Brickbat: Pressure Built Up

In 2022, San Francisco fireman Robert Muhammad used a work computer to find fellow firefighter Gabriel Shin's home address. Muhammad had earlier threatened Shin for refusing to reveal who was talking about Muhammad's personal business at work. Muhammad took a hydrant wrench to Shin's house and, finding him outside, began repeatedly swinging the wrench at his head, leaving Shin with broken arms and a concussion. The attack stopped only after a neighbor pulled a handgun and confronted him. Shin has filed a lawsuit against the department, but Muhammad has been allowed to remain on the job, and Shin said his supervisors ordered him to drop the charges and not to cooperate with the criminal investigation.

Comments

[Vernon Depner]

Firemen should behave like that only with the permission of their union committee.

[Quicktown Brix]

San Fransciso you say? So the brickbat is about the neighbor with the handgun, right? Because I see no legal problem with a marginalized victim like Robert Muhammed beating an oppressor like Gabriel Shin with a wrench in SF.

[n00bdragon]

I too was shocked about that part. Tell us more about the gulag the neighbor is being sent to.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Since Asian is white now, I wonder if Shin claimed to be a transsexual how the victim hierarchy would go. Would the city still so shamelessly protect the attacker of color if this was a victim from an oppressed protected class?

I also wonder if Muhammed's private family emergency whose mere discussion so inflamed him to religiously uncharacteristic violence was of a same-sex variety. It's possible that it's a different kind of delicate situation, but it's odd that everyone involved, even Shin, are working so hard to thwart the Streisand Effect on this.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

We also need to reference the skin color chart.

[B G]

From the TV coverage, Shin doesn't appear to be the "Asian" kind of white.

Gotta love that Muhammed and his lawyer both left the courthouse wearing masks (50/50 chance the court in SF still requires them, or maybe just the Judge in the case).

https://abc7news.com/post/san-francisco-firefighter-describes-brutal-2022-attack-colleague/14945700/

[SQRLSY One]

Hey, twat's a few broken arms between fiends? At least neither Shin's shin, nor his chinny-chin-chin, were broken!

[Don't look at me!]

Fake news. Nobody has a gun in San Francisco.

[n00bdragon]

I just read the linked article.

The attack stopped only after a neighbor who works against human trafficking pulled a handgun and confronted Muhammad.

Okay, his neighbor was a cop. Still amazing that he managed to not shoot anyone.

Another good gem:

Shin adds, "I think that that if you look at the situation objectively, that there is no way that he should still be working. If he were a police officer, I don't think he'd still be working and drawing a salary. I don't understand why that's happening, but that is happening."

My brother in Christ, if he was a police officer, you'd be dead and he'd be getting a promotion for shooting a dangerous drug kingpin.

[B G]

Fire fighters and police both have strong unions in CA. It takes an awful lot to get truly fired from either occupation.

The cop in Fresno who shot Daniel Shaver on the floor of a hotel hallway in that city was initially fired for the incident, but the union got him reinstated for 24 hours so he could claim a disability and retire on a medical pension because the PTSD caused to him by killing Shaver made him incapable of continuing on the job.

[Spiritus Mundi]

Muhammad.....time to climb the intersectionality ladder.

[B G]

California has come a long way. In the late 1990s there was a story in the local news once that the head of the State DMV supposedly got cut off on the freeway one morning, ran the plate of the car and when he found out the driver was a college student from a middle-eastern country he reported that person to the FBI for "suspected terrorist ties" and got the guy's student visa revoked.

[Dan S.]

Shin said his supervisors ordered him to drop the charges and not to cooperate with the criminal investigation.

Can they do that? Can a government agency (the Fire Department) tell its employees not to pursue legal avenues which the criminal law makes available to them? Could a private employer similarly require an employee not to pursue criminal charges against another employee?

[jimc5499]

No they can't do that. With that being said, if Shin continues with the charges, the Union can make sure that he doesn't get another raise, promotion or ensure that he is one of the first to go if there happens to be a round of layoffs.

[mad.casual]

No they can’t do that.

Slight correction: They aren't supposed to be able to. Moreover, per your point, the Union is supposed to specifically exist to prevent them from doing so.

But those are the laws and precepts of a country none of us live in any longer.

[mad.casual]

Could a private employer similarly require an employee not to pursue criminal charges against another employee?

Are we talking under eons-longstanding legal customs of conventional corporate and/or contract law or a modern-day "novel construction" regime?

Under the former, in the interests of the shareholders or the company, not the other employee, yes. If one of your in-laws punched you, your spouse (or anyone else), could *encourage* you not to press charges by any number of means, including payment or other compensation. They can't renege on previous contracts or expectations in a punitive or damaging manner and the absolutely can't physically force you not to press charges, but they can rather liberally persuade you otherwise. There is a valid question as to repeated occurrences and when they begin criminally facilitating a pattern of behavior but, presumably, Muhammad wasn't routinely beating Shin with a pipe wrench.

Under the latter, FYTW.

[shadydave]

I wouldn't think in such an instance Shin necessarily would need to press charges. Maybe in San Francisco the DA wouldn't attempt to prosecute without it.

[AT]

This article should really be about the intersectional hierarchy.