The preliminary news of his loss of life elicited a livid response from a handful of Silicon Valley executives, together with billionaire Elon Musk, who blamed metropolis leaders and urged that uncontrolled homelessness and violence in San Francisco led to the killing. Those claims reignited a debate about public security and public coverage within the metropolis.
But the subsequent week, after authorities charged one other tech entrepreneur within the killing, the case additional uncovered tensions between the tech business and the town. Many residents – together with some inside the tech sector – accused business leaders of creating snap judgments and utilizing the tragedy to advance their political agenda.
The fees additionally raised questions on what precisely led to the deadly assault. Here is what we learn about Lee’s loss of life and the fissures it has revealed in San Francisco.
Who was Bob Lee?
Lee returned to San Francisco typically and was the chief product officer of cryptocurrency startup MobileCoin when he died. He was the daddy of two teenage daughters, who each lived close to the town together with his former spouse.
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“Bob would give you the shirt off his back,” his father wrote in a Facebook put up after his loss of life. “He would never look down on anyone and adhered to a strict no-judgment philosophy.” A local of St. Louis, Lee acquired his begin constructing webpages for small companies close to his dad and mom’ retailer, in line with Oliver Lee, his brother, who described him as a superb software program engineer, a lover of artwork and music festivals, and an idealist who sought all through his profession to democratize entry to expertise.
Before taking over the function at MobileCoin in 2021, Lee was instrumental within the creation of Cash App, a service that enables customers to shortly ship and obtain cash from their telephones. He was admired amongst engineers for his work as a software program engineer at Google, the place he labored on Android, an working system for smartphones. He was additionally a startup adviser, investing in corporations that embody SpaceX and Clubhouse, in line with an older LinkedIn web page.
He befriended many within the tech world and was shut with Jack Dorsey, the founding father of Twitter, who shared a screenshot of the primary Cash App alternate – $4 despatched to him from Lee.
What occurred to him?
Lee was in San Francisco for business and to go to members of the family after just lately relocating to Miami. According to the paperwork launched by prosecutors, who’ve charged entrepreneur Nima Momeni with homicide, Lee was ingesting with Momeni’s youthful sister, Khazar Momeni, at an condo in downtown San Francisco the afternoon earlier than Lee died. A witness described by prosecutors as a longtime buddy of his stated that he and Lee then went to Lee’s lodge room, the place Nima Momeni questioned him over the telephone about “whether his sister was doing drugs or anything inappropriate.”
The witness stated that Lee reassured Nima Momeni that “nothing inappropriate had happened,” the doc states. The witness stated that he and Lee continued to hang around till after midnight. Surveillance footage confirmed that Lee then went to Khazar Momeni’s residence at a luxurious condo constructing for roughly 80 minutes.
According to the charging paperwork, video confirmed Lee and Nima Momeni leaving collectively in Nima Momeni’s BMW, which he parked on a road. Later on that road, Lee was stabbed twice within the chest and as soon as within the hip, an act that seems to have been captured in grainier photos from a extra distant digital camera.
Prosecutors accused Momeni of stabbing Lee with the 4-inch blade of a kitchen knife earlier than throwing it within the parking zone and dashing away in his automobile, leaving Lee to “slowly die” on the road.
Surveillance digital camera footage caught Lee staggering and clutching his wounds on a road outdoors a high-rise, the place he known as for assist.
Per week later, after investigators have been capable of unlock Lee’s telephones, they found a textual content message from Khazar Momeni that prosecutors stated confirmed she was involved about Lee’s interplay together with her brother. “Just wanted to make sure your doing ok Cause I know nima came wayyyyyy down hard on you,” it learn, in line with court docket paperwork.
Nima Momeni, the proprietor of a tech business within the East Bay metropolis of Emeryville, was taken into custody and booked Thursday into the San Francisco County Jail. He has not entered a plea. His lawyer, Paula Canny, stated prosecutors have been unsuitable to accuse him of homicide as a result of they lacked proof of premeditation or malice.
She additionally stated that any dispute between Nima Momeni and Lee had nothing to do with romance. “I wouldn’t describe this as a crime,” Canny stated in a telephone interview.
How did tech executives react after the killing?
Before Lee’s loss of life, residents in San Francisco had already been divided of their views on crime. Last summer time, the town recalled its then-district legal professional, Chesa Boudin, who was identified for progressive insurance policies akin to eliminating money bail and looking for to scale back jail populations, after 2 1/2 years in workplace.
Recovering from the throes of the pandemic, the town’s downtown space is routinely empty of workplace staff and has seen a rise in folks residing in tent encampments and utilizing medicine in public areas. Those upticks, in addition to a rise in property crimes, have prompted some to accuse the town of being lenient with people who find themselves mentally sick or experiencing homelessness.
This set the stage for the preliminary reactions to Lee’s loss of life. Some tech executives shortly speculated that Lee’s loss of life was a random road crime. One enterprise capitalist, David Sacks, stated he would “bet dollars to dimes” that the killing was the identical as a loss of life in Los Angeles the place “a young woman was basically stabbed for no reason by a psychotic homeless person.”
Musk, the billionaire head of Twitter, which is predicated in San Francisco, replied “absolutely” to a tweet that included Sacks’ response.
How did San Francisco react after the arrest?
Many folks, inside and out of doors the tech business, have been crucial of these executives’ early reactions.
Brooke Jenkins, the San Francisco district legal professional who had criticized her predecessor as being too lenient on criminals, denounced Musk on Thursday, calling his response to Lee’s loss of life “reckless and irresponsible.”
National crime knowledge exhibits that the speed of violent crime within the metropolis of greater than 800,000 folks has remained at or close to historic lows for greater than a decade, and that the homicide price in 2020 was low in contrast with that of different main American cities.
Still, some have charged that the town doesn’t really feel protected, regardless of the statistics. On Thursday, Jason Calacanis, a tech investor who had spoken on Twitter about “rampant violence” within the metropolis, was requested if he had modified his thoughts after the arrest of Momeni. “When was the last time you walked a mile in San Francisco?” he replied by electronic mail. “Do you think it is safe?”
Brett Ashton, 56, who’s Black and has labored for tech corporations within the Bay Area for greater than 30 years, stated he felt that Calacanis had crossed over into new territory by blaming the area people.
“Their comments are very much about Black people and brown people and people that don’t look like them,” he stated. “They are just pushing a narrative that tech bros are being victimized by a dystopian hellscape.”
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com