Forrest Liu, 30, the co-founder of the nonprofit Dear Community, has been featured in places like Mother Jones, CNN and the Wall Street Journal for his advocacy work on behalf of the Asian community. None of that coverage, however, touches on the growing allegations of bullying.
Increasingly, Liu has acquired a reputation for picking fights and displaying menacing behavior, most recently in April when he verbally humiliated the Asian and Chinese communities, urging them to protest against a white mayoral candidate. A number of the incidents have been documented in videos on social media videos, and in police reports.
Liu, who got his start in politics as an intern for late mayor Ed Lee, declined to comment for the article, or on any of the incidents.
Liu last worked as a paid consultant for Marjan Philhour, one of the two leading candidates for District 1 Supervisor, from Feb. 18 to June 30, according to campaign filings.
When asked about Liu recently, Philhour wrote, “I am not aware of anyone on my campaign team being involved in any crime. I would trust that any suspected crime would be promptly and properly reported to the police and the police would investigate.”
The April 6 incident at mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin’s campaign kickoff event, was only the last of several. As recently as March 22, 2024, Liu attended a rally outside of the Hall of Justice to protest the sentencing of Daniel Cauich, who got probation after brutally stabbing a 94-year-old Asian woman in 2021.
Liu became so aggressive to counter-protesters defending the ruling that Supervisor Joel Engardio’s legislative aide, Simon Timony, intervened to pull Liu away.
And there have been other incidents.
On Oct. 12, 2023, at a community meeting at the Beach Chalet Brewery and Restaurant, according to a police report, Liu approached Richmond District supervisor Connie Chan, got within five inches of her face — face to face — and said, “Don’t ever cut into my conversation.” Chan told the police officer that she was not sure what Liu meant by the comment.
And on August 9, 2023, two police reports and a video documented Liu publicly harassing three people at a community meeting regarding concerts in Golden Gate Park.
“All that happened in one night,” said Julie Pitta, referring to the three separate incidents.
That evening, Liu screamed at Pitta, the president of The Phoenix Project, a newly founded progressive group. “How many babies have you eaten today?” he yelled as the latter walked into the meeting at the Golden Gate Park Senior Center room, according to Pitta, other witnesses on-scene and a police report filed by Supervisor Chan.
“I said, ‘What did you say?,” said Pitta. “And he goes, ‘You heard me. How many babies chomp, chomp swallow. You know what I mean?’”
Before that day, “I hardly knew him,” said Pitta. “Other than I had been on one Zoom call with him, but we didn’t address each other.”
Later in the night, when Pitta stood up to stretch her legs, Pitta said, Liu came over to her again, standing one inch away from her. He wouldn’t let her get by, she said. “I managed to get a friend of his to pull him away, and then he got away from her, and he went up to me and tried to glare at me, and he was, like, one inch from my chest,” she said.
According to Pitta, one of the Richmond Station police officers who was at the event insisted that Pitta sit next to him for the rest of the night, and insisted on escorting Pitta out to the parking lot when she was leaving. “Because he didn’t like what Forrest had done to me, and was afraid that it might escalate,” she said.
On the same night, Liu also challenged Supervisor Chan, a petite 5-foot-4 Asian woman, to a fistfight, according to the police report she filed.
Chan asked Liu, who was being “loud and disruptive,” to be more calm and respectful during the meeting’s public comment period. Liu responded and said, “Do you want to take this outside?” according to the police report. Chan believed Liu meant that he wanted to go outside to physically fight her. Other attendees at the meeting alerted park rangers regarding Liu’s behavior.
Liu also tried that night to pick a fight with a complete stranger Robert Fruchtman, a volunteer lead for San Francisco YIMBY. Liu “asked aggressively if there was something I wanted to say to him. I asked if we’d met. He told me he saw me looking at him,” Fruchtman documented the incident on Twitter. The two were apparently unfamiliar with one another, and Liu may have assumed that Fruchtman, a pro-housing activist who diligently live-tweets public meetings, may have been aligned with the elderly neighborhood residents he was sitting near to.
For some community members, Liu’s erratic behavior is disturbing. For others, this could be the pain that comes with his fast-tracked career path.
“I think Forrest is a type who’s going to burn out really quickly in politics,” said political consultant David Ho, who believes that the political circle’s high acceptance of Liu is more about Asian votes.
In April 2024, while attending the public rally at Portsmouth Square in Chinatown for Aaron Peskin’s campaign kickoff, a number of us witnessed Forrest Liu shouting incendiary words into a megaphone. He was so lathered up that he was literally spitting into the crowd. He was shouting so loudly (into a megaphone) that it literally hurt your ears. He told Asian people “to bow down” and “get down on their hands and knees” to bow to their “white savior.” There are video recordings of him doing this. It was like throwing matches at the gas pump. It appeared he was trying to incite the assembled members of the public to riot. The equivalent to yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded movie theatre. This behavior is reminiscent of the unhinged and irresponsible acts of Elon Musk and Garry “die slow” Tan, who posted death threats against 7 of the democratically elected supervisors. Beware of this guy. This will not end well.
Hot-headed guys like that are dangerous. I’d be shocked if 2023 was his first time violently threatening someone. I wonder how many incidents his friends have covered up for him in the past.
Working and volunteering in the community for the last 4 years, one thing has been consistent- Forrest Liu has treated those around him atrociously. He has been known to exploit the names of victims while completley ignoring their wishes. He will only treat you with decency if he knows he can get something out of it. He is also known to target women and corner them in social settings. Many community members warn young women if they ever see him in social settings to stay far away from him and if he shows interest, to stay close to trusted friends to keep him at bay. This person is a disease in our community.
hopefully no one is assaulted by liu before he burns out in politics.
These comments are hilarious
Wow this kid has got spunk! I need to hire him at the DA’s office ASAP
Anyways, follow me on X the free speech platform @crookejenkins
Yeah. Crooked Brooke. Hire the guy who needs rage management training and has profound behavioral issues. Liu cannot distinguish between online behavior and proper conduct when in public.