State Sen. Scott Wiener got hounded out of an annual trans march last weekend. As I described here, he wrote a reaction later saying that the protesters had crossed a line. "When opposition and disagreement transition to harassment, including cornering me, touching me, or trying to physically bully me out of a public event, that crosses a line," he wrote. He added, "We’re living in a time when violence is all too often threatened or used against people in public life. In San Francisco, we’re better than that."
Only it appears the trans march isn't better than that. The organizers of the march put out a statement defending the protesters who drove Wiener out of the park.
“Trans March participants holding politicians accountable is nothing new,” organizers wrote, claiming that Wiener was accompanied by a security detail “and was at no point in danger.”...
Organizers criticized Wiener for addressing the incident on social media and using “the confrontation in fundraising communications” instead of resolving his concerns with the march’s organizers. Their statement also noted that the Trans March has not featured politicians in its programming since 2016, when Wiener, then a member of the Board of Supervisors, was booed while speaking at the event.
For what it's worth, the thing about the security detail doesn't seem to be true.
A spokesperson for Wiener contested that characterization, writing that Wiener “had no security detail with him” and that the organizers were “lying to do damage control after all the bad publicity they have received.”
You can watch the video for yourself. I don't see any security there. It seems like the organizers have just made this up to cover for the bad behavior of some of their attendees.
Outside the march, Wiener seems to have mostly benefitted from the encounter. A group of politicians, including his rival in the race to replace Nancy Pelosi, condemned the behavior seen in the video.
Supervisor Connie Chan and her top endorser, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, publicly condemned the harassment of state Sen. Scott Wiener over the weekend captured in a viral video. Wiener and Chan will face each other in November in the race to replace Pelosi in the House.
Their comments, which came in response to inquiries from the Chronicle, come on the heels of a community letter that condemned the actions captured in a video that showed a small group of activists confronting Wiener...
The letter condemned “in the strongest possible terms the recent harassment, threats and physical intimidation targeting Sen. Wiener. … This kind of intimidation and harassment is what leads to more extreme acts of political violence, something that San Francisco has painful history with and a responsibility to never repeat.”
Anyway, it's hard to get too worked up about Wiener being treated badly when he's such a creep. If he weren't the person being targeted here, if it were some conservative instead, he'd probably be saying nothing about it.
Speaking of bad behavior, that wasn't the only bad behavior at the trans march. Five people were arrested for various crimes including stabbing several people.
The following evening, as crowds left Pride festivities Sunday at U.N. Plaza, Nyasha Gipson, 22, encountered three women and stabbed one in the leg unprovoked, prosecutors said. When a second person tried to protect the first victim, Gipson allegedly stabbed her in the torso, resulting in both being hospitalized in critical condition. She also allegedly nicked a third victim.
Prosecutors said she attempted to flee but was immediately arrested. She was charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
There was also some targeted vandalism.
Separately, four people who attended Friday’s Trans March were charged with vandalism, obstructing law enforcement and battery upon an officer. Jenkins said some participants committed vandalism by spraying paint on walls and security cameras and that others attempted to intervene in officers’ attempts to arrest an individual who apparently spray painted another, constituting criminal acts that catalyzed a wider police response that drew criticism from some members of the public and questions from a city supervisor.
Sienne Hayes, 33, and Knorr Betcher, 28, were both charged with eight counts of felony vandalism for allegedly damaging security cameras at several locations. In addition, Hayes was charged with obstructing an officer. Katherine Legros, 33, was charged with obstructing an officer, and Daniel Macias-Gomez, 23, was charged with battery on an officer for allegedly spitting on an officer.
Naturally, San Francisco's City Supervisors think the police were in the wrong here. This will always be the case in that city. I'm not sure why anyone wants those jobs.
Anyway, there's a decent chance some judge in the city will decide to let the vandals go. Either that or the charges will be pleaded down to something that results in a small fine and no jail time. This is just how things seem to work in San Francisco.
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