Loud, racist drunks spouting off on the bus is a quotidian occurrence here in San Francisco. But not when it's a tour guide atop an open-air tourist coach, spewing cringe-worthy denigrations of the supposed proclivities of Chinatown residents, punctuated by swigs of a 40-ounce beer and repeated yelps of "Fuck Chinatown!"
Following that foul October event, both the ex-guide and City Sightseeing company offered sober apologies. But a consortium of predominantly Asian Oakland activists wants more. They plan to "explore" legal action.
Per constitutional scholars, it should be a short trip.
Barring action brought by a disgruntled tour bus patron (many of whom applauded the profane rant), a suit initiated by an outside group would depend upon the notion of "group libel." That doesn't fly in the United States: "Saying hurtful things against a large group of people — I don't see that as a defamation," says San Francisco attorney Karl Olson.
Peter Scheer, the executive director of San Rafael's First Amendment Coalition, adds that many aggrieved members of minority groups have brought suit against fulminating racists or anti-Semites. "And they have failed."
There is no law that compels the residents of Chinatown or anywhere else to live in the manner a boorish outsider sees fit. Or, it turns out, to prevent outsiders from speaking what passes as their minds.
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