This behavior is totally disgusting and unconscionable.  

What kind of warped mind is at work to destroy beautiful and iconic art at one of San Francisco’s most venerable religious instiutions?

San Francisco Chronicle 1.31.2020

St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco was targeted by a vandal who shattered or cracked nine of the iconic building’s oversized windows on Friday.

“It’s like somebody came up and just smashed, like that,” glass glazier Kent Kester said outside the church Friday afternoon, miming a swing with a mallet. As he spoke, workers hauled more than 2 tons of glass away.

A person from one of the high rises across the street witnessed the lone vandal breaking windows around 1:30 a.m. and called police, according to Mike Brown, Director of Communication for the the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

A police spokesman said the suspect fled the scene prior to police arrival and there have been no arrests. The incident is under investigation.

Brown said the windows were broken around eye level, and added there were “plenty of security cameras that are being examined right now.”

Each pane was approxiately 105 inches tall, 96 inches wide, and weighed about 470 lbs, Kester said. The repairs will take several days: Approximately three days to set the bronze tempered glass and two more for caulking.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a half-million dollars,” Kester said.

Brown said another one of the church windows was broken in the last year or so, but said it wasn’t a regular occurrence.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Vandal-breaks-9-massive-windows-at-St-Mary-s-15021397.php#photo-18965114

 

Every Picture Tells a Story – Ongoing Series

After a grass roots political effort which began in 1972 San Francisco’s Market Street, one of the City’s main transit arteries, became car free today.

I have been riding a bike in San Francisco since, yes, 1972.  I must admit that I never thought this would happen.

San Francisco Chronicle 1.29.2020

 

1972 Bike Power rally at City Hall

Market Street 1.29.2020

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Will-banning-cars-solve-Market-Street-s-15014822.php

The personal and human toll of the US Attorneys campaign against San Francisco is only beginning to sink in to the City’s body politic.

Linda Clayton is not charged with any crime in Trump’s crime busters crusade against San Francisco.  Nonetheless, the strain of being brought into the media whirlwind has led to Clayton’s resignation after 24 years on the San Francisco Airport Commission.

Health reasons are being cited.

San Francisco Chronicle 1.29.2020

The San Francisco International Airport Commissioner whom federal officials allege Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru and restaurateur Nick Bovis sought to bribe resigned Wednesday.

Linda Crayton cited a struggle with “multiple, severe medical conditions for several years” in her resignation letter to Mayor London Breed.

Nuru and Bovis were charged with wire fraud Tuesday in connection with schemes that involved trying to exchange cash and gifts for contracts at SFO and the Transbay transit center. The complaint alleges the men tried to bribe Crayton in exchange for voting to approve an airport lease for Bovis’ chicken restaurant.

Crayton, who was first appointed to the airport commission by then-Mayor Willie Brown in 1996, is listed only as “Commissioner 1” in the Justice Department’s criminal complaint against Nuru and Bovis. But Crayton’s attorney, Randall Knox, confirmed that Crayton was the target of their alleged bribery scheme.

Her attorney Randall Knox said Crayton resigned due to her frail health combined with the revelations released Tuesday, which “is a little more stress than she wants to bear right now.”

“The bottom line is, the demands of my medical treatment have increased to the point that I cannot continue to serve on the commission,” Crayton said in her resignation letter

Recent questions have also emerged about whether whether she lives in San Francisco — a requirement for airport commissioners and other public offices.

In their complaint, federal officials lay out in meticulous detail the evidence collected from confidential informants, wiretaps, undercover officers and surveillance that they allege shows Nuru and Bovis concocting a plan to buy off Crayton. The complaint also alleges that Bovis expected Crayton’s approval would bring along the votes of two additional commissioners who “vote in a block” with Crayton.

The complaint indicates that Crayton knew Nuru — going so far as to say that Nuru helped get her a spot on the commission.

Federal officials say that Bovis thought Crayton was receptive to their overtures. According to the complaint, Bovis told an informant that Crayton had confided that “she was confident she could help them secure the lease after she got all the information.” “Bovis told the informant that Crayton said ‘she’ll make sure we get in.’”

The complaint accuses Nuru and Bovis of conspiring to bribe Crayton with a trip and $5,000 in cash.

“Bovis and Nuru then took concrete steps to implement the scheme by arranging a private dinner with (Crayton) and bringing an envelope full of cash to the meeting,” the complaint said.

