Tustin City Council candidate loses it when asked to control his daughter during home tour. Shoves elderly docent

[Demovictory9]

 Tustin City Council candidate is apologizing after a video posted online showed him swearing at and shoving a man during a home tour earlier this year.

Lee Fink, running to represent District 1 on the Tustin council, said Thursday the interaction was “unfitting for anyone, much less someone running for public office.”

Ring camera footage posted this week by the OC Independent, a site run by Matthew Cunningham, who’s written for decades about politics in the county, shows a man telling Fink’s wife that their daughter broke some coral and asked that she not play with any more items.

Fink then approaches them and says his daughter didn’t touch or break anything. Fink then gets closer to the man and shouts, “We either have a problem or we don’t have a problem” before shoving him with one hand and swearing at him.

https://www.ocregister.com/2024/10/18/tustin-council-candidate-apologizes-after-video-shows-him-shoving-man/






By:Matthew Cunningham

Two days after Ring video emerged of him shoving and cussing out an elderly docent during a home tour, Tustin City Council candidate Lee Fink this morning issued an apology of sorts via e-mail.


However, the Ring video shows the elderly docent politely asking Courtney Long, Fink’s wife, to simply ensure their toddler didn’t play with any more fragile things, since she had already broken a decorative coral. Neither Long nor her daughter seemed upset. They do appear upset when Fink blows his stack and starts in on the docent.

“And I overreacted,” said Fink.

By “overreacted,” Fink is referring to aggressively berating the docent, then literally getting his face, shoving the elderly man while yelling “You’d better get the fuck away from me, you little piece of shit!” and “You stop fucking around with my daughter or you go down! That’s the way it goes!”

“I want to apologize to that individual and the homeowners involved,” Fink continues.

https://ocindependent.com/2024/10/tustin-council-candidate-lee-fink-issues-quasi-apology-after-ring-video-shows-him-shoving-verbally-abusing-senior-citizen/

[Mr.Bill]

1. First lesson in running for any office,

there are cameras everywhere.
If I were the elderly man I would press assault and battery charges. Assaulting a Senior citizen is a felony in California.

[Collimator]

2. People like that like to think that they are defending others.

But they're not. It's always about their own needs.

And folks who think that their precious babies can do no wrong and who just don't understand why other people can't see how special their kids are can pop up anywhere on the political spectrum.

[Midnight Writer]

3. I'm sure he is sincerely sorry. Sorry that he was caught on camera.

[Deuxcents]

4. Geeezz...would be nice to know how his election turned out

[duncang]

5. Walking up to someone within inches and telling them to get away from me?

That was not over reacting. That was trying to start sh… I’m sure that’s not the first or last time he has done that.

[hunter]

6. Old Town Tustin Home and Garden Tour.

Sounds like fun!

https://tustinhistory.com/tustin-home-and-garden-tour/

I'll confess my own children were sometimes unruly at that age, and they broke things on more than one occasion, but damn, I never lit off an anyone who called them out on it.

What's wrong with apologizing on the spot and doing whatever you can to repair the damage? That's the adult thing to do. That's the strong thing to do.

Why are there so many bullies politics?

[Demovictory9]

17. He is getting trashed in a local internet thread..people wish we had another candidate..too late

[hunter]

20. I hate local politics. It frequently goes off on weird tangents and gets ugly.

Sometimes I think all government entities representing fewer than 250,000 people should be abolished.

Just a thought experiment.

[pfitz59]

7. The little girl wasn't unruly, just 'untended'.

The father should have apologized profusely and taken the kid in hand. Instead, he went all 'macho' and bullish. Surely unfit for public office.

[wolfie001]

8. His apology only happened because he was filmed

Repulsive human and I feel for that child.

[quaint]

9. He has been endorsed by Katie Porter and other Democrats that I respect.

It seems like our local Democrats will endorse anyone with a (D).

[Hekate]

10. I see a fast un-endorsement coming for this pig. Unfortunately it's too late to find a replacement.

So think on that. When did this happen, and when did the news break, and why.

And if you respected Katie Porter before, don’t stop now. Do you think people who weren’t there actually knew — or did he put on his best interview face when seeking endorsements.

[quaint]

18. I hope our Katie Porter is the next Governor!

I don't know how well she knew him, if at all.
It is just the political game, but still disappoints me.
It seems like his tendencies would be known by now.

[BonnieJW]

11. Wow.

This doesn't seem like someone Katie would endorse. He clearly has psychological issues to react so inappropriately

[Demovictory9]

14. Happened in May. Video surfaced a few days ago

[liberalla]

12. What an ASS!

No words, too many words... I'm just disgusted and repulsed.

[sarchasm]

13. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...

… he might just be a … Republican.

[Demovictory9]

16. I think he is Dem

[sarchasm]

19. So he says ...

I was implying, albeit not very well and with pure speculation, that he may be a wolf in sheep's clothing because Tustin City is in Orange county which is very conservative.

[msongs]

15. looks llike crime to me, a pollice report and arrest should follow nt