Editing Zizians (section)

===Curtis Lind===
[[File:Caleb 2022.webp|thumb|The ''Caleb'' at [[Pillar Point Harbor]] in May 2022, the same month it sunk<ref>{{Cite web |last=Howell |first=August |date=2022-05-31 |title=Tugboat sinks in Pillar Point Harbor |url=https://www.coastsidenews.com/news/tugboat-sinks-in-pillar-point-harbor/article_02e7f2ab-77d8-569b-82e1-b5b8f2d28f3f.html |access-date=2025-09-02 |website=Coastside News |language=en}}</ref>]]
In 2017, Ziz LaSota began recruiting a "Rationalist Fleet" of followers to live on boats on the ocean, including a [[World War II]]-era tugboat, built as the ''Panameta'' and subsequently renamed ''Caleb'', that they sailed from Alaska to California.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sayers |first=Ken W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=13lSEQAAQBAJ&dq=panameta&pg=PA74 |title=U.S. Navy Service Craft: A History and Directory from World War I to Today |date=2025-03-26 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-5363-1 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Beam-NYT-2025" /><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Cassidy |first1=Megan |last2=Barba |first2=Michael |last3=Gafni |first3=Matthias |title='Rationalist Fleet': Before killings linked to fringe group, 'Ziz' led fateful tugboat voyage to California |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/ziz-rationalist-killings-tugboat-20138991.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250823170831/https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/ziz-rationalist-killings-tugboat-20138991.php |archive-date=August 23, 2025 |access-date=2025-09-02 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |language=en |url-status=live }}</ref> After struggling with the upkeep of the tugboat they had been living on, which they eventually abandoned, some members of the Zizians opted to move into trailers and converted box trucks.<ref name="Ratliff-20253" /> '''Curtis Lind'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->, who docked a boat in the same harbor as the group, offered to let them move into a lot he owned in [[Vallejo, California]].<ref name="Ratliff-20253" /> During the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], group members allegedly stopped paying rent and placed locks on trailers meant for other tenants. When Lind sued the group for back rent, one member allegedly brandished a knife, causing Lind to start carrying a pistol.<ref name="Barba-2025"/>

On November 15, 2022, Lind, then 80, was, according to his own account, attacked by a group of people after being called in to fix a water leak. He said he was struck in the head, stabbed repeatedly (leaving "about 50" puncture wounds), and cut severely on the back of his neck ("like somebody was trying to cut my head off").<ref name="Barba-2025"/> He was left impaled by a samurai sword, and his right eye was punctured three times, blinding him in that eye.<ref name="Barba-2025"/><ref name="Gafni-2025"/> After he regained consciousness, he shot two of those involved in the altercation, killing 31-year-old Emma Borhanian and wounding the other. Both had been arrested alongside LaSota at a 2019 protest against an event organized by the [[Center for Applied Rationality]] (CFAR), and Borhanian had reported LaSota's 2022 alleged drowning. Two of Lind's alleged attackers were charged with Borhanian's murder under the theory that their actions precipitated Lind's self-defense, under [[Felony murder rule in California|California's felony murder rule]]. Their trial has been scheduled for March 3, 2026.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bammer |first=Richard |date=2025-10-02 |title=Trial date for Zizian pair charged with murder rescheduled for early March |url=https://www.thereporter.com/2025/10/02/trial-date-for-zizian-pair-charged-with-murder-rescheduled-for-early-march/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20251005024812/https://www.thereporter.com/2025/10/02/trial-date-for-zizian-pair-charged-with-murder-rescheduled-for-early-march/ |archive-date=2025-10-05 |access-date=2025-10-28 |website=www.thereporter.com |language=en-US}}</ref> LaSota was contacted by police during the investigation but was not charged.<ref name="Barba-2025"/>

On January 17, 2025, three days before [[#David Maland|a shootout with U.S. Border Patrol officers on the east coast]], Lind was stabbed to death and had his throat slit outside his gated property in Vallejo.<ref name="Gafni-2025"/> Lind had been expected to be an important witness in the trial of the alleged attackers for the Borhanian felony murder charge, and stopping him from testifying was alleged as the motive for his killing. Prosecutors charged a 22-year-old data scientist with Lind's murder.{{ r | WSJ_2025-02-22}} The accused dictated to reporters a statement addressed to the well-known rationalist thought leader [[Eliezer Yudkowsky]], saying that he was a follower of Yudkowsky but is not anymore.<ref name="Cassidy-2025"/> Yudkowsky refused to read the statement and said, "Audience should not be a reward for crime."<ref name="Cassidy-2025">{{Cite web |last1=Cassidy |first1=Megan |last2=Gafni |first2=Matthias |last3=Barba |first3=Michael |date=February 8, 2025 |title='Death upon death': Defendant in killing tied to cult-like 'Zizian' group dictates 1,500-word letter over jail phone |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/ziz-zizians-rationalism-group-20149075.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250208132157/https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/ziz-zizians-rationalism-group-20149075.php#selection-1265.0-1265.116 |archive-date=February 8, 2025 |access-date=February 20, 2025 |website=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]}}</ref>