Bovis told an undercover officer that he had offered the cash to Crayton after the dinner, but she rejected it. He later decided against the lump-sum and thought instead to “take care of” Crayton by offering a small portion of the licensing fees he would receive from the restaurant lease.

But that plan unraveled after Bovis and others involved in the scheme became suspicious that they were being watched by the FBI. The complaint also says Crayton did not accept the cash bribe.

“If you look at the recorded conversations in the complaint, it’s clear that Ms. Crayton is saying ‘I’m trying to do the right thing,’” Knox, the commissioner’s lawyer, said. “She’s innocent. She’s neither the target or the subject (of the investigation). At most, she’s a potential witness.”

The alleged airport scheme is one of five separate instances of public corruption Nuru and Bovis were involved in.

Both men are free on $2 million bonds and both face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Nuru was placed on paid administrative leave, in accordance with city policy, on Monday. They are expected back in court again on Feb. 6.

Scrutiny over Crayton’s role in the alleged scheme also raised questions about her eligibility to work as an airport commissioner based on where she lives.

Publicly available records indicate that while Crayton is registered to vote in San Francisco, she has a residence in San Leandro. A Chronicle editor visited the San Leandro address, inside a gated neighborhood, Tuesday and Wednesday. No one responded to calls to a home listed on the security system at the entrance as “Crayton L”.

The San Francisco International Airport Commissioner whom federal officials allege Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru and restaurateur Nick Bovis sought to bribe resigned Wednesday.

Linda Crayton cited a struggle with “multiple, severe medical conditions for several years” in her resignation letter to Mayor London Breed.

Nuru and Bovis were charged with wire fraud Tuesday in connection with schemes that involved trying to exchange cash and gifts for contracts at SFO and the Transbay transit center. The complaint alleges the men tried to bribe Crayton in exchange for voting to approve an airport lease for Bovis’ chicken restaurant.

Crayton, who was first appointed to the airport commission by then-Mayor Willie Brown in 1996, is listed only as “Commissioner 1” in the Justice Department’s criminal complaint against Nuru and Bovis. But Crayton’s attorney, Randall Knox, confirmed that Crayton was the target of their alleged bribery scheme.

Knox said Crayton resigned due to her frail health combined with the revelations released Tuesday, which “is a little more stress than she wants to bear right now.”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Airport-official-target-of-alleged-SF-bribery-15014834.php

 

The arrest and indictment of DPW boss Mohammed Nuru and local restaurateur Nick Bovis on Federal corruption charges is being widely applauded by local pols and the media.

An issue seemingly lost in the fog of journalistic moralizing is why the Feds are paying such close attention to San Francisco.

Last month the US Attorney in San Francisco involved himself in prosecuting drug dealers in The City’s Tenderloin Neighborhood which sits nearby the US Attorney’s office.

This week the POA  asked the Feds to get involved in the Jamaica Hampton/SFPD fracas of last December. After DA Chesa Boudin did not immediately indict Mr. Hampton for his actions, the POA asked the Feds to intervene.

All this fits a pattern of political payback by the Trump Administration against San Francisco and its “progressive” politics.

48 Hills – 1.28.2020

I just watched the SFPD video of the Jamaica Hampton shooting.  At 3:45 into the video someone shouts, “Get a POA rep out here!!!” The video is available on Youtube. It is disturbing.

DA Chesa Boudin is doing what a fair minded prosecutor should do. He is reviewing all the evidence before reaching a prosecutorial decision.

This drives the POA into a state of apoplexy. Its current boss, Tony Montoya, is in a tough reelection fight. Mr. Montoya is rallying his Base with a continuing assault on the new DA.

During a December fracas with SFPD in the Mission District Jamaica Hampton, 24, struck an officer with a glass bottle and fled. For this Mr. Hampton has been maimed for life. For now DA Boudin is not pressing charges against either Mr. Hampton or the cops who shot him.

POA has undertaken a scorched earth policy to undermine the District Attorney. Its latest salvo is directed at DA Boudin for not indicting Hampton who was shot  by SFPD officers nearly two months ago.  Mr. Hampton is still in hospital. He had a leg amputated earlier this month.

Last year the POA spent upwards of $700,000 to defeat Chesa Boudin. Now that he is now DA  the POA continues its war.  Even going so far as to reach out to Attorney General William Barr, Trump’s unwavering cheerleader, to step into San Francisco legal matters.

Excerpted from – San Francisco Chronicle 1.27.2020

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s decision to withdraw criminal charges last week against a man who was shot by police after allegedly attacking officers with a bottle has inflamed a simmering conflict between the city’s new progressive prosecutor and the law enforcement groups that opposed his election.

