{OPINION} SF Stabbing of 94 Year Old: About SF's Tenderloin... and was the incident tied to race?

A fine summer Wednesday, turned to a tragedy for Anh "Peng" Taylor of San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. The crime-stricken neighborhood has been one of the top-most dangerous in all of San Francisco, comparable only to the neighborhood of Mission and Bayview/Hunter's Point. Struggles of homelessness are clear and preposterously prevalent in this neighborhood amid the homelessness crisis of San Francisco and California in general; near guaranteed to show itself. Violent crime soars in this neighborhood seemingly as often as a shark attacking and a fish falling victim. Or, in this case, one person attacking and one falling victim. Daniel Cauich attacking, Taylor falling victim.

One neighborhood where entering feels suspenseful in a certain way although the wind blows lightly and the sun shines. But yet, suspense includes violent outliers of a thought that turn the suspenseful thought into a tragic reality. And while these "violent outliers" plague many across the nation, crossing just about anywhere, more attacks on those of the AAPI population categorize themselves as these violent outliers. This time, presenting a violent outlier of San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. An SFPD-known 35-year old murderer and robber with an ankle monitor...linked themselves to 5 robberies just in 2020, take down a senior aged AAPI person, and is only so far arrested once again. Though an unquestionably non-coincidental incident, it may unfortunately not be a surprise to see him walk the streets again soon in another ankle monitor. One example of many possibilities...and not all are good ones.

And to the question...race. Indeed, the crime-laden neighborhood of San Francisco's Tenderloin may have caused a violent outlier bound to affect Anh Taylor. Yet, why, of all bystanders, Anh Taylor? Peng is of Chinese Vietnamese descent, a 94-year old senior, and a 4 decade resident of San Francisco, evidencing the absurd increase in AAPI violence by showing it grew in significance - only affect to her now. Conclusively, there is definitely a chance that the attack was not racially motivated, but the chance is interestingly low. She was likely picked out of all other bystanders due to her Chinese-Vietnamese appearance and the fact that she is a senior. A true and utter dismay befalls me that a 94-year-old is bound to be stabbed as a 4-decade resident of a city, making an honest living and suffering the loss of her husband 2 years prior.