Whether the shooting was intentional or accidental is important in the trial. It isn't important at all in concluding that:
(1) Kate Steinle would be alive today if this particular illegal "immigrant" had been deported.
(2) He hadn't been deported because San Francisco's sanctuary policies, implemented by the Sheriff, protected him from deportation.
(3) To prevent future such tragedies, the Feds and localities must work together more harmoniously to rid this country of people like this criminal.
4
The write-up of the Zarate case reeks with bias and agenda. "Unauthorized" instead of illegal. "So-called" sanctuary policies. You are purging everyday terms in plain English, and replacing them with deliberate and manufactured doublespeak.
Is there any outlet in this country that can give me the plain old news anymore???
Regardless of the verdict in the trial, Zarate was a criminal before Steinle died. Yet McPhate depicts him as just an immigrant, a term you'd dispassionately apply to a cab driver or business owner. If all you plantation leftists honestly believe we can't have too many agricultural workers, please explain why we don't have enough criminals. Why must they be imported too.
It took thousands of people to kill Kate Steinle. Mike McPhate is just one more. So upsetting.
3
The San Francisco shooting appears to be a careless accident caused by at least two blunderers.
1. A transient finds an object in the back seat of an unlocked car and takes it. The person who left a gun in the back seat of an unlocked car in SF is clearly a blunderer--and behaved negligently. Criminal negligence?--don't know.
2a. Our transient is a felon. Each time he was caught and deported he earned felony conviction. Any other felonies on his record? Nobody has reported this in the "multiple felonies" noise. His record -- in detail matters.
2b. Our transient is apparently a few bricks short of a full load. He keeps getting deported while 11 million others manage to avoid this.
2c. He unwraps the package and finds a gun. He plays with the gun and it "discharges". No evidence if there was a chambered round ready to go, or if our transient had to chamber the round. It is very hard to believe it "just went off" without the trigger being pulled.
2d. The bullet travels a long distance (for a handgun) before ricocheting into the victim (also a distance from the ricochet), killing her.
Murder? hard to see -- given that there is good evidence that the gun was not aimed at the victim--and likely not aimed. Very easy to see "reckless endangerment" or similar. It is clearly very wrong to play with a gun in a crowded place--also to steal one.
There are still unrevealed facts. Only prosecutorial overreach seems to justify a murder charge given what we know.
1
Mike I'm disappointed with your reporting. You have omitted key details and misrepresented the case.
Please update your article to include:
- Both parties stipulated that the car break in resulting in the gun being on the street happened several days earlier, and they both stipulated car break in not by suspect.
- There’s no way this wasn’t an accident, analysis confirmed the bullet ricocheted from the ground. Da’s better argument is reckless discharge of a firearm.
- His priors are pretty much all drug possession. They are non-violent. A lot of the priors would now be misdemeanors
I'm frankly very disappointed with how you've represented this case. NYT is supposed to be above this. Really disappointed.
The root cause of the Aliso Canyon Gas Leak will come out eventually: the 2013 shutdown of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) left Southern California with a shortage of electricity, and local natural gas generation plants on the “L.A. Loop” (natural gas pipeline corridor) were starved for fuel to generate more. To prevent rolling blackouts, Sempra Energy stuffed Aliso Canyon beyond capacity. It sprung a leak.
The answer is usually less complicated than investigators would have you believe - especially, when investigators have skin in the game. This is what happens when utilities are deregulated.
2
Immigration needs reform, but not a hard-lined reform as Mr Trump fights for. I feel if you incur a felony before you are nationalized, that your chances of citizenship should be revoked for life as well stiff prison sentences for "those in this category" who are caught re-entering the USA illegally. He should have never been here.
13
Talk about a picture worth a thousand (irrational) words...gun show, Mandalay Bay and in the distance Trump.
8
With the caveat that I am not on the jury and thus am not privy to both the facts of the case (as presented in the trial) as well as (importantly) the requisite laws, it certainly appears that it is the City of San Francisco that should be on trial for he death of Miss Steinle for their negligence. It also appears that the prosecution of Mr. Zarate is incredibly ill founded and yet another example of prosecutorial overreach.
2
So you’re saying the city of San Francisco shouldn’t prosecute someone that discharged a firearm in a crowd that resulted in the death of an innocent citizen? My, those are curious views you have there, my friend.
Maybe over in the sticks of Livermore it’s the Wild Wild West where it’s ok to shoot and kill people, but back over here in civilization in a city of 840,000 people, that’s not acceptable behavior, and it’s exactly why we have a justice system.
As far as I’m concerned, people that don’t like the rule of law can move to Russia.
By the way, next time your friends or relatives come visit and you take them down to the beautiful Embarcadero where Steinle was shot, both I and the city of San Francisco welcome you. And you’ll be pleased to know that we have a justice system here that works, no matter what your politics.
13
You say you don't know the "facts of the case"yet you state the the prosecution is "ill founded" and "another example of prosecutorial overreach." That's why there is a jury system. Hopefully, if you are asked to serve on a criminal jury you will raise your hand when the lawyers ask "if there is anyone who cannot give the Defendant and the People a fair trial?"
6
With his history, the release was inexcusable.
30
According to a story on public radio yesterday, defendant was in federal custody. He had an old outstanding bench warrant issued by a court in San Francisco. He was transported to SF. Court released the warrant. So defendant was then released from custody.