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Posts published by “Fred Gardner”

Case Studies

A Misdemeanor in the Haight  July 26, 2001:  Officer flagged down by victim Joshua D.  Said he had just been assaulted. Showed officer bite on his neck. Pointed out man at Haight and Belvedere. Officers…

The Singing Publicist

In my two cartons marked SFDA I find some lyrics. (Instead of keeping a diary, I used to write songs.) 911 Willie Brown took the American flagTurned it into a shopping bagCome on baby let’s…

The Ghetto Expert

A put-down of George Butterworth, the head of gang-related prosecutions during Terence Hallinan's eight years as San Francisco District Attorney, drew a response from AVA reader Jim Miller, a retired SFPD officer. He wrote that…

A Menu of Murders

The media had made Terence Hallinan's leniency a political liability and he counterpunched by publicizing murder cases to the max. Not all his punches landed. The killing of the king was "murder most foul" to…

Scams & The City

You'd think government employees, especially high-ranking officials, would feel relatively fortunate. Their salaries are decent and they enjoy job security unavailable in the private sector. And yet, as 2020 ends, five San Francisco department heads…

Unclogging the Courts

Last week the New Yorker posted an article that credited Kamala Harris for blazing the trail for today's  "progressive" district attorneys. In a letter that won't get published I went into press-secretary mode for my old…

Erasing Kayo’s Legacy

The New Yorker posted a piece Nov. 20 that reduced Terence Hallinan to a non-person. It had an odd title, "Kamala Harris and the Noble Path of the Prosecutor."  The author was a Harvard Law School…

The Actual War On Drugs

On a typical morning in Department 10, one of the four municipal courts on the first floor of the Hall of Justice, 26 people wait patiently as the proceedings get underway at 9:20 a.m. From…

Coincidental Killings

The Tran case had been on hold for more than three years when it finally went to trial in the fall of 2000. The corporate media used the occasion to remind readers that Terence Hallinan…

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