San Francisco Values - Leland Yee Edition

Having grown up in Chicagoland, I must admit to being a little embarrassed about the the kind of corruption I see around here. Sure, we get our share of political scandals but- truth be told - it's strictly bush league.

I mean… We had Ed Jew and Chris Daly evading residency requirements and pretending to live in the city of San Francisco while they served as Supervisors of San Francisco. Is that a real scandal? Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi bruising his Venezuelan firecracker’s arm when he grabbed her a little too hard? Mayor Gavin Newsom boinking his campaign manager's wife? Sure, it’s entertaining, but really... We got nuthin'.

How can we ever be considered a major metropolis without some heavy duty world class corruption? Don’t get me wrong. I’m a realist. I don’t expect us to match up to Chicago, New York, New Jersey, DC or New Orleans, but it felt like our pols were not even trying.

That was then. This is now:

Calif. state Sen. Yee affidavit reads like an action thriller
Coke deals. Shoulder-fired missiles. Hit men. Gang politics. Bribery. Deal-making in dark restaurants, parking lots and Las Vegas hotel rooms, and on fishing boats off the Hawaiian islands. A 137-page federal complaint lays out the charges against state Sen. Leland Yee, alleged Chinatown mobster Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow and 24 others connected to Chow. But it also reads like a Hollywood script.

There's the slick FBI agent going deeper undercover and pushing the action. There's the gangster with the catchy nickname who publicly claims to have gone straight. And there's the veteran politician, allegedly willing to compromise his values to stay in office. The tale reached a climax Wednesday when the government unsealed charges against Chow, Yee and 24 others after a series of coordinated raids. Chow, 54, stands accused of money laundering and other crimes, while Yee, 65, faces charges that he traded political favors for campaign donations and, at one point, facilitated a gun-trafficking deal."

 Yeah! The Leland Yee scandal, baby! This one has some meat on the bones.

#SanFranciscoValues RT @SFGate Slideshow: The craziest stuff in the Leland Yee FBI investigation http://t.co/lK5LXB6WrH #LelandYee
— The Dividist (@Dividist) March 29, 2014

Bribery, gun-running, extortion, prostitution, drugs, Cosa Nostra, and murder for hire.

Now we’re talking. That's big time.

We can hold our heads a little higher in EssEff.

Yeah. We’re bad.