Watching City Hall #350, (3-07-05)
“You’re lawyer is right. They can cut him loose.”
(Office of the Police Chief)
That was a Sergeant Martin who answered my calls. The cops are set to release the burglar who entered my room several weeks ago. They have maneuvered to release him at a meeting in which my testimony is vital. They have arranged to have that meeting out in the boondocks at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California. They know that I cannot get there to testify that I did not give him permission to be in my room. I asked them for a ride to the hearing (“Burglary must have a detective going there.” Someone from that detail told me) … they simply refuse. I asked them to give me information about how the guy got into my room. I offered them the fucker’s coat, that I found on the floor in my room. I offered to give them a statement that the thug had no business in my room. They refused every single request. Nope, they are going to Dublin today and say something to the effect that since there is no witness against the burglar, he should be set free. That’s about par for these fuckers. They probably sent him in the first place. Free press? They’ve pulled over a thousand press credentials in the past year and a half. Ask the head of the Police Officers Association (narc, Gary Delagnes) how he feels about free press. Here’s a hint; he was busted (as a cop) stealing and destroying whole bins of newspapers with an article on the front page critical of the department. He considers the crime to be one of the top entries on his resume’ every time he runs for higher office in the P.O.A..
This is a real heap of shit, boys and girls. I came home to find my room ransacked and papers related to a piece I was doing on the cops ground under foot. My neighbors are some scary fuckers all by themselves and they were scared. “I never saw that guy around.” Said my next-door neighbor. “You’re lucky you weren’t here. He was real big and strong. He could have killed you.” Yeah. … Uh huh. I’m sure that Chief Fong will look into all of this. You can pull my little finger if you want to hear what’s really going to happen. My bet is that she never even learned from Sergeant Martin that I called trying to help keep the burglar off the streets.
Learn to love your enemies
I want the cops to become good citizens. I don’t want them attacking the constitution and beating the shit out of people because of their politics or race. In fact, I’ve committed myself to leaning down and helping my wayward brothers and sisters to break their way from their downward spiral to the lower pits. Toward this end, I volunteered to help screen applicants to the police department.
Now, stop laughing for a minute and listen. This isn’t so crazy. I mean, I don’t think you have to be a card-carrying member of the NRA to help choose who’d make a good cop. I mean, of course, most of the screeners are fascists from the avenues but it doesn’t always have to remain that way.
I mean, I saw the ad for screeners and I immediately applied. I couldn’t see any possibility of my being rejected. Christ, former teacher/firefighter/activists. I’m just the kind of person whose input you’d want.
Long story, short. Department laughed and refused to take my application for their ‘Civilian Evaluator’ volunteer job. Cops will continue to be drawn from the same genetic pool as Nazi storm troopers.
Time passes
It’s 24 hrs or so later. Let me take a break for a news bulletin. It’s approaching 10am on Tuesday, the Board isn’t meeting and Michael Moore stood me up for breakfast (on him) on 6th street. And further, Adriel Hampton announced that he’s leaving the Examiner and heading to work for City Attorney, Dennis Herrera. Now, that’s interesting.
I had an inkling something was up a couple of weeks ago when I got nearly back-to-back emails from old dog, PJ Corkery and new kid (with old genes), Chris Caen blowing smoke at me.
They gotta know that I pass anything juicy that reaches my level of the local political branch of the local news food chain to Adriel and have since I met the guy. Shit, you can trust him to never distort.
Let me follow up on that thought
Only a few hundred people read me but, (as Joefire used to say) … they just happen to be the people who run the City.
They go from Warren Hellman to Anthony Faber. Faber is the current heavyweight champ of political prognostication in the City. Hellman is the real mayor of San Francisco and has been for years.
Why brag? It’s not to me. Not really. I mean, some of these people (OK, most) … most of these people are lots smarter and more accomplished than me. No way I’m ever gonna have the grasp that Alex Clemens has of the local political scene. That would be like a rookie chasing Wayne Gretsky. No way I’m ever gonna know the ‘Swells’ like PJ Corkery does. I’ll never be as smart as Marc Salomon or John Dunbar.
Point is. … Point is that almost all of the smartest political minds in town are personal friends of mine. … Forget that I live on Skidrow. Forget that absolutely none of the people who read me and contribute to my work would ever actually hire me for a job.
They like what I’m doing and I do too. They aren’t alone. Most of my couple of hundred contacts are people who understand that I am the best writer in San Francisco. Hey, way too late to be modest. Fact is that if you want your portrait done, you don’t go to Ken Garcia. You come to h. brown. Before, he comes to you. Now that I’m over 60, it’s almost impossible to get a job anyway. Hell, they won’t even take your organs after you get whacked. … What I’m getting at is sources.
Snitch or Bitch?
When an old cop leaves the force, if they were worth a shit, they have a treasure trove of contacts they pass on. It’s the same with an old reporter. Particularly, an honest reporter whose contacts can be trusted. Now, that’s a mailing list worth having.
What happens to those ‘mailing’ lists is interesting. Sometimes by mutual agreement, the contract between agency and contact just goes away. Or sometimes (see ‘To Live & Die in L.A.’?) ..sometimes contacts are passed on.
