San Francisco: It's not just for shoplifting anymore (Golden Gate games)

[C C]

San Francisco jury finds homeless man not guilty in beating of businessman left with brain injury
https://apnews.com/article/san-francisco...8c0d4e4b60

PRESS RELEASE: A San Francisco jury on Friday found a homeless man not guilty after being accused of using a metal pipe to beat a businessman who suffered a broken jaw, fractured skull and traumatic brain injury in an attack caught on video that fueled debate about crime and homelessness in the city.

Garret Doty, 25, was charged with three assault and battery charges for the April 5 beating of Don Carmignani. Doty pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors said Doty beat Carmignani in an act of revenge. But Doty’s defense attorneys said he was acting in self-defense after Carmignani sprayed him with bear spray.

The attack on Carmignani, a businessman who served briefly on a Fire Department commission, happened two days after the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee.

Lee’s killing unleashed a wave of criticism against city officials by prominent tech leaders. Among the critics was tech billionaire Elon Musk, who took to Twitter to mourn Lee’s death and blame San Francisco for what he called the city’s lax attitude toward crime. A tech consultant is awaiting trial in Lee’s killing.

The attack on Carmignani fueled a narrative of a city in chaos. But Doty’s defense attorney argued Doty acted in self defense and released surveillance video showing Carmignani spraying Doty before he began chasing him while wielding a metal pipe.

Deputy Public Defender Kleigh Hathaway said Carmignani had repeatedly doused unhoused people, including Doty, with bear spray. “Self-defense can be fierce, it can be effective and it can be disabling,” Hathaway said. “And why wouldn’t it be? You’re fighting for your life.”

In closing arguments Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Kourtney Bell conceded that Carmignani had a history of aggression, saying that he may have used bear spray on unhoused people in the Marina District on at least one occasion, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

A confrontation between Carmignani and Doty started after Doty and two others set up tents outside the home of Carmignani’s parents, who live next door to him in the upscale Marina District. Carmignani said in an interview with KPIX-TV that he had asked Doty to move away because they were blocking his parent’s entryway.

He said he called 911 but no one responded, so he went out to talk to the homeless people. and that the only thing he had on him was pepper spray.

“I didn’t go out there to fight anyone. I’m trying to get them down the road, go to the park,” Carmignani told the television station.

[Syne]

Leftists do love themselves some criminals.

[Yazata]

The Super Tuesday election in California wasn't just primary elections. There were also lots of local measures on the ballot.

And in what just might be a signal of what's to come nationwide in the november general election, San Francisco produced some interesting election results that people might not have predicted. The results continue a gradual shift that's been apparent since 2022, when SF voters recalled three radical members of the city school board, and also recalled left-wing Soros district attorney Chesa Boudin.

On Tuesday night...

Measure E, which expanded police powers and allowed police to use drones and to install surveillance cameras, was leading as of Wednesday morning by a margin of nearly 60% to 40%. This represents a 180 from the direction the city had taken since Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police.

Measure F, which requires drug testing for those receiving public assistance benefits from the city, was leading by an even greater margin of 63% to 37%. Again, a huge departure from past policy. It might even send much of the street-fentanyl crowd across the bridge to the welcoming woke arms of Oakland.

Tellingly, measures E and F were supported by the Republican party and opposed by the democrats.

Measure D, which creates more restrictive ethics laws governing city employees, also passed.

Measure G, which allows algebra by the eighth grade in an effort to improve the quality of public education, passed as well. Algebra had been declared "racist" because too few black students met the prerequisites to take it, hence no students were allowed to take it in junior high. That particular move didn't go over well in San Francisco's large Asian community, whose kids tend to excel in math.

San Francisco voters are still overwhelmingly democrats and most of them still hate Trump, but they seem to have started backing away from the crazier "woke" stuff that defines their political party and was destroying the city, driving away jobs and business.

Which might just suggest that skepticism about and fatigue with the democrats' social-change ideology is working its way out into the awareness of the general voting public.

If it can happen in San Francisco, America's "liberal" bastion, it can happen anywhere.