Diversity Is Our Strength in the San Francisco Fire Department

From ABC7News in San Francisco, a story that has been developing for a couple of years, but now a local TV reporter has finally gotten the Asian fireman victim to talk on on the record about his attack by a black fireman:

EXCLUSIVE: SF firefighter describes brutal 2022 attack by colleague that ended his career

By Dan Noyes, KGO

Thursday, June 13, 2024 7:34PM

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Gabriel Shin described the attack at the hands of another San Francisco firefighter. "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."

Shin is talking publicly for the first time about a brutal attack that he says ended his career. Another firefighter stands charged with beating him with a hydrant wrench. The I-Team's Dan Noyes first told you about this case two years ago, but now, the victim has decided to speak about what happened….

Connected to this attack, Gabriel Shin has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit that asks a basic question. Why was the victim forced out of the San Francisco Fire Department and the suspect still works there?

San Francisco firefighter Robert Mohammad had a family crisis in July 2021; we won't discuss details out of respect for his privacy. But his colleagues were concerned about him.

Former San Francisco firefighter Gabriel Shin told the I-Team, "People offered to cook for him, people offered to work his shifts for free and he rebuffed my offers. But I've never had a conflict with him prior to this."

Six months after that family crisis, firefighter Gabriel Shin tells me Muhammad called to ask who in the firehouse was talking about his private business.

Former SF fire department colleagues Robert Muhammad and Gabriel Shin

Gabriel Shin: "Robert, I said, I take ownership for speaking about that and you know, because we were concerned for you but I'm not going to tell you who told me. And he said the next time he sees me, he's going to hurt me." …

Court records show that, two days after that phone call, Robert Muhammad used a computer at Station 25 to retrieve Shin's work schedule and his home address, and left the station with what's called a "hydrant spanner" - a heavy, brass wrench measuring 15 inches that's used to turn the water on and off.

Muhammad drove across the bridge to Shin's home in Oakland and found him out front, sweeping the sidewalk.

"I heard somebody say, 'Are you going to tell me, are you going to tell me who told you?'" Shin said. "And I turned around and I said, 'Robert, what are you doing here?' He said, 'Who are you protecting?' I said, 'I forgot.' And then he reached into his back pocket. He pulled out the large brass spanner, and he started swinging at my head."

A witness called 911.

Emergency operator: "911 emergency, what are you reporting?"

Caller: "Yes, somebody's being beat with a wrench on 9th Avenue and East 19th Street."

Court records allege Muhammad swung the wrench at Shin's head approximately twelve times, breaking his arms as he tried to protect himself, giving him a concussion. One blow sent Shin's glasses across the street, he said. The attack stopped only after a neighbor who works against human trafficking pulled a handgun and confronted Muhammad. …

In addition to the criminal case, Shin has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City and County of San Francisco, Robert Muhammad, Chief Jeanine Nicholson and other members of the San Francisco Fire Department for Battery, Assault, Race and Color Discrimination, Disability Discrimination, Retaliation and more. Shin's attorney, James Torres, says Robert Muhammad never faced discipline and never missed a paycheck. "You have an individual that the chief has allowed to continue working all this time, continue drawing taxpayer salary all this time after attempting to murder a fellow firefighter."

The lawsuit also says several of Shin's direct supervisors ordered him to drop the charges, and to not cooperate with the police investigation of the attack.

"The first person called me and said, 'Is there any way we can work this out?' Gabriel Shin said. "The second person called me and said, 'You can't charge him. You know, you've got to drop the charges. That man's got a family.' And of course, I was angry. I said, 'You know, he just tried to kill me.'"

The lawsuit says, "They 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."

In their answer, the defendants deny each and every allegation. …

"Within days of that, Chief Nicholson

Unsurprisingly, San Francisco has a lesbian fire chief, but perhaps surprisingly, she’s white.

and those deputies took away his pay," James Torres said. "They took away his health insurance before he could even recover from those injuries." …

Last year, a process server went to the Fire Department Training Center where Robert Muhammad now works. After he handed the firefighter a summons, Brandon Kleinman tells us he got into a high-speed chase with Muhammad, so he called 911. …

911 dispatcher: "Subject now agitated and he's following you in his vehicle?"

Kleinman: "Yeah."

Kleinman says, "We're going like 75 miles an hour weaving in and out of other cars. We're not the only ones on the road. And he's coming up and he's swerving, trying to hit me."

Muhammad finally backed off. …

My guess would be that there’s a whole lot more to this story than just the plaintiff Shin’s side of it. But still …

Way back in 1987, the SFFD signed a consent decree establishing quotas:

The goal was specific, raising the minority representation to 40 percent and the female representation to 10 percent. It was hoped that these goals would not be considered to be a maximum cap, but a starting point.

This led to a series of amusing conundrums recounted in law professor David Bernstein’s 2022 book about the ins and outs of affirmative action, Classified, as various San Francisco firefighters tried to change their racial classifications, such as the Italian-American fireman who suddenly remembered that two of his grandparents were born in Spain (he was allowed to become Hispanic) and the Portuguese-American fireman raised in Macao (he was not allowed to transubstantiate into Asian).

This quota was virtually achieved by 1998 and the consent decree was lifted.

Two months after George Floyd’s untimely demise on May 25, 2020, SF fire chief Jeanine Nicholson announced the department would create a Racial Equity Action Plan, which was published in March 2021, four months before firefighter Muhammad and his hydrant spanner took a hands-on approach to racial equity. It included such gems as:

Racial homogeneity is not only found in hiring and recruiting, but it also permeates throughout organizational culture, policies, and procedures. It also can take form as coded, traditional standards, such as “professionalism,” that ultimately centers whiteness. This factor takes an immense mental health toll on underrepresented employees who do not feel like they belong.

The San Francisco Fire Department’s big political problem these days is that while the population of S.F. is 35% Asian, it’s down to only 5% black, But, of course, blacks are a civil service’s most precious commodity.