Lee Heidhues 4.13.2023

The blazing hypocrisy coming from the mouths of San Francisco officialdom boggles the mind at its level of audacity.

These very same people beginning with Mayor London Breed and her handpicked District Attorney have raised the false flag of rampant crime in San Francisco for two years.

DA Jenkins Brooke, who rode to office through a campaign of lies, innuendo and fabrications about the state of crime in San Francisco is excoriating Elon Musk for parroting the lament about crime she shamefully and falsely utilized to con the paranoid driven gullible voters of San Francisco.

It was incendiary rhetoric and complete misrepresentation of the facts that led to the 9MM funded recall of Chesa Boudin in June 2022.

A successful political coup d’etat, whose MAGA donors paid Jenkins over 150K for her work and, ultimately, made Jenkins the prime beneficiary when she was handpicked by Breed to be the new DA.

Now, this very same conniving politician has completed a 180 degree turn. Acknowledging that San Francisco does not have a crime problem.

It’s Jenkins 2023 world. The rampant crime story is all fake news drummed up by the mainstream media.

This same mainstream media Mayor Breed, her City Hall hacks and Brooke Jenkins relied on to oust Chesa Boudin.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Standard 4.13.2023

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has slammed Twitter CEO Elon Musk over his tweet attributing the killing of tech executive Bob Lee to perceived rampant violent crime in the city.

At a Thursday press conference following the arrest of a suspect in Lee’s killing, Jenkins said that Musk’s remarks were “reckless and irresponsible.” 

Police say Lee and his alleged assailant were acquainted and the crime was not random.

Musk’s statements, which implied otherwise, “served to mislead the world in their perceptions of San Francisco and also negatively impact the pursuit of justice for victims of crime,” Jenkins said, because they spread “misinformation at a time when the police are trying to solve a very difficult case.”

“Since waking up to Elon Musk’s tweet, my office has worked hard to tell people not to make assumptions about this case,” told told journalists. 

Lee was stabbed to death in the early morning hours on April 4 in San Francisco’s Rincon Hill neighborhood. His killing made headlines around the world.

Numerous tech entrepreneurs took to Twitter to blame the stabbing on supposedly runaway violent crime in the city. 

Musk was among them, directly calling out Jenkins on Twitter: “Violent crime in SF is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately,” he wrote. “Is the city taking stronger action to incarcerate repeat violent offenders @BrookeJenkinsSF?”

https://sfstandard.com/criminal-justice/bob-lee-killing-elon-musk-slammed-for-reckless-tweets-by-san-francisco-da/

Top photo – DA Brooke Jenkins a master at parroting the false law and order talking points.

Lee Heidhues 4.12.2023

The vicious media attacks on the first black woman District Attorney in Alameda County have begun.

Kudos to SF Gate for calling out the mainstream media which is trying to light the match to yet another political lynching of a progressive district attorney.

It worked in San Francisco. Backed by much of the spineless MSM and with billionaire MAGA funders waiting in the wings they’ve set their sites on another progressive.

Excerpted from SF Gate 4.12.2023

Barely three months into Price’s term, a handful of media members have fixated on new Alameda DA Pamela Price, posturing as if they’re doing objective, community-oriented journalism — and even worse, adopting the holier-than-thou stance that their beliefs and biases aren’t shaping whom they choose to interview and how they choose to report stories.

Price might turn out to be an abject disaster for any number of reasons, but there’s nothing tangible to base that on yet. You don’t have to be a supporter of criminal justice reform to acknowledge the scary implications of already knowing, after barely three months, that a politician who won their race fair and square, who hasn’t even fully instituted their suggested policies yet, seems to be on a collision course for a media-backed recall.

They’re using loaded, pro-punishment rhetoric about “public safety,” boldly assuming the very constituency that just elected Price would of course immediately find her policies to be out of step; they’re acting like it’s newsworthy that a selection of Alameda County prosecutors — some of whom donated to both Nancy O’Malley and Terry Wiley — would choose to resign from office when a DA with radically different politics became their new boss; and they’re also highlighting gruesome anecdotes, thrusting vulnerable families of brutal crimes into the limelight to cynically dissuade the public from thinking critically about the larger impacts of criminal justice reform.

ABC7 reporter Dan Noyes, who, as far as I can tell, would bristle at the idea of publicly admitting to his political ideologies, including on issues like criminal justice. But his editorial choices, and his sources list, speak for themselves.

