Holy crap…
Via TPM, it looks like a California State Senator — and a major candidate for California Secretary of State — was just arrested yesterday as part of a series of raids on gang-related activity, apparently up to and including murder.
What’s so jaw-dropping is that it doesn’t appear that Leland Yee is a fringe outsider; in fact, he’s kind of the opposite.
The TPM article refers to Yee as being “a prominent Democrat who represents San Francisco and San Mateo County” and “the first Chinese American ever elected to the California state Senate.” Digging a wee bit deeper, Yee has been an elected official in one capacity or another in California since 1988. The guy currently serves on no less than ten Senate committees, and he chairs three more. Almost all of them are committees serving various California business interests.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Yee was
arrested on public corruption charges Wednesday morning in a federal investigation that also targeted Raymond ‘Shrimp Boy’ Chow, a notorious former San Francisco gangster.
I want to repeat that last bit, just because it’s too fishing bad-B-movie to leave alone:
“a federal investigation that also targeted Raymond ‘Shrimp Boy’ Chow, a notorious former San Francisco gangster.”
And this gang headed by Shrimp Boy? It’s called the Chinese Freemasons, because of course it is.
This story on Yee’s rise to power — written three years ago by the San Francisco Bay Guardian’s Tim Redmond — is an especially fascinating read in the light of today’s breaking news.
In so may ways, this might end up be the most amazing news story of the quarter. I can’t wait to see this one unfold. Until then, I have to try and figure out how I’m exactly going to force the phrase “Shrimp Boy” into the OT lexicon.
Leeland Yee is also known as the legislator who was behind the warning labels on video games case that was at the Supreme Court a few years ago. IIRC he has a background as a child psychologist and/or social worker.
I read about his arrest in the Chronicle today. The gangster involved and already arrested is named “Shrimp Boy”. I am guessing this is an ironic nickname based on Shrimp Boy’s wikipedia page.
He also could have been the mayor of San Francisco and was a candidate in the most recent mayoral election.
Also, Johnnie To > John WooReport
From a quick skim of To’s wiki page, I think I’ve only seen one of his films (Heroic Trio) but pre-Hollywood, HK Woo (Hard Boiled, The Killer, Bullet in the Head, A Better Tomorrow) was great.Report
Go watch Election, Election 2, and Sparrow, Go watch them now
Thank me later.
I like Woo movies too.Report
Some years back, my wife and I saw a most wanted poster fpr a Filipino gangster going by the name of Tick Boy. It forever changed a certain Social Distortion song for us. No idea if he was a Democrat, though.Report
Did you and Johanna have early dates moshing to Social Distortion and wearing cuff bracelets?
That’s so sweet.Report
I don’t think either of us ever wore a cuff bracelet.Report
Sure… You know you are going to be cleaning out that house and find them and your old studded denim jacket
😉Report
What’s a denim jacket?Report
There are jackets that aren’t denim?Report
Everything I own is windbreaker.Report
The only stud associated with my denim jacket (black, of course) was me.Report
You’re black?Report
“bad John Woo movie”
Don’t hunt what you can’t kill.Report
Faceoff was fun. For the first half-hour or so.Report
Yea. Then it got SUPER fun.Report
Yeah, the teaser brought me here to make that same objection.
Hard Boiled remains a marvel of global cinema. It’s so… pure.Report
Go watch Forrest Gump again, I’m sure inspiration for “Shrimp Boy” will come to you.Report
Apparently, one of the charges is gun running also, and as he is one one of the state legislators who really pushed for increased legislation, it will be very interesting how this plays out.
Very. Interesting.Report
Maybe it was just a very clever ruse?Report
the spitzer gambit seems to have some serious tactical issues.Report
The ‘Spitzer Gambit’ costs extra.Report
you’re thinking of a steamroller. that requires pre auth on a credit card.Report
But the socks are complementary.Report
if you’re going to smuggle guns, of course you want more regulation. makes the prices go up, and gets you more customers.Report
Being the youngest & most diminutive of five brothers, “Shrimp Boy” was given that nickname (in Chinese) by his grandmother. Saw a picture of him with his arms around a couple Asian showgirls — he was only slightly taller than their shoulders.Report
Ah, a corrupt politican getting nailed…
Sweet….Report
The nickname does not stand out to me at all. Nicknames come in all shapes and sizes. I’ve got a litany of them.
I’m curious to learn more about Yee’s involvement. I wonder if he was actively involved in whatever the gang was doing or if this was more of an “Old friend from the neighborhood who sometimes reached out and who Yee couldn’t separate himself from.” Neither one is acceptable but there is obviously a broad spectrum of possible behaviors that could get him indicted but which deserve varying degrees of outrage. The “old neighborhood friend” thing is something that has and continues to plague folks — particularly those of ethnic or racial minorities groups — for a long time now.
I guess what I’m saying is that this isn’t totally shocking or surprising to me on any level.Report
Maybe he just likes prawns.Report
Tod,
I’d be interested in a take on this story from your ideology is the enemy category.
It seems like most of the reactions I see are from partisan points of view. Republicans are acting with glee and not surprised that a Democratic politician got arrested. In their eyes, all Democratic politicians are corrupt. It is probably extra delicious that Leeland Yee is from that great boogeyman place of San Francisco.
Democratic types are worried about the election in November and that one bad apple can bring down the party.
It would seem axiomatic to me that politics is going to have sketchy people in both parties who do very questionable things. The liberal equivalent here would be reacting with glee when someone like Larry Craig gets caught soliciting sex from a man or with Ted Haggard or some other corruption stories.
