Friday, March 11, 2016

After the Alex Nieto verdict ...

After a federal jury yesterday found it was legal for the San Francisco Police Department to shoot a nonthreatening homey on Bernal Hill, friends, family and supporters gathered at Mission Cultural Center.

That's the hill where Alex Nieto was shot in the background.

As Tim Redmond explained when the trial began, the jury didn't look much like the people of the Mission District.

Since it’s a federal case, the jury pool was chosen from all over the Bay Area, and there were no African Americans among the 30 potential jurors. Only two were Latino, and neither was chosen for the panel.

The final jury has five Caucasian women, all from the suburbs, two men of color, one Asian and one Indian, and one woman of color.

None of them are from San Francisco.

Nieto's parents put on brave faces, as they have for nearly two years.

One more altar was assembled.

On March 21 it will have been two years since Alex Nieto was gunned down. There will certainly be some people with something to say. Stay tuned.

2 comments:

PseudoPiskie said...

Grrrrr.

Hattie said...

This is heartbreaking. I'm in Seattle now catching up on this urban scene. Becoming fascinated by the rapidly changing demographic here and the presence of poor people everywhere. Don't know if they can be called homeless exactly. They are at home on the streets and on the bus. I'm always talking with them, hearing them talking to each other, a constant flow of stories and information. And politics.