A gallery owner filmed hosing down a homeless woman was arrested Wednesday. CBS News reports that Collier Gwin, whose Foster Gwin gallery was feet from the scene, was charged with battery.
"The alleged battery of an unhoused member of our community is completely unacceptable. Mr. Gwin will face appropriate consequences for his actions," the San Francisco District Attorney's Office said in a press release.
He's an asshole and the charge is appropriate. He's also a scapegoat for a city that wants to be seen to give a shit.
Gwin has lived in San Francisco for 45 years. He said this confrontation was the result of multiple attempts to get the woman help, after he spent days cleaning up her mess and letting her sleep in his doorway. He added that she often knocks over trash cans, and her behavior has scared off his clients.
"I'm very, very sorry, I'm not going to defend myself, I'm not going to, because I can't defend that," he said. Gwin said he and other business owners in the area have called SFPD and social services more than two dozen times in the last two weeks.
"I said she needs psychiatric help," Gwin said. "You can tell, she's pulling her hair, she's screaming, she's talking in tongues, you can't understand anything she says, she's throwing food everywhere."
