"MAN UP"

Last week the Chronicle printed a story about the suffering of the two young men charged with felonious assault on visiting Yale choir members.

The victims of what San Francisco D.A. Kamala Harris calls a “cowardly attack” had injuries that required ambulance trips to the hospital, but two of the attackers, currently free on bail, are complaining about how much they are suffering.

The ringleader of the attack, Richard Aicardi has lost 30 pounds. Boo fucking hoo.

Aicardi’s mom, a pediatrician, has lost some patients. Even though three of her sons are alleged to have participated in the cowardly attack, Ms Aicardi can’t understand why parents would doubt her expertise in raising children. Boo fucking hoo.

And Brian Dwyer’s life has turned upside down. Boo fucking hoo.

They thought they were immune to the law. They are totally surprised

They thought they should get away with beating people up.

Now the Chronicle has printed an editorial impugning the manliness of the Yale victims.

They had to get a woman to write it. Ms Caille Millner thinks it’s ok to go around insulting men’s masculinity, or is it their grown-upness she’s impugning. She starts the article by characterizing her views as “wisdom.”

A FEW WORDS of wisdom for the kids involved in the Yale New Year's Eve confrontation: Man up.

“Man up”? I guess that mean’s act like men. What exactly does that mean?

From the outcry that's erupted over this, you'd think it was the first time anyone had ever been in a fistfight. You'd think it was the worst thing in the world that a couple of Yale singers got hit in the face. You'd think that human beings have evolved to the point where violence isn't a day-to-day part of our existence.

The commentary over the course of this story boils down to a basic question: is fistfighting and street brawling a part of everyday life? Advocates for the attackers point to the unwritten rules of streetfighting.

This blog takes the position that there is no place in civilized society for fistfighting and street brawling. We advocate “love your neighbor as yourself.” It’s not a new concept.

What Ms Millner is asking for is exactly what she’s getting. The Yale kids are “Manning up.” They’re manning up just the way the Aicardi’s manned up.

Aicardi was outnumbered so he called for reinforcements. Then they used their superior force to prevail over the Yale kids that evening.

Now Caille Millner wants to declare the fight to be over. But the kind of “real men” Caille seems to prefer don’t admit defeat and dishonor, they, just like the Aicardi’s, look for reinforcements and revenge.

Now the Yale kids with their lawyer reinforcements have forced the police department, whom the Aicardi gang thought was on their side, to do their jobs and make a few arrests. So SFPD (at least in part) and the D.A. (at least in part) are on the Yalie side.

Now the Aicardi’s are whining that THEY are outnumbered.

This just proves what they say about bullies, when they meet superior force they turn into sniveling little babies.

You know, the story was fading from view until these two pro-defense articles came out. This is strange. It makes me suspicious.

Hopefully Dan Noyes will continue to investigate why more attackers haven’t been charged. There has been at least one anonymous allegation that one or more children of SFPD brass were involved in the attack.

Transparency is needed here, or we have to assume the worst.

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TWENTY DEEP

The two youths charged in the Yale Baker’s Dozen beating case are discovering that simply being arrested and charged with a crime is hugely painful. It’s life-disrupting. It’s future-affecting. Readers of the recent Chronicle story would be hard pressed not to feel sorry for these two kids. Quote:

On Thursday, Frank Passaglia, Aicardi's attorney, and Tony Brass, Dwyer's attorney, told The Chronicle that their clients' lives have been tossed upside down by the New Year's Eve foray and the media attention that flowed from it.

Richard Aicardi, the 19 year old accused instigator, is famously quoted for bragging, on the night of the incident, “I’m twenty deep.” This meant that he had twenty buddies on their way to help him fight.

The video of young Aidardi surrendering for booking shows him, not twenty-deep, but accompanied only by his father.

This is the seed of what should happen next.

The best outcome from the criminal proceedings, from the point of view of people who want to walk the streets of San Francisco without getting beaten up, is that all the attackers be convicted of violent crimes.

Another quote from the Chronicle sob story:

Now Dwyer finds himself in the difficult position of being "someone who has been a law-abiding kid his whole life and now all of a sudden he faces charges that could send him to state prison,'' Brass said.

Never in trouble before, Dwyer is depressed, sleeps a lot and has little appetite, his lawyer said.

