The San Francisco Police Department is officially investigating an Oct. 6 graffiti incident at Manny’s cafe as a hate crime.
Last Sunday, during a thousands-strong pro-Palestine, pro-Lebanon demonstration, on the eve of the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and the subsequent Israeli retaliation, a man was caught on video spray-painting the phrases “Zionist out of Frisco,” “arms embargo now,” “Dems fund murder,” and “Manny is a Zionist murderer”in black on the storefront of Manny’s, the political meeting space and cafe at 16th and Valencia. Later, in a seemingly separate incident, a green tag reading “death 2 the enemy” was graffitied on the cafe.
Impunity 101 pic.twitter.com/I62tExZtAO
— Domestic Terrorist 🐺 (@domestic415) October 6, 2024
The masked spray-painter was confronted by a person outside the establishment, and the man said he was tagging the cafe “because Manny supports Kamala” and “Manny supports bombing Palestine.” Other businesses nearby were also tagged, though not to the same extent.
Manny Yekutiel, the owner of the cafe, is Jewish and a Democrat. His namesake establishment has become a staple for local political town halls and debates since its opening in 2017, and has hosted city politicos and national figures like Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor London Breed, and dozens of others. Mission Local has hosted several events at the cafe.
It is not the first time Manny’s has faced vandalism. In 2021, a person spray painted “Racist pigz,” and “Zionist pigz” outside of the establishment, and in 2018 a group of protesters regularly sat outside the business with signs reading “Boycott Manny’s” and “Free Palestine.” Protesters said they boycotted the business because Yekutiel had celebrated Israel’s independence day, which Palestinians consider the “Nakba” or “catastrophe,” which displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
“I’m deeply troubled and saddened to have our community attacked like this. Vandalizing a Jewish-owned business on the eve of the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust is disgusting and has no place in the city of Saint Francis,” read a statement from Yekutiel.
In a statement put out Tuesday afternoon, the police department said the incident is still being investigated and that no arrest had yet been made. The department said that officers responded to the area at around 1:37 p.m., about 40 minutes after the start of the march, and “discovered while a protest was taking place at 16th and Valencia streets, an unknown suspect spray-painted graffiti on the exterior of the building.”
“At this time, the vandalism is being investigated as hate-related. This kind of vandalism to our local businesses is unacceptable. We are in communication with the business owner and gathering additional details and evidence to assist in the investigation,” the statement continued. No arrests have yet been made.
A fundraiser put together for Manny’s had raised over $55,000 as of Wednesday morning, including $1,800 from the “Blossom” and “Big Bang Theory” actress Mayim Bialik.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD.
The people in the video who just stood there and watched are morons.
Next to the DAs office where Jenkins’ Public Policy director worked for AIPAC for 6 years.
If you mean never miss a good opportunity to donate to help a business that was targeted by hateful vandals to recover from the hateful vandalism, then yes! But sadly, I suspect that’s not what you meant by your cryptic comment.
Nothing cryptic about it .. I don’t like it. The city will cover the abatement, the fund money is gravy.
When a strategist writes a GFM and it is immediately boosted and plugged by lobbyist groups, media, celebrities, and politicians, it’s overly manufactured in my book. The money should be donated.
Campers,
They’re Attention Whores pig tailing on Manny’s success !!
I’m a political activist and retired Reform School Teacher living two blocks away with a nice big ‘Free Palestine’ sign in my window since way before October 7th and I say this is like spray painting the UN Building.
Manny’s library is half Palestinian and he and Lurie spread light and art and music across the City way before Netanyahu’s Gaza Genocide (call it what it is) began.
Wanna really piss the vandals off ?
Do what I did when this happened in 2021.
Become a Manny’s basic sponsor at $36 a month and watch the people who run our City, State and Nation on stage there for free but they let you in free if you’re broke and I took that route at first and still meet age appropriate chicks there picking up trash and with Manny and often Eskenazi they have best MC’s in town.
I have a low opinion of some of the cops at Mission Station who threw their horse dung on Anti-White Power art in Clarion Alley across the street and best way they can prove to me that it wasn’t a cop is to make the arrest and invite Mission Local to interview the hero cops who made the bust.
Go Niners !!
h.
Defacing Manny’s is indeed thoughtless vandalism. But wanting Zionists out of San Francisco is a legitimate rallying cry, but the real hate crimes are the genocide and atrocities that Israel’s been committing for a year and since 1948. There are more white right-wing Christian Zionist nuts than there are Jewish Zionists. Zionism has always been a hateful race-based movement, effectively a white European colonial settlement planted in the homeland of others as an outpost initially of British and French imperialism, and since 1945, western imperialism generally. Israel acts as the United States’ attack dog in the region. Manny’s is targeted because it cozies up to the Democrat party who are fully enabling Israel’s vile genocidal behavior. And most of my Jewish friends absolutely agree with me. By the way, Manny’s comment displays bis ignorance.Many if not most of those killed on October 7, 2023 were the victims of panicky IDF trigger-fingers and Israel’s Hannibal protocol.
Never miss a good opportunity.
Defacing Manny’s is indeed thoughtless vandalism. But wanting Zionists out of San Francisco is a legitimate rallying cry, and “hate crime” is the genocide and atrocities that Israel has been committing for a year and since 1948. There are more white right-wing Christian Zionist nuts than there are Jewish Zionists. Zionism has always been a hateful race-based movement, effectively a white European colonial settlement planted in the homeland of others as an outpost initially of British and French imperialism, and since 1945, western imperialism generally. Israel acts as the United States’ attack dog in the region. Manny’s is targeted because it cozies up to the Democrat party who are fully enabling Israel’s vile genocidal behavior. Most of my Jewish friends absolutely agree with me. And by the way Manny’s comment displays his ignorance. Many if not most of those killed on October 7 were killed by either by panicky IDF trigger-fingers or as a result of Israel’s Hannibal directive.