“New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton on Monday joined the family of a young woman who was murdered for her brand-new iPhone to support a proposal that would require smartphone manufacturers to install ‘kill switch’ technology in their devices to deter similar thefts,” Amber Sutherland and Bruce Golding report for The NY Post.
“Schneiderman said the industry has “dragged its feet” since officials and consumers began demanding action last year. He said the theft of smartphones ‘is so common a crime, it has its own name: They call it ‘Apple Picking,”” Sutherland and Golding report. “Bratton blamed smartphone manufacturers for not acting on their own, saying, “Let’s be quite clear about this, the elephant in the room is once again corporate greed. ‘Profit — that’s what this is all about,’ Bratton said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Bandaids, bromides and re-election campaigns – that’s really what this is all about. Why do your job when you can get a bunch of free publicity and look like you’re “doing something” by trotting out bereaved family members during a press conference and blaming an inanimate object and the ever-popular “corporate greed” for your failure to effectively reduce/deter crime? Better get to work on those “kill switches” for purses, necklaces, and Air Jordans, virtuous crime-fighters!
Sutherland and Golding report, “[Bratton contined], ‘You’re making 30, 40, maybe 50 billion dollars a year on new phone sales, all the apps that have to be recreated, they’re making a fortune on this and they don’t want to lose it. So shame on them.'”
MacDailyNews Take: By the sound of it, there isn’t enough shame, or clues, in the entire universe for the likes of the shameless, or clueless, Bill Bratton.
Sutherland and Golding report, “Murder victim Megan Boken, 23… was shot last year by a teenage thug in St. Louis, where she had attended college and returned for an alumni volleyball game. She was sitting in her car and using her phone to talk to her mom when Keith Esters walked up, demanded the device at gunpoint and fatally shot Boken twice when she resisted. Esters pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to life plus 20 years in the slammer.”
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, that mean old iPhone, jumping up and pulling the trigger on Keith Esters’ gun.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In the headline, replace “iPhone” with “purse” to see how NYC officials are trying to apply a bandaid without addressing the real problem: Scumbag murderers.
iPhones don’t kill people, murderers kill people.
To any law enforcement official who tries to blame Apple or inanimate objects for murder: The blood is all over your mollycoddling hands, you horrid hypocrites. Trotting out the victim’s bereaved family members to carry your water is reprehensible and despicable. Instead of parading before pandering news cameras and flapping your gums, how about you STFU and actually get to work deterring crime before it occurs?
Kill switch? Fine. Do it, by all means. (Apple already has done it, by the way.) But know this: The criminals will simply steal something else. And some poor souls will be murdered over whatever item (purse, jewelry, expensive sneakers, etc.) that’s being targeted that day. Those murders (the ones that cannot be linked to a company name and ridden for re-election/re-appointment publicity, of course) will be forgotten virtually immediately by anyone who didn’t directly know the victim, as usual, and nothing whatsoever will be done to address the root reasons why the crime occurred or to even begin to effectively deter such heinous crimes in the future.
Note to Eric Schneiderman, Bill Bratton, etc.: Bandaids don’t cure cancer.
If the family of the slain girl really wants to lobby for something meaningful, something that might actually give a murderous thief at least a moment of pause before deciding to take an innocent life, they should be calling for a real “Kill Switch,” one that when flipped, opens the trap door below the soon-to-be-dangling feet of Keith Esters during his public, nationally-televised hanging.
In addition, effective spending on education (for a change) and getting to these criminals early and working with them to turn their lives around before they graduate to murder and then decades of life on the public dime, wouldn’t be bad ideas either. Of course, these things would cost real money and require real leadership and aren’t nearly as easy as surfing the tears of victims’ families while tossing out bandaids and bromides.
Related articles:
New California bill demands smartphone ‘kill switch’ – February 11, 2014
San Francisco District Attorney to Apple: Enable Activation Lock on every iPhone by default – December 18, 2013
Attorneys General for New York and San Francisco strongly urge iPhone and iPad users to download iOS 7 – September 19, 2013
S.F. district attorney optimistic over Apple, Samsung progress on anti-theft tech for smartphones – July 23, 2013
U.S. State and federal governments test Apple’s iOS 7 activation lock feature – July 18, 2013
U.S. officials call on Apple, other mobile device makers to help stop smartphone theft – June 6, 2013
The New York Times tries to blame Apple for smartphone thefts – May 2, 2013
I’m always saddened by the complete lack of blaming the criminal. There seems to be endless reasons for crimes, but no one talks about the person who committed them. As if criminals are meteorites that just strike and that’s that.
It’s not the criminal’s fault.
A junkie gotta do what a junkie gotta do!
Hey all you one star voters – Can’t you understand the sarcasm!!!
Its like this. If its scarcest, then add “/s” to the end or smilie symbols. Its called brains and thought. Not knee jerk reaction.
Just saying.
The range of thought at MDN is a rainbow of apprehension, awe, mistrust, derision, delight and biblical condemnation all refracted through a mist of accusations, affirmations, revelations and denials. It’s a dance of life, a flirtation with truth blind to consequences in its mindless passion and insensible to the ineffable, infinite colours, responsive only to the constricted, diminished absorption spectrum.
Either that or it’s a bunch of middle aged investors and retired sorts crabby about their returns and inclined to take out their frustration on the less canny posters, and throw in their encrusted political views for good measure.
You meant ” if it’s sarcastic” right?