Massive punishment for Aicardi and Dwyer might or might not deter future violence from the other attackers, those of the “twenty deep” who haven’t been charged. Better for all of us would be for all the attackers plead guilty of misdemeanor battery or something like that, do some community service, and go and sin no more.

That way, if any of the attackers should strike again, they couldn’t claim “first offense.”

So how do we get them all to plead guilty? By threatening Aicardi and Dwyer with vigorous prosecution and serious state prison time. Then offer to bargain down to a misdemeanor if they testify against the other attackers.

At the same time, the D.A. Harris could let it be known that if the other attackers surrendered, they could plead guilty to misdemeanors.

It would be malpractice for the D.A. not to exploit this loyalty dilemma. Aicardi and Dwyer feel loyalty to the twenty-deepers. But how much loyalty do the twenty-deepers show by letting Aicardi and Dwyer take the entire fall?

It’s a real grown-up problem.

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OUR HERO: DAN NOYES

The felony charges filed yesterday against two attackers in the Baker’s Dozen case never would have been brought had it not been for the efforts of the I-Team at San Francisco’s ABC7.

Others contributed, notably the Gonzalez and Leigh law firm, but the public demand for justice was led by Dan Noyes and his investigative I-Team.

Gee whiz! This is kind of like those corny stories of courageous newspeople who dig deep and buck entrenched powers to get at the truth and to force elected officials to do their jobs. Maybe some bad guys will do some time behind bars.

This is not that big a deal, unless you consider that after the incident the Mayor and the Police Chief both maintained that no crime had even been committed. The attackers were going to get away with it.

Congratulations Mr Noyes (bio) and the whole crew at ABC7. Now we need to know why others have not been charged and why the police chief tried to cover the whole thing up.

Answering that last question would deserve a Pulitzer.

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FLIP 'EM, FLIP 'EM GOOD

D.A. Kamala Harris announced felony charges against two suspects in the New Year’s Eve attack on Yale Baker’s Dozen Choir members. ABC7 story here.

Other attackers have not been charged, but Harris has hinted that charges against others could be brought if additional evidence becomes available.

This “additional evidence” must be eyewitness testimony from the two already charged. We’ve seen it on TV a million times, defendants are offered reduced sentences in exchange for testimony against other perpetrators.

The two defendants are only nineteen years old. If the D.A. can’t flip them, she’s not really trying.

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GLEEGATE UPDATE

Pud says our out of town visitors might want to here the news about Gleegate—the New Year’s Eve incident in which local toughs beat up members of a visiting Yale choir.

The attackers were originally let go, allegedly because they are the children of prominent San Franciscans and of police brass. Only because of citizen outrage did the police launch a formal investigation.

[In above photo: The gal on the left is supposed to be prosecuting violent crimes. The gal on the right is supposed to be ending the Iraq War. Nobody hold your breath.]

On February 14th the SFPD turned over the results of the investigation to District Attorney Kamala Harris. That was two weeks ago. We’ve heard nothing since.

It’s been two months since the attack took place.

What does this say about San Francisco? Nothing very good.

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GLEEGATE: TWO SIDES

We were pleased to receive the following comment to one of our posts regarding the New Year’s Eve attack by local youth on members of a visiting Yale Choir.

The Commenter displays a level of intellectual honesty that SFWILLIE’S BLOG must strive to emulate.

could it be the simple fact that if you go to the wrong place at the wrong time, get drunk and pick a fight with a bunch of marines, then try and get out of it by standing in a circle, holding hands and singing the star spangled banner, that you're just going to get your ass kicked and people are not likely to have any meaningful sympathy for you?

freedom, it ain't free.

i get the outrage over yet another incident of the sfpd dragging its dirty heels in the course of administering due process to people who regardless of how one feels about the subject, have an undeniable (one would hope) right to it, but i don't get the outrage over a bunch of sheltered ivy league snots from yale coming here and getting their asses duly kicked after picking a drunken fight with a bunch of marines and sons of sfpd brass.

if you're that stupid, there are going to be consequences. apply the law, okay -- but no tea and sympathy

Commenter has two main points, which we discuss in reverse order.

Commenter’s second point is something that by now most people (who care at all) agree on—that due process should be pursued because we all deserve access to due process, and that maybe due process wasn’t pursued too well right after the incident.

