Letters to the Editor

A Family Affair
Your recent article regarding my family finances seems more revealing about the author than the subject ("Thrift and Consequences," Bay View, June 7).

Peter Byrne confessed in the course of his interviews that "he's never saved a penny." In the Chinese community, saving money is a very strong principle -- parents often work multiple jobs, sacrifice vacations, and forgo luxuries to build savings to be used for their children's educations and purchase of a family home.

That's what my father did more than 40 years ago when he purchased our family home on Dolores Street. Like many other Chinese families, my wife and I moved in with my parents and raised our four children there. Last summer we purchased a new home and moved to the Sunset.

The fact is, I didn't have to pay rent or mortgage through the first 25 years of my marriage. So I was able to save a modest amount of money for my family, even while pursuing an admittedly low-paying career as a teacher, nonprofit psychologist, and public official.

Now, like many other working-class families, especially in the Sunset, I am spending some of that savings to help defray the high cost of housing. Once we are able to rent the flats in our old house in the next few months, we will no longer have to take from savings.

As you know, I have a long track record supporting public disclosure for candidates and officials. Recently I was one of only three supervisors to support new disclosure requirements for local political candidates (myself included) and "soft money" political expenditures. But I also believe the press has a responsibility in these matters.

In answering Mr. Byrne's questions, we went above and beyond the standard of disclosure required by law. For him to say because we declined to give him the 30 years of savings passbooks he demanded that we are hiding documents is as insulting as it is ridiculous.

I enjoy reading SF Weekly. But next time, when you realize you don't have a story, please spare all your readers by having the courage to admit [it].
Leland Yee
Sunset

One Angry Man
The article by David Pasztor concerning a San Francisco police officer ("Officer Down," June 7) was, in my opinion, a very biased presentation of the case against this and the other officers. I was on the grand jury that issued the indictments. I don't know what evidence was finally put before the trial jury, but the evidence I saw was of policemen out of control, exceeding their authority, and generally making my city look bad. It appears that Mr. Pasztor depended entirely on the story given him by the officer's lawyer, one of the trial jury members who voted to acquit these officers, and the trial jury transcripts. The story omits the opinions of the grand jury and those of the trial jury members who voted to convict. Remember that only one officer was acquitted of the counts against him. There were jurors who were apparently convinced of the guilt of the other two.

Mr. Pasztor's interpretation of at least one of the "sting" videotapes is completely at odds with what I saw. While I cannot speak for the other grand jury members, I saw an officer taking a bundle of money from a suspect's room, only to return it hastily when he discovered the officers in the next room operating the tape machine. This last part was conveniently left out by Mr. Pasztor.

Another indication of Mr. Pasztor's bias is his pejorative references to the main witnesses against these officers, the drug users they were accused of robbing. He pointedly mentions their criminal records and refers to them as "citizens," using quotation marks. This is uncalled for. Drug users are at least as much "citizens" as journalists. The drug users only hurt themselves: They don't actively distort facts presented to the public in a respectable newspaper.
Jack Fulcher
Civic Center

I Am the Walrus ... Koo Koo Ka Choo
Hi, Dog Bites!

I just wanted to say that I had a really vivid dream about you and Ken Garcia last night. In my dream, my heroic self had just written a pithy, biting letter to Ken, about how you were so much cooler than him, and he was a total loser. But then I had to go to the hospital, and guess who was in charge of my surgery? Ken! Oops, shouldn't have pissed him off. Somehow, though, it was worth it. I can only imagine, Dog Bites, that I am just one of your legions of fans who valiantly defended you against mean Ken Garcia in their dreams last night!
Karla Solheim
Via Internet

Dot-Commers vs. Greedy Fuckheads
This letter is in response to a trend that at first I laughed about, but is now really starting to get to me. It's the use of the word "dot-commer" to describe what are really "greedy fuckheads." Allow to me assert that there are two distinct kinds of "dot-commers," what I like to call "first wave" and "second wave."

I read through the paper and find that I am being blamed for higher rents (when I can't afford my apartment and have stood in the face of eviction myself). I am being blamed for SUVs double-parking in front of Starbucks (when I drive a '69 Beetle and get my coffee from local hippies). I go to concerts benefiting Food Not Bombs and hear my profession blamed for homelessness and lack of food.