Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco • Hacker News Board

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#761

Post by syzarian » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:29 PM UTC

verteu wrote: post #675

cheeseblubber wrote: post #529

Here are some statistics that might help the discussion: "With a crime rate of 54 per one thousand residents, San Francisco has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 18." https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ca/san-francisco/crime#des... A…

Per FBI Crime Report statistics[1] the murder rate in SF is LOW for a major city. It's 60th of 83 major cities (Top 3 most dangerous are St Louis, Baltimore, Detroit). I defined murder rate as "Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter" / "Population" and "major city" as "Population > 250k." PS: Someone should update Wikipedia; its numbers appear outdated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b... [1…

To illustrate how bad things are in the U.S. it should be noted that SF’s low murder rate is quite a bit higher than London’s murder rate. London had 124 homicides last year with a population of 8.7 million people. SF had 40 murders per 100,000 people and London had less than 40 murders per 2,000,000 people. We are a violent people.

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#762

Post by dang » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:30 PM UTC

excerionsforte wrote: post #630

aEJ04Izw5HYm wrote: post #555

Can we take a minute to re-direct this conversation away from just the politics of SF? I want to draw attention to Bob Lee, a well-respected technologist and prototype hacker, always curious and sharing lots of interesting technical developments. He was a great role model for how Engineers should be respected in an executive capacity as he advanced his career from 'Software' to 'Product'. His efforts contributed to t…

I wish some of the comments from below were merged into this comment for better visibility of those comments. There are things in those comments about what he did in his lifetime that are great to hear about. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35454844 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35454971 3. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35451821 4. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35449584

I've moved all those comments to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457341 now and will try to find the rest that belong there and move them too.

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#763

Post by staticautomatic » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:31 PM UTC

arzanr wrote: post #581

Everyone commenting on here about how bad things are in SF has likely rarely or never stepped into the core parts of Protrero Hill, Noe Valley, Richmond, Sunset, Glenn Park, Forest Hill etc. SF is a tale of two cities divided by natural barriers. There is a side to the city where you see almost no drugs, or homelessness. This is not a dismissal of the real issues facing the city but an acknowledgement that it is stil…

All kinds of scary shit happened to me when I lived in Pacific Heights. Really nowhere is safe except maybe Seacliff or something.

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#764

Post by syzarian » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:31 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #652

cheeseblubber wrote: post #529

Here are some statistics that might help the discussion: "With a crime rate of 54 per one thousand residents, San Francisco has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 18." https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ca/san-francisco/crime#des... A…

When someone says C = A + B, you begin to wonder how much A (violent crime) and B (property crime) are. Yes, SF has a lot of B, but it hasn't had a lot of A, so this stabbing is really shocking to me.

Murders in the U.S. are very high compared to other rich nations. San Francisco has a very high murder rate compared to cities in Japan, England, France, Sweden, etc.

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#765

Post by dang » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:31 PM UTC

s5300 wrote: post #678

dxbydt wrote: post #671

Speaking as an immigrant - Worked in SF most of last decade. Left in 2018. Crime was on a steady uptick while I was there. Once in the Bart, a young man grabbed a cellphone from the guy seated right next to me & bolted out of the train. The train started, and the cellphone owner gave chase. The Bart police arrived soon after, with guns pointed straight at the passengers. The robber was fast and jumped over the turnst…

>> Houses are quite cheap & I was able to buy my house with straight cash, but ironically that cash was earned in SF! So… you came to the MidWest just to contribute here to the very problem you were trying to escape This is going to end well for society. Remind me in 20 years.

Personal attacks and flamewar are not allowed here. We ban accounts that post like that, so please don't.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#766

Post by CottonMcKnight » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:33 PM UTC

hintymad wrote: post #713

I don't see what's wrong with SF. /sarcasm SF is the people's choice, no? The people in SF elected DAs who release booked violent criminals right away, multiple times. The people in SF elected politicians who told us, repeatedly and publicly, that looting is a way for people to express their anger or looters were hungry, and violent criminals are victims and questioning their policies are homophobic and racism. The p…

We can have empathy for sociopaths and psychopaths, and still want them separated from the rest of society.

