A few reflections on our recent tragedies
By Roberta Millstein
Before I say anything else, let me begin by expressing my deepest condolences to the family and friends of David Breaux and Karim Abou Najm. Both were important contributors to the community, both with more to give. The third stabbing victim, is, as of this writing, thankfully still alive. Although her name has not been released yet, I venture to say that she too is an important member of our community. I can say that with confidence because I deeply believe that we are all important community members.
With two of the three stabbing victims being unhoused, I am grateful to see that the City is working toward providing emergency shelter for those who are willing to accept it. I hope that these efforts are successful; given that the perpetrator(s) have not been found, the unhoused members of our community are clearly more vulnerable than ever.
Beyond protecting those who most need it, what else can the City do? Here I will admit to being tired, wrung out, and on edge, so I don’t have the energy to go on at length. So what follows will be, I am sure, too brief. But perhaps it will be enough to get people thinking.
It has been proposed that we need more camera surveillance. Yet studies consistently show that additional cameras do not actually deter crime. At best they help us to solve it, but even then the results are mixed. Meanwhile, there are known drawbacks to increased surveillance. We know that surveillance can be a means of control or misused. Let us recall that Martin Luther King, Jr., was the subject of surveillance by the FBI.
And who is most likely to be the subject of that abuse? Statistically, people of color, people who are low income and unable to defend themselves, and people whose views challenge the establishment. Let us note that at least 2 out of the 3 victims are people of color, and again, two are unhoused. Friends, we do not want to go there. We should not do things that might make us feel more safe while actually making the most victimized more unsafe.
I know my bringing this up is to open a can of worms, but adding more police will also, statistically, bring more harms to the most vulnerable. Let us not go there either. I say this while being grateful for the current efforts to find the Davis Stabber(s), even as I recognize that there are things that could have been done differently and better.
What about more lighting around the City? This might seem like a no-brainer, but again, I don’t think it is. I think Davis passed its Light Ordinance for a number of reasons, reasons that include the health of nocturnal wildlife and important connections to the universe around us, providing a source of wonder and inspiration as long as humans have existed. And it is not even clear that it would have helped. We don’t know how or where David was killed. Karim was killed only 40 feet from a streetlamp. And there were multiple witnesses to the stabbing of the homeless woman; it happened anyway.
Recently, Cash App founder Bob Lee was brutally stabbed to death (our own brutal stabbings are a horrible echo). The immediate reaction was to decry increasing violence in San Francisco. Then it turned out that this was not an act of random violence, but rather that the (presumed) perpetrator knew the victim. My point here is that there is still much we don’t know about what happened. It would be hasty to act in light of what we think we know, especially since most proposed actions have serious drawbacks.
I understand that people want to do something. They are scared and upset, rightly and understandably so. Let us do the most obvious things that will protect us. In addition to emergency shelter, let us continue to urge people to go out in groups, to be aware, to look out for each other.
But let us not enact a bunch of policies that we will come to regret.
Davisite 
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