Lee Heidhues 5.8.2023

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors are weak and worthless in the extreme limiting themselves to a polite unctuous callow call for a Resolution requesting release of the video showing the murder of Banko Brown by a Walgreens rent a cop.

The District Attorney a complete political creature who owes her job to Mayor London Breed, currently off on a junket to Israel, has already decided not to prosecute the perpetrator.

Ethically compromised DA Brooke Jenkins must be loving every minute of it as the Supervisors, who can’t even get a majority to sign on, are set to pass this mindless Resolution. Not even worth the paper it is printed on.

It’s emblematic of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors gutless political dialogue coming from elected officials that Senator Scott Wiener, who at best remained silent during the recall of DA Chesa Boudin and at worst supported it, is at least obliquely criticizing the DA. Even this politician is calling for release of the incriminating video.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Standard 5.8.2023

The Board of Supervisors is expected to pass a resolution urging the public release of all information gathered by police in the Banko Brown killing on Tuesday—but won’t be pursuing an earlier call by Board President Aaron Peskin that would have urged District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to file new charges in the case.

Banko Brown Case

Last week, Peskin said that he would formally ask the board to urge District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to reconsider her decision to not charge Walgreens security guard Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony in the shooting death of activist Banko Brown in an alleged shoplifting incident. 

In a statement last Monday, Jenkins said that “releasing video, or any other evidence at this time could compromise the investigation.”

That ask has now evolved into a resolution urging Jenkins “to release police reports, witness accounts and video” of the incident, “that form the factual basis in the case presented by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) for filing charges by the District Attorney.” 

Once passed, the board will join state Sen. Scott Wiener in calling for the public release of information around the Brown case. But those calls are putting lawmakers at odds with Jenkins, who said on Monday that releasing evidence in the case would compromise the investigation.  

Supervisors Connie Chan, Joel Engardio, Myrna Melgar and Shamann Walton are co-sponsoring the resolution, which is nonbinding. 

“We need to see the video first,” Peskin texted The Standard Monday, explaining the change. 

Co-sponsor Engardio worked with Peskin to amend the resolution. 

“It was premature to call for a different decision when we had not seen all of the evidence,” Engardio told The Standard in a text. “There is also the question of administrative interference, which supervisors are not allowed to do under the city charter. 

“This is an extraordinary case and I believe it is in the public interest for supervisors to call for the release of the video and evidence,” Engardio added. 

https://sfstandard.com/politics/supervisors-wont-urge-new-charges-in-banko-brown-case-but-call-for-release-of-video/

Lee Heidhues 5.7.2023

Sutter Street in San Francisco straddles two diverse neighborhoods in changing San Francisco.

To the south side of Sutter Street is the Western Addition which formerly was a historically Black neighborhood until Redevelopment and gentrification moved out a sizable number of its earlier homeowners and residents.

On the north side of Sutter Street is the edge of wealthy Pacific Heights from which San Francisco’s power elite have ruled the City since its inception over 150 years ago.

Top photo – Church of God in Christ on Sutter Street, San Francisco

Lee Heidhues 5.6.2023

Buried in the rubble of the News is this disturbing report from The Moscow Times.

There are some in Russia who want to use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

Interestingly the story doesn’t refer directly to Vladimir Putin Attribution is given to others in the Kremlin hierarchy.

It is logical to presume the itchy fingerprints on the Button are those of Putin.

Excerpted from The Moscow Times 5.6.2023

At least two high-profile Russian officials have called on the Kremlin to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine in retaliation for an alleged drone strike on Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin residence and as the prospect of an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive looms.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin on Wednesday called the attempted strike a “terrorist attack” while claiming it had been orchestrated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky personally. 

“There can be no negotiations … We will be demanding the use of weapons that can stop and destroy the terrorist regime in Kyiv,” Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on Telegram, hinting at the use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia. 

Those calls were soon echoed by Russia’s former space chief Dmitry Rogozin, who published a video update on Thursday from the frontlines in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhya region, where he is currently working as a military advisor.

“An imminent deadly air fight is anticipated,” Dmitry Rogozin said, noting that Russian forces were actively preparing for the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russia could, however, avoid a significant number of casualties by using tactical nuclear weapons against Kyiv preemptively, he added. 