Boudin last week made good on his campaign promise to not seek cash bail against any criminal defendants. Previously, he announced a diversion program for parents accused of crimes, pledged to stop charging gang enhancements and fired seven senior attorneys as he restructured his office less than a week after taking office.

Community meeting following the Jamaica Hampton police shooting

“Just because he’s a left-wing, touchy-feely guy, to think he won’t use hard-nosed corporate management, that’s ridiculous,” said Dan Horowitz, a Lafayette defense attorney who supported Boudin’s election campaign. “Now he’s drawing another line in the sand.”

“The Hampton case is unique because there are multiple victims who are seeking, and who deserve, justice,” district attorney spokeswoman Paula Lehman-Ewing wrote in a statement Monday. “No conclusions about the prosecutorial viability of Hampton’s case should be drawn here.”

Randy Knox, a San Francisco defense attorney and former prosecutor, said “The easy thing for Boudin to do would be to prosecute Hampton.”

“I think the more thoughtful and deliberate thing to do is to gather as much information as possible before deciding how to proceed,” he said.

The city’s police union accused Boudin — a former public defender — of giving a “green light” to criminals to attack police, and on Monday called on the federal government to prosecute Jamaica Hampton, the 24-year-old man accused in the Dec. 7 attack in the Mission District. Hampton remains hospitalized and recently had his leg amputated after being shot three times, officials said.

The district attorney’s office, though, said there is nothing conclusive about its decision Friday to pull back the charges “without prejudice,”meaning they can be refiled anytime in the next three years. The office said it suspended the charges as part of a new policy aimed at avoiding conflicts between officer-involved shooting investigations and parallel criminal probes.

The case has quickly become the latest public struggle between San Francisco’s new district attorney, who was sworn in Jan. 8 after campaigning on a platform to be tougher on cops in cases of excessive force, and the Police Department’s rank-and-file. The police union opposed Boudin’s candidacy over fears he would not support law enforcement and be too lenient on criminals.

Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, called Boudin’s decision “a morale buster” and said the new district attorney is “treating the police like criminals rather than the person who caused the shooting to happen.”

“Mr. Boudin has made it clear to criminals everywhere that you can violently attack a police officer and he’ll look the other way,” said Montoya, who’s in a tight race for re-election and has been criticized by the union’s former brash leaders as being “too soft.”

He spoke Monday morning while flanked by members of the San Jose and Los Angeles police unions. Montoya also announced a new website called BoudinBlunders.com, where he said people can submit tips whenever the new district attorney is “protecting criminals and suspects over crime victims.”

Video of the encounter showed Hampton dodging two San Francisco police officers he had allegedly attacked with a bottle near the intersection of 23rd and Mission streets.

During the foot chase, Hampton appeared to run toward Officer Sterling Hayes, while still carrying the bottle, moments before the officer opened fire. Hampton attempted to get up when Officer Christopher Flores fired one shot.

Police said Hampton matched the description of an intruder who had broken into a woman’s home that morning.

Flores’ attorney, Nicole Pifari, sent a sharply worded letter to Boudin on Monday urging him to reconsider. “Despite the vast spectrum of political beliefs represented in San Francisco, we should hopefully be able to agree that no one is safe in a city where uniformed police officers are attacked and beaten without consequence,” she wrote.

Boudin’s office said his decision pull back the charges is not unique to Hampton’s case, but rather, is part of a “deconfliction policy” to sort out cases where there is potential for competing criminal liability.

Hampton was originally booked on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, assault upon a police officer and threats to an officer. The case was charged by interim District Attorney Suzy Loftus but never proceeded to arraignment while Hampton remained hospitalized.

“It would be unfair to ask the officers to testify as witnesses in a criminal prosecution while they are still under investigation for their use of force in the same incident,” Lehman-Ewing wrote. “A better approach is to conclude all investigations and proceed with clarity for all involved, witnesses, victims and suspects.”

Whether or not the decision was part of a new policy, it still has not sat well with many in the department. Mayor London Breed and Chief Bill Scott each sent letters to every police officer in the department pledging their support for the officers.

“I have no doubt that this decision has created a great deal of confusion, frustration, and anger within the department,” Breed wrote in a message Monday obtained by The Chronicle. “I have spoken with the District Attorney and he made it clear that the investigation into all the circumstances and facts surrounding the incident must be resolved before any decision to file charges can occur to avoid any conflict of interest.”

