[Pils]

The current CEO of YCombinator regarding an article in Mission Local a few days ago:

Mission Local seems to serve their local bureaucratic masters over the basic public safety needs of the people. [0]

This is gaslighting. You should be ashamed. [1]

In this case they are “independent” of a sort [2]

In all fairness, he did retweet this article a couple hours ago.

[0] https://twitter.com/garrytan/status/1644520924828540929?s=20

[1] https://twitter.com/garrytan/status/1644510807060021249?s=20

[2] https://twitter.com/garrytan/status/1644535178856124418?s=20

[yonran]

The top part of Joe Eskenazi’s earlier article https://missionlocal.org/2023/04/bob-lee-crazy-bob-mobilecoi... was good (where he reported evidence that the Bob Lee killing was not a robbery), but I agree with Garry Tan that the bottom part of the article (where he makes a broader commentary on whether San Francisco is “safe” unrelated to Bob Lee) is gaslighting and reductionist. It makes many claims and implications that are questionable: e.g., that rampant property crime does not make you unsafe (despite the fact that many thieves are armed), that festering drug addiction does not make you unsafe (which may have been a contributing factor to the car not stopping for the victim), that the problem with crime is “feelings” rather than real risk, and that those who are concerned about crime must have come from sheltered “suburbs”. And there’s no mention of anti-Asian robberies that got the previous DA recalled.

Eskenazi is a well-connected journalist, but he is also arrogant and often presents only one side of issues. For example, virtually nothing that he wrote in this article (anonymously sourced from disgruntled politicians) about the magnet school Lowell High school ended up being true (magnet schools do not violate state code as claimed, and the school did return to test-based admission which he claimed would not happen) https://missionlocal.org/2022/02/lowells-old-merit-based-adm.... So while his reporting is mostly good, you have to be aware of his bias.

[Pils]

I think you are trying to pigeonhole Eskenazi's argument into the standard "progressives don't care about crime" punditry that's popular on the right. I would suggest re-reading the column with a more open mind. His argument is that feeling safe is as important, if not more important from a policymaking perspective, as empirical measures of safety ("real risk") such as violent crime rate. He is in fact arguing the exact opposite of what you are characterizing him as arguing ("rampant property crime does not make you unsafe", "festering drug addiction does not make you unsafe"), and seems to have advised politicians to ignore these issues at their own peril.

The problem is that just like violent crime rates don't fully explain feelings of safety, things that make one feel unsafe don't fully explain all violent crime. Since Bob Lee's murder did not seem to be a result of either drug-induced psychosis or a mugging gone wrong, Joe made the correct call that the murder was likely unrelated to either of those issues.

That all being said, it appears that you have issues with him based on unrelated reporting on an issue you seem to care deeply about. A good of a time as any to examine any potential biases you might have when receiving new information so you don't accidentally embarrass yourself on Twitter!

[rideontime]

In all fairness, I’ll be impressed when he posts a retraction and apology.

[ginger2016]

I concur! He should apologize.

[phone[phone]]

Don't hold your breath.

[toss1]

This is a prime example of the growing stated perception outside of tech bubble, "tech bros killing each other and blaming the homeless". It didn't take long for people to start posting that.

Yes, street crime is itself a taking of rights and freedom of the people living and working in a place, and it is more important to contain it than to maximize the criminals' rights.

But this shows that the reputation of the tech industry is pretty much underwater, and premature postings like that don't help.

[ipqk]

I think he un-retweeted it, and then re-tweeted someone else still blaming it on "lawlessness".