WEBVTT - Bob Lee Part 1: San Francisco Has Blood On Its Hands 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:06.880 Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio. 0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:12.080 News Tuesday bo San Francisco. 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.880 Let's see. 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:19.880 It's April fourth, three. 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:20.880 Where are you? 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.040 The nine one one call comes in at two thirty 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:30.120 four in the morning from near downtown San Francisco. 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.159 Hello, where are you? 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:37.479 The caller sounds stunned. He doesn't say his name, He 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.839 just keeps repeating health, health, until he says, I know 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:42.600 you hear me? 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:44.199 Where are you? 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:46.000 Have somebody stabbed? 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:48.760 Where are you? 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.320 After a minute or so, the caller starts gasping for brud, 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:55.440 I have help going to there. 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:56.000 Where are you? 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:58.760 The nine one one operator tries to get more information 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:00.520 out of him without much luck. 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:02.400 Are you outside or inside? 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:04.280 Listen to my questions? 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:05.280 I know you can hear me. 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:11.600 Well, okay, you're on the street outside. 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:14.440 I'm what I'm at? 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:15.800 He need to hospital? 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:16.640 Oh? 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:26.039 Slowly he starts struggling for energy three until three minutes 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:27.320 in he goes quiet. 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:33.840 Zero two thirty sir. And fifty three seconds. 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.720 The police arrive. Officer Drew Jackson is the first on 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:37.240 the scene. 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:39.320 Hey, hey, it's a police man. 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:41.080 Zero two. 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:43.200 It's the police. 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:45.040 Yeah, the police is there for you. 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:45.720 Can you see that. 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:48.920 This recording is from his body camera here. 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:50.760 In front of a four oh three main. 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:52.840 Hey, it's the police. 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:54.680 Hey, who did this to you? 0:01:56.400 --> 0:02:00.120 The video, I should say, is awful. You can and 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:03.680 see Officer Jackson come upon this body collapsed on the sidewalk. 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:08.160 It's a man. He looks completely helpless. He's gone pale 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:09.440 and is struggling to breathe. 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:10.520 Hey, my friend. 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.960 Officer Jackson pulls up the victim's shirt to reveal stab 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.880 wounds and blood on his chest. He starts cutting off 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:19.720 the victim's clothes. 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:23.920 I know, but he's not. 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:24.280 Doing too that. 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:31.080 A few hours later, the man would be pronounced dead 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:40.240 of multiple stab wounds to the chest and heart. The 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.480 police don't know it yet, but the victim is Bob Lee, 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.840 a successful tech executive and programmer who had a hand 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:52.440 in creating many popular tech products. He worked at Google 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.720 on the Android phone. He was CTO of Square, the 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.480 payment company, and he found a cash app, an incredibly 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:04.480 popular pool for sending or receiving money via smartphone. He 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.960 was respected and well liked in the tech industry. His 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:18.639 death would send shockwaves through the community. What happened following 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.640 this moment was unlike anything I've ever seen in San Francisco. 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.160 It took nine days for the police to rest a suspect. 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.040 In those nine days, very little was even said about 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:33.720 the investigation, and so rumors, fear, and misinformation rushed in 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:38.240 to fill the void. Online speculation turned Bobly's death into 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:42.360 something else, into a narrative, a story about San Francisco 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:48.960 and its decline. At first, there were some prominent figures 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:52.360 in tech who thought that Bob's murder was the manifestation 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.000 of all that was wrong with the city, a famously 0:03:56.040 --> 0:04:00.760 progressive place that had crumbled into lawlessness bush by its 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:06.120 own liberal policies. To them, Bob Lee's death became a 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:08.960 symbol of what came to be known as the San 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:14.520 Francisco doom loop. Leaders in the tech industry started calling 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:18.320 for change. They placed the blame for Bob's death at 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:23.119 the feet of the city's politicians. San Francisco was among 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:25.800 the first major cities where there were calls for a 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:29.840 return to law and order while flaunting the actual crime statistics, 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:32.160 but it would not be the last. 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:36.400 The Trump administration is also increasing the pressure on Minnesota. 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.600 Thousands of immigration nations were sent to the Twin cities. 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:44.159 Trump administration is deploying an additional two thousand National Guard 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:45.600 troops to Los Angeles. 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.479 Amid his effort to deploy the National Guard to cities 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:51.240 like Portland and Chicago. 