Reporter Emilie Raguso, who’s guilty of many of the same one-sided reporting techniques as Noyes, took a similar stance at her publication, the Berkeley Scanner, which is dedicated to writing up the grisly details of neighborhood crimes. 

Both Noyes’ and Raguso’s reporting on the triple-homicide case has relied on the disgust of Alameda County Judge Mark McCannon, who denied Price’s 15-year plea deal. Since McCannon’s move, Price has announced that she’s moving to disqualify him from overseeing her cases. Noyes called Price’s decision an “extraordinary action,” but Price’s predecessor, O’Malley, took the same action with a judge less than a year ago.

What neither Noyes nor Raguso bothered mentioning in their coverage is that O’Malley’s office left this triple-homicide case floundering for years, dating back to 2015, because there are questions about whether the evidence would sustain a conviction. And McCannon is not some apolitical figure. In fact, he was an Alameda County deputy district attorney for 16 years under Tom Orloff and then, yes, O’Malley. He even donated to O’Malley’s campaign in 2009. He’s an elected official and someone who was once deeply involved in the office Price is attempting to reform.

Noyes has the ideal mentor for these self-absorbed shenanigans in his colleague, Dion Lim, who perfected the routine of chasing around a progressive DA (in her case, Chesa Boudin).

Lim has waded into Price’s tenure as well, recently interviewing the family of Jasper Wu, a 23-month-old who was killed by gunfire on Interstate 880 in Oakland. Lim explained in her report that Wu’s alleged killers might — keyword might — receive a lesser sentence because Price is against sentencing enhancements; one of Wu’s parents responded by telling Lim that they do not “believe in second chances” and they disagreed with the idea of eliminating those enhancements.

https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/media-coverage-of-alameda-county-da-pamela-price-17891024.php

Top photo: Then-Alameda County DA candidate Pamela Price speaks during a rally hosted by the Peoples Park Council in Berkeley, Calif., on July 27, 2022. MediaNews Group/East Bay Times v/MediaNews Group via Getty Images

Lee Heidhues 4.10.2023

The MAGA war against progressive district attorneys continues.

It has moved across the Bay to Alameda County where it is setting its sights on that County’s first black female district attorney, Pamela Price.

At least one of the usual suspects whose bullhorn disruptive tactics was instrumental in the political lynching of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin last year has made her way to Oakland.

Leanna Louie, who famously disrupted a Chesa Boudin rally in March 2022 with her bullhorn, is at it, again. Standing on the stairs of the Alameda County courthouse hoping to politically lynch another progressive District Attorney. Showing a little respect for the Court, Leanna wasn’t wielding her bullhorn today.

This is the same Leanna Louie whose candidacy for a Supervisor seat in San Francisco was tossed out by a Superior Court judge due to her illegal residency.

This is the same Leanna Louie who called Mission Local investigative reporter Joe Eskenazi a “Nazi” after he exposed her illegal residency in a feature article last summer. Joe Eskenazi is Jewish.

Excerpted from The Standard 4.10.2023

A crowd of protesters turned out in Oakland on Monday to voice their anger at Alameda County district attorney Pamela Price over her handling of the homicide case of Jasper Wu, a 2-year-old Chinese American boy who was shot in 2021.

Elaine Peng, an activist in Oakland’s Chinatown and a mental health advocate, defended Price, pointing out that the DA has not said she would seek a lower sentence or zero jail time in the Wu case. Peng has worked with the Wu family since the beginning.

“She was just hoping to work with AAPI organizations to find alternative punishment solutions to make the community safer,” Peng said.

Pamela Price, the progressive DA who was elected in 2022, is drawing strong criticism from members of the Chinese American community who fear she may not prosecute the alleged killers to the fullest extent. Protesters cited a recent emailed statement addressed to the “Chinese communities” in which Price sought possible “non-carceral form” of solutions to criminal offenses, triggering the backlash.

Price’s letter, which was sent to multiple Chinatown community members and Chinese-language media reporters, also received condemnation from National Asian Pacific Islander Prosecutors Association for its perceived condescending tone.

“Some people don’t know about the basic principles of constitutional law that govern our office and the justice system,” Price said in the letter.

Price’s office sent out a statement emphasizing it has not yet made any decisions regarding the charges in Wu’s killing and will make decisions directly in accordance to the evidence.

“Our hearts continue to go out to the family and to this entire community regarding this horrific crime,” the statement said. “We will be transparent about this case as it proceeds through the justice system.”

