San Fascist-co

[toetoe]

Has anyone outside of Ca. heard about the suspension of SFPD officers over videos that maybe went a bit too far? Jeez, the mayor and police chief went into full hypersensitive warp drive. They trotted out the nouns that sound so good and accusatory as adjectives (racist, sexist) and the h-word (homophobic, although no one is scared; it just sounds so naughty). God, the true believers don't have to be fair or logical, as they're on the right side. The battle must be won, morale of the patrolmen be damned. Full speed ahead. 19 suspended and a "blue ribbon" panel being assembled. Just make it a rainbow panel, and don't forget the black shirts.

[Steve 'StatMan']

I saw it. I'm sure everyone who was in the video were volunteers, and if they themselves were concerned about 'being degraded', they wouldn't have done it.

If any of these officers had marched down the street in outrageous outfits and acted like total pansies in the San Franscisco Gay Pride Parade, the city goverment and the local people would not raise a complaint.

If these officers, in any combination, went to a private home, and had consensual sexual relations, in any combinations (MF, MM, FF) they SF city government and their people would not have raised a complaint.

If the video they did was done on City Time, or with City Money, I can see a valid reason for complaint. That City property and offices were likely used, gives it, in my mind, some legal legs.

Frankly, from the content of the video, I don't see anything done that hasn't already been done regularly by the entertainment industry - in fact, wasn't it a spoof of TV police shows, etc. Hell, people do stupid things on TV, and SNL, and Cable TV all the time.

If they'd done it with rented costumes, without City Police Vehicles, etc, I don't think the City of SF, or some of it's two-faced residents, would have had a legitimate beef. (Oh, I pretty sure they'd have wailed anyway, but they'd had no real case.)

[toetoe]

Whoa, Ken. Did you miss this part? "Another day, another sex scandal." This "Bus Stop Whores" thing is NOT, I repeat NOT, part of the professional-style series of videos shot by Andrew Cohen, the videos constituting the "scandal." I haven't seen the series, and maybe that makes me lazy. Are they easy to find online?

[chickenhead]

The funny thing is I haven't heard much outrage from the peeps on the street, the Bayview residents. I'm guessing you showed them the video, they would think it was funny and understand where the humor is coming from.

I can see the reason for a slap on the wrist or two, maybe something a little more serious for the guy who posted it. But suspension without pay for everyone? That's ridiculous.

[46zilzal]

like your Frankenstein photo. My father went the first week the original opened in New Yokr city and a woman went screaming out of the theater, much to the chagrin of the people there. My dad snuck around to watch again, and guess what? Same lady went screaming from the audience at the LATER performance as well.

[Steve 'StatMan']

like your Frankenstein photo. My father went the first week the original opened in New Yokr city and a woman went screaming out of the theater, much to the chagrin of the people there. My dad snuck around to watch again, and guess what? Same lady went screaming from the audience at the LATER performance as well.

LOL! Sounds like your father saw four performances - two of the movie, and two of that actress. Very Clever! I Love It!

[JustRalph]

The milf hunter should sue these guys...............:D

[toetoe]

Not sure, but maybe every buddy needs m.i.l.f.?

[falconridge]

From the San Francisco Chronicle, May 2, 2004:

"There are times when you have to be the voice of reason or the voice of calm,'' [San Francisco Police Chief Heather] Fong said in an exclusive Chronicle interview. "Those are things I feel I've been doing throughout my career, but not by waving the red flag and saying, 'Hey, look at me. I'm doing this, I'm doing that.' No, you just do it. It's part of your everyday responsibility."

Apparently reason's gone on French leave (oops! sorry about the nationalist stereotype), and calm's in Dutch with Mayor Newsom (apologies to Prime Minister Balkenende). Funny (if that's the word), nobody's ever brought charges against the producers of the Police Academy movies or "Reno 911"--the "inspiration," I suspect, for the reviled SFPD video.

Maybe Chief Fong and Mayor Newsom, the highest ranking public officials in a city that prides itself (justly?) on its "tolerance," just didn't see the humor in the video produced by SFPD Officer Andrew Cohen. But if unfunniness is a crime, and suspension without pay is apt for the 19 upon whom Fong and Newsom have lowered the axe, then Ray Romano, Jay Leno, Richard Lewis, and Adam Sandler should face: (a) 2 to 15 in a meat grinder (as Ring Lardner, a genuinely funny man, might have put it); (b) deportation to Bayonne, New Jersey (Jay Ward's vision of the ultimate exile); (c) two weeks' "vacation" in Pottsylvania, Moosesylvania, or Wilkes-Barre, PA (Boris Badenov's take on the Dantean topography describing the concentric circles of Hell).

Speaking of "tolerance," why have the more-righteous-than-thou embraced this word as though it described the acme of enlightened coexistence? "Tolerance" connotes grudging indulgence--of toxic waste, shrapnel, polyps, stress, frostbite, metastasis, etc. Tolerance doesn't abide in Shangri-la--though Fong and Newsom are clearly Hell-bent to see that it take up comfortable and conspicuous residence in what used to be called "Baghdad by the Bay" (but I don't suppose they'd recognize the irony in that appellation, either).

And while I'm ranting about words, whatever could Chief Fong have meant when she denounced the video as "egregious." I know, this may be the pot calling the kettle black, but it seems to me that the sole point of her use of this fancy malaproprism was to demonstrate that she has the word in her vocabulary. If you're gonna be hifalutin, Heather, the least you can do is to make sure of the semantic soundness of your sesquipedalia.

Toe, your pith about "the h-word" and your jape about replacing the blue-ribbon panel with a rainbow-hued one (complemented by blackshirts) have to be among the best of your distinguished PA-posting career.:ThmbUp: :lol: :jump: :)

Falconridge
Homophilic though Heterocentrist

[toetoe]

I've consulted Ross T. on this one, and we've determined that the true names of the oligarchs are Feather Hong, former- stripper-turned-policeperson-through-a-fortuitous-occident, and Nevin Gruesome, former "stylish" escort-to-superlingeriemodels-looking-to-marry. As keepers of the status-quo flame, they never met a stasis they didn't like.

My desire was not to pith anyone off. Nor was my jape intended to give anyone the Willys.

With apologies to Sparles Chooner, er ... Charles Spooner, I remain your humble cruciverbalist and fledgling onomatopoet (favorite trainer, Danny Pish).

p.s. Jackie Gleason's face has appeared Marley-like, hovering above my monitor, alleging, "The G##-da**ed Appalachians got nothin' to DO with it!" tt