3 ms·

I can tell you first hand that the neighborhood has been overrun by men like Evan Snow. Considering you live in Chicago and that Rebecca and I actually live in

I can tell you first hand that the neighborhood has been overrun by men like Evan Snow. Considering you live in Chicago and that Rebecca and I actually live in Bernal Heights I think we have a much better perspective on the situation. Where I come from you don't call the cops because you think you saw "a Mexican crazy man waving a gun around". If you see something, you leave, and you don't say anything to anyone. If you don't be a snitch then people don't get shot. If you move from fucking Iowa and you think San Francisco is like adult Disneyland and you parade around town with your white ear buds and you're totally oblivious to reality, you might think that the SFPD is like the security guards at the mall and think you need to call them when you see some "Mexican kids hanging on the street in a pack". The cops have fucking handguns and are very familiar with using them throughout years of gang violence in the Mission and Bernal. People who live in these neighborhoods don't look forward to having the police roll up searching for a Mexican with a handgun. Bullets fly in all directions. Completely innocent people get gunned down. Someone acting scary and just having a bad day but not hurting anyone gets gunned down. This shit happens all the time. I've been watching people get shot for no god damned reason for years and years and years. STOP SNITCHIN'

wbl 11y ago
No, people do get shot. 12 year old boys get shot by gangsters in broad daylight, and no one says who did it. People get smashed on the head with poles by roving teenagers. That the cops are just another gang sometimes doesn't mean they aren't necessary, or that Stop Snitchin' is anything but aiding and abetting murder.
tptacek 11y ago
Tell me more about how hardcore San Francisco is compared to the sleepy pastoral boulevards of Chicago. Then, reread Solnit's story. The "snitch" we're talking about didn't call Nieto in. Someone else did.
jon-wood 11y ago
This just feels like another damning indictment of US policing. "Don't call the cops, because innocent people will end up getting shot." In most civilised countries you can call the police without first wondering if its worth the risk of bystanders ending up dead.
- williamcotton 11y ago
  It absolutely is another damning indictment of US policing. There are two very different worlds here. The world Eric Snow lives in and the world Alex Nieto was taken from. Eric Snow and Justin Fritz don't know the rules and never bothered to find out the rules yet decided to live in this world. Their actions got people shot. Is this ideal? Hell no! It shouldn't be like this. No one fucking wants this. But pretending like it doesn't exist is irresponsible.
  - jon-wood 11y ago
    Let's be clear, it was the actions of the police officers that pulled the trigger that got him shot. I'm glad to live in a country where the police don't routinely carry firearms, and when they do evey instance of them even firing a round is investigated, never mind shooting someone dead.
nkrisc 11y ago
Calling he police on someone waving a handgun around in public is not "snitching," it's doing everyone a favor. That said, this isn't directly related to the story at hand as it is not clear that Mr. Nieto was in fact waving a gun around, but appears to be a convenient story from the police to justify having shot him.
- JabavuAdams 11y ago
  > Calling he police on someone waving a handgun around in public is not "snitching," it's doing everyone a favor. From the perspective of someone who's used to the benefits of calling the cops outweighing the costs. The parent poster gives valuable insight into the thought process learned from the very real places where the cost of calling the cops outweighs the benefits.
  - williamcotton 11y ago
    The Mission and Bernal are very real places indeed. I heard a man gunned down by the cops just six months ago on a construction site on my block. Four years ago someone got shot execution style on the sidewalk 10 doors down from my apartment. That same apartment still had three bullets lodged in the walls and ceiling. Two years before that three people got blown away in a pizza restaurant underneath another apartment I was living in. That's five murders within 200 ft of where I was sitting in just 6 years. All of these happened in the Mission and Bernal neighborhoods where I've been living and where Alex Nieto grew up. That's just reality.
    - tptacek 11y ago
      It sounds like a hard life out there in Bernal Heights.
      - williamcotton 11y ago
        Tom, I seriously can't figure out why you think that I'm trying to show people that "I'm hard" or something. I'm not. I'm a total wimp. I've had very few issues living in the Mission and Bernal because I keep my head down and mind my own business. Whatever picture you're trying to paint of me is completely irrelevant. The point I'm making is that if you're in a neighborhood where there happens to be a history of gang violence you should know that calling the cops more often than not just escalates the tension and creates more opportunities for unneeded violence. If different cultures are going to learn to live together peacefully we need to learn how to do so without getting the cops involved. How different would this have been if these people had just talked to Alex instead of making assumptions? That's the whole fucking point of the article. Eric Snow isn't in San Francisco to get to know people like Alex. He's here to make money and he doesn't know about nor care about what was going on in the Mission or Bernal before he moved to town. And for fuck's sake, these are real murders I'm talking about and they rattle me to the bone. I'm a sensitive dude. Seriously, follow these simple instructions for a much better life: https://punchdrunktwolves.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/stop_snitchin.gif https://punchdrunktwolves.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/stop_s...