It also seems that human nature requires boogeyman and this is a great way to raise money. Democratic politicians can raise a lot of money by mentioning the Koch Brothers. Republican politicians can raise a lot of money mentioning George Soros, Nancy Peolsi, Obama, and Harry Reid. In the past, Walter Reuther was their boogeyman. Yet human nature also makes us downplay the opposition’s boogeymen. Republicans and libertarians roll their eyes when Democratic types criticize the Koch brothers. Democratic types roll their eyes when Sarah Palin mentions Saul Alinsky and other former 60s activists or the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.Report
@newdealer I don’t know that I have an issue with this story on the IITE front. I well imagine that Republicans are shining a big spotlight on this story, but I think considering the likely Dem nominee for Sec of State and multi-Senate committee chair was basically part of the Yakuza, that’s something they should be allowed to do. I mean, holy shit.
And for the moment — and mind, I don’t live there so my local-info meter is weak here — I don’t see Dems stepping up to defend the guy, and I really don’t expect them to. If they do rally around him, then the left is further down that path that only I think they’re on than I imagined in my worst nightmares. (In fact, it would be interesting to see what happens in an alternate universe exactly like our own with Yee being GOP. Would the right media — maybe not Fox News Channel, but Glenn Beck and the talk-radio set — defend this guy and demand Obama’s head for for Govt. overreach by Justice dept. thugs? Dunno if that *would* happen, but I’d be lying if I said I couldn’t imagine it.)
As for the rest of what you bring up, I confess I’m not as down on political “guilt by association” as many. If the GOP had a candidate for Gov in Oregon that was doing and saying all the right things, but had hired staff from Cruz, Bachmann, and Gomert (or just used to “pal around” with them), that would absolutely make me wary of him — maybe enough to not vote for the guy, no matter how clean he looked.
The problem, IMHO, occurs when the guilt by association is extrapolated in one of two ways: The first is to make that boogey man a matter of life or death to a ridiculous degree: Obama wasn’t just potentially on the same page with Wright and Alinksy on some issues, he was a trojan horse candidate sent to destroy our way of life and declare sharia law!
The second is when the boogey man is used by the entire movement as a substitute for thinking about public policy: Obama is urging the debt ceiling issue be resolved, BUT HE IS PALS WITH SAUL ALINSKY SO WE CAN”T RESOLVE THE DEBT CEILING ISSUE!!!!
I don’t see the Dems doing the first at all, really, though I do see them surging on the second with “but… the Koch Brothers!”
That’s the way I see it all, anywho.Report
To be perfectly honest, there’s a lot worse things they could be saying about the Koch brothers — and the egalitarians are perfectly right to despise them. That said, the Koch brothers aren’t the only conservatives out there…Report
Tod,
I agree with much of what you wrote. This is a really serious political scandal and I don’t think the Democratic Party will have his back if the allegations turn out to be true. They will also keep silent until some evidence is released and then act.
However, I mainly see the Koch Brothers being used to raise campaign funding for the Democratic Party and it seems to work:
And they might get out the vote:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/03/25/the_koch_brothers_only_38_percent_of_americans_know_them_most_dislike_them.htmlReport
There is also a sliding scale to how concerning the various behaviors are. If Yee is guilty of what he’s accused of, then he engaged in criminal activity that likely caused violent harm to others. Craig might be guilty of infidelity or otherwise lying to his loved ones (though we don’t necessarily know what his family knew or accepted about his romantic pursuits). Others you mention might hold disagreeable or even abhorrent ideas, but that is a far cry from criminal or corrupt behavior. Our responses to those people and their actions should necessarily be different. Not because they espouse different ideologies, but because they engaged in fundamentally different behavior.Report
Quasi-seriously, I wonder how much of the confusion around the Koch brothers’ identities have to do with their name. When I see it written out, I instinctively read it as “Kotch”. But I understand it is pronounced like “Coke”. If you were to ask me verbally about the “Coke” brothers, I’d probably be confused, too… at least momentarily.
But maybe I’m just an idiot.Report
Kaz,
I know someone who used to work for them. he pronounces it “cock”. The mispronunciation is intentional.
(of course, he’s also been known to pronounce Kant as “kunt” (also intentionally)).Report
Kazzy,
It is pronounced coke like the soda or the narcotic depending on your imagination.
I think the big issue with Larry Craig was more his hypocrisy than anything else. I wouldn’t care about the sex scandal if he didn’t have a reputation as a hard core social conservative. If he was a social liberal, I would feel compassion for his wife and family who would be hurt by the infidelity but I wouldn’t think of him as a hypocrite because he did not use his position to moralize against homosexuality or for “traditional” family values.
That being said, this if true is a million times worse than what Larry Craig did.Report
@newdealer
The hypocrisy is a real issue, but there is something unseemly about liberals and Democrats — supposedly allies of LGBTQ — taking glee in what happened to Craig. I can understand why they might see it beneficial to them strategically. But some of the outright gloating I saw… “Ha! He’s gay!”… I found really off-putting. Especially given what we know about the complicated nature of sexuality and sexual orientation and the intense pressures many feel to conform to a standard that is outside themselves, we should see Craig’s story as sad. Yes, the hypocrisy and moralizing matter. But they don’t justify some of what I saw some folks on the left (not saying you, by any means) saying in response.Report
Here’s my take from the perspective of partisanship (and not necessarily ideology) is the enemy:
Ideology is what the sociopaths in positions of power use to keep the rest of us believing that this whole system is about anything else than the raw exercise of power, mainly for power’s sake. And partisanship is the mechanism that keeps the whole house of cards standing.Report
Most politicians aren’t sociopaths. And CEOs (of large companies) are mostly sociopaths because their job demands it — there’s a certain selection bias there.Report
Most politicians
aren’tare sociopaths.Fixed that for ya! 🙂Report