Regardless of excessive profile killing of tech government Bob Lee, San Francisco has far fewer homicides than different similarly-sized cities

Daily SF NewsJune 5, 2023

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Bob Lee. (mobile coin)

By Cheri Mossburg, Josh Campbell and Brad Parks | CNN

The stabbed death of CashApp founder Bob Lee has prompted comments that perpetuate the notion that San Francisco is dangerous and crime-ridden, yet data shows that violent crime — particularly homicides — is well below that of many other similar-sized cities.

George Tita, a professor of criminal justice at the University of California, Irvine, believes perception has more to do with the profile of those involved in specific crimes than actual data.

“If a very well-known technician is murdered, it’s just going to draw more attention than if it’s an impoverished person in a colored neighborhood,” Tita said. “It’s just a low-hanging fruit. Nobody wants to look at actual statistics. Most of the states and counties with the highest crime statistics are in the red states versus the blue states.”

Lee died after a knife attack in the Rincon Hill neighborhood. Police officers responded to reports of a stabbing early Tuesday morning, according to a statement from the San Francisco Police Department. They found “a 43-year-old adult male victim who appeared to be suffering from stab wounds.”

“Officials rendered assistance and called paramedics to the scene,” the police statement said. “The victim was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Despite the best efforts of first responders and medical staff, the victim succumbed to his injuries.”

According to police, San Francisco recorded 56 homicides in both 2022 and 2021, an increase of over 36% from 2019 when there were 41 homicides. Despite the increase, San Francisco’s homicide toll is well below other cities of a similar size, data from the Major Cities Police Chiefs Association shows.

For example, Indianapolis had 271 homicides in 2021 and 226 in 2022. Jacksonville, Florida had 129 homicides in 2021 and 154 in 2022, while Columbus, Ohio had 204 in 2021 murders and 140 murders in 2022.

According to the California Department of Justice, violent crimes in San Francisco, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, peaked in 2013 at 7,164 violent crimes. But they have declined significantly in recent years. According to data from the Major Cities Police Chiefs Association, San Francisco now ranks in the lower midfield compared to several cities with similar populations.

However, property crime in San Francisco tells a different story, as seen in several attention-grabbing videos. Though still well below 2017 levels, the city saw a 23% increase in property crime between 2020 and 2022, with an increase in burglaries and theft leading the way, according to data from the San Francisco PD.

“People who believe that housing is bad and that crime is always on the rise believe it because of their worldview and dogma and not because of facts,” Tita said. “All we can do is provide unbiased, carefully compiled data. At the end of the day, there are some people who don’t care about the facts.”

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said the number of homicides had been falling before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic but had risen in the months that followed, in line with a nationwide trend, CNN affiliate KPIX reported.

“If you look at the violent crime rate in San Francisco compared to other cities per 100,000 (in population), we’re at the bottom end of the big cities,” Scott told KPIX. “It’s never talked about.

“We have our problems with our city,” he continued. “There are some things we really need to keep working on. We have these pictures that are going viral and being posted all over the world and that are about drug use and homelessness. These are real problems in our city and we are tackling them. But violent crime? We are not that city.”