The stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee last Tuesday has left San Francisco shaken and raised questions about public safety in the Bay Area.
Lee, 43, was fatally stabbed near downtown around 2:30 a.m. on April 4. Police found him with at least two visible wounds. He was rushed to a nearby medical facility but died due to the severity of his injuries, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) reported.
MobileCoin, where Lee worked as chief product officer, confirmed his death last week in a statement that put a spotlight on some of his accomplishments:
“He was the quintessential creator, leader, and consummate hacker. From large contributions to Android at Google, to being the first CTO of Square, in that time creating CashApp, and working with us here at Mobilecoin, Bob surely had an impact that will last far beyond his short time on earth.”
SFPD Chief William Scott expressed confidence in his homicide investigators.
“I have 100% confidence in this unit,” Scott told CBS Bay Area last Thursday.
In his interview with the news outlet, Scott went on to acknowledge that murders were up in San Francisco but insisted that the city is not as violent as people make it out to be.
“When you look at San Francisco’s violent crime rate compared to other cities per 100,000 [in population], we’re towards the bottom for major cities. That never gets talked about. We have our issues with our city. We have some things we definitely have to continue to work on.
“We have these images that go viral and are posted all over the world dealing with drug use and homelessness. Those are real issues in our city and we’re addressing that too. But violent crime? We’re not that city.”
Scott’s claims seem to bear out, with SFPD logging only 11 murders in the first three months of 2023. In comparison, Dallas — whose population is about 475,000 greater than San Francisco’s — clocked 75 murders in the same period.
Both cities have been losing residents in recent years, with San Francisco registering a more than 6% drop in population between 2020 and 2021.
“[P]eople aren’t going to want to come back if they’re afraid of getting killed or mugged or assaulted in the city,” said Michael Shellenberger in an appearance on CNBC’s Last Call.
Similarly, Dallas lost nearly 16,000 people between 2020 and 2021, despite a population boom across North Texas and throughout the state, as The Dallas Express previously reported.
