San Francisco Metblogs » Crime

Affluent teens often blotto at parties, parents find

Mark Pritchard — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:44:09 +0000

In a long feature in today’s LA Times about the death of an affluent teenager at an Orinda party where alcohol flowed freely, local parents were stunned to find out “that students from good families and strong schools” commonly attended such parties. Indeed, passing out drunk was such a common occurrence that “teens who passed out at parties often were ignored” (emphasis mine). Yeah — oh, her, she’s always passing out.

In other drunk news, Sen. John Kerry’s filmmaker daughter Alexandra was arrested in L.A. Thursday on a DUI charge, but released after the breathalyzer showed she was under the limit. Kerry’s filmmaker daughter is not to be confused with Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s daughter who is also a filmmaker and also named Alexandra.

The future of journalism: ‘Oh shit!!’

Mark Pritchard — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:27:00 +0000

There’s a scene in The Wire where Omar, a psychopath with a shotgun whose trade is robbing drug dealers, gets into a drug stash house he intends to rob by disguising himself as an old lady in a wheelchair. Once he pulls off his wig and pulls his weapon from under the lap blanket, one of the guards realizes what’s happening and blurts out, “Oh shit!” And Omar gleefully echoes him: “‘Oh shit!!’ Yeah!”

Somehow that’s what came to mind when I saw this announcement of a program at City Arts and Lectures on the future of journalism. Why, just today in the NYT’s media blog came the news that the Newark Star-Ledger is planning on more newsroom employee buyouts-slash-layoffs. I have the feeling the disemployed reporters felt somewhat the same way as the drug dealers felt when they realized they had been tricked by Omar Little. They had the feeling it was coming, they did everything they could to prevent it, and when it came, all they can do is blurt, “Oh shit!”

Right. Anyway, at City Arts and Lectures, “two seasoned journalists and editors will discuss the current state of print journalism, the impact and implications of the shift toward a more digital world, and the future of print media.” Good luck with that!

COP “I’ll break your arm like a twig”

Richard Ault — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:29:41 +0000

Illegal to skateboard in San Francisco?

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Never mind that this cops understanding of the law is way outdated, try 6 years old. It is a matter of fact, Skateboarding is allowed in all those places he claims it is not. Read for yourself, the only provision in the county code when Skating isn’t allowed:

San Francisco City and County law

“a) Prohibits skateboarding on any city street at any time, on any sidewalk in any business district at any time, and on any non-business district sidewalk commencing 30 minutes after sunset and ending 30 minutes before sunrise (Traffic Code, Section 100)”

Snipped from the Supes Legislative analysts memo from 2003.

Skateboarding is only illegal at NIGHT. This kid looks to be right, this cop is acting like a fucking dick. I mean fer chrissakes we even have a SF Skateboarding Task Force (PDF)!

Death and the Giants

Mark Pritchard — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:15:17 +0000

Villalona. Photo by Tony Medina, courtesy San Jose Giants

Nineteen-year-old Giants prospect Angel Villalona, a first baseman who hit .267 for the minor-league San Jose Giants this year, is the prime suspect in a killing last night in his home country of the Dominican Republic, the Associated Press and other news organizations reported today.

Villalona, a 2006 draft pick, turned himself in to police twelve hours after the killing of 25-year-old Mario Felix de Jesus Velete in a bar in the coastal city of La Romana. He could face up to twenty years in prison. Villalona, who had been ranked among the top 50 minor league prospects by MLB.com, had returned to the Dominican Republic to play winter-league baseball.

Meanwhile, the big club’s prospects for the postseason continued to fade as they dropped two out of three games in Los Angeles this weekend even as the team they’re chasing in the Wild Card standings, the Colorado Rockies, won two out of three. The Giants’ 6-2 loss to the Dodgers today (scoring summary) was painful for many reasons, but I think a new low for the season was reached when the Giants batted in the top of the fifth inning.

Trailing by a score of 4-1 on a hot day, 2008 Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum was clearly already exhausted. He had just suffered a long fourth inning in which the Dodgers had scored twice, and he badly needed a breather. As he was due up third in the inning, it was up to the usually ineffective hitters Ryan Garko and Aaron Rowand to, at the very least, extend their at-bats and give Timmy time to catch his breath. Instead, Lincecum hardly even had time to sit down before Garko popped out and Rowand struck out. Utterly gassed, Lincecum (14-6) grounded out quickly, then in the top of the inning walked the first two batters and was pulled from the game.

The Giants scored only one run the rest of the game, and were left to watch the scoreboard helplessly as the Rockies overcame a one-run deficit and overpowered the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Giants’ loss and the Rockies’ win puts the Giants four and a half games back with just 13 games remaining in the season.

Things that happened to San Francisco

Mark Pritchard — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:54:37 +0000

The mayor, every member of the Board of Supervisors, and several other elected officials take a 2.4% pay cut with the just-signed budget for the city.