We can try to understand and address the socioeconomic causes of crime, while also aggressively deterring crime and punishing criminals.

We can recognize that the police are over-militarized and under-trained and burdened with too many responsibilities, while also recognizing that they face a population that is increasingly armed to the teeth and hostile due to a social media outrage machine.

We can have a sane immigration policy and protect our borders while recognizing that immigrants are vital to the economy and having empathy for refugees or people simply fleeing violence, and without separating children from their parents or locking them in cages.

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#767

Post by TurkishPoptart » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:35 PM UTC

hintymad wrote: post #713

I don't see what's wrong with SF. /sarcasm SF is the people's choice, no? The people in SF elected DAs who release booked violent criminals right away, multiple times. The people in SF elected politicians who told us, repeatedly and publicly, that looting is a way for people to express their anger or looters were hungry, and violent criminals are victims and questioning their policies are homophobic and racism. The p…

[flagged]

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#768

Post by smsm42 » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:35 PM UTC

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #736

dxbydt wrote: post #671

Speaking as an immigrant - Worked in SF most of last decade. Left in 2018. Crime was on a steady uptick while I was there. Once in the Bart, a young man grabbed a cellphone from the guy seated right next to me & bolted out of the train. The train started, and the cellphone owner gave chase. The Bart police arrived soon after, with guns pointed straight at the passengers. The robber was fast and jumped over the turnst…

> So for a whole 3 days, the garage was wide open & anybody could have walked in & grabbed whatever. Nothing was taken. On the contrary there was a nice note from the neighbor about applying grease on the railing so the garage door stays closed. Everyone seems to be missing a piece of critical non-political information. One setting is rural, everyone owns the house, lives there long-term, everyone knows neighbours. Y…

You can have Urban setting without the squalor that is currently swallowing the Bay Area. I know it because I have seen it - in the same place. The difference between what I have seen in SF when I came there for the first time, in early 2000s, and what I am seeing now, in 2023, is striking. Everybody has a long list of reasons why, but the basics are clear here I think - it's not that you can't have urban setting with reasonable quality of life. It's that somehow whatever is being done in the Bay Area does not lead to this - very possible otherwise - outcome. It's not some inevitable law of nature - it's what people do, how they organize their society, and it's clear that the way they do it now leads to some consequences and so far they are not intent to change their ways substantially - so the consequences will continue.

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#769

Post by cryptonector » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:36 PM UTC

rswerve wrote: post #249

atdrummond wrote: post #158

Nothing will change. I was attacked in Christmas ‘21 in the Tenderloin, right after walking out of the KFC/Taco Bell on Eddy. Two cop cars drove by me and did nothing. It was only due to an ambulance finishing a run at Sutter and spotting me that I didn’t bleed out on the suitcase. I have video, proof of damages physical and financial, eyewitnesses and the info of the men who attacked me. SFPD will not arrest them be…

I don’t know your case, but it’s also possible that the police won’t make an arrest because police in America tend to go on low-key strike when a liberal prosecutor is elected, and then loudly proclaim that the DA is undermining the rule of law. This article is about a different kind of “police pullback,” but the underlying phenomenon—cops won’t work when they’re challenged—is the same. https://www.propublica.org/art…

GP specificially says the DA won't answer. It's not about the police in that specific case.

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#770

Post by yadaeno » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:36 PM UTC

joemazerino wrote: post #361

I have commented on SF threads before regarding the violent crime. I don't think we have figured out if this was premeditated or not, but either way, SF is becoming incredibly dangerous. Progressive DA's and a neutered police force are to blame for the rise in violent crime. Many of my friends have taken their remote gigs and left SF in the last 3 years. What's the point in rolling the dice every time you walk outsid…

We need a fund the police movement in SF desperately. When my bike was stolen last month the officer on the phone said they were something like 400 officers understaffed.