Someone attacked Sam Altman's home. Let that sink in for a second.

Whatever your feelings about OpenAI's CEO — and San Francisco has a lot of feelings about him — this marks a genuinely alarming escalation. Anti-tech sentiment has been a fixture of Bay Area culture for years, from protest signs at Google bus stops to fiery op-eds about displacement. But we've crossed a line from rhetoric to physical danger, and that should concern everyone regardless of where they stand on AI.

As one local put it dryly: "I know AI is hot right now, but this is ridiculous."

Look, this publication has no interest in carrying water for Big Tech. We've been critical of the cozy relationships between city government and tech giants, of the tax breaks and sweetheart deals that come at taxpayers' expense, of the broken promises about housing and community investment. Fair game — all of it.

But here's what we're not going to do: shrug when political grievances manifest as attacks on someone's home. That's not activism. That's not accountability. That's crime. And if San Francisco can't draw a bright line between legitimate criticism of powerful people and vigilante violence, we have a much bigger problem than any chatbot could cause.

The online reaction has been revealing. Comments sections are overflowing with people essentially saying Altman had it coming, pointing to various personal controversies and corporate misdeeds as though they constitute justification. They don't. You don't get to assault people because you disagree with their business model or despise their character.

Here's the fiscal angle nobody's talking about: tech companies are now reportedly preparing for more physical threats. That means more private security, more gated compounds, more separation between the industry and the city it supposedly calls home. Every act of violence makes San Francisco less attractive to the companies that — love them or hate them — fund a massive chunk of our tax base. We're literally threatening our own revenue.

The liberty-minded position here is straightforward. Protest vigorously. Criticize loudly. Vote accordingly. Demand accountability through legal and democratic channels. But the moment you show up at someone's house with violent intent, you've forfeited the moral high ground — and made the rest of us less safe in the process.

San Francisco can be both skeptical of Big Tech and civilized. We used to know the difference.