Police have arrested a suspect in the series of car fires that struck the city last week, a 62-year-old homeless woman. She might also be responsible for the porta-potty fires that broke out several months ago.

The Eddie Bauer business is now the property of a San Francisco firm called Golden Gate Capital Partners, though its corporate headquarters will continue to be in Bellevue, Washington.

Five cops versus a non-resisting suspect — guess who won?

Mark Pritchard — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:20:17 +0000

This San Francisco blogger on Open Salon writes of a “disturbing” police takedown of a fleeing suspect who was, judging from her account, pretty much not fleeing when they tackled him.

He was practically standing still when they tackled him. There was no shout, no order. The first cop hit him squarely from the back, another hit him from the side. They knocked him face down on the pavement, hitting his head on the neighbor’s motorcycle fender. More cops jumped on top. There was no resistance from the guy at all. Now there was a lot of hollering, which seemed to be about handcuffing the guy. It sounded like the cops were saying to each other to get the cuffs on him. There were so many of them — five cops — on the guy, I’m sure it was difficult to do even the simple task of handcuffing an immobilized, unresisting suspect. The guy must have had an even harder time breathing.

The man survived the arrest.

Update: Mission Loc@l has the story on the origins of the police chase and arrest, including a suggestion of why the cops had such hard-ons for the suspect: there was some belief, evidently unfounded, that a police officer had been injured in the chase.

(Disclosure: the author of the Open Salon post is my wife.)

‘Propaganda’ suggests Mixon is ‘greatest cop killer of all time,’ among other things

Mark Pritchard — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:02:26 +0000

A posting on propagandapress.org — whoever they are — about Lovelle Mixon, the Oakland parolee who gunned down four Oakland cops, includes a fake URL that suggests, among other things, that Mixon is the “greatest cop killer of all time” and is “getting his dick sucked by virgins” in some unspecified hereafter. Click the thumbnail for a full view. The URL is, of course, non-existent; the post explains that it was “was removed from the web for being too offensive to big.whitey.”

Cracking down on Shotwell Street

Tara Brown — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:00:09 +0000

I posted before about the Shotwell Street Neighborhood Watch program in the Mission. Recently I was forwarded an email from Captain Tacchini of the Mission Police Station. I was very pleased to find out how much effort and resulting success they have had literally outside my door.

Greetings ,

I am sorry for the delay in my response to you, but I just returned from a
few days away. There is lots going on in your neighborhood from a police
perspective, all of it positive. We are concentrating on the prostitution,
traffic, drug, and gang issues with as many resources as we can muster.
Officers have made several good arrests in the surrounding area for street
robberies, narcotics, violent crimes and other offenses. In addition to
the many prostitution cases, we did a decoy operation yesterday in the area
where we utilize an undercover female officer. It worked very well and
resulted in several arrests. Over the past couple of days, arrests of
suspects for pimping and in possession of illegal weapons were made in the
area of 18th & Shotwell. There is more to discuss, but I prefer to do so
next week, so please bear with me.

Best Regards,

Captain Stephen Tacchini
Mission Police Station

Have you seen them?

Mark Pritchard — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:43:21 +0000

The New York Times today has a feature on Google’s Marissa Mayer, “employee number 20″ and first female engineer at the software candyland. Oh wait, it’s just another corporation, I keep forgetting.

A Chronicle editorial says one out of three “massage” establishments is a brothel. Really? Only one out of three? Geez, I’ll bet it’s a pain in the ass to work at the other two-thirds and have men coming in all the time with the wrong idea. Shouldn’t they have some sort of identifying sign that means “Not that kind of massage place, really”?

Want another headache? Sign Manny

Mark Pritchard — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:06:57 +0000

As the Barry Bonds saga winds excruciatingly through the courts and Bonds himself ages on the shelf until his legal problems are finished, fans in both southern and northern California watch with appalled fascination the spectacle of the Manny Ramirez contract negotiations. On Thursday night the negotiations between the Dodgers, for whom Ramirez last played, and his agent exploded into public recriminations as accusatory emails flew back and forth. The more things like this happen, the more Giants ownership has to wonder, do they really want another headache like the one they had with Bonds?

Bonds’ trial was postponed indefinitely after his “friend” and former “trainer” Greg Anderson again refused to testify about what he knows about Bonds’ steroid use, which he allegedly facilitated. Anderson spent a year in jail on contempt charges already, and he might be headed for another spell if this keeps up. Yesterday on KNBR Ralph Barbieri and Tom Tolbert went on a hilarious riff about how the prisoners and guards at the Pleasanton federal lockup where Anderson vacations probably ask him for Bonds memorabilia and that the prison is likely festooned with Bonds signed balls, jerseys and posters.