Lee Heidhues 12.2.2022

Brooke Jenkins spent eight months working as the 153K “Volunteer” to destroy and politically lynch her former boss Progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

She shamelessly appealed to the law and order MAGA crowd with over the top claims about the number of Perps being released from jail under Chesa’s watch.

The mainstream media was a willing partner in the dishonest reporting on Chesa Boudin.

What this opportunistic politician failed to mention, even though she had eight years experience, is that often suspects are released pending Trial on the Order of a Judge. It is well documented that Chesa Boudin argued to have Perps locked up when he thought the circumstances merited it.

Now DA Jenkins is receiving reminders from the Court about how the System works.

Why is the media ignoring this reality and not holding Brooke Jenkins up to the same standard?

The San Francisco Standard 12.2.2022

Suspects in two high-profile crimes against Asian Americans in San Francisco were released despite pressure from prosecutors for them to await trial in jail.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Marisa Chun decided Friday to put 20-year-old Gustavo Ribeiro-Quintanilha—who’s accused of holding an 88-year-old Asian woman at gunpoint during a home invasion and robbery in Ingleside—on house arrest with electronic monitoring.

In arguing for Ribeiro-Quintanilha to stay in jail on Monday, Nancy Tung, the chief of the Vulnerable Victims Unit at the District Attorney’s Office, said he’s a danger to the public because he used guns and has a rap sheet with multiple offenses in San Francisco and San Mateo counties. 

Releasing him would put others at risk of “great bodily injury,” Tung said. 

However, Judge Chun, who jailed Ribeiro-Quintanilha after his arrest in October, said he has “now been assessed,” and that new information suggests he’s suitable for supervised release.

Other factors that weighed into the judge’s decision included the suspect’s young age, family support, a short criminal history and how he didn’t physically hurt anyone during the alleged crime, which took place in April. Even so, Judge Chun admonished him to stay away from people who’d be a “bad influence.”

According to the police report, two suspects broke into the octogenarian’s home and “forced her into her bathroom at gunpoint” while they rummaged through her belongings. The victim’s daughter told KPIX the ordeal reduced the victim to tears and terrified her whole family.

Ribeiro-Quintanilha’s release from jail comes soon after a similar decision in a separate crime that victimized an Asian American.

Robert Green—who’s accused of driving the car involved in a fatal crash that killed a 66-year-old Asian woman, Huansu He, and seriously injured an 81-year-old—got out of jail last month. 

Prosecutors said releasing Green, who’s charged with manslaughter, would endanger the public, citing police reports that claim he was high on cannabis and heavily medicated while behind the wheel.

Chinese-language media first reported on Judge Patrick Thompson’s decision to release the 47-year-old Bay Area native.

Jesse Hsieh, the deputy public defender representing Green, told The Standard that supervised release would pose no danger to anyone. Some of the factors that Hsieh said suggest as much, include the defendant’s clean driving record, family support and a job that was steady until he was sidelined from injuries in the crash. Plus, he stayed at the crash scene, which indicates he’s not much of a flight risk.

“These facts,” Hsieh said, “demonstrated to the judge that this was a one-time, tragic accident.”

https://sfstandard.com/community/suspects-released-in-high-profile-sf-crimes-against-asians-despite-das-pushback/

Top photo – San Francisco DA and her parrots.

Lee Heidhues 12.2022

“There ain’t no Great Society as it applies to you and me. Our country isn’t Free.” Frank Zappa

It’s a Police State.

Cops rule America.

Aided and abetted by an American public indoctrinated with law and order rhetoric, mindless cop shows on TV.

An all too often fawning compliant media.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 12.2.2022

A Vallejo police officer fired for sending a threatening email to former Chronicle columnist Otis Taylor Jr., among other misconduct allegations, was cleared of wrongdoing by an arbitrator, Open Vallejo reported.

Taylor, a managing editor of KQED, said he was surprised, but not shocked, by the decision, and that it indicates that the department is “disinterested in actual reform.”

“It’s just really disheartening,” he said. “How is anyone supposed to believe that policing in Vallejo is going to change?”