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.880 In the years since Bob Lee's death, President Trump would 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:00.000 deploy federal troops to several cities with Democratic leaders. 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:01.520 I don't like being up. 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.960 You're talking about how unsafe and how dirty and disgusting 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:07.920 this once beautiful capital was. 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.600 He would argue that crime was quote out of control, 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.640 and that these cities were burning down, that the streets 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.800 were in crisis, and for anyone living in San Francisco, 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:24.040 this kind of language might sound pretty familiar. The San 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:26.720 Francisco Doom Loop was only the first chapter of how 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:31.520 Bobley's death was spun. After that, when details of Bobley's 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:34.680 personal life started being reported out in the press, a 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.920 new story started to emerge. Bob was held up as 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:42.000 an example of the tech industry's excessive party scene, replete 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:48.640 with sex, drugs, and house music. What was the real story, 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:52.720 Why was Bob Lee killed? And who really was to 0:05:52.720 --> 0:06:03.440 blame the city, the industry, or something else entirely. I'm 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:16.040 sean wen, this is foundering. The killing of Bob Lee. 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.159 I'm trying. I should look up with our last text 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:25.560 message hold on me. 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:30.320 I first met Bobley's former wife, Chrystal Lee, at her 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.560 family home in Marin County. She moved there after she 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.520 and Bob separated, while he stayed in the penthouse apartment 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.599 in San Francisco. She still lives there with their kids 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:40.240 and her partner. 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.840 Okay, so this was in April third and eight, eight 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.520 or six pm. How are you feeling hanging with Bow 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.200 in the city And I messaged back, Hey, sexy boys, 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:50.559 I'm in bed, not suitable for public eye. I feel 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:52.840 like crap, Like just leave me alone and say, oh 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:55.760 I feel better, babe. We'll hit you up tomorrow. And 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.919 that was the last message that I heard from him. 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.520 Krista and Bob met when they were both twenty two 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:06.320 years old. They became adults together and raised kids. They 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:10.760 divorced in twenty eighteen after a sixteen year relationship, but 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:14.600 they stayed close, not just we have kids close, but 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.200 we still party together close. They had a shared family 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.520 group text and were in constant touch. 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.040 He'll send a message on our family thread, you know, 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:25.440 love you guys, see you soon. He was always in 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:26.800 communication with our family. 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:29.720 It was the morning of April fourth. Bob had moved 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.440 to Miami a few months before all of this, but 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:34.280 he was back in town for a work trip and 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:37.520 to see his daughter's school play. Krista had seen him 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.000 the night before, but hadn't heard from him all morning. 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:42.080 She was in the car with her daughter. 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:44.760 I was driving and I said, do me a favorite 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:47.800 check Dad's location for me. Something's not right. 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:50.560 Bob's phone showed that he was at the police station. 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:55.040 After Krista dropped her daughter off at school, she texted him. 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:58.480 April fourth, nine, forty nine, am Are. 0:07:58.360 --> 0:07:58.960 You in jail? 0:07:59.080 --> 0:07:59.640 Question mark? 0:07:59.680 --> 0:07:59.960 Question? 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:02.960 Question mark? I got multiple calls at six am from 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:06.200 Zuckerberg General Hospital, no message, and when I called back, 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.840 they said it was probably just auto update confirmation for 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:12.200 an appointment, but I don't have appointments there. Then I 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:14.480 had Scout double check your location. It shows you at 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:15.200 the police station. 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:18.640 She didn't hear back. A few hours passed. 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:23.400 We were out back having lunch and I tried to 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.840 call him again. It was going right to voicemail. I'm like, 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.880 this isn't right. I've got a weird feeling. Shortly after that, 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:33.079 that's when our friend Ali called me and said, babes, 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:34.880 have you talked to Bob this morning? 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:36.960 Ali is a close friend of Bob's. 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:38.840 He goes, I don't want to alarm you, but it 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.199 shows his location at the police station. And of course 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:43.360 then I kind of giggled to myself, like, how many 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:47.360 people have your location? Honey? Ali was like, you know, 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:49.560 I'm in the area. I'm going to go see what's 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:52.000 going on, Like, did he get beat up? Did something 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:57.600 happen the I guess A receptionist and at the at 0:08:57.640 --> 0:08:59.960 the police station said, you know, the person matching this 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:07.360 description was taken to the hospital. My heart dropped, and 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.720 I mean we left the house within two seconds of 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:13.760 that and went down there and Ali said I'm on 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.720 my way there right now. And of course the entire drive, 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:20.120 we're thinking, Okay, what happened? What damn it, Bob? What 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:22.520 did you do? Or even worse, you know, did he 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.360 get attacked by someone? You know, what's going on here? 