{"id":21600,"date":"2022-02-28T19:45:30","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T03:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=21600"},"modified":"2022-02-28T19:46:49","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T03:46:49","slug":"smear-campaign-against-shahid-buttar-smacks-of-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/02\/28\/smear-campaign-against-shahid-buttar-smacks-of-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Smear campaign against Shahid Buttar smacks of racism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Far left Democrats are dying on Hypocrite Hill<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Congressional candidate Shahid Buttar at a rally. Photo: courtesy shahidforchange.us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Susan Dyer Reynolds<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MARCH 2022 (marinatimes.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Democratic Socialists of America San Francisco are about to ruin the political career of a Brown Muslim man based on no evidence at all because a bunch of mediocre Karens complained he was mean to them.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Gloria Berry, Chair, S.F. Democratic County Central Committee, Black Lives Matter Committee, in an Aug. 4, 2020, Medium post<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I worked at Apple during college it was not uncommon to see people go into the office of CEO Steve Jobs and come out in tears. Despite his reputation as a \u201cmean boss,\u201d Jobs is still considered by many to be the greatest CEO the world has ever known. Yet in far-left San Francisco clubs like the Democratic Socialist of America (DSASF), the SFBerniecrats and the Harvey Milk Club, unsubstantiated allegations of being a \u201cmean boss\u201d were enough to pull their support from progressive congressional candidate Shahid Buttar against establishment incumbent Nancy Pelosi \u2014 that is, after allegations that he sexually assaulted a white woman over 20 years ago didn\u2019t pan out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, Buttar, a Muslim immigrant, artist, and Stanford-educated constitutional lawyer, became the first Democrat since 1987 to face Speaker of the House Pelosi in a general election. Though he garnered just 22.4 percent of the votes, that was more than any other Pelosi challenger since she assumed her seat, and he was the first candidate to pass the 20 percent mark against her since 1990. His message resonated with progressive Democrats, and he likely could have come even closer if it weren\u2019t for the false accusations of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and office misogyny lobbed by the very same far-left Democrats who once passionately supported him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 12, 2020, Washington D.C. comedian Elizabeth Croydon tagged renowned Black philosopher Cornel West in a cryptic tweet that read, \u201cI\u2019d like you to know that Shaid [sic] Buttar sexually harassed me and is friends w\/ the \u2018ex\u2019 \u2018gang banger\u2019<\/strong> who threw me into a wall disabling me for years\u2026\u201d In what seems like the oldest movie plot of all time, staffers who had parted ways with Buttar\u2019s campaign reached out to Croydon, and on July 21 Croydon published an account<\/a> called \u201cShahid Buttar Repeatedly Sexually Harassed Me.\u201d Croydon claimed the harassment took place over 20 years ago when they lived in a communal home in D.C. for freelancers in activism and the arts. She goes on to say Buttar \u201ccornered her in the kitchen,\u201d \u201cbrushed against her,\u201d and that he chided her for choosing celibacy, on one occasion screaming, \u201cDon\u2019t worry Liz, we\u2019ll find someone to fuck you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the tweet and Croydon\u2019s account, in late July, DSASF circulated a draft resolution moving to rescind their endorsement and calling on Buttar to participate in a \u201crestorative justice process\u201d with the club, of which he and several of his current and former staffers were members. The resolution accused Buttar of \u201ca pattern of abuse including but not limited to sexually inappropriate behavior with his staff and volunteers.\u201d Local media outlets including the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em> and Mission Local<\/em> covered the effort without confirming the accusations. Buttar is currently suing the Chronicle<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Intercept<\/em>, a news outlet funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar in 2014, also covered the sordid tale, but did slightly more research into Croydon\u2019s claims, later stating in an update that they were \u201cnot able to corroborate Croydon\u2019s allegations and [had] interviewed multiple sources who recounted having disturbing interactions with her that caused them to question her credibility.