
Death by gentrification: the killing that shamed San Francisco - wallflower
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/21/death-by-gentrification-the-killing-that-shamed-san-francisco
======
laurencerowe
There's a lot left out in Solnit's article, see:
[http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/alex-
nieto-w...](http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/alex-nieto-was-
not-killed-gentrification-its-worse)

~~~
RodericDay
> Nieto was clearly a man having a crisis, and his purported reaction when
> approached by police was not that of a rational person. Told to show his
> hands, Nieto allegedly demanded that the cops show theirs. He then
> reportedly drew his taser and fired three times. And so he was shot—and shot
> and shot—by officers who claim they did not realize Nieto was carrying a
> less-than-lethal device.

This is the stuff she should have included into her article?

This platitude about mental health,

> Our jails are full of men and women whose crime is being mentally ill.

Is not a more compelling analysis of the event than Solnit's take.

~~~
schumpeter
Here, let me help you out...

> ...there is no mention whatsoever of Nieto’s long and well-documented battle
> with mental illness. No mention of Nieto’s “history of aggressive and
> bizarre behavior and auditory hallucinations,” as described in a letter
> written by District Attorney George Gascón following his office’s
> investigation of the shooting. Likewise, no mention of “a clinical history
> of psychosis exacerbated by his failure to take ... medications.” No mention
> of a police report filed less than three weeks before Nieto’s death by a man
> alleging that Nieto tased him (Nieto, in turn, filed a police report
> claiming this was an act of self-defense). No mention of prior incidents in
> which police intervened when Nieto’s internal battles spilled out into the
> public sphere. - See more at: [http://www.modernluxury.com/san-
> francisco/story/alex-nieto-w...](http://www.modernluxury.com/san-
> francisco/story/alex-nieto-was-not-killed-gentrification-its-
> worse#sthash.Y6wXsh3O.dpuf)

~~~
RodericDay
The severity of his "long and well-documented battle with mental illness" is:

a) Disputed

b) Weaponized against him, taking advantage of the fear and misunderstanding
people have of mental illness ("he burnt a book! that sounds like he'd pull
guns on people!")

c) Used to avoid engaging with the racial issue that brought it to the fore

~~~
refurb
Disputed? He was confined on a 72 hour mental health hold _twice_. You need to
be examined by health professionals for that to happen. I would argue his
mental health problems are not disputed at all.

I also love how you said "he burned a book". No, he set a book on fire in his
parents home, which they luckily extinguished, then took the ashes and ate
them. Even his parents said they were in fear of their own safety.

Jesus, twisting facts knows no ends when it comes to supporting a certain
narrative doesn't it?

------
dmschulman
This police-assisted murder is a shame but I don't understand why we expect
neighborhoods to remain frozen in time forever, never changing their racial or
socioeconomic makeup for as long as the area exists.

It's a given that neighborhoods, especially in the city, will change over
time. The real issue isn't whether people who don't look like the lifelong
residents will move in, it's if those new neighbors will treat the area and
neighbors with the same reverence and respect that those before them did. I
don't think people resent a changing neighborhood so much as they resent
people with different values settling down and expecting the neighborhood to
bend to their preference.

This is clearly what's at stake in the death of Alex Nieto.

~~~
mc32
When middle class families move out it's called *-flight. When poor families
move out, it's called gentrification. Both are due to economics, some
precipitated, not so much by individual bigotry but rather by self interest
(the former wanting to preserve value individually in anticipation of
devaluation of property, the latter get pushed out due to economics whereby
its not viable to remain in a valuating neighborhood while earnings remain
flat for the individual.

~~~
marcus_holmes
I think the difference is choice.

White flight is white folks _choosing_ to move out of an area.

Gentrification is white folks _choosing_ to move in to an area.

No-one else gets a choice. Only the white folks.

~~~
zeveb
> No-one else gets a choice. Only the white folks.

That's not really fair. White flight was a result of mandatory school
integration policies, which forced middle-class (i.e., by-and-large white) and
lower-class (i.e., by-and-large black) children into the same schools; white
folks didn't have a choice about that, nor did those who stayed a bit longer
have a choice about the continued decline of their cities.

Poor city folks have the same choice now that white city folks had in the 70s:
stay & deal, or flee elsewhere. The sticky point is that it's a _lot_ easier
for someone middle-class to afford to move to the suburbs & commute to work
than it is for a poor person.

