A totally bogus arrest

Pub date September 19, 2007
WriterTim Redmond
SectionPolitics Blog

Alex “Grasshopper” Kaplan was at our office today to talk about his campaign for mayor, but he almost didn’t make it; the guy, who has been in and out of jail for the past few weeks, got popped yesterday on what has to be one of the more utterly bogus charges in recent memory.

See, Kaplan is under a restraining order; he’s supposed to stay away from Sup. Ed Jew. That goes back to his stunt a few weeks back when he parked his cab in the driveway of Jew’s San Francisco house and asked if he could live there. Jew apparently thought Kaplan was a threat, and got the stay-away order.

The problem is that Kaplan loves to speak up at public comment during Board of Supervisors meetings. And just approaching the front of the room, where the microphone is, puts him within 50 feet of Jew. So when he went to speak up this week, he was hauled out in handcuffs.

I realize this isn’t the biggest issue in the world, but please: Can’t the Powers that Be find a away around this one? How about giving him a cordless mike in the back of the room? You can’t just shut up a member of the public and stop him from speaking at a public meeting because of a questionable restraining order.