But Mr. Tan’s passion, like that of a growing variety of tech industry leaders, is San Francisco politics. He’s a part of a love-or-hate cadre of tech executives and investors with loads of opinions concerning the city and countless piles of money to, as they are saying within the tech industry, move fast and break things. (Their critics would say it’s more like attempting to buy City Hall.)
To some in San Francisco’s political establishment, Tan, 43, has grow to be probably the most irritating figure in a parade of rich tech executives. He’s built a bombastic online presence, spending about $400,000 on local politics over the past few years — and he potentially has a lot more to achieve. And on the social networking site X, which has 425,000 followers, Tan not only condemns some people inappropriately, but even enrages them.
Just after midnight on January 27, he posted on X, formerly Twitter, that seven left-leaning members of town’s Board of Supervisors, mentioned by name, should “die slowly,” punctuated by an expletive. It was a subtle reference to rap legend Tupac Shakur’s famous song “Hit ‘Em Up,” released 28 years ago as an insult to his musical rivals. But to some it gave the impression of a threat.
Mr. Tan was, as he admitted, drunk when asked by one in all X’s supporters.
Hours after his post was published, Tan deleted it and apologized. But plenty of individuals have already seen it.
A couple of days later, some supervisors received anonymous letters at their homes with Mr Tan’s face on them and the words: ‘Garry Tan is true! I wish you and your family members a slow and painful death.” Aaron Peskin, a supervisor who’s considering unseating London Breed, San Francisco’s mayor, within the November election, was one in all the few supervisors who filed police reports based on Mr. Tan’s position.
