A homeless, destitute man finds a gun. He could have tried to sell it for desperately needed money. If he were a criminal, he might have used it to commit armed robbery. Instead, prosecutors argue that he went to a pier and deliberately used it to shoot a woman he didn’t know, but not by aiming the gun at the woman. Instead, they say, he aimed at the concrete pier 90 feet away from the woman and used what they call a “skip shot,” carefully ricocheting the bullet so that it would kill the woman who was well over 100 feet away from him. Accepting this preposterous theory as plausible, a judge has now allowed the case to proceed to trial on a charge of murder, rather than simply manslaughter.
A Hollywood writer submitting this script to one of the many crime shows on TV would be told to rewrite it in order to make it even remotely plausible. But Francisco Sanchez, the defendant in the case, is no ordinary defendant, but an undocumented immigrant, and the utterly implausible assertion that Kate Steinle was deliberately murdered is now proceeding to trial. And even though this shooting happened in San Francisco, one of the most liberal cities in the United States (in the last five Presidential elections, an average of less than 15% of San Franciscans voted Republican), it wasn’t sufficient to overcome the wave of anti-immigrant sentiment which has swept the country, fueled by demagogues like Donald Trump.
Since the day Steinle was killed on that San Francisco pier, we’ve been subjected to story after story about how Sanchez was a felon
many times over. Announcing a civil lawsuit the other day, Steinle’s father smeared Sanchez as a “violent felon.” That is an outright lie. Sanchez is indeed a repeat felon, but his felonies involve drug possession and illegal entry into the country; none of them involve violence or weapons in any way. Branding him as a repeat felon without clarifying these facts is nothing more than a racist attempt to smear him, and, by extension, all undocumented immigrants.
The day Sanchez was arrested, the immediate outcry was over the fact that he had been released from jail although ICE had issued a
request for him to be detained so he could be deported. This request was ignored, however, because San Francisco is a “sanctuary city” which does not honor such requests. Led by Trump but strengthened by supposed “moderate” Republicans like Jeb Bush and by Democrats including Hillary Clinton and Senator Dianne Feinstein, politicians jumped in to demand an end to sanctuary city status. In Congress, “Kate’s Law” was introduced to block cities and states from receiving federal law enforcement funding if they implement sanctuary city policies.
Barely heard above the clamoring of politicians were the facts in the case. Was Sanchez wanted for murder, rape, or some equally heinous crime? Was he a Colombian drug lord on the lam? No, he was wanted on a 20-year-old (!) charge of selling and possessing marijuana!
But facts don’t matter, not when politicians are eager to compete for the title of “most anti-immigrant,” and not when prosecutors are eager to please their patrons and join in the witch-hunt.
The racist right-wing effort to put an end to the sanctuary city movement is one more dagger aimed at immigrants; the murder trial of Francisco Sanchez is being used not to produce justice for Kate Steinle but to aid and abet that effort. First and foremost, sanctuary city policies must be defended. Of course much more than that is needed to ensure a decent future for all immigrants. No human being is illegal!
