San Francisco, Grasshopper Alec Kaplan
Ed Jew and family being stalked on homefront
By Judi McLeod
Monday, September 10, 2007
For most folk, "There's no place like home". But for San Fr ancisco Supervisor Ed Jew home's become his life's nightmare.
Jew's homefront is at issue with the San Francisco Board of Directors, who are using it to run him out of his job as a duly elected official.
Going to the office has been a headache ever since the voters of Ward 4 first elected him. Now mayoral candidate Grasshopper Alec Kaplan has chosen Jew's home address as the place to exercise his squatter's rights. .
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin wants to remove Jew from office, and has made the San Francisco native's domicile the main issue for getting rid of him, even though the only time when Jew had to be briefly out of district was when he and his wife went to live with her mother in Burlingame after his wife's double mastectomy
Often the lone vote of common sense on the out-in-left-field board of supervisors, things heated up for the independent-minded Jew when his was the only vote against colleague Gerard Sandoval's resolution to condemn and censor radio talk show personality Michael Savage for criticizing illegal aliens in the U.S.
In the latest twist, Jew has been threatened and his wife and daughter have been stalked by Kaplan.
Kaplan was arrested yesterday and booked into county jail on two felony and two misdemeanor charges.
"The felony counts include threatening a state official and stalking." (FogCityJournal.com, Sept. 9, 2007). "The misdemeanor counts include trespassing and using a vehicle for habitation."
In a scene out of the movie, Cape Fear. Kaplan was hanging out at Jew's Sunset District residence at 2:30 a.m.
Kaplan parked his purple taxicab on Jew's driveway around 1:00 am, was making a lot of noise and talking to one of Jew's neighbours.
"A homeless (progressive) candidate for San Francisco mayor was arrested for stalking me. He has been stalking my family for the last two weeks," Jew told Canada Free Press (CFP) last night. "The worst part, the police officer working on this case believes the DA will not prosecute the case."
The DA, however, is, in a precedent setting case, prosecuting an elected official for nine counts of perjury for allegedly not living in his home. The DA has four assistant DAs, four investigators and four staff running up the tab from the public purse in order to prosecute Jew.
Financially, Jew has been drained, having had to hire three attorneys to defend himself.
Jew and his wife, Lisa are running the same family-owned floral shop in San Francisco's Chinatown, founded by his grandfather some 80 years ago.
Their nine-year-old daughter attends school, a worry to her parents now that they know that there's a stalker in the picture.
"My concern is my family, my daughter and my wife--my wife's terrified," Jew told Fog city. "This guy is like stalking."
Last night wasn't the first time Kaplan came to call on the Jew home.
Last week, the police had to called at 6 a.m. after Jew discovered Kaplan had parked on his property. On that occasion, the mayoral candidate hightailed it before police arrived.
Even with the drapes drawn, it's a creepy feeling knowing there's someone outside who requires the police to remove him.
"It's unbelievable that this could be happening to us. My wife is just paranoid about the whole thing and my daughter's just wondering why someone is doing this to us," Jew said.
The third generation San Francisco born Asian American filed a police report stating that Kaplan admitted to placing banana peels on his front door and to having placed a can filled with feces outside his home.
Run-ins with the law don't seem to stop the wannabe mayor, who uses the supervisor's driveway as if it is his own, blocking Jew from getting to his own garage.
Rule of order doesn't seem to count with the mayoral candidate, who was also arrested on two other occasions last week. On Wednesday, he was arrested for trespassing at the fourth mayoral debate after being tossed out for throwing a temper tantrum. On Thursday, he was arrested during an anti-war protest outside the Phillip Burton Federal Building for blocking entrances to the building.
It's difficult to say whether Kaplan is on side with Peskin and Company by squatting on Jew's domicile.
Meanwhile, given the caliber of the Board of Supervisors, Grasshopper Alec Kaplan would be right at home at San Francisco City Hall.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2024 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2024 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement