Frank Winstead Gone Wild: The Recordings
You may remember ANC Commissioner Frank Winstead from his chillingly subtitled youtube video "Ping Pong in Public Space" or his chillingly subtitled youtube video "When UPS Delivers in D.C., Life Suffers."
Last Tuesday, Winstead staged a live performance at the packed-full ANC meeting held to reassess Comet Ping Pong's voluntary agreement with the commission. (Marc Fisher, hot on the Winstead beat, has his roundup here. DCist, too). During the course of the meeting, Winstead accused Comet owner James Alefantis of lying, cheating, stealing, spitting in a customers food, and encouraging both murderers and rapists.
"He said rape," confirms fellow ANC3F commissioner Mital Gandhi. "R-A-P-E. Rape."
Says Alefantis, "Frank Winstead was completely and totally unprofessional, incredibly rude, and a little wacky. He was yelling and screaming and wagging his finger at everyone."
But don't take their word for it: We've plucked the highlights of the recording, after the jump!*
* Not caught on tape: "At one point, he mouthed 'fuck you' to me," says Alefantis.
Winstead: James is trying to turn this into Adams Morgan with the murders, the rapes ... [Extended booing, punctuated laugher] ... the lying, the cheating!
Commission chairperson Jane Solomon: Hold on, alright, wait wait wait wait wait, wait, let me have quiet here!
Winstead: Have you ever spit in a customer’s food?
Solomon: Wait Frank, come on, come on. Come on! Alright please, please, everyone quiet. [Shushing] Quiet, Frank, that’s not helpful, let's please, James is speaking.
Winstead: He breaks the law
Solomon: We are not law enf---
Winstead: [Unintelligible] ... he’s filling up his fat wallet ...
Solomon: Alright Frank, you're out of order, please. [Calls from crowd for Winstead to recuse himself] That's not helpful here.
Winstead: Lying, cheating, stealing!
Photos by enviziondotnet
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11:36 am
This is awesome. If only there were videotape! But this is still absolutely hilarious and damning proof that Frank Winstead is, in fact, just as much the deranged sociopathic crackpot in real life as he appears to be on paper.
12:09 pm
Sadly, this is not the only Little Napoleon on our ANCs. The good news: this is an elective office, and adult normal-neurotic citizens in the district are free to oppose him.
12:38 pm
I really wish CP and the WP would disclose that not only is Gandhi an ANC Commissioner there, but that he's also a member of the ABC Board. He can claim to recuse himself all he wants but I don't think he should even be in the room when ABC matters are discussed at his ANC and I think the newspapers in question have a responsibility to disclose this....
12:50 pm
You're right, AdMo. Gandhi serves as both ANC Commissioner in 3F as well as on the ABC board. There's more to discuss there, and Gandhi's double duty will come up when Comet goes in front of the ABC Board. (Gandhi says he plans to recuse himself). Thanks for raising the issue.
1:00 pm
how the hell did this guy get elected?
1:10 pm
Jian: The problem (well, one of them) with the ANCs is that nobody really wants to be an ANC commissioner. There's not much power and even less glory, not to mention no money. On top of that, nobody really votes in those elections. Many ANC commissioners are elected by literally a dozen votes... if they even had an opponent.
So in many cases, like with cousin Frank, you get the seats filled with people who have an ax to grind, or are using the position to promote a specific, personal agenda, or (as is apparently the case with Frank) just have way too much time on their hands.
1:18 pm
I wish this and other ANC meetings were videotaped and posted on Youtube. That way the publiv will see this officials as the nut cases that they really are.
2:55 pm
I was at the meeting and it was absolutely unbelievable. There must have been more then 120 people there for Comet. I think there were 4 sane commissioners and 3 crazy ones. Also, I've seen Adams Morgan post on other sites as well about Gandhi being an ANC Commissioner and on the ABC Board. Get over it you freak. He said very clearly at the meeting at the beginning that he is recusing himself on the ABC Board to deal with it on the ANC. He also said something about the fact that he couldn't do that before because there weren't enough members on the ABC Board. Ghandi is my new hero.
Kudos to the sane commissioners there. The others needed to be voted out -- but by far Winstead needs to go...though on the other hand, this is all very comical, so maybe another two years wouldn't be so bad...but please, video all ANC3F meetings.
11:02 am
Dearest ForestHillsNeighbor...I was pointing out that neither the CP nor the WP disclosed Gandhi's dual roles, something that they both should have done. Gandhi has a history of not recusing himself from issues that he should. This has nothing to do with the Comet situation and everything to do with Gandhi. But thanks for resorting to namecalling, that always helps foster open discussion.
6:41 pm
I have a friend on the ANC in Adams Morgan. S/he has told me that there are other Commissioners there that ARE NOT representative of the community (same problem on ANC3F). I also hear about community organizations that fight all the establishments there, including legendary places like Madam's Organ. Adams Morgan is a great place to live and party, but its people on their ANC and community organizations that need change there as well so maybe you are facing the same problem we are in our ANC.
It does bring up the bigger question of how representative ANC's are in all of DC. Do they really represent their constituents or are they even necessary? Most of them are races with no competition ad many people don't go to meetings as it is. I am guilty of it as well. I don't go to many ANC3F meetings, until I know about an issue that is dear to me (Comet).
Anyways, it seems like you have some sort of gripe about Gandhi. What I'm saying, is that we like him here - My wife and I were both thoroughly impressed by someone who is SANE on the ANC and works to do what the COMMUNITY wants and needs. If you have some gripes about him, maybe you should take it up with him directly rather then post about it! Now, if you have anything about Winstead, please let us know.
Peace.
6:43 pm
...and also if I were you, I'd be pretty ticked off that Winstead resonated Adams Morgan with Murders and Rapes!
9:50 pm
Up to his old tricks, eh? At UNC he was assumed to be cracked. He ran for about every student office imaginable, unsuccessfully, and played dirty political tricks (including designing, printing and distributing posters attacking the white female student body president candidate by linking her to a surname-sharing famous segregationist governor and one-time presidential candidate). I'm a bit surprised he got on the ANC.
10:53 am
At UNC he ran for every office imaginable ... simultaneously. If memory serves, he ran for senior class president, student body president, editor of the campus paper, and one other position in the same election. One of his opponents -- I think it was the same election -- had campaign fliers printed with pictures of himself masked by a grocery bag over his head (a la the Unknown Comic on "The Gong Show"). He went by the name Hugh G. Reckshun.