A homeless person's tent was in a parking space, which this driver ran over, then parked on. pic.twitter.com/FyLLTsGeri
— Joe Fitz Rodriguez (@FitzTheReporter) September 14, 2017
SF Examiner reporter Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez is a prolific tweeter, with 30.8K tweets under his belt since he joined the platform in November of 2011. Out of those nearly 31,000 tweets, it's one from last week that's generated a landslide of attention -- a photo of a vehicle which Rodriguez says was driven over a homeless person's tent to claim a parking spot.
You can see the tweet above, posted by Rodriguez at 4:41 p.m. on Thursday September 14. Rodriguez has since "pinned" that tweet so it's the first one visitors to his Twitter profile will see. As of publication time, it's been retweeted 2,604 times, and "liked" 3,043 times.
In a subsequent tweet, Rodriguez says he took the photo at Seventh and Irwin Streets, which is a still-industrial area near Mission Bay.
He provided a secondary view of the crushed tent in another tweet.
An alternate view ... pic.twitter.com/FRKLuxqmkQ
— Joe Fitz Rodriguez (@FitzTheReporter) September 14, 2017
Reactions to the scene have ranged from suggestions from some to track down the driver...
Anyone have a plate lookup account somewhere that wants to help out?
— Speed Limit Doer (@moonmangg) September 15, 2017
To one person who offered to buy the homeless person a new tent.
The problem: I'm in KY. We're more than willing to help. The original poster will need to DM me. Obviously he cares if he took the picture
— ❄️Chris Breseman ❄️ (@flyboy80498) September 16, 2017
Some others (a lot of whom don't appear to live in SF) appeared to take the side of the driver.
Shouldn't have put his tent in a parking spot anyway.
— Jason McQueen (@theidjitSN) September 16, 2017
Attention on the tweet seems to only be growing -- nearly a hundred new retweets of the tweet occurred as I wrote this extremely brief report, and responses to the tweet (which tally at 407 at file time) continue to roll in. Clearly, the photo's struck a nerve. The question is, beyond internet outrage, will it change anything at all?
Related: 2017 San Francisco 'Homeless Census' Reveals That Despite Numbers, Things Are Worse, Not Better