Bob Lee, a 43-year-old tech entrepreneur, was left lying on a San Francisco sidewalk. He died as a result of a double attack to the chest delivered with a knife. It happened on the morning of April 4.
Once the news spread, there was as much praise for the late man, admired for himself and as the founder of the popular Cash App payments app, and scorn for the Californian bay city.
The case fit perfectly with the far-right narrative being pushed by Donald Trump and admirers like Elon Musk against liberal cities, the ones that bet more on leftist initiatives and less on impulses of stick and fumbling while cutting taxes on cities. corporations in exchange for taking care services away from the poor, without health care or housing.
Jake Shields, famous fighter for the UFC (the largest martial arts company in the world) rushed to tweet that the city was guilty of "a random attack to commit a robbery". And he added in his comment: "Fuck San Francisco."
Then, in a statement, Shields reinforced the idea that it could only be a random crime, which is what is most feared in supposedly deviant cities, because "nobody could have anything wrong with Bob", whom he described as a good friend.
This led to the irruption of Musk, always ready to play the greatest vigilante. “I know many who have been mugged. Crime in San Francisco is horrible, many criminals are caught and immediately released. Will the city take stronger action to jail habitual violent offenders?” he questioned.
Another like Davis Shack, known for his All In podcast, came to predict that the author could be homeless psychotic.
They are only three voices out of many others. They assumed, without any foundation, that this would not be clarified.
All this story has vanished nine days later and the vast majority of the promoters of fear and hate were silent this Friday. They hoped to find the appropriate replica in the style of the one who doesn't care what they say.
Because the police announced on Thursday the arrest of another technological entrepreneur, Nima Momeni, as the alleged perpetrator of the fatal stab wounds.
Owner of a business in Emeryville, a city east of the bay, Momeni turned out to be a friend of Lee's. That night they were seen driving in the same car, when an argument broke out, according to Mission Local, which cited police sources. Authorities offered no explanation for the matter.
"This has nothing to do with San Francisco, this has to do with human nature," said Bill Scott, chief of the uniforms. “This is the danger of making a symbol of crime,” added state senator Scott Wiener. He insisted that the hasty judgments of some "luminaries" are wrong and "cause harm" to the city.
Brooke Jenkins, the San Francisco prosecutor, mourned the loss of a vibrant innovator who impacted the city and far beyond, but qualified that certain premature pronouncements were "reckless and irresponsible."
Despite images of drug-fuelled zombies and homeless encampments, crime rates have either fallen or remained stable in recent years. Its murder rate is lower than that of other American cities. In 2019, it had the lowest level of violent deaths in 60 years. The number grew in the time of the pandemic. So far in 2023 there are 13 homicides, a similar figure to a year ago.
Jenkins directly alluded to Musk for "spreading disinformation when the police were trying to solve the case." And he claimed to be more careful in propagating theories without having data: "The victims and the neighbors deserve it."