~~~
marcus_holmes
Really? White folks were _forced_ to move away because their kids might go to
school with black kids?

Only in America...

~~~
zeveb
> White folks were _forced_ to move away because their kids might go to school
> with black kids?

It's really, _really_ unfortunate that race is a proxy for class in America.
It's a natural and IMHO good human tendency for folks to want to be around
others of their own class; the problem is that in America race and class are
so conflated that one gets this horrible self-reinforcing racist spiral, which
is unfair to blacks and poisonous to whites. And race isn't even all that
_good_ of a proxy for class, but due to the aforementioned self-reinforcing
racist hate spiral it has been extraordinarily difficult to eliminate.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
> It's a natural and IMHO good human tendency for folks to want to be around
> others of their own class;

Natural, but not good. Good is when we eliminate class, not enjoy its
stratification.

------
navait
> Evan Snow, a thirtysomething “user experience design professional”..., who
> had moved to the neighbourhood about six months earlier (and who has since
> departed for a more suburban environment)

> Snow never seemed to recognise that his out-of-control dog was the
> aggressor: “So Luna was, I think, looking to move around the benches or
> behind me to run up happily to get a chip from Mr Nieto. Mr Nieto became
> further – what’s the right word? – distressed, moving very quickly and
> rapidly left to right, trying to keep his chips away from Luna. He ran down
> to these benches and jumped up on the benches, my dog following. She was at
> that point vocalising, barking, or kind of howling.”

>– in his deposition for the case, under oath, his exact words were that he
was distracted by a female “jogger’s butt”. “I can imagine that somebody would
– could assume the dog was being aggressive at that point,” Snow said. The dog
did not come when he called, but kept barking. Nieto, Snow says, then pulled
back his jacket and took his Taser out, briefly pointing at the distant dog-
owner before he pointed it at the dog baying at his feet. The two men yelled
at each other, and Snow apparently used a racial slur, but would not later
give the precise word. As he left the park, he texted a friend about the
incident. His text, according to his testimony, said, “in another state like
Florida, I would have been justified in shooting Mr Nieto that night”

Is this guy real? This is the sort of person I'd expect to see on _Silicon
Valley_ not in the real world, he fits the techbro stereotype exactly. After
each sentence I read, I thought this guy couldn't get even more stereotypical,
but he managed to lower the bar further.

~~~
tptacek
This is a person Rebecca Solnit chose to single out, carefully juxtaposing
reports of his (incredibly obnoxious) behavior against Nieto's shooting, to
which, even by Solnit's account (read carefully), _he was not a party_.

I don't want to get drinks with this character in Solnit's story, either. But
I'm not sure we should applaud the tactic of summoning up and focusing outrage
on people like this.

~~~
tryitnow
Nope. Sorry, Evan Snow's recklessness in not getting his dog under control
resulted in a innocent person getting shot, and cops whose careers are
probably ruined.

Snow deserves a big chunk of blame here.

It's simple folks: if you're not highly confident that your dog will behave
itself

For those of you who still harbor sympathy for Snow, do a Google search for
people who have been mauled by out of control dogs.

Now Snow's dog didn't end up biting, but that's beside the point. His dog
clearly caused a major disturbance because he didn't control it. Snow's
recklness is the root cause of this profound tragedy.

~~~
whatok
I'm pretty sure that pointing a device that appeared to be a gun at a group of
cops after ignoring their requests for him to put his hands up had a bit more
of an impact than the dog in this case.

~~~
curun1r
One of the key assertions of the story is that he had no reason to believe
that the people requesting he show is hands were police officers. It was dark
and they hadn't properly identified themselves or used sirens when arriving at
the scene.

We can't know the state of mind of the victim, but there's every possibility
that he believed he was pointing his tazer at a group of assailants. It's
incumbent on police to properly identify themselves before making demands of
someone they expect to comply.

~~~
tptacek
There was one eyewitness to the shooting. Their testimony contradicted
physical evidence in multiple ways (from the location of the shooting, to the
number of police cars that were present.) That same witness was forced to
admit on the stand that their recall was compromised by alcoholism.

The same eyewitness is the basis for claims Nieto's hands were in his pocket
when he was shot. But Nieto's hands were wounded by the shooting, and his
pockets were not damaged.

------
TheMagicHorsey
Why would a person ever point a taser with a laser sight at uniformed police
in this country?

