A San Francisco supervisor has accused the Blue Angels of striking terror into the community “when they strafe neighborhoods” and seeks a flyover ban on the “killing machines” in the aftermath of the fatal crash of a Blue Angels jet in Tennessee last week.
City Supervisor John Avalos said he plans to introduce a nonbinding resolution that would ban the squadron of six F/A-18 fighter jets from flying over the city.
“It’s about them crashing and hitting a building — a place where people live,” Mr. Avalos told the San Fransisco Chronicle. “It’s about the terror that they cause in people when they strafe neighborhoods. That’s something I hear about all the time when Blue Angels fly overhead.”
On Twitter, Mr. Avalos claimed a majority of residents opposed the flyovers that take place during the annual Fleet Week in October, Fox News reported.
“Fact there’s a large number of ppl who don’t want them flying over SF in LARGE proportion to the ppl who want them,” he wrote. In another tweet, he claimed that “more than anything,” the Blue Angels “just maintain US power über alles.”
When a Twitter user snarked that the Blue Angels have a higher favorability rating than the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Mr. Avalos responded: “So did segregationists among white ppl in the Jim Crow south. That didn’t make them right.”
It’s not the first time that Mr. Avalos has launched a Twitter assault against the Navy’s flight demonstration squadron.
“Killing machines are flying loudly over San Francisco,” he wrote during Fleet Week last year, Fox News reported.
“Thousands of us in the Civic Center Plaza staring up, gawking as the Blue Angels strafe San Francisco and flip us the bird,” he wrote at the time. “War planes r flying at low altitudes over SF, reminding me of the $580B for US imperialism & the pittance 4 climate and human development.”
In 2007, as a staffer for then-Supervisor Chris Daly, Mr. Avalos helped write a similar resolution after a fatal Blue Angels crash at an air show in South Carolina. The resolution failed to make it out of committee, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Supervisor Eric Mar said he would support Mr. Avalos’ new resolution, saying “the potential dangers” outweigh the benefits.
The air shows also go against “the values of peace that San Francisco stands for. … They promote militarism, and I don’t think a city like ours should be promoting that,” Mr. Mar told the Chronicle.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin said his mind hasn’t changed since he voted against the 2007 measure.
“I am the District Three supervisor,” he said. “It’s a huge economic boon to District Three every year, and the majority of my constituents like it.”
Board President London Breed said she would wait for the results of the investigation into the Tennessee crash before deciding how to vote, the Chronicle reported.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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