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this same time, on July 25, 2020, blogger Jaqueline Anne Thompson published the first in a 6-part series<\/a> about \u201cElizabeth Croydon\u2019s ever-growing list of victims.\u201d Thompson says after her initial post, more victims came forward. In each subsequent chapter, she helps another person tell their story about Croydon\u2019s bizarre behavior. Each account is frightening, but the most terrifying of all is the account of a woman named Stacey Haines, a fellow comedian who let Croydon stay with her in Los Angeles and then could not get her out. In the beginning, Haines says things were fine. She even felt comfortable enough to tell Elizabeth the reason she had chosen to be celibate was because she was a sexual assault survivor. What was supposed to be a short stay, however, dragged on, with Croydon gradually taking over the apartment. When Haines was at her waitressing job, Croydon went through her personal belongings, including her journal. Finally, the landlord, who had run-ins with an erratic Croydon as well, changed the lock and told Haines to put Croydon\u2019s things in the hallway, which she did \u2014 but that wasn\u2019t the end of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only did Croydon stalk Haines at her job, but at the comedy club where they both performed, Haines says on several occasions Croydon mocked her for remaining celibate and yelled out, \u201cWe need to get Stacey fucked! Who will fuck Stacey? Anyone?\u201d Haines says Croydon also started a rumor that she wasn\u2019t a woman. \u201cElizabeth claimed I had a penis and that I cornered her and rubbed my breasts and penis up against her on a regular basis.\u201d Haines was shocked to see Croydon describe her encounter with Buttar in the same way, as well as use her story about celibacy, writing, \u201cshe stole my experience as her own.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the story ran, Croydon herself confirmed it in a tweet \u2014 and went even further: \u201cStacey Haines is accusing me of sexual harassment \/career sabotage in defense of Shahid Buttar. Stacey is related to Nazis-Her grandfather was an SS pilot. She also tried to make me touch her balls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson said by the time she was done with her series, over two dozen people had contacted her to say they, too, had been victims of Croydon\u2019s lies and harassment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patricia Brooks, founder of earned media firm MatchMap Media and a current Buttar campaign volunteer, says she and Buttar did overlapping work on the East Coast. \u201cI lived in the D.C. area for 17 years and was pretty well known in those circles, and people from those circles came to me and said Liz has done this before. It was 20 years ago. Usually there are others who come forward \u2014 these things rarely happen in a vacuum. But no one did. Instead people came to me with concerns about Liz and not Shahid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A PRETTY BAD BOSS\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, the DSASF and other far left clubs that distanced themselves from Buttar couldn\u2019t be bothered to do a simple Google search, but even without the damning accounts of other victims and Croydon\u2019s own off-the-rail tweets, the story quickly fell apart. Shockingly, not one club acknowledged it nor apologized for pushing the resolution, pivoting instead to a new story \u2014 that Buttar was a bad boss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only thing more alarming to me than being the target of racist accusations was watching the fragility of \u2018progressives\u2019 and \u2018socialists\u2019 in San Francisco lead them to double down and shoot the messenger even after the lies were exposed,\u201d Buttar says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooks, who is herself a survivor of sexual assault, was deeply concerned about members of the SFBerniecrats using the #MeToo movement to attack a Brown Muslim man. \u201cI was a Bernie Sanders supporter way before he got in the race. Their group is part of our revolution, which is national. I decided to testify at their hearing about Shahid with my Bernie perspective,\u201d Brooks says. \u201cI told them if it was about treatment of staff, they should unendorse Bernie because way worse things were said about him being sexist.\u201d SFBerniecrats then-Chairman Brandon Harami told Brooks she was \u201cspeaking nonsense\u201d and told her to \u201cget a life.