Narrative Fail

Suspect Nima Momeni (left) and victim Bob Lee (right)

I've read too many crime novels and seen too many murder-mystery movies to believe that Bob Lee's murder last week was unquestionably just random street violence. (That's why my post was about how it played into the narrative of San Francisco's crime-and-decline and the media's opposition to the narrative, not the actual crime itself.)

The victim and his alleged killer knew each other. Tech entrepreneur Nima Momeni has been arrested:

The killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee, stabbed three times in a secluded corner of one of the most affluent neighborhoods in San Francisco, stunned a city and raised an outcry from critics who blamed it on an environment of lawlessness and social disorder here.

But after an investigation that led to an arrest, police and prosecutors say the shocking slaying was instead a personal attack, and that it followed a series of tense exchanges between Lee and tech entrepreneur Nima Momeni, possibly over Lee’s relationship with Momeni’s sister.

The tragic incident may actually be a variation of an old story: a man, a woman, and a family member who thought he was defending the woman. We will see.

There have been dozens of instances where activists have leapt to conclusions about well-publicized acts of violence; they settle instantaneously upon a narrative that fits their political predilections (racism, white nationalism, homophobia, etc.) and rarely apologize when the narrative is proved false.

This appears to be one of the rare instances when the false narrative did not come from the left. Now that all sides have been burned, I hope that everyone will hesitate before rushing to judgment. I'm not holding my breath.