Democracy Now Interview. “Death by Gentrification: Alex Nieto Killed by Hail of Police Bullets in a Changing San Francisco”

April 12, 2016 – Amy Goodman interviews Rebecca Solnit and Adriana Camarena on the SFPD killing of Alex Nieto on March 21, 2014 and the other salient cases of police shootings since 2014 (Amilcar Perez Lopez, Mario Woods and Luis Góngora Pat).

Part 1

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/12/death_by_gentrification_alex_nieto_killed

We look at the case of Alex Nieto, a 28-year-old Latino man fatally shot by San Francisco police in March 2014. The police officers accused in the killing claimed that Nieto pointed a stun gun at them, which they mistook for a pistol. Officers Richard Schiff, Nathan Chew, Roger Morse and Lt. Jason Sawyer fired dozens of shots at Nieto. According to the medical examiner, he was hit by at least 10 bullets. Last month, a jury unanimously found that the police did not use excessive force in responding to Nieto. Nieto’s family had filed a federal wrongful death civil lawsuit in August 2014, arguing in court that Nieto did not act aggressively and was carrying the weapon for his job as a security guard. We speak with Adriana Camarena, a writer, community advocate and co-founder of the Justice for Alex Nieto Coalition; and author Rebecca Solnit, who wrote a piece for The Guardian headlined “Death by gentrification: the killing that shamed San Francisco.” Camarena also talks about last week’s San Francisco police killing of a homeless man, Luis Gongora, within 30 seconds of their arrival.

Part 2

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/12/death_by_gentrification_in_sf_part

We are on the road in San Francisco, as we continue our conversation about the 2014 police killing of Alex Nieto and a slew of other police killings—Mario Woods, Amilcar Pérez-López and now Luis Gongora. Three of four of these killings happened in San Francisco’s rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, the Mission District and Bernal Heights. We speak about the link between these police killings and gentrification in San Francisco, with author Rebecca Solnit and community organizer Adriana Camarena.