\u201d He also called her a \u201charasser\u201d and deleted her post from a public forum. \u201cI was trying to tell the truth,\u201d Brooks says. \u201cThey don\u2019t care about survivors. They don\u2019t care about anything. It\u2019s just a political game for them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harami refused my Twitter invite to tell his side, instead taking to Medium in a post titled, \u201cSeriously: The Left Doesn\u2019t Need to Die on this Hill,\u201d which confirmed his role in the Buttar rumormongering. \u201cI heard it from multiple staffers that Shahid was a pretty bad boss for some time but bit my tongue because I had worked on campaigns before and know how stressful it is and because the staffers asked me not to say anything,\u201d he writes. After agreeing \u201cthe sexual assault accusations were questionable,\u201d Harami says the club \u201cvoted by a slim majority to recommend rescinding Shahid\u2019s endorsement on the basis he operated a toxic work environment.\u201d Still, a toxic work environment is a long way from sexual assault. \u201cThis is someone\u2019s life. You can\u2019t just call them a sexual predator and then say, \u2018oh it\u2019s false\u2019 but we must move on for the sake of the movement,\u201d Brooks says. \u201cI have worked with Shahid very directly as a woman on the team for a year and a half. I like working with him. He is not a bad boss nor a sexist one, in my experience.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, there has been no credible evidence that Buttar ran a toxic workplace \u2014 not to mention, during the pandemic, meetings were held over Zoom. What does emerge is a portrait of immature, inexperienced former staffers conspiring to destroy his campaign \u2014 with a little help from the media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PROGRESSIVE PRESS PROBLEM<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another disturbing element to this story is the way San Francisco\u2019s so-called \u201cprogressive press\u201d handled it: they ran with the Croydon and \u201cbad boss\u201d stories apparently without doing any research. You could give them the benefit of the doubt and call it laziness or assign a more sinister motive: complicity with the leaders of San Francisco\u2019s Democratic socialist movement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo believe any of the various lies fabricated about me to mislead voters and insulate a corrupt establishment required journalists to ignore whistleblowers, disregard evidence, and overlook conflicts of interest among sources who were rewarded by the party establishment,\u201d Buttar says. \u201cEvery local writer did exactly that, while several of them appear to have been getting paid under the table by a former tech executive with his own conflicts of interest that remained unreported for the past two years. These lies were concocted by a small number of self-serving political careerists, but ultimately, the entire party made itself complicit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former tech executive Buttar mentions is William Fitzgerald, founder of The Worker Agency. On the website, Fitzgerald says he started the company after 10 years of public policy and corporate communications at Google. Fitzgerald, who handled PR for Buttar\u2019s campaign, left in April of 2020 after his contract ended, only to become a quotable source for negative Buttar missives in the progressive press. In a July 21, 2020 article<\/a> by Joe Eskinazi of the blog Mission Local, Fitzgerald said, \u201cIt felt to me, as a white guy, he listened to me a lot more than the women members of his team.\u201d Of course, he didn\u2019t give any examples and Eskinazi didn\u2019t ask for any. The fact Eskinazi chose to quote Fitzgerald rather than Brooks, who took his place in the campaign, also seemed odd to Buttar and his supporters. They fired off a detailed list of factual errors to Eskinazi. \u201cThe reporting violated basic standards of journalistic ethics by failing to verify facts,\u201d the letter states. \u201cWe did share further information with Mission Local that could have added to the public discussion but was unfortunately ignored.\u201d The campaign also pointed out the odd timing. \u201cShahid was asked to respond to an embargoed press release that he never saw within an hour, yet somehow Mission Local was able to collect interviews with numerous staff and a PR firm in that time.\u201d They asked for a retraction, which Eskinazi curtly refused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more disturbing is Fitzgerald bragging on Twitter about paying people off for coverage: \u201cThe fear-mongering study is funded by Google. When I worked there, I funded studies like these all the time. Complete fabrication. Give a few hundred thousand dollars to a \u2018think tank\u2019 and they print whatever you want.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a highly unusual move for a PR firm, Fitzerald made donations to local news blogs including Mission Local, 48 Hills, and BrokeAss Stuart. \u201cThank you SOOOO much for all your support!