(Photo via Flickr/KevinKrejci).
(Photo via Flickr/KevinKrejci).

Well, that was fast. Gregory Gopman, a program manager Twitter hired to lead its AR/VR push, was fired the same week he started after TechCrunch surfaced a damning rant against San Francisco’s homeless population.

Gopman did not announce the news on Twitter.

Gopman is the founder of hackathon organizer AngelHack, where he was working in 2013 when the post went viral. He deleted the rant but TechCrunch preserved its contents. Here’s an excerpt:

Why the heart of our city has to be overrun by crazy, homeless, drug dealers, dropouts, and trash I have no clue. Each time I pass it my love affair with SF dies a little.

The difference is in other cosmopolitan cities, the lower part of society keep to themselves. They sell small trinkets, beg coyly, stay quiet, and generally stay out of your way. They realize it’s a privilege to be in the civilized part of town and view themselves as guests. And that’s okay.

Gopman calls the post “the stupidest mistake of my life” and says he “struggled with the shame that comes with letting down thousands of friends, family, and my startup peers.”

In the wake of the fallout from the incident, Gopman founded A Better San Francisco, a community organization to help the city address homelessness and other issues.

Twitter undoubtedly knew about Gopman’s history when he was hired. The post made international headlines in 2013. Gopman blames TechCrunch for his termination because the news site resurfaced the rant and reminded the public of its sordid contents.

“They wrote a smash piece on me last night and comms didn’t want to deal with it,” said Gopman in the Facebook thread.

Updated 2:17 p.m.: Gopman told TechCrunch his experience with Twitter was a positive one and “I still love them and wish them the best.”

(GeekWire reached out to Gopman for comment).

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