San Francisco Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer made herself the poster child for coarse, vulgar bullying recently.
Surrounded by several other current and past supervisors, Fewer took the stage at an election night party to lead in chanting: “F— the POA! F— the POA! F— the POA!” Her reference is to the San Francisco Police Officers Association, which her oh-so-progressive and enlightened self obviously hates.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Fewer, “waived her arms like a conductor while flanked by some of the city’s most notable progressive leaders. Smiling behind her were supervisors Matt Haney and Hillary Ronen, as well as former supervisors Jane Kim and David Campos.”
Well, no wonder the vast majority of us are so turned off by politics! Why would anyone want to engage in a process where people think spewing hateful language publicly, loudly and gleefully, is OK? What’s happened to civil dialogue and discourse? My mother would have made me eat soap and grounded me for a month for behaving the way Fewer did.
Shame on her and shame on all those who stood there and screamed with her. Coarse, rude bullies, the lot of them. In the midst of all the hate and ugliness spewed around every day, there needs to be more effort made to be civil. Our elected officials, especially, should set the tone.
Why does everything have to be black or white, win or lose, you or me? The strident hyperbole, screaming and demonizing of different people with different ideas needs to stop, now.
Then there’s the whole issue of respect for people who put their life on the line every day, every shift. Can you imagine the chaos and danger of communities without law enforcement to protect the public? I mean, let’s face it… Not everyone is an angel. Crime is real and bad people exist.
Fewer and her progressive cohorts need reminding that the names of over 21,000 law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty are engraved on the walls of the National Law Enforcement Memorial.
This past Thanksgiving weekend a Los Angeles gang unit police officer was involved in a gun battle in my childhood neighborhood of Boyle Heights in Los Angeles. In Hollywood a machete-wielding suspect is killed after he runs toward officer with the weapon in hand.
I understand she’s now saying it’s not the individual officers she takes issue with but the union leadership. Disagree respectfully, Supervisor Fewer.
Where does society go when its leaders are so lost?
Raul Riesgo is a commentator who has been featured on Spanish language news outlets Telemundo and Mundo Fox News discussing both political and Latino community issues. He has written a book on the development of the city of Pico Rivera that was featured on CNN’s “Latino’s in America” series.