Michael Nichelini, the combative leader of Vallejo’s police union, was fired in April 2021 following an investigation into an email he sent to Taylor, who reported extensively on misconduct and abusive behavior by the Vallejo Police Department, including reports on Nichelini.

The city also cited another email that Nichelini sent to members of the police union included the image of a 1906 Vallejo police badge, which was inscribed with what appeared to be a Nazi symbol, as reason for his termination. Lawyers for Nichelini immediately appealed the termination, sending it to arbitration.

Open Vallejo reported that Nichelini called the decision overturning his termination “a win for all of us and the process” in an email sent to union members Wednesday.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Report-Vallejo-police-officer-who-threatened-17627048.php

Lee Heidhues 11.29.2022

Attn:  Supervisor Connie Chan – D1 San Francisco

Connie

Whatever shred of Progressive “In Solidarity” credibility you may have had was just buried this evening.

Your blatant cave in with your YES vote to approve Police killer robots puts you firmly in league with the worst law and order reactionaries in San Francisco.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-could-approve-the-use-of-killer-robots-17618170.php

It is beyond disgraceful.

Only three of your comrades had enough guts to stand up to this Orwellian proposal. You were missing in action.

If you think that bowing to the reactionaries in District 1 is going to save your political career, forget it.

The Progressives are abandoning you in droves.

The reactionaries don’t trust you due to your Chameleon like behavior in office.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 11.29.2022

San Francisco police will be allowed to use robots to kill people in limited emergency situations under a controversial new policy approved by city supervisors on Tuesday.

Police leaders said they want the ability to deploy robots with lethal force during extremely rare cases against violent suspects such as mass shooters or suicide bombers. But critics, including a minority of the board, strongly objected to the policy over concerns that it could be abused and allow police to kill people too easily.

Following an impassioned debate, supervisors approved the policy in an 8-3 vote. They adopted an amendment that requires one of two high-ranking SFPD leaders to authorize any actual use of a deadly robot.

Several supervisors remained deeply skeptical that police need the extraordinary ability to kill someone with a robot. Supervisors Dean Preston, Hillary Ronen and Shamann Walton voted against the policy.

“This is a local police force here to protect us. This is not the U.S. military that we are arming,” Preston said at the board meeting. “There is serious potential for misuse and abuse of this military-grade technology, and zero showing of necessity.”

Ronen unsuccessfully sought to amend the policy to require police to exhaust non-lethal options before using a robot with deadly force. Peskin later proposed a successful and less restrictive amendment that lets police use a robot to kill someone if they have tried other de-escalation tactics or concluded that they would not be able to subdue the threat with alternative options.

“This is a big deal,” Ronen said. “This is opening up a Pandora’s box that could change our society in a significant way.”

Lee Heidhues 11.29.2022

It was a nail biting World Cup match. Both teams left it all on the Pitch, particularly USA striker Christian Pulisic who was injured plowing into the Iranian goalkeeper as he scored the only goal of the match.

In the end the Americans prevailed.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 11.29.2022

Iran’s run at the World Cup is over after they narrowly lost to the the United States in a tense contest in Doha.

A single Iranian goal would have been enough to flip the result on its head, but it never came as the US held firm to reach the knockout stages for the first time since 2014.

“The dream is over,” Iran coach Carlos Queiroz said.”We will keep going and try to win respect and admiration and credibility all over the world, because I think my players deserve it.”

Iran leave the competition having made headlines around the world when they refused to sing the national anthem in their opening game, which set the tone as Iranian fans, including many women, proudly displayed their pro-revolutionary symbols, slogans and attire.

The Iranian player Voria Ghafouri, not selected for the tournament but one of the country’s most prominent players, was even arrested back in Iran for supporting the women-led protests and “spreading propaganda” back home.

Reports even surfaced on Monday night that Iran had threatened the players’ families with imprisonment and torture if the players fail to “behave” ahead of Tuesday’s game.

“Conditions in our country are not right, and our people are not happy,” Iranian captain Ehsan Hajsafi told reporters after the England game. Hajsafi added that the victims’ families back home “should know that we are with them, we support them and we sympathize with them.”