Yes this is a tragedy, but how are police supposed to react to a gun-like
object pointed at them, in the heat of the moment?

Cops get shot also. They are nervous on the job. As we would be, in their
position. Are they supposed to react to a pointed gun with understanding and
open arms? I just don't think that's practical.

~~~
foldr
Cops always say that they feared for their life when they end up shooting an
innocent person. If we just take their word for it, we're effectively saying
that there are no circumstances under which we can legitimately criticize the
police for killing someone (because the officers involved will _always_ say
that they perceived their lives to be in danger).

~~~
raverbashing
Yes, but then the situation is evaluated

One of the reasons for body cameras

~~~
foldr
There isn't any camera footage in this case, is there? There is, on the other
hand, witness testimony to the effect that the police are lying.

------
Fiahil
So. Four policemen put 40 bullets in somebody, and that's supposed to be
"normal". What the hell?

~~~
tptacek
That the police shot this person at all is a tragedy, but the number of
bullets --- a detail reported brethlessly in all police shooting stories ---
isn't particularly important.

Police training demands they shoot to kill. The notion of using a firearm
merely to wound is mostly a TV fiction. Especially with a subject they believe
to be armed (as with this case, where someone called 911 reporting a gun), if
the police start shooting, they're going to make sure the target can't react.
Their concern will be that even a fatal shot might leave the target with 10-15
seconds with which to get off a shot in reply.

That this is probably a reasonable thing for the police to do is, for me, a
strong argument that most police should not be armed with guns. But that gets
us into an unproductive discussion about American gun culture and gun control.

~~~
yoo1I
> Police training demands they shoot to kill.

Something that is incredibly fucking stupid, and there are plenty of countries
who do very well without this misguided use of of lethal weapons.

~~~
tptacek
If you are saying that it's incredibly stupid to routinely put police into
situations where they have less than 5 seconds to decide whether or not they
are required to kill someone to protect themselves or their partners, I agree.
I think we should disarm most police.

~~~
yoo1I
Well, obviously the less police and the general public are put in this
position the better, and when there is a gunman running around the
neighborhood, there better be police to subdue, and yes, if it's required to
save other lives, kill him.

The point here, though is not to deny police their right to self defense, the
point is to train them in a way that their first action to exercise that right
is not with as much force as possible, but with as much force as is necessary.

Clearly emptying multiple magazines into someone speaks of fear, rather than
necessity, and I do not wish to be policed and protected by the fearful.

But to your larger point, I agree: building a society in which there is little
to none violence is a desirable goal.

~~~
tptacek
That's actually not my point. My preferred solution to this problem isn't
utopian. We could do it tomorrow:

Step 1: Ensure every police patrol vehicle has a shotgun locked in the trunk.

Step 2: Take away handguns from all patrol officers.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
That's an excellent idea, especially considering that in my very limited time
in California, their cops were the most heavily-armed human beings I'd ever
seen in-person. And these were policemen and sheriffs in Redwood City. And
I've seen on-duty soldiers.

California cops honestly had me wondering why anyone would ever really need to
walk around looking like they'd stepped out of a Hollywood shoot-em-up movie,
with two handguns, a rifle, and another larger weapon strapped to their back.

Maybe they were there for a cartel bust or some shit I didn't know about, but
that simply was not appropriate for ordinary beat policing. Luckily, I was
white enough that they didn't give me crap for staring at them.

------
the-dude
From a European perspective this is more 'Death by police state' than anything
else.

~~~
raldi
What happens in Europe when someone is seen in a public park waving around
something that looks like this?

[http://i2.wp.com/missionlocal.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/03...](http://i2.wp.com/missionlocal.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/03/taser.jpg)

~~~
davidw
There are far fewer guns floating around in most of Western Europe, so it's
less likely in the first place.

~~~
raldi
I think this is the key point. In a society with as lax gun control as we have
here, police are placed in much greater danger than they are in Europe, and
their training is adjusted accordingly, with lethal repercussions.

It also doesn't help that we leave our mentally-ill citizens to fend for
themselves on the street, instead of giving them the care they need like most
other first-world countries do.

Put the two together, and American police are faced with the very real
possibility of facing an armed crazy person any day they report for work.

------
tinco
This article seems to miss some crucial details. How does a jury go from the
given description of a man armed with only a Taser being not only shot to
disable but absolutely destroyed and vote unanimously in the police's favor?
Was the question asked to the jury more specific, did the Guardian leave
something out or was the jury really racist as the Guardian implies (by
listing their races)?

