Shawn Wen

And so rumors, fear, and misinformation rushed in to fill the void.

Online speculation turned Bob Lee's death into something else, into a narrative, a story about San Francisco and its declines.

At first, there were some prominent figures in tech who thought that Bob's murder was the manifestation of all that was wrong with the city, a famously progressive place that had crumbled into lawlessness, crushed by its own liberal policies.

To them, Bob Lee's death became a symbol of what came to be known as the San Francisco Doom Loop.

leaders in the tech industry started calling for change.

They placed the blame for Bob's death at the feet of the city's politicians.

San Francisco was among the first major cities where there were calls for a return to law and order, while flaunting the actual crime statistics.

But it would not be the last.

Trump administration is deploying an additional 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles.

In the years since Bob Lee's death, President Trump would deploy federal troops to several cities with Democratic leadership.

He would argue that crime was, quote, out of control and that these cities were burning down, that the streets were in crisis.

And for anyone living in San Francisco, this kind of language might sound pretty familiar.

The San Francisco doom loop was only the first chapter of how Bob Lee's death was spun.

After that, when details of Bob Lee's personal life started being reported out in the press, a new story started to emerge.

Bob was held up as an example of the tech industry's excessive party scene, replete with sex, drugs, and house music.

What was the real story?

Why was Bob Lee killed?

And who really was to blame?

The city?

The industry?