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2022-11-05 -Lurid Crime Tales-
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How SFPD's bungled messaging spawned baseless theories about Pelosi attack
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| One of those editorials pretending to be straight reporting. |
[SFGate] Shortly after Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was assaulted by a man who broke into his San Francisco home early Friday morning, a number of conspiracy theories began circulating online.
The official story, according to police, is that David DePape, 42, broke into the Pelosis' home on Broadway near Divisadero through a rear glass door with the intention of taking Nancy Pelosi hostage. Instead, he found Paul Pelosi home alone and allegedly struck the 82-year-old in the head with a hammer he had brought as the two men struggled for control of the weapon. Authorities say DePape and Pelosi had never met each other prior to the break-in.
But if you were paying attention to online discourse about the attack over the weekend, you probably read a very different account of events.
Continued from Page 4
The prevailing theory among the tinfoil hat crowd is that Paul Pelosi is actually friends with DePape, who they believe is a sex worker. These conspiracy theorists claim Paul invited DePape and another person over for a three-way tryst because Nancy Pelosi was out of town for the weekend. Then, the theorists say, things went south, and someone called 911. When police arrived, they claim, officers found Pelosi and DePape in their underwear taking swings at one another, each with their own hammer.
Versions of that theory were promoted on Twitter by prominent figures such as Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr. — the former president's eldest son — and the far-right commentator Dinesh D'Souza.
Normally, it's difficult to understand how a person could, in good faith, actually believe such a bizarre story. But when you look back at how the San Francisco Police Department handled its messaging following the attack, you can trace at least three of the inaccurate details in the online theory directly to missteps by the department.
Those three details are: that an unidentified third person was present for the attack; that Pelosi and DePape knew each other; and that both men were wielding hammers when police arrived. A fourth inaccurate detail — that both men were in their underwear — can be traced to an early report from KTVU, which has since been corrected.
Below, we'll set the record straight on these details and explain how they came to form the foundation of a widespread, yet baseless theory. The San Francisco Police Department refused a request from SFGATE to discuss the four details in a phone interview.
Falsehood 1: There were three people in the home
When San Francisco police first discussed the attack with the media, they did not specify who opened the front door for police when officers began knocking.
"When the officers arrived and knocked on the front door of the residence this morning, the door was opened by someone inside," San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said at a Friday press conference. "The officers observed through the open door Mr. Pelosi and the suspect, Mr. DePape, inside the entryway of the home."
This led to immediate confusion about how many people were inside the home at the time of the attack, which is evident in a Politico report from Friday. Politico updated that report Sunday to clarify that only two people were in the home when police arrived.
"This report has been updated to clarify that according to the San Francisco Police Department and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, there were only two people inside the Pelosi home when police arrived early Friday morning, Paul Pelosi and the suspect, David DePape," the clarification says. "The police chief had stated on Friday that officers arrived at the house and entered through the front door, which someone — he didn’t specify who — opened from the inside."
Why police would not initially say who opened the front door is unclear. But a criminal complaint the FBI released earlier this week specifies that Pelosi ran to the door and opened it before he began trying to gain control of the hammer that DePape was holding.
Falsehood 2: Pelosi and DePape knew each other
The criminal complaint from the FBI states that DePape surprised Pelosi in an upstairs bedroom after breaking in through a rear door on a lower floor. While the two were talking to one another, the complaint says, Pelosi went into a bathroom and called 911 from a cellphone. Police say Pelosi left the line open so the dispatcher could hear him while he continued to talk to DePape.
Authorities say the dispatcher was able to decipher Pelosi's coded language and realized that, despite what Pelosi was saying, he was in trouble. In recorded audio that was made publicly available, an operator can be heard relaying details from the 911 call to responding officers.
"The [reporting party] stated that there is a male in the home and that he's going to wait for his wife," the operator said. "The [reporting party] stated that he does not know who the male is but he advised that his name is 'David,' and that he is a 'friend.' The [reporting party] sounded somewhat confused."
It's clear from the operator's statements that Pelosi was giving contradicting information in his 911 call, possibly in an attempt to keep DePape calm in a tense situation. The operator's words — specifically, the point in which he says Pelosi called DePape a "friend" — were enough for conspiracy theorists to claim that the two men knew each other, despite the fact that the operator said Pelosi claimed not to know the intruder just seconds before.
The criminal complaint from the FBI clarifies what happened.
"Pelosi stated words to the effect of there is a male in the home and that the male is going to wait for Pelosi’s wife," the complaint says. "Pelosi further conveyed that he does not know who the male is. The male said his name is David."
The San Francisco Police Department has since confirmed that DePape and Pelosi did not know each other prior to the attack.
Falsehood 3: Both men were wielding hammers
This inaccuracy can also be attributed to a misunderstanding of statements that Scott, the San Francisco police chief, made to the media in the immediate aftermath of the attack. In another Friday press conference, Scott said police saw Pelosi and DePape "both holding a hammer" when they arrived at the Pelosi residence.
"When the officers arrived on scene, they encountered an adult male, and [Speaker] Pelosi's husband, Paul," Scott said. "Our officers observed Mr. Pelosi and the suspect both holding a hammer."
Conspiracy theorists immediately jumped on Scott's words and began touting the idea that Pelosi and DePape were both swinging hammers at one another when police arrived.
However, Scott's next sentence at that news conference appears to make clear there was only one hammer: "The suspect pulled the hammer away from Mr. Pelosi and violently assaulted him with it."
This didn't stop speculation, however, and Scott later explicitly clarified that the two men both had their hands on one hammer. Police say DePape ripped the hammer from Pelosi's hands and struck him in the head with it, knocking him unconscious.
Adding to the confusion is that the FBI criminal complaint includes a hammer in a list of items found in DePape's backpack — which he left outside — but it's unclear whether that hammer was the one used to hit Pelosi.
Falsehood 4: Both men were in their underwear
This falsehood, which gained the most attention from conspiracy theorists online, can be traced to a now-deleted tweet from KTVU reporter Evan Sernoffsky, who said early Friday that an anonymous source told him that DePape was arrested while dressed only in his underwear. He included the detail in a report that was later corrected.
"I'm now told by other sources that DePape was NOT dressed only in his underwear. Working to clarify," Sernoffsky said in a tweet prior to the correction.
That claim helped form the basis for the unfounded theory that DePape and Pelosi were engaging in sex acts before police were called. The FBI criminal complaint clarified that DePape was wearing clothes when he was arrested, and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Monday that Pelosi was dressed in "a loose-fitting pajama shirt and boxer shorts."
| That sure showed you, peasant! |
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