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:27.320 Nothing made sense. 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:32.000 Christal arrived at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital with her 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:33.160 partner Jeremy. 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:36.800 I walked up, I gave them my ID and the 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:39.920 one said, oh, okay, let's take you back to this 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:43.040 private waiting room. I'm thinking, what the fuck is going 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.120 on here? And then maybe about five minutes past and 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:47.240 it's just kind of a we're kind of making little 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.240 jokes here and there, like what is going on with Bob. 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.640 Shortly after that, a nurse and the attending doctor came 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.200 into the waiting room and said, you're the wife of 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:03.440 Bob Lee, a former wife, Crystal Lee. And he's like, 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.559 I'm so sorry to inform you, but we did everything 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:15.920 we could, but we couldn't say Bob. I almost passed out. 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:19.240 This flush went over me and it was like, you know, 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:21.080 I couldn't even hear what he was saying anymore. It 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.560 was just all of a sudden, you know, ears are death, 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.000 and I'm listening to this person try to tell me, 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:28.280 you know, and they don't even say his name. They 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.120 keep saying a man matching his description, and I. 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:33.840 Was like, what the what the fuck? What is going 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:34.199 on here? 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.160 And I'm looking at Jeremy and I couldn't even make 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.680 a tear. I couldn't catch my breath, and they wanted 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:40.320 me to stick around. They wanted me to talk to 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:42.320 the medical examiner all this other stuff, and it's like 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:44.360 the only thing I could think of was I have 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:47.240 to go home. My kids just got out of school. 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:49.880 They're at the house. I have to go home now. 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:53.800 I have to tell my children that their father was 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:55.000 stabbed to death. 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.720 Krista made the hour long drive back to her house. 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:05.600 She pulled in the driveway. 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:07.640 I just kind of sat in the car, looking out 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:11.160 the window and hoping that I was going to get 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:13.640 a call saying, oops, wrong guy, never mind it was 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:14.720 some other blonde dude. 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.040 When that called didn't come, she went inside to see 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:18.560 her kids. 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:24.000 So I walked upstairs to their rooms and said, I 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:26.559 need to tell you that something happened to dad last 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:30.760 night and he was taken to the hospital and Dad 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.840 passed away early this morning. I didn't really know how 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:35.600 to express to my child, like what words that you're 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:40.240 supposed to use. And I just remember looking at Scout 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.520 and it's our fifteen year old. She's got the big 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:47.280 Disney princess eyes where they just welled up in tears. 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:50.560 So I'm laying there with Bolt, like with my children, 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:54.199 and not really making sense of it all, but just 0:11:54.240 --> 0:12:03.600 feeling pain, absolute pain. Within minutes, I received calls from 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:06.120 dozens of people. Is it real? 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:08.640 I'm like as far as I know, I think so. 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:12.720 Yeah. And then shortly after that, one of our best 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:14.920 friends called and said I just saw on the news, 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.640 And at that point in time, my heart shattered. I'm like, 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:20.720 how the fuck is this already on the news? 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:21.240 Thank you? 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:23.199 RAINA seven oh one and the breaking news. 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:24.760 A tech executive is dead. 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.959 He was stabbed in San Francisco south of Market Street. 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:28.240 Yeah. 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:30.920 The latest reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:32.720 the founder of cash App. 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:35.480 Someone out there has already run doing the media saying, 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.439 you know, cash app founder Bob Lee stabbed to death. 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:43.600 He's widely known as the founder of cash app, a 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:45.920 popular mobile payment service. 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:48.720 He is a giant in the tech field. 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:52.000 His death certainly sending shockwaves through the tech community. 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:52.280 Here. 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:54.680 I was on the phone with my father and I 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.080 started crying. I'm like, Dad, I gotta go. Bob's on 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:57.560 the news. 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.640 Police officers rushed out there, but by the time they 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:06.319 got there, the killer or killers were long gone. 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:09.240 The initial wave of news stories are pretty bare bones. 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.120 They mentioned Bob's name and the fact that he was killed, 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.920 but they don't mention a suspect or a weapon. Then 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.920 the story changes at eight oh one, PM the night 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:24.920 of April fourth, only eighteen hours after Bob was stabbed, 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.760 a retired MMA fighter named Jake Shields goes on Twitter 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:32.200 and posts quote, I just found out that my good 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:35.000 friend was killed last night while walking in San Francisco. 