~~~
jemfinch
> being not only shot to disable but absolutely destroyed

There is no such thing as "shoot to disable" with firearms. Firearms are
lethal weapons. They should only be used when deadly force is justified, and
cannot reliably be used to "disable" someone apart from killing them.

~~~
Retric
You can "shoot to disable" though it can often result in death. Which can be
useful if your trying to keep someone alive to interrogate. However, US police
are flat out trained to kill.

Note: Disable does not mean they are unarmed / unconscious, it generally means
they can't move quickly and even if they could still be quite dangerous.

~~~
pygy_
Case in point, Salah Abdelslam, the Paris terror 'suspect' who was arrested
last week in Brussels, was shot in the leg as he was charging the police, then
arrested.

------
advaits
It is true that this case has the signs of unnecessary, racially-biased police
brutality written all over it. It is also true that gentrification in SF is
causing serious problems and culture clashes.

But I think it's unfair and quite a stretch to take this example and say that
'gentrification' is directly responsible for this killing. The underlying
problems here are racism and police brutality, which in this case are
correlated to, but an entirely separate issue from, the sudden influx of
wealth.

~~~
rayiner
The death wasn't caused by racism and police brutality in the abstract. It was
caused by the confluence of the two that manifests in the context of
gentrification. Cities have a huge incentive to police these neighborhoods in
a way that makes the gentrifiers "feel safe." That causes an atypically
unstable situation.

------
raldi
This is the taser Alex Nieto pointed at the police and refused to drop (if the
police are telling the truth):

[http://i2.wp.com/missionlocal.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/03...](http://i2.wp.com/missionlocal.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/03/taser.jpg)

~~~
RVuRnvbM2e
Whether he did or not is almost irrelevant.

The police wouldn't have even been there if some dude hadn't decided to call
911 on the guy for "walking while hispanic":

> Fritz said he only saw Nieto pacing near a bench and eating from a bag but
> did not himself see any weapon.

[http://missionlocal.org/2016/03/witness-testified-alex-
nieto...](http://missionlocal.org/2016/03/witness-testified-alex-nieto-never-
drew-weapon/)

~~~
mooseburger
>"walking while hispanic"

I'm hispanic, Puertorican to be exact. Guy seemed to be dressed like a hoodlum
in all images I can see in the article. I get nervous when I see people
dressed like that here in San Juan, and he definitely would have seemed shady
wandering around in a park, alone, dressed like that.

Sure, maybe it's not tolerant to judge someone like that based on what they
wear, but at the same time, I can't fathom why an innocent would insist on
literally dressing like a gangbanger.

~~~
swampthinker
Are you serious? It's a fucking 49er's jacket and some black pants. That's
nowhere near close enough to be considered "dressed as a cholo".

It's the fact that some white transplant saw a Hispanic guy wearing a bomber
jacket and Snapback hat, and decided that was a suspicious look. That's
frankly " walking while Hispanic"

~~~
raldi
Why do you omit the part about him carrying and allegedly pointing around an
object that looked just like a handgun?

------
KKKKkkkk1
The word 'xenophobia' literally means fear of strangers. But apparently it
applies only if those strangers are Syrian illegals and not when they're white
techies. It's unfortunate that the media is stoking this phenomenon. Strangely
enough, here a British newspaper is concerned about the supposed invasion of a
city half a world across from Britain.

------
LoSboccacc
This is a very sad occurence but I'd wish an article to read more as facts
than as a sob story

~~~
foldr
Aaron Swartz commits suicide after being prosecuted for a crime that he did
commit, and he's a martyr.

A working class latino guy in San Francisco gets shot by the police because
some white dudes didn't like the look of him, and it's basically his fault.

Hacker news values.

~~~
ousta
yes. he obviously got killed because some white dude didnt like the look of
him. the gun he was pointing at the cops is not related to his death.

~~~
zahmahkibo
1\. Please prove he pointed a gun at them. 2\. People literally called the
cops TO his location in the first place because he was sitting on a park bench
eating. What is wrong with this picture? 3\. He was shot 40 times. What is
wrong with this picture? 4\. The cop immediately called his union rep before
an ambulance. What is wrong with this picture?

~~~
ousta
You are right they must be lying, it seems more likely that some random cops
heard on radio that a guy was sitting on a bench eating and they just thought
"let's go kill some guy eating in a park today".