Bob Yee, one of the rally organizers, said the goal for the rally was to empower the community to hold Price accountable.

“Price had an opportunity to unify us and provide leadership,” Yee said. “Instead, she chose to divide us.”

Top photo – Alameda District Attorney Pamela Price

https://sfstandard.com/criminal-justice/progressive-alameda-da-faces-backlash-over-toddler-killing-case/

Lee Heidhues 4.9.2023

“SAN FRANCISCO’S SUCH A HARD CITY TO LIVE IN. PEOPLE CYCLE THROUGH EVERY TWO YEARS.”

Talking about my City.

Standing on my front porch in a quiet part of town this evening I heard someone proclaim loudly as he walked by.

Perhaps we’ve been here too long and we fail to realize it.

Does this make us survivors?

Top photo – Distraught cyclist at memorial for fellow cyclist killed by a speeding motorist April 4, 2023

Lee Heidhues 4.7.2023

San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan has been the worst of the worst trying to Destroy JFK Promenade, the Great Walkway and Slow Streets. 

Now she is exploiting the death of beloved cyclist Ethan Boyes near her District to call for bike enhancements in the area where he was cut down by an irresponsible motorist on April 4, 2023.

The Supervisor is disparaged by many cyclists for her strenuous well documented opposition to bike lanes and pedestrian car free thoroughfare.

Three years into her four year term Connie Chan wants to make amends.

No way… During her successful election bid in November 2020 Connie stood with environmentalists and received the endorsement of Sunrise Bay Area. A commitment she completely drove away from once safely parked in office.

This is nothing more than a crass political stunt to boost her reelection bid in 2024. Advocates for car free spaces in San Francisco have not forgotten and will never forget or forgive her well documented car centric advocacy.

Articles excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 4.7.2023

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/s-f-officials-look-protected-bike-lanes-near-17884950.php

As friends mourned the death of an elite cyclist struck by a car in San Francisco’s Presidio park, Supervisor Connie Chan called for protected bike lanes on roads leading up to the park’s entrance.

“No one should suffer or die from traffic violence,” Chan said in a statement Friday, days after a USA Cycling Champion Ethan Boyes was stuck and killed by a motorist near Inspiration Point — the latest bike fatality to convulse the city.

“We must be proactive in preventing these tragedies from occurring in the first place, Chan continued. “To that end, I have also requested a District 1 Mobility Study to improve traffic safety and transit connectivity in the District, and I am urging SFMTA to explore the possibility of protective bike lanes on Arguello between Geary and the entrance to the Presidio.”

The U.S. Park Police said Friday that they are still investigating what happened. Officers responded to a collision between a cyclist and a vehicle at Arguello Boulevard, south of Washington Boulevard, at about 4 p.m. Tuesday, public information officer Thomas Twiname said. Medics transported the cyclist to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. He was later pronounced dead. The driver was also transported to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

U.S. Park Police declined to say whether the driver was arrested or whether drugs or alcohol were involved in the collision.

Jean Fraser, CEO of the Presidio Trust, said the organization’s leaders were heartbroken to learn of Boyes’ death. 

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/ethan-boyes-death-adds-s-f-s-bicycle-fatalities-17884671.php

The death of elite cyclist Ethan Boyes this week angered San Francisco’s cycling community, in part, because it marked the latest tragedy in the growing list of bicyclists killed in the city over the past decade.

Since 2010, there have been 34 bike fatalities in San Francisco — with many of them taking place in the city’s northeast quadrant. A motorist struck and killed Boyes Tuesday while he was cycling on a federally owned stretch of Arguello Boulevard south of Washington Boulevard in the Presidio.

Supervisor Catherine Stefani, whose district includes the Presidio, said in a statement to The Chronicle that she was “devastated” by Boyes’ death and that the corridor “needs to be made safer for all those who use it.”

“This senseless act of traffic violence was totally avoidable, and I urge the U.S. Park Police to hold the driver accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Stefani said.

Bicyclists, for years, have raised safety concerns traveling along Arguello Boulevard and say they often must navigate speeding traffic. Hundreds of cyclists travel along the corridor’s painted bike lanes which stretch from Golden Gate Park to the Presidio.

Top photo:

A mourner bows during a vigil for Ethan Boyes on Friday at the spot where the cyclist was fatally struck by a car Tuesday. Noah Berger/Special to The Chronicle

Lee Heidhues 4.7.2023

I just read about this film opening today and was immediately riveted watching the Trailer.

