San Francisco resident and gallerist Collier Gwin, 71, will have to perform 35 hours of community service to clear his record after spray homeless woman with garden hose on the sidewalk in front of his gallery in January. A video of Gwin spraying the distressed woman and yelling at her to move as she screamed for help quickly circulated on social media, drawing criticism from activists in the Bay Area and across the country. Gwin and the woman, known as “Q”, were both interviewed at the scene without being detained by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), but Gwin was formally arrested about a week after the January 9 incident on misdemeanor battery charges.
In a initial statement to local media SFGATE, Gwin said he “would do it again,” claiming Q had moved to the Jackson Square block two weeks before the incident and was interfering with her and others’ business with her erratic behavior. Later, however, Gwin apologized for his actions and said CBS News that he had “cracked”.
Gwin said he had called the SFPD up to 25 times, asking for help as she allegedly blocked the entrances repeatedly. The gallerist claimed the incident took place when he called the SFPD For prevent Q from blocking the entrance to his Montgomery Street business, Foster Gwin Gallery, once again that morning. She reportedly obeyed and moved to the sidewalk instead, but left a mess which Gwin said he cleaned up with the garden hose before lighting it after “she started shouting profanities ” and that she became ” very belligerent “.
According to the police report quoted in a Press releaseGwin and other local business owners in the neighborhood described Q as “seriously mentally ill”, stating that she “frequently stole food from restaurants, openly defecated in front of their businesses, publicly engaged in sexual acts, shouted on shopkeepers and passers-by, and spit on people when they approach her.Hyperallergic contacted the SFPD for clarity.)
The adjacent business owner corroborated Gwin’s claims about Q blocking entrances and expressed similar frustrations over the city’s inability to help him, but vehemently disagreed with Gwin’s approach. Gwin facing the situation. The Foster Gwin gallery was inundated with negative reviews on Google and Yelp, and Gwin mentioned that the storefront had been vandalized and that he had received threats of violence and death after the recorded incident was gone viral. Q was placed on a 72-hour involuntary psychiatric detention on January 11just days after being sprayed by Gwin.
On January 12, Courtney Desiree Morris, artist and professor at the University of California at Berkeley, organized a 75 minute show outside the Foster Gwin Gallery, both spiritually and physically cleaning up the site where the watering took place while reciting an anti-capitalist monologue sampling biblical psalms.
The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office approved Gwin for a pretrial diversion consisting of 35 hours of community service with the Rev. Dr. Amos C. Brown at San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church. Upon completion and subject to Gwin complying with existing restraining order prohibiting further contact with Q, the misdemeanor battery charge will be dismissed and expunged from the gallerist’s criminal record.
Reverend Brown spoke about the water jet incident at NBC Bay Area amid the fallout in January, saying he and Gwin communicated a lot after the incident went viral. “Because the body politic in this city has not dealt with the issue of homelessness in a comprehensive, holistic and compassionate way … we end up in this kind of unfortunate situation,” the reverend told the outlet, expressing that ‘he disagreed. with the charges against Gwin.
Reverend Brown said he was “interested in restorative justice” rather than punitive justice, and that this incident could be a teachable moment. Neither Reverend Brown nor Gwin’s attorney immediately responded to Hyperallergic investigate what 35 hours of community service might entail. In a press release, Gwin said he looked forward to his work with Reverend Brown.
