Results tagged “kamalaharris”

We're biased. We love us some Kamala Harris. She's pretty. She has the loveliest hair we've seen since we last looked into a mirror. She will temporarily stop an interview to give the proper pronunciation if the reporter fucks up her name. And, arguably, she's been a might fine DA. (Aside: You can sign up for a new SFist commenter account here.) While Harris has been criticized for being a bit of a softy (i.e., she refuses to take part in state-sanction murders in order to appease the Nancy Graces of the world), Harris scored a major endorsement today from a tough-on-crime kind of guy.

Proving to be a woman of her word, San Francisco DA Kamala Harris refused to kowtow to public pressure that demanded the death penalty in the murder of a man and his two sons. If you recall, Edwin Ramos (a 22-year-old illegal immigrant/MS 13 gang member with two prior felonies, an assault of a Muni passenger and the attempted robbery of a pregnant lady) is charged with killing Tony Bologna and his sons Michael and Matthew in June of 2008. According to KGO, prosecutor Harry Dorfman made the following "surprise" announcement in court yesterday: "The District Attorney has decided to seek the special circumstances penalty of life without parole; we will not seek the death penalty in this case." Harris, who strongly opposes the death penalty, has never sought capital punishment in any case.

Just in case you didn't catch this on the SFGate's Crime Scene blog (possibly because you don't read SFGate's Crime Scene blog), we thought we'd bring your attention to this charming story in which a 33-year-old Samoan woman, apparently quite strapping at 280 pounds, chased down and punched a meter maid who ticketed her as she ran out of a hospital (where her son was being treated) to feed the meter. The woman, Lina Megailalio, appears to regret her actions, but the victim, fellow Samoan Angelina Barsi, has got Kamala Harris all over her ass. At least she wasn't writing a ticket while there was still time left on the meter!

A bumpy road lies ahead for D.A. Kamala Harris, who just kicked off her bid for State Attorney General. It seems the focal point of her campaign, a rehabilitaion program for low-level narcotics offenders confidently titled Back on Track, is coming under fire. According to a recent report, the District Attorney's program "trained illegal immigrants for jobs they couldn't legally hold." One grim example, the LA Times points out, was an illegal immigrant / cocaine dealer who attacked, mugged, and fractured the skull of onetime resident Amanda Kiefer. After getting arrested, the culprit, Alexander Izaguirre, "avoided prison when he was picked for a jobs program run by San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris ...In effect, Harris' office had been allowing Izaguirre and other illegal immigrants to stay out of prison by training them for jobs they cannot legally hold."

We love stuff like this. SF Citizen sent SFist the following message, "The media crowd waiting for queen Kamala at City Hall is getting restless. 20 mins. late and counting." We can only hope she's dropped in by helicopter. And that she's wearing a long flowing scarf. With a floor-length mink coat. And oversized sunglasses. Fantastic.

City Hall diva and DA extraordinaire Kamala Harris plans on ditching her gig at City Hall for the big league via a a bids to run for California attorney general. With current state attorney general Jerry Brown planning on yet another bout in the governor's office after Arnold's departure, and as an early supporter of President-elect Barack Obama, the timing is just right for Harris to jump the SF ship. (CBS 5)

Today Phil Bronstein picked up on SFist Deborah's item ("Glen Park to Kamala Harris: RSVP") about San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris neither showing up nor RSVPing to an important Glen Park meeting. (The hood, as most you already know, is simply "crime-inundated" as of late.) Bronstein added to the story, contacting la Kamala herself and demanding answers. And, of course, getting them. Oh, and the D.A. office's reason for not showing up? "We dropped the ball," Harris tells Phil. Read why here.

RSVP if you're not going to do your job start prosecuting criminals! At last night's Glen Park Community Meeting, impressively attended by 500 residents (You go, GP!), all invited officials showed up to speak to and/or show their support for the recently crime-inundated neighborhood - all except for Kamala Harris. Disappointingly, the San Francisco District Attorney didn't even send a representative to the meeting. Come on, Kamala. You can do better than that!

During yesterday's Time magazine breakfast forum in Denver -- a panel discussion -ishly titled "Hot Shots Breakfast" -- our DA Kamala Harris was a featured guest. On a question regarding public safety, here's what she had to say.