~~~
zahmahkibo
LMAO what a fucking strawman. At least try to not be disingenuous from the get
go

------
puppetmaster3
Why is gentrification bad?

~~~
dangerlibrary
Decreased quality of life for those who rent and can no longer afford to live
in the gentrified neighborhood.

Increased property taxes for those who already own can force even long-time
residents to move, regardless of whether they actually want to, simply because
their home has suddenly and unexpectedly increased in value. You could argue
that this is a windfall - but being forcibly displaced by increased cost of
living isn't fun, even if you do get a bunch of money for your house (that you
didn't want to sell in the first place).

Also, change is scary.

~~~
uiri
In California, real property is only reassessed at market value when it is
sold or transferred. So property taxes won't increase on long-time residents
who don't move. Rent control is, I believe, intended to provide the same
effect for long-time residents who rent instead of own. I agree that increases
in other components of the cost of living of an area can have the same effect
though.

~~~
sulam
It's also reassessed if you improve it in any substantial way. My property
taxes doubled after a remodel. Some of that was the remodel, but roughly half
was due to prices in the neighborhood going up since my wife and I originally
bought the house.

In my case we can afford these extra taxes, but I can easily imagine that in
other circumstances this would be difficult. The alternative is doing work
without permits, which comes with other risks.

~~~
1812Overture
You got permits for your remodel? Everyone else I know in California does it
on the dl and doesn't tell the city for this reason(and many others).

~~~
sulam
We built up, no way to avoid it. People get caught in our neighborhood unless
they're keeping it way under the radar.

------
polotics
What about the "UnProvoker": free floating handcuffs that at the press of an
easily accessible button will clamp on your hands and fingers, so if the
incoming cop team shoots you, they won't be able to claim you acted menacing?
Also the cops then have to come untie you, maybe time enough to start a
conversation about racial profiling?

------
1812Overture
Some other articles have mentioned that he was previously on some pretty
powerful psych meds and there weren't any found in his system by the coroner.
Quitting those medications cold turkey can make someone with previously minor
mental health problems go full "point a taser at the cops" crazy.

------
raverbashing
This is exactly like (minus the human tragedy) the bars that start getting
noise complaints after more residential building move into their area

And somehow people moving into a certain area think that what was there before
should cater to all of their demands

Really

~~~
zeveb
I know of a place where there's been a gun club since the 40s. There's a road
called Gun Club Road. There's a housing development called Gun Club Estates or
somesuch. And people who move there complain about the noise of the … gun
club.

People are stupid.

------
ashray
Is there no rent control in SF or other US cities? How do people get priced
out?

~~~
Agustus
There is rent control in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and
Oakland, CA. People get priced out of the market through an increase in demand
and a lack of corresponding supply opportunities.

1\. The lessee stays in a rent controlled location during a period of price
increases, absolving themselves of the real-world price increase that is
occurring to the landlord. So, to move from the house would mean the costs the
landlord absorbed will be now absorbed by the lessee, meaning there is a large
expense in moving. So, you either make the lodging you are in work, or else
you move out. If you move out, lacking a corresponding wage increase, you will
be priced out.

2\. For San Francisco, there are height and zoning restrictions galore in the
city. Supply to meet the demand is just not going to be allowed by the locals
who push for "Keeping San Francisco like San Francisco." Since, demand
increases, supply is static and those who would like to come in at $X wage are
simply priced out of the market.

~~~
eli
DC technically has rent control, but there are a variety of loopholes and it
does not apply in most cases.

~~~
Agustus
What are the loopholes? Is it like Section 8?

They fell in the statement because it was listed on the Wikipedia article.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_control_in_the_United_Sta...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_control_in_the_United_States)

Thank you for the heads up.

~~~
eli
\----

[http://dhcd.dc.gov/service/rent-control](http://dhcd.dc.gov/service/rent-
control)

The most common exemptions from rent control are for rental units that are:

\- Federally or District-subsidized

\- Built after 1975

\- Owned by a natural person (i.e., not a corporation) who owns no more than
four rental units in the District

\- Vacant when the Act took effect

\-----

To be clear, DC has an _extremely_ tenant friendly set of laws. But the rent
control is basically just a legacy of an earlier era.

------
known
One more vote for
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Meaning_of_.22well_regulated_militia.22)