“According to our [nuclear] doctrine we have the right to use tactical nuclear weapons because that’s what they exist for,” he said, calling them a “great equalizer for the moments when there is a clear discrepancy in the enemy’s favor.” 

However, the leader of the controversial Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, sounded an unexpected note of caution and warned against making casual threats to use nuclear weapons.

“As a radically-minded person I can say that of course there should be no talk of using nuclear weapons in retaliation for a drone,” Prigozhin said on Thursday. 

Advising those responsible to instead find and punish whoever was in charge of preventing aerial drone attacks and to improve Russia’s military capabilities to allow it to retaliate, Prigozhin said that making such disproportionate threats to the West made them “look like clowns.”

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/05/04/putin-allies-split-on-using-tactical-nuclear-weapons-in-ukraine-a81038

Lee Heidhues 5.5.2023

One of the most despicable acts of the American government was its instigation and promotion of the September 11, 1973 Coup d’etat which ousted Salvador Allende from power and ushered in the violent, despotic, dictatorial regime of Augusto Pinochet.

An earlier film by Costa Gavras, “Missing,” adapted from the book by Thomas Hauser “Missing. The Execution of Charles Horman-A Scorching Classic of Political Intrigue” 1978 looks at the Coup and its aftermath from an American perspective.

Now we have this horrific event seen up close and personal from the Chilean view in the film “Chile ’76.”

Excerpted from The New York Times 5.4.2023

In 1973, the socialist government of Chile was overthrown by a military junta led by Gen‌‌. Augusto Pinochet, with the backing of the United States. Thousands were killed, and hundreds of thousands fled the country under Pinochet’s dictatorship, which lasted for 17 years and was maintained through violence. ‌

With the new film “Chile ’76,” the director Manuela Martelli joins the company of Chilean filmmakers like Pablo Larraín and Sebastián Leilo, who have made thought-provoking movies reflecting on the Pinochet regime and its impact on the lives of everyday people. Martelli’s initial inspiration for the story came from a source close to home. She imagined the loss felt by her grandmother, who died by suicide in 1976, one of the most violent years of the dictatorship, before Martelli was born.

The protagonist of “Chile ’76” is Carmen (Aline Küppenheim), a regal woman of middle age. She’s a grandmother and a career flight attendant who now lives a comfortably bourgeois lifestyle with her husband in Santiago. When the story begins, she’s in the process of overseeing renovations to her family’s beachside vacation home. Carmen occupies her time alone with charitable work, guided by the sanguine priest of the town, Father Sánchez (Hugo Medina).

Carmen is discomforted by the sanctioned brutality around her — early on, she witnesses distraught neighbors being dragged away in the streets.

But Carmen’s comfortable existence is not directly disrupted until Father Sánchez asks her to care for a fugitive hidden in the church. She acquiesces, nursing Elías (Nicolás Sepúlveda), a wounded revolutionary, back to health. She transports antibiotics for his injuries, and lies to the suspicious authorities to cover her tracks. Anxiety becomes Carmen’s constant companion as telephones buzz on lines that might be tapped, and neighbors pry, posing inconvenient questions.

Lee Heidhues 5.4.2023

The heartfelt testimony at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors hearing on the murder of Banko Brown by a hired gun security guard at Walgreens and the despicable refusal of DA Brooke Jenkins to prosecute is beyond shameful.

DA Brooke Jenkins and Mayor London Breed are putting their total hypocrisy on full display for all the world to see. All too ready to scream law and order these two women of color are criminally silent when it comes to the blatant murder of a young black transgender citizen.

A murder committed by a corporate rent a cop. Being excused by DA Brooke Jenkins.

A murder which occurred just footsteps away from the Westfield Center where corporate giant Nordstroms just announced it will be shuttering its mega department store. What is happening in San Francisco is the continuing disintegration of this once proud City.

Tim Redmond put it succinctly in 48 Hills earlier this week.

Banko Brown was unarmed when he was shot by a private security guard at Walgreens

“Breed, Jenkins, Wiener, and their allies, along with the San Francisco Chronicle, the local TV stations, and a lot of other news media, created the deadly narrative that crime is so out of control in this city that we need more cops, more people in prison, and more crackdowns on small-scale theft. (Walgreens can afford to lose $14).

Now a young Black trans man is dead.