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:37.880 He was in the good part of town and appears 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.079 to have been targeted in a random mugging slash attack. 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:48.080 Suck San Francisco. Nowadays, Jake is a podcast host. He's 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:52.120 interviewed holocaust deniers and white nationalists, but at the time 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:55.880 he was simply a semi famous guy on Twitter. Soon 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.680 more voices join in, many identifying as venture capitalists and 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:05.079 tech founders. We've trimmed these tweets for length. Rip at 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:09.319 crazy Bob, this is fucking horrific. Fuck you SF politicians. 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.760 Fuck you. Can we please stand up and completely purge 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.160 SF politics now and start over? How many more of 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:19.640 these are we going to see? Another? One reads Chase A. 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.760 Boudin and the criminal loving city council that enabled him 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:26.000 in a lawless SF for years have Bob's literal blood 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:31.480 on their hands. This last tweet was referencing Chase A. Boudin, 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.200 a progressive da who ran on policies like bail reform 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:39.320 and reducing the prison population. He was removed from office 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:45.000 after a very contentious recall vote. By the time Bob 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.240 was killed, members of the tech industry had been rallying 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:51.160 for months around the message that crime in San Francisco 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.760 was out of control, and now one of their own 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.080 was dead. That's when the richest man in the world 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.960 chimes in, taking the to a whole new level of infamy. 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:08.000 At two twenty seven am, Elon Musk tweets very sorry 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:11.720 to hear that many people I know have been severely assaulted. 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.600 Violent crime in San Francisco is horrific and even if 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:19.280 attackers are caught, they are often released immediately. Is the 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:23.440 city taking stronger action to incarcerate repeat offenders at Brook 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:24.480 Jenkins SF. 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:27.960 So I woke up, I remember early in the morning 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:31.120 to that tweet already being in my inbox. 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:35.640 That's Brook Jenkins, the current DA of San Francisco. She 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:37.000 was appointed after Chase A. 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:40.880 Boudin was recalled, and me having to, you know, out 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:44.400 of the fog of waking up, realize what exactly I 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:49.400 was looking at in that it was in fact Elon 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:54.120 Musk who had tagged me in this tweet. About this case. 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:56.640 Were you surprised he even knew who you were? 0:15:57.360 --> 0:15:57.560 Oh? 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:03.400 Absolutely, I was shocked that he knew my name at all. 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:08.920 I think about six million people saw it within twenty 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:14.600 four hours, and so the flood of media interest began 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:15.760 almost right away. 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.080 All Right, here's a horrible story, then we'll talk about Trump. 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.720 The next morning, things moved beyond the walls of Twitter 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:26.720 when conservative YouTubers take up the story. 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:31.200 Tech executive Bob Lee, founder of cash app, was stabbed 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.400 to death in San Francisco on the three hundred block 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:35.200 of Main Street. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.400 This is the late Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert. 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:40.680 Now this caught my attention not only because it was 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:44.320 a horrible tragedy, but this is the same block that 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:45.360 I was attacked with. 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:49.000 A knife two months before this. Dilbert was dropped by 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:52.480 major newspapers all over the country when Adams made racist 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.200 statements about black people, he became a YouTuber commenting on 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:57.040 the news of the day. 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.240 So in the eighties, I was robbed twice at gunpoint 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.480 while I was a bank teller in downtown San Francisco. 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:07.160 He then goes on to suggest that cities are done for. 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:11.200 I tend to think the cities are dead. I think 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:11.680 they're dead. 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:14.719 I think the next time the cities will be alive 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:16.400 is when robots rebuilt them. 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:20.320 That could be a while. All right, let's talk about 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:21.120 Trump's arrangement. 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:25.520 Clearly, what's happening in San Francisco is political. 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.160 This is Luke Rudkowski, a prominent nine to eleven truther 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:30.960 and an Alex Jones acolyte. 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.240 The latest high profile incident that happened in San Francisco 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.159 happened where a major tech executive and the founder of 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.600 cash app, Bobb Lee, was viciously attacked in the middle 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:42.359 of the night and then lost his life at the 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:43.600 age of forty three. 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:47.720 News of Lee's death caught the attention of many commentators, 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.520 from those on the fringe to those who are increasingly mainstream. 