Chicago surgeon, 62, was attacked and badly injured while attending Dreamforce Convention in San Francisco – despite city leaders being praised for ‘cleaning up the streets’

A Chicago surgeon was violently attacked and seriously 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 one of 40,000 people flying into the Bay Area for Salesforce’s annual event in mid-September when he was jumped by an unknown person walking through downtown.

Chopra, an endovascular surgeon, said the man charged at him and slammed him into the pavement so hard he thought his spine was broken.

“He just launched me,” Dr. Chopra to ABC7 Bay Area. “All I remember is hitting the floor hard and a searing pain shooting through my back.”

Just last week, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff blasted San Francisco officials for having the power to clean the streets but not doing enough throughout the year.

Benioff had threatened to pull the annual event from San Francisco if officials did not get a handle on crime and open drug trafficking.

‘We have put a lot of pressure on the city this year. It looks good. It’s very safe now. We are moving in the right direction,” Benioff said as the AI ​​conference kicked off.

Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco and the city’s tallest skyscraper is named after the company. Any withdrawal from the City by the Bay would be another huge blow to the ailing downtown, where several retailers have withdrawn in the past year.

Chopra said he was just blocks from the convention center where the conference was being held when he was attacked in the South of Market neighborhood.

He described the September 11 attack as terrifying and told the local newspaper that it will stay with him for the rest of his life.

“This guy, I actually remember those eyes. It’s a bit of a nightmare for me, and I woke up with it last night, and I remember those eyes,” he said.

‘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 almost missed a street lamppost when he was tackled. He also landed some distance from a passing bus.

The unknown suspect left without saying anything and without taking anything, Chopra said.

The doctor pointed to the attack as a problem with the current system.

‘I’m not talking against the city, but we are the richest country in the world. Come on. We need to be able to get these things sorted out,” he said.

Chopra – a Sikh who wears a turban – questioned whether the attack was racially motivated.

‘The feeling I got was that he saw me from a distance. He had done this with premeditation and came at me,” the surgeon said. He spent the rest of the trip on painkillers.

Last week, Benioff posted on the social media platform

“It’s great that the city can put its best foot forward for this major event that brings 40,000 people from all over the world and $80 million to the economy.

“It’s important to ask yourself why can’t the city be this clean and safe every day?”

Benioff had previously warned that the company could pull the large-scale convention from the city due to the ongoing problems it faces.

He told The San Francisco Chronicle: ‘If this Dreamforce is affected by the current situation with homelessness and drug use, it could be the last Dreamforce.’

Mayor London Breed responded, refuting Benioff’s claim that Dreamforce enabled the city’s transformation.

She said ABC7 News: ‘It’s not just because of Dreamforce. There are other treaties. This is what we do for every convention that comes to SF.

“My counterpoint is that San Francisco is changing. It’s getting better and better.’

Despite this, Mayor Breed admitted that some parts of the city, particularly the Tenderloin and South of Market, still presented challenges:

“Part of what I do is not pointing fingers, but rolling up my sleeves, taking responsibility and doing whatever I can to address those issues.

“We’re aggressively doing everything we can. And over time we will see some improvements. In fact, I think they are already happening.”

San Francisco has struggled with rampant fentanyl use and fatal overdoses for years, and is on track for its deadliest year yet.

Reports show that there were 346 overdose deaths in the city in the first five months of 2023 – an increase of more than 40 percent from the same period in 2022.

Economists have warned that the city is entering an ‘urban doom loop’ – a cycle of interconnected trends and forces that are plunging cities into economic and social ruin.

In recent months, dozens of retailers announced they would be leaving the city’s downtown core.

Stout retailer Old Navy announced last month that it would close its flagship store in the area, becoming the latest chain to leave town.

Nordstrom also announced that they would be closing all of their locations in the city.

It occupied half of the former Westfield San Francisco Center. Westfield has since withdrawn from management of the glitzy shopping centre, which is still open but has become increasingly derelict, sparking fears it could be the next big name to close.

The company said it would close all remaining stores in the coming months due to San Francisco’s “changing dynamics.”

In April, Whole Foods announced it would close all of their locations, with Anthropologie and Office Depot also making the same decisions.

These stores joined the growing list of stores that have left the coastal city, including H&M, Marshall’s, Gap and Banana Republic.