The man leans casually against a railing as he points a garden hose at a homeless woman on the sidewalk. The water just splashes, the woman screams in fear. The callous action in freezing temperatures did not go unnoticed on Monday morning. A video of the shocking moment quickly spread across social media and was viewed millions of times.
The man shown in the viral video is Collier Gwin, 69. He owns the art gallery Foster Gwin Gallery in San Francisco. At one time, the American billionaire David Rockefeller and Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger were among his clients.
The good reputation of his gallery should be over now. Outraged social media users retaliated by posting masses of bad reviews about the Foster Gwin Gallery online. The gallery’s rating on Google dropped to just one star.
This is how the gallery owner justified the callous campaign
But the art connoisseur shows no remorse. Gwin’s justification for the action: He just wanted to help. The woman became psychotic and knocked over garbage cans.
“I said, ‘You have to go, I can’t clean the street, go away,'” the 69-year-old described the situation to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. The homeless person got completely out of control, started screaming and spitting at him, Gwin defends himself. He sees himself as a “champion” for trying to help. The woman was awakened by the cold water of her psychosis and calmed down.
The chef of Brioche Cafe, a small bakery not far from Collier Gwin’s gallery, captured the viral video. “I was shocked,” said Edson Garcia.
Growing homelessness crisis in San Francisco
However, the scene did not take place directly in front of Gwin’s gallery, but in front of the “Barbarossa Lounge” restaurant right next to it. That is why the restaurant was initially overloaded with hate messages, until owner Arash Ghanadan (41) dismissed the accusations.
“The past three years have been a tough time for our business with a pandemic. We narrowly survived that and now our reputation is being ruined by a video that everyone wrongly assumes has something to do with our company,” Ghanadan told the Daily Mail.
The video was shot during a growing homelessness crisis in the city. The social research institute Applied Survey Research (ASR) estimated the number of homeless people in San Francisco in February last year at 7,754.
Marian Nadler
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
