by Angelica abral
April 28 , 2023
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) San Francisco’s public officials and tech execs have been crying for years that the city is becoming more violent: the “reign of criminals who are destroying our city,” Democratic Mayor London Breed said in 2021, ends “when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement.” When Cash App founder Bob Lee was killed in April, Elon Musk called out the city’s district attorney: “Violent crime in SF is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately. Is the city taking stronger action to incarcerate repeat violent offenders @BrookeJenkinsSF?” Ex-PayPal venture capitalist David Sacks compared Lee’s killing to a Los Angeles case where “a young woman was basically stabbed for no reason by a psychotic homeless person.” But what many assumed was the doing of a random, unhoused person ended in the arrest of a tech professional who knew Lee personally.
In fact, San Francisco has lower than average rates of violent crime compared to other major U.S. cities, and those rates have even decreased further since 2019. But the same old talking points have continued to thrive—and, with another high-profile case, just got worse.
In early April, former San Francisco Fire Commissioner Don Carmignani approached unhoused residents outside his mother’s home in the Marina District, among the city’s most expensive neighborhoods, and told them to leave, later alleging that they had threatened his family. One of those residents, Garett Doty, is accused of then beating Carmignani with a metal rod, from which he suffered injuries including a fractured skull.
Carmignani, well respected among city officials and a longtime part of the community, initially got the benefit of the doubt. But as with the killing of Bob Lee, Carmignani’s attack wasn’t exactly what it appeared. Doty’s public defender, releasing video of a similar attack, has tied Carmignani to a string of unsolved attacks on unhoused locals. And police cameras, reports neighborhood outlet Mission Local, recorded Carmignani—who has since missed two court appearances—warning his girlfriend not to speak to investigators.
Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/crime-just ... nlivable/