The chief on Friday wrote to officers that “This unprovoked attack was a violent, criminal act. I want you to know that we remain committed to working with the DA to see that justice is done in this case for our officers.”

Montoya blasted the chief’s statement, saying Scott didn’t adequately stand up for the members. He was more happy with San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia’s reaction. He called Boudin’s decision “shocking and despicable” in a tweet Sunday, and added “I feel terrible for the courageous men and women of the SFPD.”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/SF-police-union-calls-on-feds-to-prosecute-man-15008195.php#photo-18854590

 

 

 

Republican Senate toadys may be getting ready to give Trump a pass on Impeachment. San Francisco is having none of it taking to the streets to show the World this city wants this guy gone.  Out Now!

San Francisco Chronicle 1.26.2020

Clara Saenzpardo, 28, of Oakland attends the march protesting war.

The protesters chanted, banged on drums, waved signs and listened to speakers rail against “American imperialism” in the Middle East and Africa, the “illegal state of Israel” and the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who was killed this month in an air strike ordered by President Trump.

After an hour, the group marched up Powell Street to Union Square in an attempt to avoid bumping into a simultaneous antiabortion march down Market Street.

“We should just not go into any other countries for war, just for our own selfish values, oil or suppressing people’s rights,” said Sarah Schilbach, 47, of Montara, who carried a globe and waved a sign criticizing the American penchant for starting wars to quench the country’s thirst for oil. “I would love for our president to just have more of a verbal communication with a country to work things out nonviolently.”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/More-than-1-000-anti-war-demonstrators-march-in-15004772.php#photo-18935416

KTLA 5 – 1.26.2020

Retired Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant has died after the helicopter he was in crashed on a hillside in the Calabasas area on Sunday morning, the Associated Press and Los Angeles Times reported.

The 41-year-old athlete was one of five occupants who did not survive the fiery incident in the 4200 block of Las Virgenes Road.

Bryant was father to four children and married to Vanessa Laine Bryant.

Authorities have not publicly confirmed his death and have not identified any of the victims.

TMZ first reported that Bryant died in the crash.

https://ktla.com/2020/01/26/kobe-bryant-dies-in-calabasas-area-helicopter-crash-that-left-no-survivors-variety/

District Attorney Chesa Boudin is keeping his campaign vow to thoroughly investigate wrong doing whether by citizens or law enforcement.

The SFPD and its union the POA are predictably outraged because the DA is not rushing to indict a civilian who allegedly struck an officer with a bottle, injuring the cop.

The DA is looking at this alleged assault.

Boudin, to the dismay of the POA, is investigating the SFPD officers who fired several shots, causing severe injury. The victim of this shooting had his leg amputated and is still in the hospital.

San Francisco Chronicle 1.25.2020

Assault charges against a man who was shot and seriously wounded after he allegedly slammed a bottle into a San Francisco police officer’s face were withdrawn Friday, infuriating rank-and-file officers.

Alex Bastian, the spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said the case was set aside to avoid conflicts between two separate investigations
— one being the internal officer-involved shooting case and the other being the criminal allegations against Hampton.

“Both cases are still under investigation,” Bastian said. “We don’t want one investigation to interfere with the other. We are looking into developing a policy to avoid conflicts in cases where multiple investigations are ongoing.”

Officer Sterling Hayes fired six shots at Hampton, who was apparently still holding the bottle when he ran toward the officer. The wounded Hampton attempted to rise from the ground, prompting Officer Christopher Flores to fire another shot, according to police and video surveillance.

Hampton was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was listed Saturday in serious condition. His left leg was amputated this month.

Flores was taken to the hospital with head injuries. He was treated and released.

District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a former public defender whose election was opposed by the police union, decided not to pursue criminal charges against Jamaica Hampton, who was shot after he allegedly attacked two officers with a glass vodka bottle in the Mission District in December.

The charges were pulled “without prejudice,” which means they can be refiled at Boudin’s discretion.

“The District Attorney has informed me that at this time he will withdraw charges against the suspect,” Police Chief Bill Scott wrote to his officers Friday. “The DA indicated that this withdrawal is not a dismissal of the case. This unprovoked attack was a violent, criminal act. I want you to know that we remain committed to working with the DA to see that justice is done in this case for our officers.”

The move prompted an angry response from the San Francisco Police Officers Association, which had opposed Boudin in the November election.

