A Chicago surgeon was violently-attacked and badly injured while attending the Dreamforce Convention in San Francisco, despite the city’s leaders being praised for getting a handle on crime.
Dr. Paramjit Chopra, 62, was among 40,000 people who jetted to the Bay Area in mid-September for Salesforce’s annual event when he was jumped by an unknown person walking in the downtown area.
Chopra, an endovascular surgeon, said the man rushed at him and slammed him on the pavement so hard that he thought his spine had been broken
‘He just launched me up,’ Dr. Chopra told ABC7 Bay Area. ‘All I remember is hitting that floor hard, and a searing pain goes through my back.’
Just last week, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff slammed San Francisco officials for having the power to clean up the streets but not doing enough year-round.
Benioff had threatened to pull the annual event from San Francisco if officials didn’t get a handle on crime and open drug-dealing.
‘We put a lot of pressure on the city this year. It looks great. It’s very safe right now. We’re moving in the right direction,’ Benioff said as the AI conference kicked off.
Dr. Paramjit Chopra, 62, was among 40,000 people who jetted to the Bay Area in mid-September for Salesforce’s annual event when he was jumped by an unknown person
Just last week, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff slammed San Francisco officials for having the power to clean up the streets but not doing enough year-round
Dr. Chopra in a picture from the Dreamforce Convention
Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco with the city’s tallest skyscraper named after the firm. Any withdrawal from the City by the Bay would strike another huge blow against its ailing downtown, which has seen multiple retailers pull out over the last year.
Chopra said that he was walking just blocks from the convention center where the conference was held when he was attacked in the South of Market neighborhood.
He described the September 11 assault as terrifying and told the local outlet that it’s going to stay with him for the rest of his life.
‘This guy, I remember those eyes, actually. It’s a little nightmarish for me, and I woke up with one last night, and I remember those eyes,’ he recounted.
‘I see this face. I don’t even have time to recognize the face. Boom,’ he said.
Even more terrifying, the doctor said his head nearly missed a lamp post on the street when he was tackled. He also landed feet away from a passing bus.
The unidentified suspect took off without saying anything and without taking anything, Chopra said.
The doctor pointed to the attack as a problem with the current system.
‘I don’t hold it against the city, but we’re the richest country in the world. C’mon. We’ve got to be able to have this kind of stuff sorted out,’ he said.
Chopra – a Sikh who wears a turban – wondered if the attack was racially motivated.
‘The feeling I got was he saw me from a distance. He had premeditated this and came at me,’ the surgeon said. He spent the remainder of the trip on pain meds.
Dr. Chopra was in town for the Dreamforce Convention, put on by Salesforce
A homeless woman is seen in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District
Chopra has been an endovascular surgeon for some 30 years
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Last week, Benioff posted on the social media platform X, saying: ‘San Francisco has been incredibly clean, beautiful, and safe for the last 3 days of Dreamforce.
‘It is great that the city is able to put its best foot forward for this major event that brings in 40K people from around the world, and $80M to the economy.
‘It is important to ask why the city cannot be this clean and safe every single day?’
Benioff had previously warned that the company could pull the large scale convention from the city due to the ongoing problems it is facing.
He told The San Francisco Chronicle: ‘If this Dreamforce is impacted by the current situation with homelessness and drug use it may be the last Dreamforce.’
Mayor London Breed responded and refuted Benioff’s claim that Dreamforce made the city’s transformation possible.
She told ABC7 News: ‘It’s not just because of Dreamforce. There are other conventions. This is what we do for every convention that comes to SF.
‘My pushback is San Francisco changing. Things are getting better.’
Despite this, Mayor Breed did concede that some areas of the city, particularly the Tenderloin and South of Market, did still present challenges:
‘Part of what I’m doing is not pointing the finger at anyone but rolling up my sleeves and taking responsibility and do everything we can to address those issues.
‘We are aggressively doing everything we can. And over time, we will see some improvements. In fact, I think they are already happening.’
Just last week, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff slammed San Francisco officials for having the power to clean up the streets but not doing enough year-round
‘It is important to ask why the city cannot be this clean and safe every single day?’ Benioff (pictured right) said in a recent interview
Mayor London Breed speaks during the celebration of the 9th Annual Chinatown Night Out in San Francisco, California, United States on September 6, 2023
San Francisco has struggled for years with rampant fentanyl use and fatal overdoses, and is on pace for its deadliest year yet.
In the first five months of 2023, reports show there were 346 overdose deaths in the city – an increase of more than 40 percent from the same period in 2022.
Economists have warned the city is spiraling into an ‘urban doom loop’ – a cycle of interconnected trends and forces that send cities into economic and social ruin.
Over the past few months, dozens of retailers announced they would be vacating the downtown area of the city.
Retail stalwart Old Navy announced they would be shuttering their flagship store in the area last month, becoming the latest chain to exit the city.
Nordstrom also announced they would be closing all of their locations in the city.
It occupied half of the former Westfield San Francisco Center. Westfield has since pulled out of managing the glitzy mall, which remains open, but which has become increasingly desolate – sparking fears it will be the next big name to shutter.
Businesses which have left, or plan to leave, San Francisco in recent months
The company said that due to the ‘changing dynamics’ of San Francisco it would be shuttering all remaining stores in the next few months.
In April, Whole Foods announced it was closing all their locations, with Anthropologie and Office Depot having also made the same decisions.
These stores joined the growing list of stores that have abandoned the coastal city, including H&M, Marshall’s, Gap and Banana Republic.
