The Sit Lie Posse

Opponents of Proposition L, San Francisco’s sit/lie measure, may be behind in fundraising, but in the final days before next week's election, they’ve marshaled human resources to spread their message through signs, songs and stealthy takeovers of city billboards. The latter — the work of an anonymous group — is now being scrutinized by the San Francisco Ethics Commission.

On Saturday, the group Sidewalks Are for People, which is pushing to defeat Prop. L, began a one-week grassroots effort to post 100 “BIG-ASS” No on L signs throughout the city.

“This has never been attempted in SF political campaign history, but we are going to pull it off and it's going to be amazing and it's going to be the nail in the coffin for Prop L,” the group wrote on Facebook.

On Wednesday morning, the campaign sent out a follow-up message: All 100 signs had been posted in less than four days, and another 100 had been ordered.

Courtesy photo

Copywriter Jess Zak points to a No on L sign

Those who put up the signs submitted pictures of windows and buildings bedecked with the green-and-yellow placards. One photograph, uploaded by Andy Blue, the organizer coordinating the sign effort, shows a man standing on top of a car while holding a 4-by-2-foot plastic sign. Another picture features copywriter Jess Zak.

"I do think there is a problem with hostile/agressive vagrants on Haight St, however I believe the police already have several tools in their arsenal to work with," Zak wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. "I don't think a law that restricts the rights of all citizens to use the sidewalks of their city is a tenable solution to the problem."

Prop. L would ban sitting and lying down on city sidewalks between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Police officers would provide a warning before issuing a citation. Repeat offenders could face fines of up to $500 and spend up to 30 days in jail.

On Monday, the anti-consumerist performance artist Reverend Billy spoke at an anti-Prop. L rally at the corner of 16th and Mission streets. His sermon called on San Francisco to “exorcise” the sit/lie “demon.” His Life After Shopping Gospel Choir also performed musical numbers, including a gospel rendition of the First Amendment (the camera pans over to Supervisor John Avalos at about the 1:05 mark):

Another effort, not affiliated with the official anti-Prop. L campaign, has generated controversy. On Tuesday night, a group calling itself the Sit Lie Posse announced that it had “liberated” six San Francisco billboards and 60 bus shelter ads concentrated near City Hall, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.

One of the posters, occupying the space normally reserved for advertisements on a bus shelter, depicts San Francisco police Chief George Gascón as an octopus whose massive tentacles are writhing ominously towards a child sitting down to draw a hopscotch course.

The Sit Lie Posse

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Another superimposes the text “sitting is NOT a crime” on a Civil Rights-era image of African-American men sitting at a lunch counter. The poster asserts that “this proposed law revives segregation and attacks your right to equal access in public accommodation.”

The signs violate campaign-finance rules that require political advertisements to say who paid for them, according to San Francisco Ethics Commission Director John St. Croix. They also flout Muni’s prohibition on political advertising and cover up ads that others have paid for — effectively stealing, St. Croix said.

The ethics commission has been aware of the posters for several days, but the agency has not yet launched a formal investigation into the matter — because it doesn't know who's behind the guerilla campaign.

"If we find out who they are, they’re going to be in a lot of a trouble," St. Croix said. "Campaign finance is regulated for a reason because it involves money and people spending money to influence votes. So violating those rules is violating the trust of the voters."

"It really doesn’t help your cause any when you have to resort to breaking all kinds of laws just to get your message across," he said.

Bob Offer-Westort, an organizer with Sidewalks Are for People, said his group had been contacted by the ethics commission on Wednesday, but that he did not know who was responsible for the posters. 

The Sit Lie Posse

Click to enlarge

A spokesman for the Sit Lie Posse answered a reporter's questions Thursday morning via e-mail under the pseudonym Jim Rawley — the name of a character in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath."

"A manager of the utopian Weedpatch camp, he treats the impoverished Joad family with dignity and respect. The Sit Lie Posse has taken on Mr. Rawley’s name to highlight the responses to the Great Depression and America’s current financial crisis," the spokesman wrote.

When asked about the prospect of an investigation, the spokesman answered: "The Sit Lie Posse welcomes the Ethics Commission investigation, and we would like to see it expanded to include the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have been pouring into the Yes on L campaign from corporate donors."

"Prop L is clearly a David and Goliath battle between poor people and downtown business. Facing Prop L’s threat of unconsitutional police practices to support a downtown agenda, we felt the need for urgent action. We liberated ads in neighborhoods with historically low voter turn out to encourage a voice for poor people in the future of San Francisco. The fate of the city should not be not determined by a small and exclusive group of business interests who buy the elections of their choice," he wrote.

When asked whether he was concerned that posting the signs illegally could have a negative effect on the efforts to oppose Prop. L, the spokesman responded: "We don’t see the negative impact of our work. Our ads remind people to vote, the publicity keeps the issue alive and our action encourages other people to creatively reclaim public space. Despite the best efforts of the San Francisco Chronicle, responses to our work have been overwhelmingly positive. In fact, as we were liberating ads, MUNI passengers joined us and offered their assistance. We’ll let the Chronicle stoke the fires of controversy, but our support is in the streets with ordinary people."

The spokesman said the sign-posting effort began last week and is now complete. "Our work is done, and now it’s on to the election with the defeat of Prop L," he wrote.