“Chesa Boudin just gave a green light to every criminal in San Francisco that it’s now OK to attack a police officer,” Tony Montoya, the union’s president, said in a statement. “He must be held accountable for his reckless decision that will further endanger every officer in San Francisco.”

Hampton, 24, was originally booked on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, assault upon a police officer and threats to an officer after videos from police body cameras and surveillance footage showed him hitting an officer with a vodka bottle and then being chased through the intersection at 23rd and Mission streets.

The case began with a 911 call from a distraught woman, who complained about a man who had broken into her home that morning and confronted her. Another caller said a man with an iron bar was breaking into cars on the block.

Surveillance video shows the two officers arriving at the scene and stopping to question Hampton, who suddenly attacked when Hayes opened the door of the squad car. Hayes tried to defend himself with kicks and then, when his partner ran around the car to help, Hampton struck Flores with the bottle several times.

The two officers chased Hampton, yelling, “Get on the ground,” and tried to pepper spray him before the shots were fired, according to the video and police accounts.

Withdrawing the charges wasn’t the first time Boudin has upset the police since he took office Jan. 8. The city’s top prosecutor announced Wednesday that his office would no longer ask for cash bail as a condition for defendants’ pretrial release.

 

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/DA-drops-assault-charges-against-man-who-15004588.php

Sad and typical boorish behavior from America’s top diplomat and Trump apologist. Mike Pompeo is the typical loser clown, all too typical of the sycophants who work for this unhinged fool in the White House.

Mike Pompeo is an embarrasment. But in Trump’s world view he only wants slavish obedience. He gets it with this clown.

The Guardian 1.24.2020

Secretary of state used the F-word and demanded host Mary Louise Kelly find Ukraine on a map, journalist says

Mike Pompeo is said to have unleashed a foul-mouth tirade at a well known US radio host after she asked him questions about Ukraine in an interview.

Most of the interviews Pompeo gives are to conservative or evangelical Christian media or outlets from his home state of Kansas, where the tone of questioning tends towards the reverential and supportive. He has a history of attacking his interviewer when faced with challenging questions, often dismissing those questions as absurd.

Mary Louise Kelly, a respected broadcaster on National Public Radio (NPR), sat down for a pre-arranged interview with the secretary of state on Friday, whose wrath was apparently triggered by a string of questions about Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine. Kelly asked Pompeo whether he owed Yovanovitch an apology for not defending her in the face of a smear campaign orchestrated by Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his associates.

Kelly said an aide to Pompeo then abruptly ended the interview, before Pompeo summoned her to his private living room at the state department and began berating her, asking her :“do you think Americans care about Ukraine?”

“He used the F-word in that sentence and many others,” Kelly said, describing a rant in the room where the notoriously thin-skinned former Republican congressman had called her.

Pompeo “shouted at me for about the same amount of time as the interview” Kelly recalled. “He was not happy to have been questioned about Ukraine.” Pompeo is due to travel to Ukraine next week.

In what appeared to be a bizarre attempt to browbeat her, he asked the host of the NPR programme All Things Considered if she could find Ukraine on a map, and when she said she could (she was a foreign correspondent and has covered intelligence and national security) he called for aides to bring a map of the world with no country or place names on it.

Kelly pointed to Ukraine, Pompeo put the map away and said: “People will hear about this”.

That is what happened. Kelly went on NPR after her interview aired, and gave her account of the encounter.

Yovanovitch was removed in May as the Trump camp was trying to put pressure on the Ukraine government to produce compromising material on Joe Biden and his son – the issue at the heart of the impeachment trial underway in the Senate.

Kelly’s questions were particularly topical as a new recording surfaced on Friday in which Giuliani’s associates denigrated Yovanovitch and a voice that appears to the president’s can be heard saying: “Take her out”.

Pompeo told Kelly he had agreed to the interview to talk about Iran. But Kelly pointed out that she had confirmed with his staff that she would ask about both Iran and Ukraine.

“I just don’t have anything else to say about that this morning,” Pompeo said. According to Kelly, he leaned towards her and glared as the interview was wound up.

In June 2018, when asked whether the statement about denuclearisation signed by Trump and Kim Jong-un at a summit in Singapore would be verified by weapons inspectors, Pompeo became angry telling a reporter: “I find that question insulting and ridiculous and, frankly, ludicrous.”

In the face of further questioning he said: “It’s not productive to do that, to say silly things. It’s just – it’s unhelpful.”

It soon became apparent that the North Korean leader had not made the disarmament pledges Trump and Pompeo had claimed.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/24/mike-pompeo-ukraine-npr-rant