wbl 11y ago

No, people do get shot. 12 year old boys get shot by gangsters in broad daylight, and no one says who did it. People get smashed on the head with poles by roving teenagers. That the cops are just another gang sometimes doesn't mean they aren't necessary, or that Stop Snitchin' is anything but aiding and abetting murder.

tptacek 11y ago

Tell me more about how hardcore San Francisco is compared to the sleepy pastoral boulevards of Chicago. Then, reread Solnit's story. The "snitch" we're talking about didn't call Nieto in. Someone else did.

jon-wood 11y ago

This just feels like another damning indictment of US policing. "Don't call the cops, because innocent people will end up getting shot." In most civilised countries you can call the police without first wondering if its worth the risk of bystanders ending up dead.

williamcotton 11y ago
It absolutely is another damning indictment of US policing. There are two very different worlds here. The world Eric Snow lives in and the world Alex Nieto was taken from. Eric Snow and Justin Fritz don't know the rules and never bothered to find out the rules yet decided to live in this world. Their actions got people shot. Is this ideal? Hell no! It shouldn't be like this. No one fucking wants this. But pretending like it doesn't exist is irresponsible.
- jon-wood 11y ago
  Let's be clear, it was the actions of the police officers that pulled the trigger that got him shot. I'm glad to live in a country where the police don't routinely carry firearms, and when they do evey instance of them even firing a round is investigated, never mind shooting someone dead.

nkrisc 11y ago

Calling he police on someone waving a handgun around in public is not "snitching," it's doing everyone a favor. That said, this isn't directly related to the story at hand as it is not clear that Mr. Nieto was in fact waving a gun around, but appears to be a convenient story from the police to justify having shot him.

JabavuAdams 11y ago
> Calling he police on someone waving a handgun around in public is not "snitching," it's doing everyone a favor. From the perspective of someone who's used to the benefits of calling the cops outweighing the costs. The parent poster gives valuable insight into the thought process learned from the very real places where the cost of calling the cops outweighs the benefits.
- williamcotton 11y ago
  The Mission and Bernal are very real places indeed. I heard a man gunned down by the cops just six months ago on a construction site on my block. Four years ago someone got shot execution style on the sidewalk 10 doors down from my apartment. That same apartment still had three bullets lodged in the walls and ceiling. Two years before that three people got blown away in a pizza restaurant underneath another apartment I was living in. That's five murders within 200 ft of where I was sitting in just 6 years. All of these happened in the Mission and Bernal neighborhoods where I've been living and where Alex Nieto grew up. That's just reality.
  - tptacek 11y ago
    It sounds like a hard life out there in Bernal Heights.
    - williamcotton 11y ago
      Tom, I seriously can't figure out why you think that I'm trying to show people that "I'm hard" or something. I'm not. I'm a total wimp. I've had very few issues living in the Mission and Bernal because I keep my head down and mind my own business. Whatever picture you're trying to paint of me is completely irrelevant. The point I'm making is that if you're in a neighborhood where there happens to be a history of gang violence you should know that calling the cops more often than not just escalates the tension and creates more opportunities for unneeded violence. If different cultures are going to learn to live together peacefully we need to learn how to do so without getting the cops involved. How different would this have been if these people had just talked to Alex instead of making assumptions? That's the whole fucking point of the article. Eric Snow isn't in San Francisco to get to know people like Alex. He's here to make money and he doesn't know about nor care about what was going on in the Mission or Bernal before he moved to town. And for fuck's sake, these are real murders I'm talking about and they rattle me to the bone. I'm a sensitive dude. Seriously, follow these simple instructions for a much better life: https://punchdrunktwolves.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/stop_snitchin.gif https://punchdrunktwolves.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/stop_s...