Commenter’s first point, which is more controversial, is that we shouldn’t be too quick to judge the characters of the people involved, the Yale choirboys or the local youth.

Commenter is saying that probably the police and DA should be involved, but that the Yale guys are a bunch of rich punks who disrespected less privileged kids on their own turf, and paid the price by getting knocked around a little.

Rules We Live By

R1) Kids’ subculture rules.

R2) Common sense/street rules

R3) The Golden Rule

R4) Civil code

R5) Penal code

In the discussion of the incident, the SF local kids (the attackers) emphasize R1 and R2. Like, what did the Yale kids expect?

The Yale kids are emphasizing R5. Who knows if the Yale parents even want to bother with R4.

SFWILLIE'S BLOG tries to always emphasize R3. And for all the supposed Catholics involved, we want to aver that Jesus was not a beater-upper.

Time Periods
T1) The history of the world up until the “Gleegate” fight was picked.
T2) The time between when the “Gleegate” fight was picked and when the police arrived on the scene.
T3) Everything since the police rolled onto the Gleegate scene.

T1 Before the Incident
accusers A group of local Catholic High School graduates, who probably have a history of street-fighting, are looking to get rowdy on a New Year’s Eve. They haven’t been invited to any parties and no girls are interested in them, so they are out looking to spoil other people’s fun.

defense Some local kids are chillin’ on New Year’s Eve. Their prospects aren’t all that bright. In fact some of them have enlisted in the Marines. These are good, robust boys.

sfwillie: This confrontation comes from the mixing of classes that happens in high school. By their mid-twenties these classes will be completely segregated from each other.

In San Francisco, St Ignatius sends kids to Yale and to the Naval Academy. Sacred Heart sends kids to City College and into the Marines. In general, as grown ups, SH kids will be taking orders from SI kids. There’s no reason why SH kids shouldn’t see injustice here and resent it. The local kids were looking for a fight, and they didn’t know exactly why.


T2 The Incident
accusers The local kids' search patrol (party crasher) draws fire from the enemy (Yale students verbal interaction) and calls in massive fire power (a van full of marines), to wipe out the enemy. The squad of locals waits outside and gangs up on the unsuspecting Yale kids who leave the party one by one or in small groups.

defense The Yale kids voluntarily came out of the house to engage in a fight with the local kids. The Yale kids lose the fight and suffer minor injuries. No one dies, no one suffers permanent disabilities. A broken jaw, a couple of black eyes, a little concussion, this is all pretty tame stuff for SF General’s ER on a New Years Eve.

sfwillie There could be some mixture of the two above versions, but there is little doubt that any “mutual combat” soon turned into a beating. As a newsman put it—when someone is on the ground and has ceased fighting, kicking that person in the head is usually considered a felony. I think there were probably multiple felonies committed that night, most if not all by the SF locals.

T3 After Police Arrive
accusers When the police arrived on the scene they recognized the local kids as people they shouldn’t arrest. Maybe the cops on the scene favored the local kids, maybe the cops knew that the SFPD brass would punish them for arresting these particular kids. The cops on the scene conducted the “investigation” and wrote their reports in such a way that would justify their decision to make no arrests. A harsher way to say this is that the cops lied and purposely ignored proper procedure.

defense When the police arrived they confirmed no fatalities, no life-threatening injuries, all subjects ambulatory, teenage/young adults drinking and fighting on a New Years Eve. The Yale kids, who were losing the fight, see the cops as a way of getting back at the local kids. Instead of admitting to “mutual combat” they claim an unprovoked attack.

Maybe this will teach the Yale kids to show some respect for the lower classes, who in this case are Marines, sworn to sacrifice their own lives to protect the Yale kids’ candy asses from real attack. The Yale parents should congratulate the local kids for possibly knocking some sense into their spoiled brats.

sfwillie The unexpected wrinkle is that the victims were from Yale, which belongs to the national and international ruling class. As far as Yale is concerned, our turf is their turf. The entire world is their turf.

So the SF local kids thought that their connections gave them impunity for street-brawling. Then they came up against kids with even better connections. The lesson is familiar: no matter how tough you are, you’ll find someone who’s tougher.

I sympathize with the police on the scene, who will probably draw the blame, but who were doing exactly what they’re superiors expected.