The US will face the Netherlands on Saturday after Christian Pulisic’s solitary goal settled what was effectively a playoff for the knockout stages with group winners England beating Wales 3-0 in the group’s other game.

Tensions went up a notch at the World Cup when US Soccer posted the Iranian flag minus the emblem of the Islamic Republic, which has been present on the flag since 1980, one year after the Islamic Republic was established. US Soccer deleted the posts claiming that it was done to “show support for the women in Iran fighting for basic human rights” but the damage was already done.

The American coach, Gregg Berhalter, apologised for the tweet of the flag. “I can only reiterate that the players and staff knew nothing about what was being posted sometimes things are out of our control,” he said. That didn’t stop US captain Tyler Adams, the youngest captain at the tournament at 23, from being rebuked by an Iranian journalist in the pre-match press conference for mispronouncing “Iran”.

https://www.dw.com/en/world-cup-2022-dream-is-over-for-iran-who-leave-lasting-impression/a-63934697

Lee Heidhues 11.27.2022

LETTER TO THE EDITOR – SAN FRANCISCO RICHMOND REVIEW

The overwhelming Victory of Proposition J and the crushing defeat of Proposition I should have sent a message to the motorists and their followers who howled incessantly to put this issue to a vote of The People.

Funded by Dede Wilsey and The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco to the tune of 800K the motorists got their Vote.

There can be no doubt about the Result.

The People want car free areas in San Francisco.

It is sad and all too predictable that the Losers in this Vote by The People refuse to accept the result and continue to push their campaign to drive anywhere anytime.

The motorists want to further limit the car free time on The Great Walkway and continue to argue that The Great Walkway should not be car free beginning on Fridays at noon.

The motorists purposefully have forgotten already that Proposition I, their call to bring cars back to The Great Walkway, was crushed. Sixty-five percent of The People voted NO.

Equally disturbing is the motorists latest war on Slow Streets.

Like barnacles hanging to a collapsing pier the motorists have attached themselves to Slow Streets Cabrillo and 23rd Avenue as an assault on their hegemony in another attempt to thwart the will of The People.

The SFMTA, in a mind-numbing decision, has voted to cut by half the number of Slow Streets despite the election results.

This sense of Entitlement by the motorists is reprehensible and will be firmly rejected.

Sunday News Quiz Error – San Francisco Chronicle Edition

Lee Heidhues 11.27.2022

The Chronicle weekly news quiz editor must still be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday.

State Senator Scott Wiener (D-S.F.) was the subject of a homophobic slur by MAGA flame thrower, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Rep-Marjorie-Taylor-Greene-calls-Sen-Scott-17606923.php

Question 9 this week asked, “Who did Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene refer to with a homophobic slur on Twitter?”

The correct Answer, according to The Chronicle, is B. George Takei who made his fame on the Star Trek television and cinematic franchise. Wrong!!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Takei

Senator Wiener and George Takei do have one thing in common. Both are Gay men and have been very active in the fight for LGBTQ rights. Rep. Greene would probably ascribe the same disgusting slur to the 85 year old Mr. Takei.

Lee Heidhues 11.26.2022

It was Black Friday, the traditional post Thanksgiving shopping day.

The yearly event certainly turned out to be a special day at the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park.

I first saw this painting, The Flag is Bleeding by Ruth Ringgold on November 8, 2019 at the DeYoung members only showing of ‘Soul of a Nation.’

The next day progressive Chesa Boudin was declared winner in the San Francisco District Attorney election. 

I posted a blog about the ‘Soul of a Nation’ and used the painting. 

In the last three years I have displayed it several times on my Blog to illustrate the volatile political and racist history of America.

It is arguably my favorite piece I have EVER viewed at the DeYoung Museum.

Sunday is the last day of the Faith Ringgold exhibit.

The Flag is Bleeding is a lead painting of the Exhibit.

We purchased a beautifully framed print for a very fair price which includes a further discount Liz receives as a longtime member of the DeYoung Museum. Our purchase is now affixed with a RED DOT waiting to be specially wrapped prior to its journey to our home.

