Death by Gentrification: The Murder that Shames San Francisco

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Ally Knighton, Staff Writer

On the night of March 24, 2014, 28-year-old  was shot by neighborhood police after they mistook his stun gun for a pistol. Nieto worked as a bouncer and security guard and was authorized to carry this weapon since 2007 but on that night, the two police officers fired a total of 59 bullets, at least 14 striking the young man. Even though there are discrepancies in the officer’s stories, it was deemed excessive force was not used. However, this was Bernal Hill, the neighborhood that Nieto had lived in all his life and the people who reported him were white newcomers in the neighborhood. It’s leaving many with this question; was his death a mistake or one triggered by years of gentrification and profiling in our backyard?

On March 24, Evan Snow, a man only slightly older than Nieto, was walking his siberian husky, Luna, before she caught sight of Nieto who was eating a bag of chips. During his deposition, Snow claimed that upon seeing Neito, he immediately put him in “that category of people that I would not mess around with”. For the record, Nieto was in black years, a 49ers jacket and a black baseball cap.

Luna went after Nieto, trying to get his food and Nieto reacted quickly, jumping and running to attempt to get away while Snow did nothing, saying under oath that he had been too distracted by a “joggers butt” to collect his dog. He admits that he could understand why someone might think the dog was acting aggressively, even if she was only trying to get the food. When Nieto pulled out the taser, Snow admits to using a racial slur (but would not say which one in his deposition) and that they exchanged some heated words. Additionally, he said something like “in another state, I would have been justified in killing him right then”, referring to the famous Stand Your Ground law that acquitted George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin.

After, another man claimed to see Nieto walking away from the incident looking nervous while another longtime resident said he looked normal and was just sitting in the park like anyone else. This man, Justin Fritz, who claimed he was nervous, reported to the police that he was resting his hand on a gun.

After this, Nieto had around five minutes to live before two officers released a full clip at and into him.

The thing that grips audiences about Nieto is that he lived there all his life but newcomers into the area thought he was suspicious and associated him with the gangs common around the bad parts of LA on sight.

Was this death an accident? Or was this, as Rebecca Solnit of The Guardian has coined, Death by Gentrification?