\u201d Stuart Schuffman gushed in a tweet about Fitzgerald\u2019s donation. Schuffman later rescinded the BrokeAss Stuart endorsement of Buttar and promised to return the \u201cunspent ad buy\u201d money from Buttar\u2019s campaign (though the campaign has no indication that Schuffman ever returned the money). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another ethically questionable move, Fitzgerald hired Sasha Perigo, a former staffer who had been quoted in the press and loudly speaking out on social media. Though she only worked for the campaign briefly, Perigo went from enthusiastic supporter on Twitter (\u201cI\u2019d strongly encourage my comrades to *sole* endorse Shahid in this race!\u201d) to frequent detractor (\u201cWhile I didn\u2019t experience or witness any sexual harassment on the campaign, I can confirm that I experienced a toxic workplace perpetuated by Shahid himself.\u201d). If her name sounds familiar, in August of 2021, Perigo very publicly accused Jon Jacobo, an aspiring politico and member of the Latino Task Force, of rape (on Twitter). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I reached out to Fitzgerald for comment, but he never responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RACIST RESOLUTION<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On Aug. 4 during a virtual meeting, DSASF passed a resolution<\/a> removing the accusations of staff mistreatment and alleged sexual misconduct, simply stating they had \u201clost confidence in the management\u201d of Buttar\u2019s campaign \u201cand in Shahid Buttar as a candidate that represents our values.\u201d More than 40 DSA members, including state senate candidate Jackie Fielder and Supervisor Dean Preston, signed it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmong the many people who smeared me, none disappointed me quite as much as Dean Preston,\u201d Buttar says. \u201cI did as much as anyone to put him in office: I mobilized dozens of volunteers for him on more than one occasion, promoted him in media appearances, and even distributed his campaign literature on his behalf \u2014 yet as his constituent, he publicly accused me of serial misconduct without any attempt at discerning facts, and has never had the decency to either apologize or even acknowledge the whistleblower \u2026 Even DSA couldn\u2019t stand behind the document that Dean Preston and Jackie Fielder signed, yet neither of them have ever explained themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier that same day, Buttar\u2019s former campaign manager, Jasper Wilde \u2014 who admitted to writing the original resolution \u2014 penned a Medium post<\/a> claiming the campaign ended due to \u201callegations of sexual assault.\u201d That was the first time the word \u201cassault\u201d was used, and it took the rhetoric to another level. Though she later changed \u201cassault\u201d to \u201charassment,\u201d after someone \u201calerted her to the mistake,\u201d the devil is in the details. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can go line by line through Jasper\u2019s piece and point out lie by lie, each time hurting other women. She used her white lesbian status to mobilize LGBT club leadership toward racism,\u201d Brooks says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Harami and fellow Berniecrats chair Brandee Marckmann claimed they didn\u2019t take up the Croydon issue during their meeting, a Twitter post<\/a> tells a different story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buttar\u2019s most vocal detractors, including Wilde, Harami and Marckmann, embody the \u201cwhite privilege\u201d stereotype they rail against in their attempts to move up the political ladder. They spend hours on social media like a diabolic Mickey Mouse Club, bullying those who disagree with them while simultaneously and unironically claiming their movement listens to women and uplifts the voices of Black and Brown people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gloria Berry, an Afro-Latina grandmother, Navy veteran, and the only non-slate member elected to the Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC), says her voice was ignored by the leaders of the SFBerniecrats, Harvey Milk Club, and others. Berry says Raya Steier, a former Buttar field organizer and fellow DSASF member, was the one who called Croydon and reported back to the club. \u201cRaya made it her business to say at that first DSA meeting, \u2018Brown men rape.\u2019 She suggested on the SFBerniecrats Facebook page that we use a mediator she knew who specialized in rape. Throwing the \u2018R\u2019 word around is not cool. We know when you want a dog whistle, these types of words are used.