\n
![](\"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.net\/image\/upload\/w_1280,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy\/wp-cms\/uploads\/2023\/04\/p-90878193-bob-lee-death.jpg\")
<\/p>\n [ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
Much remains unknown about the killing of Bob Lee<\/a>, the 43-year-old MobileCoin executive and Cash App founder who was found fatally stabbed in San Francisco\u2019s downtown Rincon Hill neighborhood early Tuesday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The San Francisco Standard<\/em> said it had reviewed surveillance footage<\/a> that showed Lee calling 911 and pleading for help from someone in a parked car, who drove off leaving the tech founder collapsed on the street. Police haven\u2019t made arrests or named a suspect, and said the investigation \u201cis still in the early stages.\u201d<\/p>\n Tech industry members immediately expressed their shock and grief over Lee\u2019s death, including MobileCoin CEO Joshua Goldbard, who tweeted<\/a> that Lee \u201cwas like a brother to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But some prominent voices in the local tech scene also seized the opportunity to slam San Francisco as a violent hellscape.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cViolent crime in SF is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately,\u201d tweeted<\/a> Elon Musk. He tagged the city\u2019s district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, in his tweet and continued: \u201cIs the city taking stronger action to incarcerate repeat violent offenders?\u201d<\/p>\n Must wasn\u2019t the only one to voice frustrations. Zach Coelius, a managing partner at venture capital firm Coelius Capital, told the San Francisco Standard<\/em><\/a> that Lee\u2019s killing was \u201cinfuriating\u201d and a consequence of \u201cthe city\u2019s refusal to do its job and enforce laws\u201d.<\/p>\n Vik Kashyap, a healthcare startup CEO living near where Lee was killed, told the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em><\/a>: \u201cWhy don\u2019t we enforce the law? Why are there no consequences? Why is there an atmosphere of lawlessness?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n These narratives were quickly echoed by conservative commentators, who for years have sought to paint San Francisco as a cautionary tale against progressive reforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIncidents like this are predictable and inevitable when violent crime is not deterred, even encouraged,\u201d tweeted Marina Medvin, a right-wing defense lawyer who represents some of the January 6th rioters. InfoWars conspiracy theorist Paul Joseph Watson wrote that the tragedy highlighted San Francisco\u2019s \u201cviolent criminality.\u201d Ed Henry, a host on the far-right channel Real America\u2019s Voice noted that Lee had been stabbed in Nancy Pelosi\u2019s district, before declaring, \u201cthis is what\u2019s happening in America right now.\u201d<\/p>\n But statistics show that violent crimes are actually rare in San Francisco compared to other major American cities, and murders in San Francisco even rarer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to FBI data compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em><\/a>, San Francisco police reported 544 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2020\u2014the most recent year for which data is available. And San Francisco saw just 5 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n By contrast, Miami\u2014where Bob Lee had moved late last year\u2014has a murder rate that nearly doubles San Francisco\u2019s. And homicides in cities like Dallas and Houston are nearly three times higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nonetheless, property crimes in San Francisco are among the highest in the country<\/a>, with a post-pandemic wave of car break-ins that hasn\u2019t abated. That, coupled with persistently high rates of unsheltered homelessness in the city, has stoked fury among a contingent of residents who blame urban disorder on criminal justice reforms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Last July, an alliance of tech industry leaders and billionaire GOP funders pulled off a successful campaign to recall<\/a> San Francisco\u2019s progressive district attorney Chesa Boudin, who had sought to crack down on police misconduct, decriminalize poverty and homelessness, and promote alternatives to incarceration for non-violent crimes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Asked to respond to Musk\u2019s tweet by a NBC news anchor on Thursday, Boudin\u2019s replacement, district attorney Brooke Jenkins, said<\/a>: \u201cAbsolutely we are taking a stronger approach to making sure that those who present a present safety risk on our streets, that we are asking judges to keep them in custody.\u201d<\/p>\n Supporters of criminal justice reform fear that\u2019s a sign that the city could be caving to fearmongering. That includes Mohamed Shehk, an organizer with the anti-imprisonment group Critical Resistance who led a successful movement to shut down<\/a> a notorious San Francisco jail in 2020. Despite the city\u2019s progressive reputation, the rise of tech wealth has caused a \u201cmarked shift in the rhetoric to one that pushes and advocates for the criminalization of people, for people to be displaced, for people to be thrown away in cages,\u201d he tells Fast Company<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But \u201cthese calls for more imprisonment, coming from the likes of Elon Musk, are actually calls for more of the system of racist control and exclusion of communities that are most marginalized,\u201d Shehk says. To create a truly safe San Francisco, \u201cwe really need to address structurally what sits at the foundation, which is deep investment in things like housing, healthcare, education, meaningful employment, the basic necessities that communities need to not just survive, but thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n