The curator will package it and I will pick it up next Tuesday after the  v  World Cup match.

https://www.famsf.org/press-room/unprecedented-faith-ringgold-american-people-to-make-west-coast-debut-at-de-young-museum

Lee Heidhues 11.23.2022

2022 was a good year for law and order reactionaries in San Francisco.

The most egregious example of this trend was the shameful recall of Progressive DA Chesa Boudin and his handpicked replacement, the ethically challenged Brooke Jenkins already looking at ethics, prosecutorial misconduct and possible criminal investigations.

The San Francisco Chronicle took a deep dive into the voting patterns of its residents in the November 8 election.

The reputation that San Francisco holds sway over progressive thought is not true.

One need only look at the Conservative MAGA funded recalls of Progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin and three Progressive School Board members earlier this year.

In reality, many San Francisco voters are reactionary, tight fisted, law and order minded. Like much of America too many San Franciscans have bought into the Fox News nonsense, particularly in the Western part of San Francisco.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 11.23.2022

San Francisco’s propositions on the November ballot covered a range of issues, including affordable housing, transportation, car free areas, education and even the library.

But while the 14 measures split voters along different issues, the geographic spread of the results tell the same story: Residents living in the city center voted very differently from those in the outer neighborhoods, particularly the Sunset and Parkside.

High-scoring precincts — those considered more “progressive” and colored in green and blue on the map — are more common and geographically spread out.

There are 60 precincts, mainly stretching from the Panhandle down to Bernal Heights, with scores above 75. Fewer precincts (44 of them) have scores under 25.

The precinct with the highest value is a six-block stretch between Buena Vista Park and the eastern half of the Panhandle. The “yes” shares from this precinct on Propositions E (the affordable housing initiative), M (vacancy tax) and O (City College parcel tax) are at least 10 percentage points higher than the citywide percentages.

Four blocks to the east in Hayes Valley are two more precincts with equally high progressivity scores. And less than a mile south in the Mission are two more.

The San Francisco Chronicle found the city’s least “progressive” precincts concentrated in a 2-square-mile area in the Outer Sunset. The precincts stretch from 19th Avenue to 40th and are bounded by Stern Grove to the north and Lake Merced and San Francisco State University to the south. Another precinct a few blocks east in St. Francis Wood has a similarly low progressivity score.

Top photo – Precincts with the highest progressivity scores

The five precincts with the highest scores are located in Haight-Ashbury, Hayes Valley, the Castro and the Mission.

A map showing the five precincts with the highest progressivity located in the Haight-Ashbury, Hayes Valley, Castro and Mission neighborhoods.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/sf-neighborhoods-moderate-progressive-17605112.php

Lee Heidhues 11.21.2022

I thought that after the smashing victory of Proposition J which made permanent JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park and the total smackdown of the Dede Wilsey Proposition I which would have returned cars full time to The Great Walkway that San Francisco City Hall would get the message.

The message being that San Franciscans want more Slow Streets and car free areas.

Obviously the bureaucrats in City Hall, led by opportunistic Mayor London Breed, have yet to receive the message.

Most distressing is the absence of Lake Street from Arguello to 25th Avenue. This has been one of the most scenic and widely used Slow Streets. Regrettably, the well heeled residents of this area have howled non stop that their hegemony over the road has been eliminated. Money talks and the City Hall bureaucrats have shamefully listened.

The latest proposal by the San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Authority (SFMTA) would severely cut back the number of Slow Streets, put in place by Mayoral decree at the beginning of the Pandemic in April 2020.

The SFMTA, as its reason for dialing back the program makes the eye rolling comment, “Others (Slow Streets) did not meet the needs of the community.”

I ask, Who is the so called “community?” Answer: The Entitled Motorists who will never be satisfied.

Those seeking a better, translation, Car Free environment in San Francisco will once again have to go to the proverbial barricades.

In the effort to have full disclosure, I am happy for a couple of reasons. Two of the Slow Streets which are planned to be permanent are in my neighborhood. In addition, the street on which I grew up is also one of the those on the permanent list.

