The only thing worse than evil men is the indifference of good men.
This happens all the time... wanna see something fun, walk around your city saying "hi" to everyone and see how often you get a "hi" back.
It is too bad people aren't cordial anymore.
Everyone just starts to assume that person is drunk, on drugs, whatever.
https://missionlocal.org/2023/04/bob-lee-crazy-bob-mobilecoi...
>Bob Lee deserved better than to be killed — and then co-opted in death
>[...] The decent thing to do is acknowledge a tragedy, express sorrow for those who have lost a treasured individual, and let the police do their work with all due haste — and then we can begin politicizing this poor man’s death to buttress our preexisting worldview.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/san-francisco-da-brooke-jenkin...
>San Francisco DA Slams Elon Musk’s ‘Reckless’ Statements on Bob Lee’s Death
>San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, who ousted her progressive predecessor in a recall vote last year, slammed Elon Musk on Thursday for spreading “misinformation” about the slaying of Cash App founder Bob Lee. Musk was among several people who suggested Lee’s murder was the result of random, violent crime spiraling out of control in the city under Jenkins. But police announced Thursday that they had arrested and charged a 38-year-old man who knew Lee. “I must point out that reckless and irresponsible statements like those contained in Mr. Musk’s tweet that assumed incorrect circumstances about Mr. Lee’s death serve to mislead the world and their perceptions of San Francisco and also negatively impact the pursuit of justice for victims of crime as it spreads misinformation at a time when police are trying to solve a very difficult case,” Jenkins said. “We all should and must do better about not contributing to the spread of such misinformation without having actual facts to underlie the statements that we make.” The suspect, Nima Momeni, was reportedly in a car with Lee and stabbed him after a fight in the early hours of April 4.
The larger point is that even after he knows the actual cause, he still doesn't stop trying to spread misinformation and exploit and co-opt the death of Bob Lee for his own political agenda and pre-existing narratives.
We don't know what was happening in those cases. For example, we don't know those passers-by did or didn't actually see. Let's not make the same mistake all over again of projecting our pre-existing narrative onto a paucity of facts. (I don't mean to pick on you personally. We all do this, of course.)
Edit: There's a long history of belief about bystander apathy which hasn't held up under scrutiny. Related:
Surveillance cameras debunk the bystander effect - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20417986 - July 2019 (161 comments)
Killer of Kitty Genovese Dies in Prison (Origin of “Bystander Effect”) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11430051 - April 2016 (3 comments)
https://sfstandard.com/criminal-justice/video-appears-to-sho...
Arrest made in SF killing of Bob Lee – alleged killer also worked in tech - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35555525 - April 2023 (1161 comments)
Edit: When the original thread was happening after Bob Lee was killed (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35448899), I considered pinning a comment to the top of the thread reminding commenters that none of us had any knowledge of what had happened and asking them not to have a flamewar between pre-existing narratives. I decided not to because I didn't want to overly interfere, but I regret that now.
The reason I didn't post the comment I mentioned in the GP was not lack of moderation, but the opposite: I was moderating so much that I didn't want to be accused of over-intervening.
If anyone cares - in the end the decisions I made were (1) to factor out the comments that were actually about Bob Lee into their own thread (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457341), and (2) to let the other flamewar just burn itself out since there wasn't anything we could to do stop it. The first decision was a good one—that thread spent many hours at the top of the front page. The second decision was also a good one—I have a pretty fine-tuned sense of what we can and can't control. But I do regret not posting that other reminder. I very much wanted to, but overruled myself—and now I wish I had left a record of the mods upholding the value of not rushing to judgement.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35476876
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35476872
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35472256
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35472227
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35472223
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35472212
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35472140
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35464652
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35464630
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35464305
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35464293
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35464011
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35462897
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35461644
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35461639
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35461615
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35461026
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35460904
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35459597
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35459100
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35458875
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35458185
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35458135
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35458074
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35458022
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35458002
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457994
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457951
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457815
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457642
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457617
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457562
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457507
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457402
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457289
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457243
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457192
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457134
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457127
Btw I wasn't favoring either side in the flamewar, just doing the standard mod thing of asking people not to break HN's rules so badly.
The fact that a person was stabbed and killed on the street and the killer felt he could get away with it is kind of a good example of "the lawlessness" you're trying to downplay. This doesn't depend on the socio-economic status of the stabbing victim, or the attacker.