A new video has surfaced: "Don Carmignani, the ex-fire commissioner who was allegedly beaten by a homeless man with a crowbar, is now accused of macing several homeless men himself in eight different incidents."
As reported by Mission Local, Carmignani has claimed that Garrett Allen Doty attacked him with a crowbar. That is not the entire story, as video footage offers a different narrative. "That attack, however, allegedly came only after Carmignani purportedly bear-sprayed Doty. Police sources in mid-April told Mission Local about the series of prior attacks on homeless people in the neighborhood, which we published on April 13. Carmignani's attorney denied that the vigilante behind the spate of anti-homeless attacks was his client."
The New York Post reports that the charges against Doty were dropped. "Prosecutors heeded Doty's arguments and ruled that the attack was not senseless — they said Carmignani instead instigated the vicious assault after deploying pepper spray on the homeless man, who lived outside his mother's property in the city's affluent Marina District."
For more on the crisis of homelessness see Matt Desmond's multiple award-winning, including the Pulitzer Prize, book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. "Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of twenty-first-century America's most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible."
