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by\u00a0JOE RIVANO BARROS<\/a><\/strong> SEPTEMBER 29, 2023 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n- \n
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Elon Musk’s post on Friday, September 29, calling for the jailing of Supervisor Dean Preston. “Dean Preston should go to prison,” he wrote.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Elon Musk, the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, called today for the jailing of District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDean Preston should go to prison,\u201d Musk posted<\/a>, in response to a Mission Local article<\/a> reporting the passage in committee of legislation on Thursday, introduced by Preston, that would ban security guards from unholstering their weapons over property crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The democratic socialist Preston\u2019s legislation was unanimously supported by the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee\u2019s three moderate members, Catherine Stefani, Matt Dorsey and Joel Engardio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musk has made no secret of his disdain of the supervisor: Last week, he called for Preston to be fired<\/a> and named him \u201carguably the person most responsible for the destruction of San Francisco.\u201d Half an hour later, he pledged $100,000<\/a> to a political action committee fundraising to unseat the supervisor, who is the only democratic socialist on the Board of Supervisors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The PAC, dubbed Dump Dean and run by the political pressure group Grow SF<\/a>, said they had not received a donation from Musk and would, after today\u2019s comments, not take one in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe won\u2019t accept the donation,\u201d said Steven Buss, one of the co-founders of the group. Buss said he had never believed the donation would materialize and had not been contacted by Musk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWe need to be aligned on values with our donors and it\u2019s clear we differ with Elon on a number of important issues (including locking up political opponents),\u201d Buss said, adding that Musk\u2019s tweets were \u201ca stupid distraction\u201d that has \u201cnothing to do with us or the voters who care about clean and safe streets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Preston sent out a statement soon after Musk\u2019s posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese attacks are beyond the pale,\u201d said Preston in a statement. \u201cA billionaire calling for a democratically-elected official to be sent to prison for no reason is textbook fascism. Regardless, I will continue advocating for my constituents even if that makes billionaires uncomfortable and increasingly unhinged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Preston \u200b\u200bhas in the past said<\/a> it was not surprising he would draw the ire of a \u201cright-wing billionaire,\u201d as the supervisor is \u201ca democratic socialist,\u201d pointing to his own past anti-eviction and affordable housing ordinances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The supervisor has become the b\u00eate noire of moderate political pressure groups and their well-heeled donors in San Francisco: Garry Tan, the millionaire CEO of Y Combinator, has unleashed frequent tirades<\/a> against Preston and pledged<\/a> to end his time in politics next year, when Preston faces a re-election race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tan has pledged $50,000 to the PAC opposing Preston, an amount Musk said he would double. Tan is also a board member of the group Grow SF, which is behind the PAC, and whose founders have taken aim<\/a> at the supervisor, alongside other moderate groups and donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Supervisor Aaron Peskin, a fellow progressive, called attention to the cavalcade opposing Preston. He said other tech executives were \u201cspending their money in the same ways\u201d as Musk and that he was representative of their ilk, even if his rhetoric is often harsher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn some ways, I think Elon Musk is doing San Francisco a favor because he is actually saying what some of his fellow billionaires think but don\u2019t say,\u201d Peskin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peskin believed there could be a silver lining for Preston, as the attacks could galvanize support and donations to the supervisor in next year\u2019s District 5 race: \u201cPeople in the San Francisco Bay Area are offended by it and are too sophisticated to fall for it, and it\u2019s probably the best thing that ever happened to Dean Preston.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ordinance<\/a> passed on Thursday \u2014 and apparently reviled by Musk \u2014 was crafted by Preston in response to the shooting death of Banko Brown<\/a>, a transgender man who was shot and killed at a mid-Market Walgreens in April. Brown was suspected of shoplifting some $15 worth of snacks and, on his way out of the store, was intercepted by a security guard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The guard wrestled with and threw Brown onto the floor and, as Brown was backing out of the exit, shot him once in the chest. The guard was not charged for the shooting<\/a>, which is under review<\/a> by California Attorney General Rob Bonta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musk has a history of anti-trans rhetoric, recently saying the use of preferred pronouns rots the brain<\/a> and implying that transgender people are heavily privileged in society<\/a>. He has a transgender daughter who has disavowed him, and his recent biographer, Walter Isaacson, said<\/a> that his daughter\u2019s rejection has caused a right-wing turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peskin, for his part, said he was not worried about the attacks and did not give \u201ccredence\u201d to Musk \u2014 quite the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy intelligence is insulted by having to talk about Elon Musk,\u201d Peskin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\n<\/a>JOE RIVANO BARROSSENIOR EDITOR<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
joe.rivanobarros@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joe was born in Sweden, where the Chilean half of his family received asylum after fleeing Pinochet, and spent his early childhood in Chile; he moved to Oakland when he was eight. He attended Stanford University for political science and worked at Mission Local as a reporter after graduating. He then spent time in advocacy as a partner for the strategic communications firm The Worker Agency. He rejoined Mission Local as an editor in 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lone socialist on the Board of Supervisors has become target of tech executives by\u00a0JOE RIVANO BARROS SEPTEMBER 29, 2023 (MissionLocal.org) Elon Musk, the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, called today for the jailing of District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston. \u201cDean Preston should go to prison,\u201d Musk posted, in response to a Mission… Continue reading
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