Cross posted at Happening-Here

I see that San Francisco’s finest have once again been caught doing what they too often do best: spreading their racist, sexist and homophobic attitudes out for all to see. The SF Chron reports that in addition to the offensive video clips found on an officer’s web site yesterday, the Christmas party film project also included scenes of “a black officer eating from a dog bowl and one of an Asian officer having difficulty riding a bicycle.” Nice fun and games those SFPD boys get into out in the Bayview, San Francisco’s last poor and gang-ridden Black neighborhood.

There’s more. . .

The local story broke into the NY Times which reports that, in addition admitting that video was “stupid and immature,”

Mr. [Gary] Delagnes of the [SFPD] union bemoaned the fact that “every lefty in San Francisco is going to love this.”

It is not surprising that Delagnes worries over the ammunition this latest police escapade will provide to critics of the SFPD’s more material faults, like occasionally shooting suspects. Before Delagnes attained his current eminence in the police union, he was at the center of quite a few shenanigans himself, racking up as many as 100 conduct complaints during his active duty career. (San Francisco doesn’t adjudicate citizen complaints; it buries them in paper work, so there is no way of knowing how many of these were justified.)

His best know escapade rivaled the current brouhaha.  How’s this for an example of mature police conduct?

During San Francisco riots in 1992 over the Rodney King jury verdict in Los Angeles, [Police Chief Richard] Hongisto had hundreds of people jailed. In the wake of those arrests, the Bay Times gay newspaper ran a suggestive illustration of Hongisto with the headline, “Dick’s Cool New Tool: Martial Law.” Police Officer Gary Delagnes and other officers responded by grabbing more than 2,000 copies of the newspaper off news racks.

Hongisto was fired; Delagnes continued his rise in the department. He knows the guys he defends from his current perch; he has always been one of the boys.

I went precinct walking in Oakland yesterday against Gov. Arnold. Very encouraging — if people bother to vote! That is going to take a lot of work.

Full photo essay here. Hope everyone is working on the election this week.

I hate the Blue Angels. Every fall they come; every fall the US Air Force buzzes San Francisco in conjunction with Fleet Week. What crap! No city should be subjected to stunt pilots flying low over populated areas to demonstrate their cajones and prove US power to say “fuck you” to the world.

It is not like the damn things don’t fall down. In October, 1998 two of the planes crashed into Georgia woodlands — how many would have died if that had been a neighborhood in San Francisco?  Previously, two planes collided during one of these shows over Niagara Falls; one pilot died.

Why does the Navy do these displays? The Chronicle interviewed the downtown lunchtime crowd subjected to practice runs yesterday.

“They’re the products of the devil,” said street artist Ulysses Dickerson, who was trying to sell his $25 paintings of angels and nymphs. “They’re overlords. They’re invaders. But there’s always something happening in San Francisco. One week it’s anti-Bush rallies, the next week it’s the military saying, ‘Look what we can do.’ “…

“At first it seems kind of cool,” said Christina Wolf, munching on a chicken salad. “But then it reminds you of what Iraqi citizens experience every day. But over there it’s real. So I guess it’s a mixed message.”

At a moment when even President Nincompoop is calling for fuel conservation, each F/A-18 uses approximately 8,000 pounds or 1,300 gallons of JP-5 jet fuel in a show.

Aren’t there any local authorities that can interrupt this nonsense?

Cross posted at Happening-Here