{"id":31565,"date":"2024-02-07T13:27:15","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T21:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=31565"},"modified":"2024-02-07T13:27:16","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T21:27:16","slug":"in-latest-case-of-s-f-s-heated-politics-activist-removes-campaign-sign-and-sparks-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/02\/07\/in-latest-case-of-s-f-s-heated-politics-activist-removes-campaign-sign-and-sparks-outrage\/","title":{"rendered":"In latest case of S.F.\u2019s heated politics, activist removes campaign sign and sparks outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0St. John Barned-Smith<\/a> Feb 5, 2024 (SFChronicle.com)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A progressive San Francisco neighborhood activist stepped into a cafe in the Richmond District for a beverage Saturday when she spotted a sign for a moderate supervisorial candidate who is running against an incumbent in a race that\u2019s already heated. As Julie Pitta was leaving Royal Ground Coffee, by her own admission, the journalist and community organizer quietly peeled the sign for candidate Marjan Philhour from the window, and then walked outside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fellow customer snapped a photo of Pitta getting into the car with the sign, however, and shared it with a friend, who posted it to social media on Sunday. Pitta, who has written favorably about the incumbent, Supervisor Connie Chan<\/a>, and criticized Philhour, apologized for removing the sign, but that did little to quell the controversy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Monday afternoon, Philhour issued an angry denunciation of the moment, calling it \u201celection interference, plain and simple.\u201d Pitta\u2019s publisher at the Richmond Review newspaper canceled her column. Chan\u2019s campaign issued a statement distancing itself from the incident, saying the supervisor and her campaign \u201cdo not condone the removal of campaign signs without permission.\u201d And police said they were investigating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest episode of San Francisco\u2019s heated politics comes as the city gears up for what promises to be a tense election season heading into November, when there will be races for the mayor and supervisors. In addition to conflict in the District 1 race, candidates in District 9, which includes the Mission, have already clashed repeatedly, trading attacks and accusations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Supervisor Connie Chan\u2019s campaign issued a statement distancing itself from an incident in which an activist and supporter removed a campaign sign for her opponent from a cafe window.Stephen Lam\/The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The animosity between moderates and progressives was on view last month when tech executive and moderate political donor Garry Tan posted a menacing tweet<\/a> that the city\u2019s progressive supervisors should \u201cdie slow,\u201d referencing a Tupac Shakur song. Tan later deleted the tweet and apologized. 

San Francisco elections have seen similar scandals before: Amid the controversy of the 2022 recall of San Francisco school board members, a man stole forms carrying petition signatures; he was charged with a misdemeanor<\/a>. Mark Dietrich, a Richmond resident who posted the image of Pitta to social media, said \u201cThe photo and video doesn\u2019t lie. There\u2019s a way to do political discourse and there\u2019s a way not to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview, Pitta blamed the incident on frustration with past, \u201creally unfortunate\u201d interactions with Philhour surrogates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really shouldn\u2019t have done it,\u201d said Pitta, a former Los Angeles Times correspondent and Forbes editor. \u201cWe\u2019re only human.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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She said at a meeting last year where a Philhour supporter accosted her and Chan and asked her how many babies she had killed. Chan filed a police report regarding the incident. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philhour said the alleged incident happened before she launched her campaign and added that she wasn\u2019t aware of anyone on her campaign team being involved in any crime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would trust that any suspected crime including threats would be promptly and properly reported to the police and the police would investigate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philhour, a political moderate candidate challenging Chan, previously ran in 2016 and 2020, and has focused on public safety issues affecting the neighborhood. She said Monday that Pitta\u2019s actions follow past skirmishes with the columnist, particularly one after a Richmond shopkeeper, Yohannes \u201cJohn\u201d Tewolde, was beaten to death last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philhour\u2019s daughter visited the shop frequently and spoke at a vigil in his honor, Philhour said, prompting Pitta to accuse Philhour in several tweets <\/a>of politicizing the event and commenting that her daughter looked \u201cmortified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis toxicity has really reached a fever pitch,\u201d Philhour said Monday. \u201cI understand that as a candidate for local office, I am open to attack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis really needs to be taken down a notch,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the photo and videos of her removing the sign made their way online, Pitta posted an apology on social media in which she said she believed she had permission to remove it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview, Royal Ground Coffee owner Jim Kim said Pitta did not have permission. Kim said he allows supporters of political campaigns to put signs up in his shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a big deal,\u201d he said, \u201cI just let them do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, he found himself fielding calls from reporters about the incident, while Philhour supporters came by his shop and removed other signs because they were afraid of affecting his business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just want things to calm down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the situation irked Terry Whelan, the Philhour supporter who\u2019d first asked to place the sign in the cafe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whelan lives around the corner, and like Pitta, frequently stops by the shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn one hand, it\u2019s the most insignificant thing in the universe,\u201d he said. \u201cBut on the other hand, it\u2019s lame. Julie Pitta is undermining democracy by doing this, in a very small way, and undermining a fellow civically active female, which is Marjan. It\u2019s just lame.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pitta\u2019s publisher at the Richmond Review, Michael Durand, published a note Monday announcing he\u2019d terminated the column. The Review avoids endorsements, he said, and seeks a wide variety of opinions from columnists such as Pitta and former supervisor Quentin Kopp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know people\u2019s emotions get high in political discussions,\u201d he said. \u201cBut what feels like might be the right thing to do isn\u2019t always the right thing to do \u2026 it was absolutely wrong and there\u2019s no excuse for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reach St. John Barned-Smith: stjohn.smith@sfchronicle.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb 5, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0St. John Barned-Smith<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. John “Sinjin” Barned-Smith joined The San Francisco Chronicle in 2022 and covers City Hall. He previously worked at The Houston Chronicle, where he covered law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barned-Smith started his career at the Philadelphia Daily News, served in the Peace Corps, in Paraguay, and worked at the Montgomery Gazette, in Maryland, before joining Hearst Newspapers in 2014. His coverage of floods, mass shootings and police misconduct and other topics has been honored with several state and national awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barned-Smith lives in San Francisco, with his newshound, Scoop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He can be reached at stjohn.smith@sfchronicle.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0St. John Barned-Smith Feb 5, 2024 (SFChronicle.com) A progressive San Francisco neighborhood activist stepped into a cafe in the Richmond District for a beverage Saturday when she spotted a sign for a moderate supervisorial candidate who is running against an incumbent in a race that\u2019s already heated. As Julie Pitta… 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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31569,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31565\/revisions\/31569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}