My first reaction was to think about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline which was blown up last September and continues to be the subject of much speculation as to the perpetrators.

But, no, this is a homegrown fictionalization placed in the category of Art imitates Life.

Definitely not your normal American mall movie nonsense.

Excerpted from The New York Times 4.6.2023

“How to Blow Up a Pipeline” is at its best when it functions as a kind of roughed-up caper movie; it has a degree of suspense and efficiency that are becoming all too rare in the mainstream.

Daniel Goldhaber makes the most of potential complications at the pipeline site: a fraying belt, unexpected visitors, a bloody injury that might leave DNA. These are the sort of tactile details on which heist films thrive.

Discussions of the 2021 book “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” inevitably note that it does not really contain instructions for blowing up a pipeline, although its author, Andreas Malm, a Swedish academic who has pressed for radical action on the climate crisis, hardly opposes the idea. He argues that the status quo has grown so dire that activists would be foolish not to turn to sabotage, and that peaceful protest alone is unlikely to achieve results quickly enough.

Movies, though, are more of a show-don’t-tell medium, so the screen version of “How to Blow Up a Pipeline,” directed by Goldhaber (“Cam”), turns Malm’s ideas into the basis for a propulsive heist thriller. Instead of busting into a vault or a museum, the characters conspire to commit an incendiary act that will wreak havoc on oil prices.

Is the film itself, by having heroes some might call eco-terrorists, playing with fire? It certainly has the veneer of being daring. Then again, given the imagination that movies routinely apply to crimes of all sorts, it scarcely seems fair to object to the depiction just because the target is novel or has real-world implications.

Whether or not it convinces you that eco-terrorism is the way to fight climate change, “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” is masterfully entertaining propaganda.

While the ethics of what they’re doing gets a bare minimum of lip service, don’t expect too much moral soul-searching on any of their parts.

These activists are either certain of the cause’s righteousness, jacked up on the thrill of doing damage, or a combination of both. Despite that, they’re full-bodied personalities for the most part. If our mad world has taught us anything, it’s that true believers are as human as anyone else, and this movie takes that to heart.

Shot with a gritty immediacy on 16mm film (cinematographer Tehillah De Castro has done notable Bruno Mars and Olivia Rodrigo videos) and energized by Gavin Brivik’s electro-percussive score, “Pipeline” applies styles and attitudes from rebellious 1960s and ’70s films to contemporary concerns. Most effectively, the movie is true to that era’s commitment to credible onscreen behavior. 

These people seem real, even if their primary motivations are ideological.

Perhaps more than they intended to, Daniel Goldhaber and the actors make the political personal. That’s a triumph of craft over appetites for destruction.

Lee Heidhues 4.6.2023

Following are my comments in the San Francisco Chronicle about the murder of Bob Lee and the apparent callousness of a citizen who could have offered assistance to a dying man.

“If the media reports are correct, is the fact Bob Lee approached a motorist who opened his door. Saw Bob bleeding. Drove away. So much for helping someone in dire need. I wonder how this Loser feels today. All too Typical American response. Don’t get involved. Pathetic. This is a family newspaper. I can’t say what I really think about the individual who fled the scene.”

You won’t see the graphic photos and video of Bob Lee’s final moments readily available in the local San Francisco media.

The San Francisco Standard linked the following DailyMail.com article complete with video and still photos.

It’s chilling and difficult to watch.

Excerpted from DailyMail.com U.K. 4.6.2023

EXCLUSIVE: Harrowing final moments of Cash App founder Bob Lee, 43, as he staggers outside luxury high-rise after knife attack and tries to get help – and residents say video is shocking proof that crime in San Fran is OUT OF CONTROL

• WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT 
• Harrowing CCTV footage obtained by DailyMail.com shows Bob Lee staggering and then collapsing on the street after being stabbed in San Francisco 
• Lee appears disoriented as he approaches an apartment building at 2:34am Tuesday, clutching his side with one hand, and holding his phone with another
• He tries to flag down a passing car to no avail, before frantically dialing on his phone. The brutal killing has ignited concern over public safety in San Francisco

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11946767/Cash-App-founder-Bob-Lee-seen-video-staggering-collapsing-stabbed.html

Lee Heidhues 4.4.2023

We watch the BBC everyday on public television and had come to look forward to Laura Trevelyan’s daily 30 minute presentation.

Laura has been missing from the airwaves the past several weeks with a parade of different announcers handling the assignment.

