As promised -- when we find people defending Newsom, we diligently write 'em up in the column we call.... Who's Defending Newsom Now! Who's swinging for the mayor? --The mayor himself!: Before heading out to Switzerland this week, Gavin sat down with the gay-focused Bay Area Reporter (picture features a blue tie) for a chat about what's going on with him. Beyond the now-standard complaint that the Chronicle is out to get him, Gavin also......

Man, work for four years on your groundbreaking police brutality story, and you screw up one little thing...... Well, it's actually not really a small screwup -- in illustrating its story about one very, very bad cop, Officer Paul Haggett (56 complaints in 7 years), the Chronicle accidentally used the photograph of another man, Jack Neeley Jr. Oops. The picture has since been removed. Mr. Neeley is a taxi driver who works as a security......

Well, the 2005 body count in SF is now up to 92 after a man was found strangled to death in a SoMA hotel, making this the worst year in SF for murders in ten years. In response, Chief of Police Heather Fong held a press conference the other day to address people's concerns. Chief Fong seemed somewhat defensive, at one point blaming the uptick in murders over the last three months on the nice weather we've been having. "If it’s always nice out, people start drinking, there are arguments and violence ensues," she said. See, it's the Bush Administration's fault for not adopting the Kyoto Protocol! Fong did note that black-on-black gang violence is down 35% this year, but murders in the Western Addition and the Mission are up sharply from last year (The Western Addition had 20 this year and 6 last, and the Mission had 13 as opposed to 4). Aren't at least some of the murders in those areas considered gang-related too? And you know, what about those Nortenos and Surenos -- what going on with the Latino gangs? And intriguingly, our city controller's calculated that for each murder, the city loses about $38,000 (in police and medical expenses). No wonder no one can afford a house these days. The Ex also has a totally and completely fascinating connect-the-dots map of all the murders this year in SF. (.pdf only, but worth the download wait.) Our only quibble -- we thought the first murder of the year took place at Fisherman's Wharf: where's that one? ...

Remember last year, when Newsom said that if he didn't reduce the murder rate this year, we should vote to recall him as mayor? "I might be there as a co-signer myself!" the splendid-haired one said jocularly. Ehhhhhh -- do over! His bad! As the murder rate for 2005 rises to exceed last year's (we're now at 88, tying where we were last year at this time), Gavin's quit it with the glib recall jokes and is all serious-face town-hall meeting about it now, blah blah, "crimes this year don't follow traditional patterns," "I was talking about gangs," please please PLEASE don't recall me, how else will I meet chicks???? Chief of Police Heather Fong, bless her heart, says she's doing the best she can and has authorized more hires for the PD, and her deputies keep emphasizing that there's only so much they can do, if someone, say, decides to throw her three kids in the bay or set a homeless guy on fire. True -- but guys, that's only four. What about the other 84? What about when you said you got that one kingpin gang guy so murders should drop? Or the big local-fed gang task force you bragged so much about? What's going on there? And how's the clearance rate on those murders looking too? If we don't get answers, well.... Mr. Newsom, please print and sign your name on the following line, and please include your local address too. ...