JJ Smith became a local internet star by posting videos of drug users in the city’s long-troubled Tenderloin neighborhood. Smith’s videos became fodder for members of the Astroturf Network as it attacked progressive elected officials including former District Attorney Chesa Boudin and Supervisors Connie Chan, Aaron Peskin and Dean Preston. 

Last week, Smith, whose real name is Omar Ward, would see his celebrity turn to notoriety as he was called out for harassment, both online and in real life. A respected local journalist, Kevin Jones of the popular podcast DoomLoop Dispatch tweeted that not only had Smith taken a video of him standing by his car, he left a threatening message on its windshield. When Jones returned to the car, it had been vandalized — all four tires had been slashed and a burning sock had been stuffed into his gas tank.

The report, which went viral on X/Twitter, was picked up by local news outlets.

Smith liked to think of himself as a political activist, a truth-teller shining a light on human misery to grab the attention of elected officials. However, his doom loop porn videos have been criticized by long-time homeless activists like Sara Shortt. “Even if you believe this is a means to an end, using vulnerable people as fodder in that battle is inexcusable, frankly,” Shortt said. 

Regardless, Smith’s efforts proved useful to the wealthy interests attempting to move San Francisco to the right, and by so doing, enrich themselves at the expense of the city’s most vulnerable.

Smith has been a willing tool for the Astroturf Network. Susan Dyer Reynolds, the former editor of the Marina Times, featured Smith in a YouTube series in 2021 designed to “hold the District Attorney accountable.” Part of the money for the series came from the $200,000 Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, the political organization founded by right-wing Republican William Oberndorf, paid to Reynolds and her colleague Stanley Roberts in 2021. Oberndorf’s Neighbors for a Better San Francisco was the largest funder of the Boudin recall, contributing $4.7 million of the $7.25 million spent to oust the district attorney. More recently, the supported right-wing candidates and ballot initiatives in the November 2024 election including tough-on-crime mayoral candidate, former District 2 Supervisor  Mark Farrell. 

Also funding the videos were  David Sacks, an early Trump supporter and head of the newly created White House Department of Artificial Intelligence and Cryptography, and Jason Calacanis, a technology investor. Later, Dyer Reynolds would hire Smith as a videographer for her new media company, Gotham By the Bay.

Garry Tan, the onetime director of GrowSF and Pied Piper for San Francisco’s right, often retweeted crime videos like those posted by Smith and other self-appointed crime fighters. Tan, too, had been an enthusiastic supporter of numerous right-wing causes in San Francisco including the Boudin recall. He contributed $1000.00 to a GoFundMe set up on Smith’s behalf.

Former drug dealers JJ Smith and Ricci Wynne would see their popularity soar during the Boudin recall. They amassed sizable online audiences — Smith had some 30,000 X/Twitter followers before shutting down his account last week. Both were featured on national media outlets including, of course, Fox News.

Smith and Wynne also attracted the attention of local politicos; Daniel Lurie posed with Wynne during his mayoral campaign as did other conservative candidates. Today, both are in trouble: Smith for harassment and Wynne for sex trafficking.

Their fame — and subsequent disgrace — show the length to which the Astroturf Network will go to further its agenda.