Today I learned why this top level BBC announcer has not been on the air. It looks like we will never see her, again in a broadcast capacity.

Excerpted from The Guardian 3.16.2023

A BBC journalist whose family made history for publicly apologizing for its ownership of more than 1,000 enslaved African people and paying reparation has quit the broadcaster to campaign for reparative justice full-time.

The decision comes after Trevelyan family apologized for ownership of more than 1,000 enslaved African people

Laura Trevelyan and her family travelled to the Caribbean country of Grenada last month to publicly apologize for their family’s role in slavery and announced £100,000 in reparations.

In November, King Charles was reported to have said he was ready to have “active conversations” about Britain’s involvement in the slave trade. His goddaughter, Fiona Compton, who is an artist and daughter of former prime minister of St Lucia Sir John Compton, said the king had spoken to her about the way the subject could be better highlighted and acknowledged.

Trevelyan told the Telegraph: “The coronation of the king and his comments about being ready to talk about the legacy of slavery provide an opening for a wider discussion.”

Trevelyan, who said that the £100,000 donation would be drawn from a pending pension payout from the BBC, said she would be quitting the public broadcaster to become a full-time “roving advocate” on the campaign to secure financial reparations for the Caribbean from former colonial powers.

She also said she wanted to work with other families whose ancestors owned enslaved people in the Caribbean and who wanted to make amends.

​The Trevelyan family’s apology and reparation was announced alongside Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the Caricom Reparations Commission. Caricom, or Caribbean Community, is a group of 15 countries in the region.

Trevelyan said that her future work would entail “advocating for Caricom’s reparatory justice agenda”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/16/laura-trevelyan-quits-bbc-to-campaign-reparative-justice-slavery-caribbean

Lee Heidhues 4.5.2023

Every Picture Tells a Story

Trump criminal indictment edition

The media was agog on April 4, 2023. The day of Citizen Donald Trump’s indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney on 34 felony charges.

Television and print journalism provided a cornucopia of historic photos and headlines.

Lee Heidhues 4.4.2023

I was genuinely shocked when I saw this article.

Immediately I asked myself, “Why is it necessary for people to slaughter these peaceful animals which have roamed the earth’s surface long before the selfish human race entered the scene.”

Answer, “It’s not.”

Excerpted from The New York Times 4.4.2023

HELENA, Mont. — An unusually harsh winter that buried Yellowstone National Park under a heavy blanket of snow and ice this year pushed a large portion of the park’s bison herd down to lower elevations and out of the park in search of milder climes and food.

Many were stopped from migrating even farther.

For four months, state and federal officials have sanctioned a hunt of the shaggy, humped animals that delight millions of tourists and are a centerpiece of Native American culture and history.

Buffalo Field Campaign, turned out this year to protest the ban on bison migration out of the park onto federal land in Montana. “They are killing one-quarter of the herd,” said Mike Mease, a founder of the organization. “That is insanity.”

Mr. Mease acknowledged the importance of the eight Indigenous tribal hunt, but he criticized what he said was a powerful commercial influence driving the extent of the hunt.

“They wipe out way too many buffalo,” he said. “No other wildlife is treated this way. This is all directed by the Montana livestock industry.”

Billboards sponsored by two environmental groups, Roam Free Nation and Alliance for the Wild Rockies, showcase concerns, with one featuring a photo of a herd of bison and a hunter, and the headline: “There is no hunt. It’s a slaughter.”

Officials said they had no choice but to approve the lengthy culling of the roughly 6,000-member herd as the animals instinctually cross the park boundary onto other public land primarily to the north in Montana’s Paradise Valley, but also west of the park. It is part of a strategy to prevent them from getting near livestock, because some 60 percent of the bison herd carries a disease, brucellosis, that could infect cattle and cause cows to abort their calves.

But in the last several weeks, the scope of the hunt, conducted mainly by members of eight Indigenous tribes, along with other park control measures, has generated more criticism than previous hunts.

As the culling winds down, the record-breaking number of bison removed from Yellowstone’s herd has climbed to more than 1,530 — including hundreds of pregnant females that would have soon been giving birth. Hundreds more were sent out of the park — some to slaughterhouses and about 285 to a quarantine site where they will be held to determine if they are disease-free. The healthy ones will be sent to homes on Native American lands elsewhere.

Top photo – Lee Heidhues – September 2017

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bison_Range#:~:text=The%20Bison%20Range%20(BR)%20is,50%2D60%20calves%20per%20year.