Petrelis Files

Vid: 'Inspect Twitter for Tax Evasion' Demanded of SFPD Fare Inspector



The 14 Mission bus I was riding yesterday afternoon was stopped at 11th Street so fare inspectors could demand proof of payment from riders.

At first, I thought Muni fare inspectors were about to board but it turned out to be gun-toting, uniformed members of the San Francisco Police Department.

Since I don't regularly ride Muni and I've not been subjected to a fare inspection before, it was quite a surprise to have a cop asking for my proof of payment.

As I taped the officer assigned to our section at the back of the bus, I taped his actions and he confirmed being a member of the SFPD force, before demanding he go inspect Twitter for tax evasion.

Okay, so the cops aren't responsible for tax matters I still wanted to make the point that while average folks struggle to afford public transit and other basic necessities, Twitter and other highly profitable tech companies are escaping paying their fare for use of various components of City infrastructure.

Twitter is also not paying its fair share of business taxation, and if they and other Big Tech firms were paying higher taxes commensurate with their vast revenues and cash flow we could operate Muni for free.

Oh, and for Sup. Scott Wiener and other who keep saying the SFPD is understaffed, there are plenty of cops for busting folks who can't afford Muni fares and to containing protests over the deaths of Mike Brown, Eric Garner and Alex Nieto and lack of justice in those cases.

We don't need more police in San Francisco. What's required is better community policing and police training to instruct cops to shoot to wound, not to kill.