This is what happens when you create a racist, pro-cop, tough-on-crime narrative, and when you, like Jenkins, refuse to hold the shooters, whether they be cops or security guards, accountable.”

Excerpted from SF Standard.5.4.2023

San Francisco police cleared up some of the details surrounding the deadly shooting of a suspected shoplifter by a security guard outside a Walgreens in a case that spurred widespread outrage.

Banko Brown, 24, was unarmed when the security guard shot and killed him outside the drugstore near Market and Fourth streets last Thursday, Police Chief Bill Scott told the Police Commission on Wednesday.

An altercation broke out when the security guard, Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, tried to stop Brown for shoplifting, the chief said. Anthony, 33, was still inside the store when Brown stepped outside and turned toward him. Brown then allegedly spit on the security guard and raised his arm toward him before Anthony drew his gun and fired, Scott said.

The shooting and subsequent decision by District Attorney Brooke Jenkins not to charge Anthony with murder sparked outcry from Brown’s supporters, who said Brown did not deserve to die for allegedly shoplifting. They viewed the killing of Brown, who was Black and transgender, as an extension of the challenges facing those communities in San Francisco.

The shooting is putting police at odds with prosecutors.

While police booked Anthony on suspicion of murder last Friday, prosecutors soon after declined to charge him, and he was released.

Scott told The Standard last Friday that his department decided to arrest Anthony on suspicion of murder because security guards “have to use force appropriately within the law,” even if they have a firearms license.

“If that’s not the case, regardless of whether you are a security guard or police officer or not, you are subject to that,” Scott said.

However, Jenkins said Monday that she would not be able to prove a murder case against Anthony to a jury based on witness statements, statements from Anthony and video footage of the incident.

“The evidence clearly shows that the suspect believed he was in mortal danger and acted in self-defense,” Jenkins said in a statement.

https://sfstandard.com/criminal-justice/walgreens-killing-heres-what-we-know-about-banko-browns-shooting-by-a-security-guard/

Lee Heidhues 5.4.2023

The mystery of which country and who blew up the Nordstream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea last September 26 continues to go unrsesolved.

Four days earlier, on Sept. 22, a Danish naval patrol vessel, P524 Nymfen, took 112 photographs of several Russian vessels near the blast site, the Danish Defence Command said in a response to a freedom of information request from The Wall Street Journal.

After several weeks of the story disappearing from the headlines it is surfacing, again. Courtesy of Danish authorities who, in response to a Freedom of Information Request, have released photos of Russian naval vessels near the site.

Excerpted from The BBC 5.3.2023

Russian ships able to perform underwater operations were present near to where explosions later took place on the Nord Stream pipelines, according to an investigative documentary.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-vessels-photographed-at-nord-stream-site-days-before-blast-9695bc70

The vessels were reportedly located using intercepted Russian navy communications.

Underwater explosions last September knocked the two Nord Stream pipelines – built to carry gas from Russia to Europe – out of action.

The cause of the blasts is unclear.

Formal investigations are still taking place in countries close to the blast site. So far, they have said only that they believe the explosions were the result of sabotage rather than any kind of accident.

But one possible lead pointing towards Russian involvement has emerged from details of suspicious Russian ship movements in the run-up to the Nord Stream blasts, reported by four Nordic public broadcasters and an accompanying English-language podcast Cold Front.

And Denmark’s Defence Command has confirmed a separate report that a Danish patrol boat called Nymfen took 26 photos of a Russian submarine-rescue ship in the area days before the explosions. The Information website said the SS-750 had sailed from Kaliningrad and was close to Bornholm island on 22 September 2022.

The investigation by Denmark’s DR, Norway’s NRK, Sweden’s SVT, and Finland’s Yle focuses on the movements and actions of ships between June and September last year which they describe as highly unusual.

The ships are believed to include the Russian naval research vessel Sibiryakov, the tugboat SB-123 (photo shown at top), and a third ship from the Russian naval fleet that the media outlets have not been able to identify by name.

These were so-called “ghost-ships”, which had their transmitters turned off. The broadcasters, however, say they were able to track their movements, using intercepted radio communications the vessels sent to Russian naval bases.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65461401

Lee Heidhues 5.3.2023

The false arrest and imprisonment of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich going on two months is an international outrage.