Which is a long, long way to say that Adriel specifically asked in his parting ‘Body Politic’ column (w/Samson Wong gone & Rachel Gordon, muzzled, Eric Allen dead and Carlos Petroni spending his last days in a South American jungle, I’m pretty much the only honest voice left in the San Francisco political press – and, I’m a terrible liar – wait, Sfist is cool & Randy Shaw is an echo of the old Fang Independent & Patrick Murphy didn’t desert us, after all) …But, we’re talking about sources (Chris Cain calls them his ‘irregulars’) and they are pretty much the reactor of any column like this. Adriel said that his ‘contacts’ should now go to PJ Corkery with their scoops. Big and small. Congratulations to PJ and I’m sure I’m not the only wonk wondering what the hell Dennis Herrera is building in his basement. I mean, Matt Dorsey and Cathy Garza and Jerry Threet and now, Adriel Hampton? I wouldn’t want to go up against any of that quartet for money in a game of SF political Jeopardy
Here comes Alexandra!
Adriel’s departure from the Examiner also means the departure of a few chapters of his book from the Bulldog. Couple that with Gonzalez going away to build a law office and all that was left on the Bulldog was the collection of my own biblically proportioned lamentations. Frank Webster, who hosts the blog for me called for more content. Just as Alexandra Jones, whom I met on the Mirkarimi in D5 campaign sent me a really bawdy piece of work. It’s gonna be a column. On sex, I’d guess from looking at the pics (no children please) You be the judge.
I’ve invited several other talented writers and photographers to join me on the Bulldog and if you cup your hand just right over your ear, you can still hear the faint echoes of their laughter. A couple expressed interest though and we’ll see what happens. I bought a battery for my 1.3 megapixel camera and as soon as Bruce Wolfe comes over and shows me how to download the 12 pics it takes at a time, you can see the world through my own twisted eyes. Charles Kalish who is one hell of a photographer has agreed to post some work. My lawyers are talking huge bonuses with Rob Anderson and Arthur Evans’ agents. I figure that for a million five, million six tops, I can shape this thing up. … Or, I can spend nothing and beg. It produces a different kind of art but it’s very sincere.
“Wellll, you little devil!”
(the widow Cain to Aaron Peskin)
First, I thought she’d been studying poetry with Joe O’Donoghue, but she was just kidding. The Board President had asked her some little off-the-cuff, throwaway questions like why the hell should we trust you now when your last estimate on the Hetch-Hetchy rebuild was a billion or so off.
Peskin voted for her anyway. Hard to vote against that name in this town. That’s the second reason Willie appointed her. The first, of course, is that she’ll vote with Downtown & the Swells every time on every issue.
Peskin tried to avoid anymore embarrassment by tabling all of the motions on both PUC candidates up for approval before the Rules Committee. D5’s Ross Mirkarimi quickly called him on it. “We’d be chickens!” Or, something to that effect.
So the new Board President was called a ‘little devil’ and a ‘chicken’ (w/others) within 5 minutes. … I don’t know if I like this. First they make him sit with the clerk during Board meetings. … OK. OK. It did happen but the tenor of the moments wasn’t mean.
It should have been. The bottom line is that the SF Public Utilities Commission got a proven rubber-stamp in the person of Ann Caen and much worse in the person of Michael Garcia whom they’d just rejected for reappointment to the Ethics Commission a couple of weeks ago.
Caen praised new honcho Susan Leal’s leadership which has included firing Ed Smeloff and hiring Gerald Green. Oh yeah, the interests of the average citizen are really first with this gang. Look for more hundreds of millions in waste disguised as cost-overruns and consultant fees. Garcia and Caen will happily clink champagne glasses with the thieves who’ll be buying.
Newsom didn’t have much choice with Garcia. This was the guy who decided with former Ethics Commission Director, Jenny Vida and her sidekick, Mabel Ng to destroy evidence that Gavin’s campaign was trying to illegally reroute a few hundred thousand in ‘bribes’ into a wrong account or two (he still faces charges). … Garcia faces charges, that is.
Not Newsom. No, Campaign consultant, Eric Jaye quickly noted that the records accidentally sent to the Ethics Commission that seemed to describe illegal activity were just ‘brain storming’ that shouldn’t have gotten out of the room. … Boy, I can relate to that one.
So, Garcia and Ng and Vida all get together and shred the incriminating Newsom campaign data and now Newsom owes em all. Clearly, Garcia has been promised the next plum appointment so’s he’ll keep his mouth shut. The Board showed some ass in rejecting him when Newsom tried to send him back to Ethics. This time they folded when Newsom kicked him upstairs to the Board of Appeals. Frankly, I’m glad they folded. Next week, he could have been the police chief.
OK, OK, column over
It’s now Thursday nite and this piece really got away from me. Forgive my being all over the place on details. Looking back, it’s way too long. That’s one of the advantages and disadvantages of having no editor. Things just don’t show down. Cops stopped walking the Tenderloin beat. Last couple of days they’ve taken back to bicycles, motorbikes, & cars with loudspeakers. … They’re busting pot farmers and medical marijuana patients again.
On the positive side, I got to check out Matt Gonzalez’s new law office today. Wasted a half hour of he and his partners’ time looking the place over (think Ally McBeal, Boston law office looks with brick walls and deep, huge leather bound chairs, massive conference table. Antique building with individually painted details in the plaster in the lobby. It’s a big, expensive feel in a place that somehow feels comfortable and accessible. We wouldn’t have tolerated him in a glass tower – this place works) … Gotta finish this and get back to just drinking and smoking so’s I can get my head right for the Hunter Thompson wake at the Edinburgh Castle in a couple of hours. Hope someone offers me something to help me get more, uh, uh … focused.
Later gator,
