Political Junkie: Lucky For Us No Buckshot Was Involved
Man, there isn't any Bay Area connection to Dick Cheney shooting that 78-year-old guy in the face? We're so jealous of DCist and Austinist right now. Well, we gotta content ourselves instead with reporting on the in-your-face shenanigans of Board of Supes President Aaron Peskin and gadfly Wade Randlett. We know, it's not nearly as good.
According to Matier and Ross, Peskin and Randlett were both at the Chinese Parade VIP stand. (There's a VIP stand for the Chinese New Year parade? Our invite must have gotten lost in the mail.) Randlett, who heads up the controversial moderate-to-conservative group SF SOS, was there with his girlfriend Lorna Ho. Ms. Ho, interestingly, is the SF school district spokesperson, and SF SOS has consistently advocated against school busing as a solution for racial segregation in the district.
Anyways, so Peskin sees Randlett, and blows his stack. Peskin storms up to Ho's boss, Gwen Chan, and demands that Randlett be ejected, saying that Randlett wasn't on the invite list. Chan passed the message to Randlett, who was like, whatever, "We have some history."
The quail's in the bush! See the metaphoric buckshot fly, after the jump!
So Peskin then calls a cop over to talk to Randlett, and then asks Ho to please get rid of Randlett. Here's where it gets all crazy lefty-says righty-says! According to Peskin, Randlett was yelling at him and taunting him all night. According to Randlett, he was quietly minding his own business, sipping a glass of wine and chatting politely with Chief of Police Heather Fong about the Chronicle's This Week in Police Brutality series. "So, Heather, those models outside Polly Esther's probably really deserved it, didn't they?"
The cop asks Randlett if he's got a problem with Peskin. Randlett says no.
M&R then get kind of vague at this point, but a police commander standing nearby diplomatically reported that things got "a bit hot," to the point where Randlett says "let's be men and go down and settle this," raising his arms like he wanted to fight. Do you think this means like a waving of the arms up in the air, or like a fun "put up yer dukes" kind of stance? We're totally hoping it's the second, because it's funnier.
The bush rustles! A quail flies into the air! And Peskin's side..... fires! The police officer tells Randlett he's had enough to drink and that it's a crime to challenge someone to fight in public (someone better tip off Chris Daly about that), and that maybe Randlett should leave. Boom! Fifteen to two hundred pieces of buckshot to a conservative's face! (we know, we know, he's a moderate-to-conservative -- but you see where we're going with this.)
Randlett says "[the officer] is a bald-faced liar," claiming that this is all a massive cover-up to protect Peskin, and that Peskin had in fact threatened him, with "provocative gestures" (we're hoping it was some kind of ritual humping action, again, because it's funnier) and "inappropriate" comments. Randlett claims he said something to the effect of do you want to take this off the stage and have a private conversation elsewhere, at which point the cop says he should just leave. Randlett also says he and Ho were just about to leave anyway.
Our conclusion? We're calling this one for Peskin. Randlett should probably wear orange to his next public gatherings, and loudly announce his presence at all times.