The worst part of this inhumane act is the fact a young journalist. Doing his job. Whose parents are Russian emigres. Who speaks fluent Russian. Is being held in the most barbaric of conditions.

The incarceration and isolation of Evan Gershkovich is another crime against humanity perpetrated by Vladimir Putin.

This is a cruel fact which no media report will never accurately convey.

Excerpted from Moscow Times 5.3.2023

“ There is complete isolation: no meetings, no news from the outside world,” said former inmate and chemical weapons program whistleblower Vil Mirzayanov, who was arrested on treason charges in 1992. 

While Mirzayanov said Gershkovich was unlikely to suffer any physical violence from guards, he would have to find ways of dealing with the isolation and squalid conditions. 

“I wish him strength,” he said. 

Since his arrest on charges of espionage just over a month ago, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been held in Russia’s most notorious prison, Lefortovo, located in a leafy residential district of Moscow.  

Its impenetrable walls once muffled the cries of Soviet-era political prisoners tortured and executed by security officers during Stalin’s purges. 

While bullets no longer fly in Lefortovo’s holding cells, the prison’s central role in Russia’s system of political repression has remained unchanged. 

“Lefortovo is famous for putting maximum psychological pressure [on inmates],” said Igor Rudnikov, a journalist and ex-local official who spent 10 months in Lefortovo in 2017 and 2018. 

“The goal is simple: to break the detainee.”

Like other prisoners, Gershkovich, a former journalist for The Moscow Times, is likely experiencing extreme isolation in Lefortovo. According to former inmates and lawyers, he will have had to grow accustomed to unpartitioned toilets, lights that never turned off, visits by prison guards every four minutes and rare glimpses of the sky. 

Used to hold high-profile prisoners, or those accused of the most serious charges, Lefortovo is filled with ex-spies, politicians, murderers and some of those accused under Russia’s widespread crackdown on wartime dissent. 

The prison is de-facto controlled by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), rather than the Federal Penitentiary Service that is in charge of the country’s correctional system. 

Despite its reputation, guards at the modern-day Lefortovo no longer subject inmates to overt physical violence or verbal humiliation. 

In fact, former inmates recalled staff being polite and never failing to wish prisoners a good morning. 

“Investigators there are extremely polite. Everything in Lefortovo is very civilized,” said Mirzayanov.

Extreme isolation was mentioned by all the former Lefortovo detainees who spoke to The Moscow Times about their time at the facility. 

For inmates, their isolation begins immediately upon arrival at Lefortovo when they are placed in a single cell for a two-week quarantine. 

“They sit alone in an information blockade for two weeks. There is a TV in the cell but it usually doesn’t work — I think that is done on purpose,” lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who has worked with dozens of people imprisoned at Lefortovo, told The Moscow Times. 

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/05/02/the-torture-of-isolation-inside-the-russian-prison-housing-us-journalist-evan-gershkovich-a80952

Top photo – Wall Street Journalist Evan Gershkovich in Russian courtroom

Lee Heidhues 5.1.2023

Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich recently wrote in The Guardian that the Republican treatment of transgender people is akin to what the Nazis did to transgender and gay people in Germany after Hitler assumed power in 1933.

Reich feels this increasing suppression of transgender people and their civil rights is another step on the American road to Fascism.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/30/republican-attacks-trans-people-fascism

One look no further than the American State of Montana where the State legislature banished transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr. Claiming Zephyr was a disruptive force as the excuse for violating the civil rights and human rights of this citizen legislator.

Excerpted from Montana Free Press 5.1.2023

“If you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments, I hope the next time there’s an invocation, when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,” Representative Zooey Zephyr said on the Montana House floor April 18.

Missoula Rep. Zooey Zephyr has filed a lawsuit challenging the disciplinary action that banned the Democrat from the House floor, anteroom or gallery, the latest in a standoff between Zephyr and Republican leaders consuming the final days in the 68th Montana Legislature.

The lawsuit, filed Monday by the Montana American Civil Liberties Union and a pair of private law firms, alleges that the order barring Zephyr from participating in floor debates violates her constitutional rights and deprives her 11,000 constituents from representation. 

“Duly elected representatives to the Montana House have constitutional rights that they do not lose when they walk into the state Capitol,” Alex Rate, the legal director of the ACLU of Montana, told Montana Free Press Monday. “The House is free to pass whatever rules it wants, but those rules have to pass constitutional muster.”