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 11.21.2022

San Francisco is primed to permanently keep roughly half of the Slow Streets that were implemented at the start of the pandemic by the city’s Municipal Transportation Agency.

“Slow Streets were a citywide experiment, and not all of these experiments were successful,” the SFMTA wrote in an explanatory document. “Some Slow Streets weren’t well utilized or developed conflicts with neighborhood access. Some Slow Streets didn’t connect to the overall citywide active transportation network. Others did not meet the needs of the community.”

The proposed network of Slow Streets, meant to deter car traffic on residential streets, would remove all but one of the Slow Street segments in the Sunset District, as well as all the Slow Streets in South of Market.

The SFMTA’s proposal, unveiled Monday, does not give a recommendation on Slow Lake Street — among the first four Slow Streets the agency’s board voted to keep permanent in August 2021. The fate of that particular Slow Street has divided its residents, and the Board of Directors will make a final call on whether to include it in the Slow Streets network.

The city installed 31 Slow Streets at the start of the pandemic as a way to give residents more space to recreate while social distancing. Some of the most popular Slow Streets have given pedestrians and cyclists more freedom to exercise and travel on their roadways with minimal worry about facing oncoming car traffic. Others have been utilized more sparingly, one of the reasons the transportation agency cited for the Slow Streets that failed to make the final cut.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-wants-to-make-15-of-the-city-s-Slow-17602299.php#photo-23193606

Lee Heidhues 11.20.2022

It’s hard to believe there is someone WORSE than Donald Trump. There is someone much WORSE than Trump.

God’s messenger. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. A right wing vicious Ideologue who believes he is a messenger sent by God. In his successful re-election campaign DeSantis ran this Video.

Terrifying and scary. Straight out of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Excerpted from New York Magazine – Intelligencer – 11.20.2022

None of Trump’s 2016 opponents was Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis is 44 years old, only four years older than Pete Buttigieg. He is guaranteed an opportunity to appear on Fox News whenever he wants for the foreseeable future; all he needs to do is to find more “woke” objects of his vengeful fury. Why tangle with Trump when the old man might soon die a natural political death?

Florida Guv DeSantis seems likely to be so formidable as to discourage some other rivals from playing in the 2024 sandbox dominated by the two big bullies from the Sunshine State. My colleague Jonathan Chait has been arguing for a while that the Florida governor is putting together a fan club that ranges from traditional conservatives who are ready to move on from Trump to the very extremists who think DeSantis is even better than Trump at “owning the libs” and expressing the life-giving hate of the MAGA movement. And now the outcome of the 2022 midterms has been like rocket-fuel for DeSantis, Chait observes:

The Murdoch-owned media, very much including Fox News, unleashed an undisguised propaganda blitz to convince its audience that Trump is the source of the party’s struggles and DeSantis represents its future. Trump’s angry response [attacking “Ron DeSanctimonious”] is a measure of how seriously he takes the threat to steer the base away from him. Many journalists registered surprise at the bluntness of the chorus blaming Trump. Yet the prospects for a DeSantis nomination, and the changes beneath the surface that have made it relatively likely, have not been fully appreciated outside the Republican world.

If DeSantis can indeed compete for Trump’s own base while thrilling more traditional conservatives who see him as a skillful demagogue who shares their views and interests, then yes, he could take down Trump — though not without a vicious and poisonous fight.

But there’s something about DeSantis that reminds me of former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a charisma-free ideological thug who terrified liberals everywhere until he actually ran for president in 2016 and he sank like a stone before any votes were cast. And the swooning over DeSantis among conservatives reminds me of Rick Perry when he briefly stormed the 2012 Republican presidential field like a conquering hero — until he suddenly became perceived as an insubstantial buffoon.

But even if DeSantis is Ronald Reagan reincarnated, and the irresistible force needed to dislodge Trump’s immovable self-regard, there is also a decent chance (as some reporters are already suggesting) that he will choose to wait until 2028 when he could either run as Trump’s natural successor (assuming an offer to step aside this year would instantly make Trump a DeSantis fan again) or the antidote to a failed MAGA movement if Trump runs and loses again.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/11/if-desantis-clears-the-gop-field-is-trump-doomed.html