Yes, it's back. While it's hard to pick just one since so many of you have been extraordinarily stellar in the comments section, we starting selecting one comment per week that jumps out at us, brilliantly so. Last week's was brought to you by SFist reader jnice, who made a remarkable case for la Kamala, one that had us re-thinking the diva-y SF DA who took a verbal swipe from Quentin Kopp.

Oh good. Valentine's Day is just around the corner. And if the thought of next Thursday's approaching fillet mignon-for-two-free evening doesn't make you want to slice open an artery followed by nap-time in the bathtub, then how about not making Nob Hill Gazette's annual Lucky 13th Annual Eligible's List? (Yes, yes, you and your hipster S.O. are too cool to celebrate a Hallmark holiday, clearly, but what a privileged thing to decide not to do. Wow, that was bitter. Anyway.)

Barack's new SF HQ opens

That's a picture taken by reader Angela of a counter-protest sign at the June 07 Ed Jew rally that says "RESIGN" in Chinese. Well, Angela -- that day is nigh: City Attorney Dennis Herrera takes a break from infuriating the ACLU, the NRA, and Mark Geragos to announce that he's holding a press conference at 1 p.m. where Ed Jew is expected to resign from the Board of Supes.

Obama '08 is coming your way.

Denied.

-- Judge tosses out California's new lethal injection procedures. [SFGate]

After telling the public that he wanted his day in court as soon as possible -- similar to telling the public that he lived in SF, among other massive fibs -- Jew won a seven-week (!) delay for his trial start date. As always, whatever works best for you, Ed.

Fundraiser, five-head sufferer, and possible one-time kidnapping victim Norman Hsu skipped his San Mateo County Superior Court appearance this morning and is now the lam! He is wanted for a 15-year-old felony warrant for grand theft. Some fear that since he was supposed to return his passport this morning, but failed to do so, he might be en route to Antarctica, or somewhere, by now.

Larry Craig's police interrogation audio

Speedy trial? Say it fast: OhNoEdJew!

E to the Dizzo, J to the Ew-wo -- not guilty, we gots to feel him! Ed Jew, in an American flag tie, appeared in state criminal court today and pled not guilty to the charges of lying about his residency, but not before waving at and hugging members of a 100-deep cheering crowd outside the courthouse.

Remember that couple we told you about that was stealing stuff from open houses? They got busted by the OnStar in their rental Hummer. Police won't reveal where they were, except to say they were "out of state."

Hey -- we're not doing our usual light-hearted romp through the Swells society column this weekend, because we've got sad news. The doyenne of Swells, Catherine Bigelow, announced in this week's column that she's been asked to take the Chron's "voluntary buyout package," so this is it for your mathematically-inclined socialite review.

Man, we're bummed the Chron still hasn't put back up the pictures of the Canton Flower Shop and their stymied attempts to inspect the legendary shower in the back -- but we do have a new Matier and Ross column to summarize from the Tapioca Ed perspective: we call it M&R and Everyone We Know.

You guys are THE BEST. Thanks for all the great pictures of today's Ed Jew rally outside City Hall!

Nothing too new to report on the Ed Jew got arrested front this morning, but the Chron did survey all the other Board of Supervisor members for their reactions. Let's go in order!

10:30 p.m.: We went out to dinner and missed Ed Jew's surrender to the authorities.... in Burlingame!!! Awesome. Hey, that way he could just go straight home afterwards. Jew posted bail and was released on his own recognizance. His first court appearance is scheduled for July 16.

DA Kamala Harris wants more prosecutors on her team -- which seems to be a smart move for a DA that's been criticized in some circles for being soft and rarely prosecuting. But her reasoning for beefin' up the staff? To tackle the "quality of life" crimes of graffiti, prostitution and aggressive panhandling that, according to Harris, can graduate to more serious crimes.

There's a big story in the Chron this morning over the conflict between the SFPD and the DA's office over prosecuting crime in the city. Basically, the cops are frustrated because the DA's office rarely prosecutes anything. The result is a lot of repeat offenders out there repeating offenses. In the story, the Chron even details how some of the shootings we've seen recently are done by people who have been in-and-out of jail and got off relatively easy.