On the picturesque yet chaotic streets of San Francisco, some firemen aren't just putting out fires: they're falling victim to identity politics as they are attacked by … other firemen.
Meet Gabriel Shin, an Asian man who took an oath to fight fires but ended up fighting off an attack from a fellow firefighter. Shin's just minding his business when suddenly, out of nowhere, he's facing off against a colleague wielding a hydrant wrench.
Shin, recounting the harrowing ordeal, sounded like a man trapped in a scene from a Quentin Tarantino movie.
"The whole time I was yelling at him, I said, 'Robert, stop, what's wrong with you, stop,' you know, and he just didn't stop. He was relentless," said Shin.
When someone's swinging a 15-inch brass wrench at you, "relentless" is probably a bit too polite.
Shin's reported attacker is Robert Muhammad, who was going through some sort of family crisis back in July 2021. Six months later, Muhammad was on the phone with Shin, furiously asking who was talking about his private life at the firehouse. Shin admitted that they discussed Muhammad out of concern for his well-being, and after refusing to name names, Muhammad responded, "Next time I see you, I'm going to **** you up."
According to court records, Muhammad used a station computer two days later to track down Shin's home address. He then drove across the bridge to Oakland, armed with the hydrant wrench, which was used to swing at Shin's head after he refused to name names.
Here's the 911 call:
Emergency operator: '911 emergency, what are you reporting?'
Caller: 'Yes, somebody's being beat with a wrench on 9th Avenue and East 19th Street.'
The altercation was so intense that a neighbor, who works countering human trafficking, had to pull out a handgun to de-escalate the situation, causing Muhammad to drop the weapon and slowly walk away.
And here's where the story gets weird, even for random street violence-riddled Oakland.
Muhammad, despite being charged with felony assault, is still drawing a paycheck from the San Francisco Fire Department, while Shin, the guy who got his arms busted and now has a permanent fear of brass objects, is out of a job.
Shin, understandably outraged, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against just about everyone involved, including Muhammad, the fire chief, and various other department officials. His lawyer argues that Muhammad never faced any real discipline, and that instead of receiving support, Shin was told by his supervisors to drop the charges and stop cooperating with the police.
"That man's got a family," they said, because nothing says "responsible family man" like attempting to beat your colleague with a hydrant wrench.
Shin refused a fire department interrogation, believing it would be more focused on the drama leading up to the attack rather than the attack itself, and Shin's pay and health benefits were removed days later.
In his civil suit, Shin alleges that the department "treated Shin with startling prejudice and Muhammad with baffling favor from the outset because they saw one difference: Shin is Asian and Muhammad is Black."
Strangely, San Francisco's lesbian fire chief, Jeanine Nicholson, has had nothing to say when asked to comment.
Now as Chief of one of the country's largest fire departments in one of the country's most diverse cities, Nicholson is working to increase the department's diversity to reflect and better serve the people of San Francisco.
Huh.
Why fight fire with fire when you've got intersectionality in your back pocket?
Here is the full interview with Shin:
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