There's a lot left out in Solnit's article, see: http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/alex-nieto-w...
What made this situation special was that Nieto was armed with a taser. When Snow's dog assaulted him, as poorly managed dogs do, Nieto prepared to zap it with the taser.
Snow tried to tell Nieto not to tase his dog (the DA investigation says that Snow "begged" Nieto not to tase his dog, but let's allocate all charity to the dead and assume Snow was a dick about it). Nieto's problem stopped being the dog. Instead, he confronted Snow, threatening to tase him, and suggesting that the two fight. That, too, is detail we can only source from Snow's own report, but it squares with things like the text he sent to his friend and the reports he made to people outside the park.
That doesn't make him in any way responsible for Nieto's death. Sorry, it just doesn't.
I suspect that if neighborhoods were more static, then the neighbors would know who was a real threat; fewer false positives.
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.
> ...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...
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
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?
I actually know the couple, they are very nice people and I am sure they feel terrible about what happened. But they are from upper-middle and upper class families, I am sadly not too surprised that they felt threatened by a latino man in a park.
Well, he shouldn't have been shot, but wow.
For this reason, and of course also to protect police from dishonest civilian witnesses, body cams should be standard issue equipment. In fact, I'm surprised SFPD hasn't long since required them.