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.200 Dave Rubin this is the Ruben reported April sixth, twenty 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.080 twenty three, were live streaming on Rumble YouTube and locals. 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:01.240 Dave Rubin is a conservative YouTuber channel has almost three 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:02.520 million subscribers. 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:04.480 And it's not just that they're pushing all of the 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.080 gender stuff and the race stuff and that they lied 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.440 about COVID and everything else. It's that there is also 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:14.760 an unbelievable amount of crime happening in blue cities right now. 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:16.639 You know what, We cover it all the time. But 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.119 the worst of the worst, as you guys know, is 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:24.000 San Francisco. San Francisco has completely collapsed. Elon Musk's comments 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:26.359 are completely right, the amount of security he has to 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.200 have at the Twitter offices, which is in the midst 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:31.159 of a zombie apocalypse. 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.600 And then Ruben goes on to connect this to the 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:35.800 city's political leaders. 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:39.119 Why is it the Democrat cities look like that? If 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:42.760 you can find Republican led cities that look like that, 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.440 please send me the video and I will show it 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.240 and I will go after the Republican mayor in those 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:50.680 cities that's doing it. 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:53.919 It's worth pausing here to ask where does San Francisco's 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:58.080 reputation as a crime written hellhole come from. The data 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:01.160 show that all reported crime and San Francisco is at 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:05.800 a twenty year low. During those early years of the pandemic. 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.320 Crime was also trending down overall, according to SFPD data. 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:15.640 The exceptions that stand out include Carthieff's burglaries and homicides, 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:20.640 all of which increased a little, but the homicide rate 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:24.439 is still among the lowest of major cities in the US. 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.480 In twenty twenty three, the year Bobbly was killed, he 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:33.119 was one of only fifty five homicides. But San Francisco 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.320 suffers from a persistent gap between what the data show 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:41.160 and how people feel. This has prompted questions about how 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:45.240 crime data is gathered, and some prominent tech voices have 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:50.720 suggested throwing out the stats altogether. This topic is kind 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:54.000 of a minefield, and many people who are much more 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:56.439 knowledgeable than I am have made a go at it. 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:00.199 But what I want to get at is a feeling 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:08.720 a disconnect between the data and people's experiences. I remember, 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.480 not long after I moved here, about a decade ago, 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:14.560 I was crossing the street and I saw a man 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:18.040 lying face down right where the crosswalk met the sidewalk. 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:21.280 So to reach the sidewalk you had to step over 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:24.680 his body, and that's what everyone at this intersection did, 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.679 including me. We walked right past him, not knowing if 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:33.160 he was alive or dead. While this kind of human 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:36.840 suffering is not unique to San Francisco, there's something about 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:41.240 it here that just feels different. It's more casual, more 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:44.600 in your face, in your daily life, on your way 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.080 to work, on your way to dinner, on the walk 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.840 to pick up groceries, you might see someone shooting up 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:52.800 at the bart station, or sitting on the sidewalk with 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:55.960 open soores on their legs, or having a mental health 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.680 episode in the middle of traffic, and most long time 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:09.480 sam cosiscents would tell you, unfortunately, that's not new. There's 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:12.560 research that shows that worrying about crime can become a 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:15.800 chronic emotional state that shapes how people see the world 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:20.440 around them. It can sow anxiety and mistrust even when 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:25.080 crime rates are stable or falling. The research also shows 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.240 that people who worry more about crime also tend to 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:33.919 see common nuisances as threatening, things like noisy neighbors, litter, graffiti, 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:38.000 or just visible groups of teenagers hanging out to them. 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:42.920 These are signs of social decline. Crime during and immediately 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:48.159 after COVID was a nationwide conversation, but San Francisco especially 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:49.199 was a hot topic. 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:53.400 Comedian Dave Chappelle was not the usual jokes and giggles 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:56.640 during a surprise show last week, instead going off about 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:59.760 San Francisco's high crime and rampant homelessness. 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:03.800 Bob Lee was killed during a moment when San Francisco 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:07.399 had become a national punching bag based on the reputation 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:10.880 that wasn't completely inaccurate. 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:15.240 The commedian asking the audience quote, what the blank happened 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:19.960 to this place? He didn't say blank, saying the whole 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:25.560 city was now the tenderloin. As a district notorist for crime, homelessness, 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:27.000 drug problems. 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:30.440