponents in an address on Saturday that offered a chilling vision of a democracy in imminent peril.
“They’ve replaced law, precedent and due process with a rabid mob of radical left Democrat partisans masquerading as judges and juries and prosecutors.”
A Night at the Garden – 2024 Donald Trump CPAC version
Like demagogues of the past, the comedy and showmanship smuggled in a sinister undertow. Trump’s ability to play the crowd, turning its emotions from euphoria to fury as easily as flicking a switch, carry echoes that are hard to ignore.
Speaking days after the death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Trump hinted at a self-comparison by adding: “I stand before you today not only as your past and hopefully future president but as a proud political dissident. I am a dissident.”
In classic carnival barker form, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination accused Joe Biden of weaponizing the government against him with “Stalinist show trials”. He pledged to crack down on border security and deliver the biggest deportation in US history if he wins the 5 November election.
“For hard-working Americans, November 5th will be our new liberation day,” Trump told a packed ballroom at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor in Maryland. “But for the liars and cheaters and fraudsters and censors and imposters who have commandeered our government, it will be their judgment day!”
Growing up I was surrounded by the world of the San Francisco Ballet.
My parents were regular attendees of performances at the San Francisco Opera House. Had dancer friends. Were close with the SFB hierarchy. And took ballet lessons themselves.
My mom worked at the San Francisco Ballet Schoolfor many years.
While I never danced myself, I definitely respected the physical ability and attractiveness of ballet dancers. I find the book ‘Swan Dive – The Making of a Rogue Ballerina by Georgina Pazcoguin’utterly fascinating.
It is a thoroughly enjoyable engrossing read and definitely lays bare the tough world of professional ballet.
Excerpted from The New York Times 7.14.2021
The brave part wasn’t writing the book.
“The brave thing,” Georgina Pazcoguin said in an interview, “is going to be walking into the rehearsal studio Aug. 3.”
Like many ballet dancers these days (or so it seems), Pazcoguin has written a memoir. Hers is not timid. In “Swan Dive: The Making of a Rogue Ballerina,” this New York City Ballet soloist writes candidly about Peter Martins, the company’s former leader — she refers to him as her psychological abuser — as well as staff members and dancers, including Amar Ramasar, one of the male principals who lost his job after a photo-sharing scandal in 2018, and was later reinstated.
Pazcoguin now believes that part of the reason she was held back in the New York City Ballet company had to do with race. “A lot of feedback is presented in a correction,” she said. “Like you should correct this. Then you get the off comment, and you’re like, what? I can’t correct my features. And that’s when you’re like, what just happened?”
Pazcoguin, the company’s first female Asian American soloist, has been outspoken about her aim to bring equality to ballet.Credit…Heather Sten for The New York Times
The company’s first female Asian American soloist — her father is Filipino and her mother is Italian — she is outspoken about her aim to bring equality to the ballet world. “Ballet is at a watershed moment,” said Pazcoguin, who with Phil Chan formed Final Bow for Yellowface, which aims to rid ballet of degrading and outdated depictions of Asian people. “We can either shift and become relevant or it’s going to fade off into the distance. That would be such a failure to me.”
Pazcoguin with Andrew Scordato in George Balanchine’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”Credit…Paul Kolnik
Some of the experiences Pazcoguin relates are disturbing, others are just plain weird. She writes that for years, Ramasar would greet her in class “by sidling up close, whispering, ‘You look fine today,’ eyes locked on my chest, and then he’d zero in on the goal at hand by — surprise! — tweaking my nipples.” (In an email, Ramasar said “I flatly deny this allegation”; Martins didn’t respond to requests for comment.)
She writes about the time the repertory director Jean-Pierre Frohlich, rehearsing the dancers in Jerome Robbins’s “The Concert,” told them to imagine the beauty of spring and “women walking around in tank tops and short dresses, shorts! You know … ’” He paused, she writes, before ending “with this crazy bomb: ‘It’s amazing more women aren’t raped these days.’” (Frohlich said he hadn’t read the book and had no comment.)
Top photo: From left, Amar Ramasar, Robert Fairchild, Sara Mearns and Pazcoguin, who danced a villain role, in Peter Martins’s “Ocean’s Kingdom,” in 2011. Credit…Paul Kolnik
Lee's Perspective 