We simply cannot allow kids to go around beating people up. There should be prosecutions of at least some of the kids. The SF local kids need help in finding alternatives to violence. We all need this help.

More importantly, there must be an investigation into the handling of the incident by the police and district attorney. Their performance stinks to high heaven.

It’s time to professionalize SFPD.

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ASSAULT CITY

Pud arrived for work (actually for coffee and bagels) this morning in a foul mood.

After two solid days of rain he was downright rantious.

“Elie Wiesel gets attacked in a San Francisco Hotel,” Pud said. “It’s like anyone can get attacked around here.

“When word got out that it’s ok for San Franciscan’s to beat up visiting choirboys, some people got the notion that any soft-target tourists were fair game.

“So when Elie Wiesel, the world’s foremost holocaust asserter, came to…

“Wait a second,” I shouted, “ what did you call Elie Wiesel?”

“A holocaust asserter,” Pud said. “You got a problem with that? Look, you can’t have holocaust deniers unless you first have holocaust asserters. Right?”

“But the guy completely misunderstood. In San Francisco only certain people get to attack tourists with impunity. White kids with money or juice can get away with a lot.

“But this guy was some jerkoff neo-nazi going after a world famous victim/survivor who has lots of rich friends.

“That’s what cops are for, to separate the authorized beater-uppers from the unauthorized.”

“There’s another group that gets to beat up people with impunity,” I said, “the cops themselves.”

Here’s a truly disgusting account of what looks like a serious felony, assault under color of authority, in which policemen in uniform decided to do some gay bashing.

The city’s going to pay $83,000 to settle civilly, but, get this, for some puling reason or other, the perp-cops are receiving no disciplinary action at all.

“What about the Yale choir beatings?” Pud asked.

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"EVERYBODY DOES IT"

It looks like the people responsible for raising and educating the perps in San Francisco’s shameful Gleegate attack are resorting to the world’s most pathetic defense: everybody does it.

A defense attorney hired by alleged perp parents refers to a “mutual brawl,” as if mutual brawling is SOP. Like, oh yeah, it was one of them mutual brawls.

Yesterday’s Chronicle article quoted a spokesperson for St Ignatius High School, Paul Totah, as saying, “Teenage boys all across America get into fights. That’s natural, though unfortunate.”

Isn’t it strange that the Jesuit fathers of St Ignatius would have a lay person, an English teacher, fronting for them on an important issue of public morality. Also, since the alleged perps are not from St Ignatius, it’s interesting that SI would come to their defense.

The Jesuits publish their own guide to English usage (the Brown Beast) which contains a section titled COMMON FALLACIES AND THEIR REFUTATIONS.

Mr Totah’s statement (besides being incredibly sexist) is an argument from common practice, a variant of the “Argument from Common Knowledge.” As the Brown Beast says, this argument is the easiest to refute—one simply states one’s own disagreement.

So, when someone says, “Everyone loved Ronald Reagan,” I can prove that assertion to be false simply by stating my own opinion, that the man was a scumbag.

And, when Mr Paul Totah tells us that all teenage boys do a little curb-stomping, I can personally refute that one. Sfwillie is no saint, sfwillie has much that he’s ashamed of, but sfwillie has never kicked anyone in the head when they were lying on the pavement.

If you exclude pre-pubertal stuff, I would aver that less than 3% of adult American males have ever been in a serious fistfight.

There are and always have been a certain small percentage of teenage boys who find physical intimidation useful, or who actually enjoy fighting.

OJ Simpson tells stories about his street fighting when growing up in San Francisco as a form of amusement. Interestingly, St Ignatius had a basketball star at the same time, who also had a reputation for brutal street fighting.

We’d be at a teen club dance on a Friday night and kids would come in all excited with accounts of how this basketball star nearly killed a guy, stomping his head on a curb. Poor kid, he was socially awkward, and the best he ever did was warm a couple of NBA benches.

So I refute Mr Totah’s assertion. Very few teenage boys get into fights. We’re talking about bullies, not normal teenagers.

I wonder what an actual Jesuit priest would have to say about this.

Pud thinks the administrators of Sacred Heart and SI should come off the defensive and put a positive spin on the situation. Something like, “Catholic Education: Keeping our city safe from visiting choirboys.”

Saint Francis looks a little sad.

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