SanFransanity On Hand as Sandoval Pushes City Government To Curb Free Speech

District 11 Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval decided to have a little (emphasis on ‘little’) press conference, hailing a resolution to condemned radio host Michael Savage as "speech determined by the Board as symbolic of hatred and racism." That's right... "symbolic" of hate speech - whatever the freakin' hell that means!

So I decided to go.

super genius Gerardo Sandoval

I didn’t get there in time to catch the actual press conference… I’m on crutches so I don’t get around too quickly… but I did catch the aftermath, such as it was. About 50 people were there, along with a few news crews; the only one I could identify being Telemundo affiliate channel 48.

One was immediately struck by the silliness of it all. To one side, Supervisor Sandoval was talking to a news cameraman all by his lonesome. And, off to the other side, a crowd was gathered around attorney Daniel Horowitz – who has offered to defend Michael Savage, should anything become of this nonsense. As Horowitz was attempting to answer questions from a reporter, the Sandoval supporters were constantly interrupting him - showing how much they really care about “free speech.”

Attorney Dan Horowitz greets the barbarian hordes

I talked to Horowitz briefly after the event. Nice guy. He told me he wouldn’t be able to attend the KNEW protest (he has to be in court – apparently the guy has a job). I didn’t remember to get any juicy quotes from him (interviewing is not my strong point – remember, I’m new at this). He asked me what I thought about the whole thing, and I basically repeated what I said in the paragraph above.

This Board of Supervisors apparently has no trouble passing resolutions praising Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez, but get all uppity if an American Citizen starts speaking his mind.

A word on ‘hate speech’ – if Sandoval’s cadre is so concerned with "hate speech," then where’s the resolution against people whose speech has been shown to translate into violence... such as Tookie Williams, or cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, or - Oakland’s favorite – the Nation of Islam’s Elijah Muhammad? Nope, nothing there, because none of them are white!

Both free nations and totalitarian nations alike know that free speech is a vital component of a free society. Free nations seek to protect it. Totalitarian nations seek to destroy it. The Board of Supervisors – and the Democratic Party in general – continues to show their contempt for free speech through the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ and other attempts to shut up anyone who disagrees with them.

And I will be God damned if I let some foreign criminals lecture me on free speech in my own country! To hell with ‘em.