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steier, whose last name was Sarkar in India, first gained attention after listing the personal information of nearly 100 teachers at Indian universities who allegedly sexually harassed or assaulted students and, Brooks points out, \u201cwere Muslim men.\u201d Despite the false narrative Steier pushed about Buttar and her claims about Muslim men in India, David Campos \u2014 former District 9 supervisor, vice-chairman of the California Democratic Party, and current state assembly candidate \u2014 later hired her. Wilde, meanwhile, was rewarded with a board membership position at the Harvey Milk Club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the progressive press wouldn\u2019t listen to her concerns, Berry wrote several well-documented essays<\/a> about her experiences. In one disturbing instance, former finance director Emily Jones told Berry they \u201ccouldn\u2019t support Shahid anymore,\u201d going into details not yet made public about the Croydon accusations and alerting her that a Medium post by Croydon \u201cwould be coming out Monday.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if to bolster Croydon\u2019s claims, Jones then told Berry that Buttar had asked her five times to get the number of a \u201cblonde volunteer,\u201d but in a series of text messages that volunteer says more than once \u201cThat\u2019s false\u201d as Jones tries to get her to say otherwise. \u201cI\u2019m not jumping on a smear campaign bandwagon,\u201d the volunteer says. \u201cAnd all of you pedaling these stories are biased ex-employees mind you. Check your bias.\u201d Berry says the volunteer went to the press to expose the lies after they were published, but she was also ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this has left Buttar stunned. \u201cI grew up in rural Missouri, as part of the only immigrant family within 11 miles in any direction,\u201d Buttar wrote on Twitter, \u201cbut the worst racism I\u2019ve ever encountered was in 2020, right here in the proud progressive bastion of San Francisco.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, it was not Buttar who created a toxic environment, but a bunch of politically ambitious nobodies desperate for attention within their own fractured party \u2014 and who ultimately were too afraid to go against a mainstream force like Pelosi. For Steier and Wilde it worked out; for Harami, not so much. He lost his bid to become a California Democratic Party delegate, but later received the equivalent of a participation trophy from Campos, who appointed him Bay Area vice chair of the California Democratic Party\u2019s Progressive Caucus. He continues to attack Buttar and his supporters, including Berry. \u201cBrandon hit me with the homophobe thing. I was livid. I also got hit with transphobe, and I\u2019m not [either] of those things,\u201d Berry says. Despite attacks from Buttar\u2019s critics, Berry says she won\u2019t back down. \u201cI really got involved in this because I had a first-row seat and knew a lot of players in this, and I couldn\u2019t stand by anymore \u2026 I don\u2019t understand why no political clubs will publicly admit that they discovered the smear to be doubtful in official statements like the ones they put out amplifying it \u2026 nor do I understand why they always throw in \u2018but\u2019 when admitting their mistakes to redirect at other lies that have also been exposed. Shahid deserves an apology without any reservations for slandering his name, and voters deserve an apology for being targets of disinformation favoring the party establishment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Harami said of Buttar, \u201cthe Left doesn\u2019t need to die on this hill,\u201d and he\u2019s right. Instead, they are dying on Hypocrite Hill, letting false accusations about a Brown Muslim man sexually assaulting a white woman hang in the air, all the while standing by a gutted resolution that helped dismantle a historic congressional campaign. DSASF members boast about lifting Black and Brown voices, but they clearly don\u2019t practice what they preach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email; susan@marinatimes.com<\/a>. Follow Susan and the <\/em>Marina Times on Twitter: @SusanDReynolds and @TheMarinaTimes<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Far left Democrats are dying on Hypocrite Hill Congressional candidate Shahid Buttar at a rally. Photo: courtesy shahidforchange.us by Susan Dyer Reynolds MARCH 2022 (marinatimes.com) \u201cThe Democratic Socialists of America San Francisco are about to ruin the political career of a Brown Muslim man based on no evidence at all… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21600"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21600"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21604,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21600\/revisions\/21604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}