You hear about how bad San Francisco is. I was filming a shot of my father , Shelby Steele, and in the ten minutes we were gone our SUV was broken into and nearly $15k of cameras stolen. Called 911 & they hung up twice.
This is the video. Black Chevy Blazer with license plate #9AAZ318. Still no SF police.
Found more equipment missing. Now about $25k -$30k. Plus rental car damage. SF police doing nothing. It’s so bad that my friend is calling gang members for help.
At the police. Every single person here had their car broken into and we’ve been here 15 minutes!
While dealing with our situation we see more robbers pulling up in a Mercedes and looking into cars. We yelled at them. They pulled a gun on my friend. He’s filing his report now. Not one police officer showed up.
People asking where this was. On top of famous Lombard Street. One of richest neighborhoods in SF and America. I’ve worked dangerous neighborhoods for years and nothing like this.
We just left police station. The officer was kind and took down all info. She expressed sympathy and said nothing will likely happen: “The police have been defanged.”
On Monday, we attended San Francisco’s meeting on reparations — see my father in tan jacket in photo. Some of the committee members were arguing for more defunding of the police. Just crazy.
Just learned from a Good Samaritan that the license plate on the Blazer was stolen off a 2022 Mitsubishi owned by Enterprise. Just as SF locals told us would be the case.
Guy at Hertz car rental at SFO said they average 3O cars a day that have been broken into.
My father and I never thought we would be in the position of having a good friend ours set up a Go Fund Me for us. We lost even more than we realized and any support would truly be appreciated. It will allow us to continue making this film which is the filmic sequel to my… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
We are back out filming with our remaining equipment. The shot is the only thing that counts.
Talked to my insurance rep. I told her what happened & she says, “I’m not surprised.” & then tells me that her own car was stolen despite all her precautions.
Not only that, several San Franciscans stopped us today with their own crime stories.
We have to get off this bottom.
Here’s the video of the second 911 call after the first call was hung up/disconnected. Here we get disconnected again. (Above, I said hung up in heat of moment. Still, should not be two failed calls, especially in wealthy, high tech SF. What if it was a rape?)
Here's the SF reality: my father & I realized we can't even go out to dinner tonight after a crazy week of filming. Who's going to watch our SUV rental while we eat? Do we have to move the equipment into the hotel room to enjoy a meal? Criminals - not the law - run this city.
“You left $$$ of equipment out in broad daylight.”
“The police need to step up.”
Both are true. I take full responsibility. At the same time, police need to do real work. But there’s a third part: the people. Too many San Franciscans have surrendered. They need to retake power.
There’s been speculation on the race of the robbers. Many say black. However, I can’t tell the race of robbers who broke into my suv from the video. The robbers in the Mercedes were light skin. The robber that pulled gun was black. To default to all black is not accurate.
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After enduring a week of unwarranted takedowns of the Killing America trailer on @Youtube and @Vimeo as well as receiving a baseless cease and desist letter that seeks to prevent my documentary from being shown in its original form, I’ve decided to release the full (38 min) version of Killing America on this platform.
Let’s be clear, @TheMAChronicle claims that this is a copyright issue, but it is not. Our work is fully protected by the Fair Use doctrine, which allows us to use even copyrighted footage under certain guidelines. (See explanation in comments section.)
These left-wing activists cannot stand dissent or opposition to the ideological order they seek to impose in our schools as well as our larger society. What you are witnessing here is the weaponization of the copyright law in these ugly culture wars to prevent my film from being shown in its full form. This is nothing less than suppression of free speech, which includes artistic expression and free thought.
The "crime" that Killing America commits is telling the truth during these ideological times. Watch the film and you’ll see why extremist ideologues are doing everything in their power to censor the film and why I decided not to play their game and go straight to you, The People.
Lastly, I have made the point to release this film as widely as possible for free because I want the word out. We've been too far timid and we've allowed ourselves to be intimidated for too long, so please share this film widely.
At the same time, people have asked if they can donate small fee for watching the film or make a contribution to cover the cost that I personally incurred during the making of the film as well as legal fees (lawyer consults). I truly appreciate this because this film was a labor of love for me, a continuation of my family’s legacy of civil rights activism that dates back to 1942:
What happens when you try to tell the truth in a world invested in ideological lies?
This AM, I received an email from @YouTube: “We received a copyright removal request for your video (#KillingAmerica). Based on applicable copyright law, we removed your video from YouTube.”
🧵
The complainant was Menlo-Atherton High School’s newspaper, M-A Chronicle (@TheMAChronicle), and they objected to the inclusion of a two-second clip in the Killing America trailer. I checked the trailer’s @YouTube page and, indeed, it had been removed.
This unwarranted and unjustified removal hurts our attempts to market this film and I have no doubt that this is their intention.
Very sad to hear about the passing of Lavondale "Big Dale" Glass. I met him thru Pastor @CoreyBBrooks at Project H.O.O.D. Big Dale was one of the most notorious gangsters who reformed himself and helped prevent as many as 50 retaliation shootings a month. More remarkably, Big Dale lost his own son to gang violence and knew the shooter, but chose to stay true to his reformed path.
To honor him, I'm posting an article I wrote on him and Varney Voker below as a thread: foxnews.com/opinion/roofto…
Pastor Brooks recently met with two ex-gangsters who were once destined to kill one another. Varney Voker ran the Black Disciples as a top bosses & ruled with ruthless business savvy. A block away, Lavondale Glass ran the rival Gangster Disciples with equal ruthlessness.
Yet both men, by the grace of God or simple luck, avoided their deadly destiny when they met Brooks. He transformed them into citizens who now work for Project H.O.O.D. to repair the damage they caused their community.
"I pastor one of Chicago's toughest neighborhoods on the South Side and @mcuban's defense of DEI is deeply flawed for one reason: this poisonous ideology has no impact on my community, the very community it professes to help." -- Pastor @CoreyBBrooks
A 🧵in the pastor's words:
From my church located in one of Chicago’s most violent South Side neighborhoods, I watched with disquieting fascination the public trial of Claudine Gay. I followed the debates on the influence and impact of the DEI movement not just in the case of Gay but throughout America.
What I heard was that these DEI policies were being done in the name of my community. Sometimes I laughed out loud at some of the claims.
It was like listening to people who don’t know you talk about you as if they knew you deep down.
2023 was the year of the "Great Awokening" for many.
One question I'm often asked by those who recently left the woke is, "How long will this culture war go on?"
They thought Oct. 7, the Claudine Gay farce, etc., would shock America back into reason and common sense.
Long 🧵:
These folks also ask, “Why can’t they see what we see?” I’ve been in this culture war since my teens and I have asked myself this question too many times.
Why can’t they see that it is wrong to reduce my multiple races to one in the name of “diversity?” To elevate race above merit? Or to undercut American principles as white supremacist? And on.
For the last 40 years, I've watched my father counsel countless of Americans to have the courage to stand up to the Left's merciless assault on the American principles and its institutions.
Hardly nobody listened.
🧵:
Lately, I've thought about what this courage looks like. I think it comes down to two essential things: 1) shedding white guilt and 2) embracing colorblindness.
Most people mistake white guilt for actual guilt. White guilt, defined by my father, is the fear of being seen as racist. Because of America's past racism, many whites feel they lack moral authority when it comes to blacks and will do whatever to avoid the racist charge.