The suit, which names the state, House Speaker Matt Regier and House Sergeant of Arms Brad Murfitt as defendants, specifically contends that the decision to discipline Zephyr violates her rights to free speech and equal protection under the law. It asks a Helena district judge to prevent Regier, R-Kalispell, and the other defendants from enforcing the terms of Zephyr’s censure and to compel them to recognize Zephyr to speak on the House floor. 

The House voted to censure Zephyr last week following a protest in the gallery that challenged Regier’s ongoing decision not to recognize Zephyr to speak on bills up for consideration on the floor.

Regier suggested that he would not recognize Zephyr, a transgender woman, again until she apologized for remarks she made on the floor about Senate Bill 99, legislation that bans gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill last Friday.

Zephyr said she would not apologize, and Regier told her that her comments broke decorum and that he would not recognize her on the floor until he believed she could “maintain decorum” moving forward, according to the lawsuit. 

https://montanafreepress.org/2023/05/01/zephyr-constituents-challenge-house-disciplinary-action-in-lawsuit/

Attached is a link to a PBS News Hour interview with Zooey Zephyr

https://www.pbs.org/video/trans-in-america-1682544281/

Lee Heidhues 4.30.2023

I was literally speechless watching the Warriors dismantle the Sacramento Kings on the road.

Beyond amazing was the 50 point performance by Steph Curry. The all time scoring record in the seventh game of an NBA playoff game.

Equally impressive and hopefully given prime time exposure was the performance by Warriors journeyman Center Kevon Looney. He snagged 21 rebounds and dominated the Kings.

The Athletic 4.30.2023

The Golden State Warriors defeated the Sacramento Kings 120-100 in Game 7 of their high-octane first-round playoff series on Sunday at the Golden 1 Center, advancing to the second round. Here’s what you need to know:

• Stephen Curry broke out for 50 points, a playoff career high, and set the NBA record for points in a Game 7. Curry went 20-of-38 from the field with seven 3s.
• Kevon Looney continued his stellar rebounding run, grabbing 21 boards for Golden State.
• Domantas Sabonis paced the Kings with 22 points. Sacramento shot 37.5 percent from the field and 25.5 percent from beyond the arc.
• The Warriors will face the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals.

Kevon Looney comes up HUGE in the @warriors Game 7 win!

11 PTS
21 REB (10 OREB)
4 AST

LAL/GSW Game 1: Tuesday, 10pm/et, TNT pic.twitter.com/JnXfukV1Mz

— NBA (@NBA) April 30, 2023

Curry made history — but Golden State needed Looney, too

The two Warriors’ stat lines that matter most in Game 7: Curry’s and Looney’s.

Curry just took a career-high 38 shots. This was as aggressive as he’s ever been. Curry made 20 of those 38 shots and seven 3s. He scored 50 points, the most ever in a Game 7 in league history.

But Looney may have been equally important on this night. He had 21 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive glass. Eight of those came in a dominant third quarter, when the game changed.

https://theathletic.com/4474653/2023/04/30/kings-warriors-game-7-result/

Lee Heidhues 4.30.2023

Cheerleader Michael Rains is the Ultimate Cop Shop Attorney.

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

A guy who probably has never met a cop he thought is guilty.

I would love to see invoices Michael has sent to the various Police Officers Associations and law enforcement groups who have made him the go to guy for the misbehavin’ Boys (and Girls) in Blue.

Excerpted from SF Gate – Bay City News 2.16.2023

Family members of a man fatally shot by a San Leandro police officer in 2020 are prepared to do what’s necessary to get justice for their loved one.

The family of Steven Taylor thinks attorneys for former Police Officer Jason Fletcher are making them jump through hoops and they are prepared to jump through any number of hoops.

Taylor allegedly tried to shoplift a tent and bat from the Walmart at 15555 Hesperian Blvd. in San Leandro on April 18, 2020.

Fewer than 40 seconds passed between when Fletcher entered the store and when he shot Taylor, according to prosecutors.

A trial date for Fletcher is expected to be set on May 19.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/family-of-man-killed-by-police-prepared-to-jump-17789703.php

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/law-firm-seeks-disqualify-da-price-prosecuting-17921616.php

Top photo – Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price