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A project almost nobody wants is going forward in the Mission, thanks to Yimbys

60 low-tenants displaced by fire (one dead); now landlord gets to build luxury condos—only because of Wiener and his allies in Sacramento.

Full board will hear Lurie’s attempt to fire pro-reform police commissioner

Mandelman calls for Committee of the Whole to consider whether to allow the mayor to oust Max Carter Oberstone

Drama Masks: Voices of incarcerated women take center stage at YBCA

Art exhibit 'The Only Door I Can Open' and Flyaway Productions' 'I Give You My Sorrows' speak out for prisoners' rights.

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Missing context, misleading stories helped boost longshot Adena Ishii into the city's top office.

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Win tickets to Indiefest closing night film ‘Timestalker’

We've got 10 pairs of tickets to Brit comic Alice Lowe's hilarious time-traveling romp. Here's how to enter

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Two housing measures would give massive breaks to private developers

Plus: How is Mayor Lurie going to fund Muni? That's The Agenda for Feb. 9-16

Inside the pervasive news media bias in the Berkeley mayoral election

Missing context, misleading stories helped boost longshot Adena Ishii into the city's top office.

As SF posts up for NBA All-Star Weekend, brush up on classic Bay Area ballers

Remembering the 'East Bay Funk Dunk,' Rick Barry's 1967 MVP, booing Chris Cohan, more iconic moments.

News

Arts

Full board will hear Lurie’s attempt to fire pro-reform police commissioner

Mandelman calls for Committee of the Whole to consider whether to allow the mayor to oust Max Carter Oberstone

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Art exhibit 'The Only Door I Can Open' and Flyaway Productions' 'I Give You My Sorrows' speak out for prisoners' rights.

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Missing context, misleading stories helped boost longshot Adena Ishii into the city's top office.

As SF posts up for NBA All-Star Weekend, brush up on classic Bay Area ballers

Remembering the 'East Bay Funk Dunk,' Rick Barry's 1967 MVP, booing Chris Cohan, more iconic moments.

Why is SF’s NBA All-Star Weekend musical lineup so meh?

Flo Rida and The Chainsmokers? Give us E-40, give us Kehlani, give us Larry June—not this random mash-up.

ODC School dance classes are for everybody!

Choose from an electrifying range of classes from the Best of the Bay winner—your first class is only $12!

Category

Two housing measures would give massive breaks to private developers

Plus: How is Mayor Lurie going to fund Muni? That's The Agenda for Feb. 9-16

Trump’s attacks on trans people and public health escalate into a war on reality itself

Administration moves to purge scientific facts, stifle essential research, and erase entire populations.

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The drag goddess's huge, free V-Day affair shows off the talents of 'our big, amazing, talented, beautiful, powerful family.'

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Two housing measures would give massive breaks to private developers

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Administration moves to purge scientific facts, stifle essential research, and erase entire populations.

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Two housing measures would give massive breaks to private developers

Plus: How is Mayor Lurie going to fund Muni? That's The Agenda for Feb. 9-16

Trump’s attacks on trans people and public health escalate into a war on reality itself

Administration moves to purge scientific facts, stifle essential research, and erase entire populations.

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The drag goddess's huge, free V-Day affair shows off the talents of 'our big, amazing, talented, beautiful, powerful family.'

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Two housing measures would give massive breaks to private developers

Plus: How is Mayor Lurie going to fund Muni? That's The Agenda for Feb. 9-16

Trump’s attacks on trans people and public health escalate into a war on reality itself

Administration moves to purge scientific facts, stifle essential research, and erase entire populations.

Juanita More’s Loads of Love party is a Valentine for heavy times

The drag goddess's huge, free V-Day affair shows off the talents of 'our big, amazing, talented, beautiful, powerful family.'

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Two housing measures would give massive breaks to private developers

Plus: How is Mayor Lurie going to fund Muni? That's The Agenda for Feb. 9-16

Trump’s attacks on trans people and public health escalate into a war on reality itself

Administration moves to purge scientific facts, stifle essential research, and erase entire populations.

Juanita More’s Loads of Love party is a Valentine for heavy times

The drag goddess's huge, free V-Day affair shows off the talents of 'our big, amazing, talented, beautiful, powerful family.'
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Opinion

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Trump’s absurdist ‘Pere Ubu’ moment

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News + PoliticsGrowing chorus agrees Gascon bungled the Zarate case

Growing chorus agrees Gascon bungled the Zarate case

While rightwingosphere goes crazy, SF looks at how DA tried to turn tragic accident into murder

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Nobody’s surprised that the rightwingosphere has gone batshit over the Garcia Zarate verdict. We knew this would happen. From the first day of jury selection, defense lawyer Matt Gonzalez told the prospective panelists that the president of the United States would be watching the outcome.

There are ugly tweets and comments from Washington. There are right-wingers threatening to boycott San Francisco (please do). There are threats to the jurors (who, appropriately, have not been identified.)

Dozens of reporters from local and national media were present, and Matt Gonzalez spoke to them while the DA avoided all media

Even the San Francisco Chronicle used the case as an excuse to complain about Sanctuary City laws (really?)

I think Gonzalez made the case pretty well on Fox News, even under hostile questioning: In a nation with more than 300 million guns, where people die every single day in gun accidents, this was a terrible tragedy. It started with a federal agent who left a loaded gun in his car (and was later promoted).

You don’t hear the right wingers complaining that there are too many loaded guns left in cars, and that too many innocent people die tragically in gun-related accidents. Hunters routinely shoot other people by mistake; they are almost never prosecuted.

I feel terrible for the Steinle family. I have two kids; the idea that one would be killed by a gun is too horrible to even contemplate. I think any reasonable person would feel that way. And the Steinles have shown tremendous class by saying that they don’t want their daughter to be a pawn in Trump’s political agenda.

This case was never about whether her death was tragic. It was about whether the district attorney should have charged an undocumented immigrant who has no history of violence with murder when the evidence suggested he picked up a gun that went off by mistake.

The jury made it pretty clear that the evidence wasn’t there.

Interesting that Matier and Ross, who were not there for most of the trial, have come around to my perspective (as usual, without credit to 48hills). Same goes for Willie Brown, who noted:

The prosecution’s case was a classic instance of a district attorney overcharging a crime, and in the process alienating the jury.

By asking for a first-degree conviction, prosecutors upped the bar of proof and the chances of the whole case falling apart. There was precious little evidence that Garcia Zarate committed premeditated murder, and by raising that bar, prosecutors undercut their credibility with the jury.

How else can you say it? The DA, fort whatever political reasons, insisted on charging this case as a murder, and wound up losing.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.
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Featured

Two housing measures would give massive breaks to private developers

Plus: How is Mayor Lurie going to fund Muni? That's The Agenda for Feb. 9-16

Trump’s attacks on trans people and public health escalate into a war on reality itself

Administration moves to purge scientific facts, stifle essential research, and erase entire populations.

Juanita More’s Loads of Love party is a Valentine for heavy times

The drag goddess's huge, free V-Day affair shows off the talents of 'our big, amazing, talented, beautiful, powerful family.'

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