I feel sorry for Police Chief Greg Suhr.

From the tone of the attacks against him, you’d think he was the guy who put 20-plus bullets into Mario Woods. That he was one of the guys sending out racist texts. That he personally ordered the stopping and frisking of every person of color in the city.

In truth, he’s one of the most progressive police chiefs the city has seen in decades.

But every time he makes a move to reform the SFPD’s culture, whether it be to improve racial sensitivity or come up with smarter use-of-force policies, he’s overshadowed by another story about some cop’s inappropriate behavior.

Meanwhile, the activists and the progressive supervisors are ramping up their calls for Suhr to step down.

Things have gotten so bad that Supervisor Aaron Peskin suggested at a recent board meeting that they bring in me to broker a peace deal between Mayor Ed Lee’s administration and the Black Lives Matter people, as I did during the last labor stalemate at Muni.

Are you kidding? Muni drivers are rational geniuses compared with these protesters.

Besides, this whole business really isn’t about Suhr. It’s about knocking down Lee. The chief is just the surrogate target.

If the audience at my annual talk before the Commonwealth Club the other night was any indication, people around here are more obsessed with national politics than they have been in decades.

You would think the Bay Area, with all of its quirks, didn’t exist.

What this crowd wanted to know was whether I thought the Democrats could win the House in November.

“No.”

Could Democrats win the Senate?

“Yes.”

Will state Attorney General Kamala Harris win the Senate race to replace Barbara Boxer?

“Good possibility.”

People also wanted to know how history will remember Gov. Jerry Brown.

My take: For all his efforts at creating a legacy, Jerry will probably be a chapter in the overall story of the Brown clan’s impact on California. The main character in that story, however, will be his father, the legendary Gov. Pat Brown, who was credited with building the best highway, water and state university systems in the nation.

We’ve seen governors since then who have captured the public’s imagination, but Pat Brown is the only governor in modern times who left a lasting legacy. Not even Ronald Reagan’s footprint can compare.

My nickel of advice to Hillary Clinton for when Donald Trump attacks: Ignore him.

I’m something of an egomaniac myself, and nothing bugged me more in politics than being ignored.

Trump is a huge egomaniac, and if you ignore him, he will simply escalate and escalate some more, until he crosses the line of ridiculousness.

Movie time: “Captain America: Civil War.” Line up all the superheroes on one side of town and all the super villains on the other side of town. Then have a super war.

I don’t know if they intended this latest comic book blowout to be a comedy, but it is so ridiculous you can’t help but laugh. There’s no blood, there’s no death, and with all the crashes and booms, there’s very little hearing left when you leave the theater.

Jeannette Etheredge called me the other day and said Francis Ford Coppola had something to show me that he picked up in Paris. So I went to his Cafe Zoetrope on Kearny Street, where I came face-to-face with this little machine with three buttons.

You push a button, and out comes a short story. It’s absolutely perfect if you’re waiting for a table or in an airport line.

It’s a bit analog, I know. But it could catch on, if you can get people to put down their cell phones for a minute.

Hats off to John Konstin of the historic John’s Grill. He did a fundraising event for state Sen. Mark Leno a while back. As fate would have it, Leno brought along the head of the city’s disability compliance program, who was in a wheelchair and could not make it up the three flights of stairs to the banquet room.

It’s a very old building, so legally John didn’t need to do anything. Nonetheless, he said, “If you’ll help process the papers, I’ll put in an elevator.”

And he did, to the tune of $500,000.

Want to sound off? Email wbrown@sfchronicle.com