No kill switch would have prevented Ms. Boken from being shot. A kill switch would have to be activated by the user, some type of remote activation (which, BTW, Apple already has in its iOS software).
Unfortunately what likely killed Ms. Boken is that she resisted (obviously the murderer who shot her was the primary cause, but the story sounds like she was shot so he could get her phone away from her). If someone points a gun at you and demands your iPhone, give it to him. It’s replaceable, and pretty easily replaceable. If you can’t afford to replace it, oh well, you are still alive and can get another one down the road.
What will be a deterrent to people stealing iPhones is if the police take mobile phone theft seriously as the dangerous situation it is and track down and find those responsible, file charges, and convict them. Track the phone to the criminal, but most police departments place so little importance on assisting people whose mobile phones have been stolen that thieves believe they can get away with such thefts over and over and over.
I think it’s more that thieves wouldn’t bother stealing phones if they knew they’d be bricked shortly or within days of the crime. For this to work, every phone maker has to do it and it has to be advertised (a PSA would work).
For this to work, the thieves have to know that it would be a brick . . . BUT as theives go you can’t fix stupid – ergo they would still STEAL it.
The idea that thieves would reasonably “KNOW” this – comes from people (including the above politicians) watching television and movies in which those thieves appear near brilliant. 99% of real thieves, and especially iPhone type thieves, are just plain dumb and stupid! Their freedom, after theft doesn’t, last much longer than self gratification. That kind of stupid wouldn’t have a clue as to “bricking”.
I’ll gladly hand over my property while the gun is in my face.
The moment the thief turns his back to leave I’ll be planting a .40 cal hollow point in his back that hopefully results in his demise.
First of all, if someone has you at gun point, give up your phone or whatever, it’s only money, not worth loosing your life
Yes, the solution to the US gun situation is to give in to anyone who has a gun. The next solution is to have everyone have a gun and everyone will have to be the quickest draw in any dispute. Bring back the wild west because it is the very best solution to the world’s problems.
Guns are the problem. Learn from your record of gun deaths US citizens. It outstrips the entire world by far.
Guns are not the problem, easily-controlled minions like you are the problem.
I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery. – Thomas Jefferson
Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars. – Anonymous
Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. – Noah Webster
A government resting on the minority is an aristocracy, not a Republic, and could not be safe with a numerical and physical force against it, without a standing army, an enslaved press and a disarmed populace. – James Madison
That rifle on the wall of the labourer’s cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there. – George Orwell
you forgot one by Little Jimmy Madison:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Soo… what are YOU saying, exactly?
Who said anything about gun control? Any thinking moral society would be able to see the fallacy of ‘guns for everyone’ as moronic. Every single society on earth that has wide spread ownership of guns has the same opinion that guns create a safe society. How successful has that strategy worked out? Both the US and Israel are determined to use guns and violence to try to solve their problems. Education is the solution and teaching the constituents of peace through critical thinking and wisdom are the only answer. Short term solutions like guns are threatening the security and safety of the world. Think different.
So you’re against any Federal attempt to control, register or confiscate firearms of American citizens? Is that correct?
Did you read the part about education and learning other solutions? Prohibition didn’t work. The campaigns for non-smoking were largely effective. The campaigns to teach people not to drink and drive are taking hold. Can guns be far behind?
I read your words: “Who said anything about gun control? ”
Since you evaded my question with a direct response, I’ll repeat it: “So you’re against any Federal attempt to control, register or confiscate firearms of American citizens? Is that correct?”
Of course I am against forced gun control. The gun nuts would just dig in and threaten us all.
okay let me get this straight and make sure I understand you correctly: You’ve stated that you are against any Federal control, registration or confiscation of firearms held by American citizens?
(please answer just yes or no, because I am just a dumb ol’ hick, also I want to iCal your answer.)
Gun control is different than gun registration. Responsible gun owners should take pride in registering their legal firearms and those who cannot be licensed should fear the law enforcement agencies who should take those weapons from them with extreme prejudice. No guns for criminals.
no no, senor.
Education WOULD be a solution if you could fix stupid. The problem is that the drug addicts, thieves, thugs, gangs etc do not want to, and most cannot think “critically,” and especially with wisdom.
Gun manufacturers don’t have to flood the markets. How many gun shops do the people of the US need? Education can show people how to solve their problems without violence and support the police in getting the law breakers behind bars.
“standing army, an enslaved press and a disarmed populace”
A huge problem is that most of the 2nd Amendment activists have abandoned any pretense at caring about the first two items on that list. In fact, the percentage of people who are NRA members who are proponents of military expansion (and adventurism) and do so cheered on by media that is thoroughly toeing the government line is very high.
Result? You’ve got a standing army that could probably pacify the entire populace, when you include the militarized police force and the fact that even machine guns in the hands of a mob don’t stand a chance against helicopter gunships, jets, tanks, and weaponized drones. You’ve also got a populace that has been brainwashed into thinking most of those things are good, and thus your army of supposed freedom-defenders wouldn’t even be a majority of the citizens.
End game: Guns don’t save you once you’ve ceded your government to the corporation-owning plutocratic elite and let them turn your domestic police into a paramilitary force, and regularly deploys the military to engage in profit-enhancing actions around the globe. At that point, violence is just going to get you killed.
So much for guns defending freedom. By the time you need them, they won’t do any good. How about all you supposedly freedom-loving zealots get behind projects that are about taking our government back from the corporations. Campaign finance reform (Constitutional Amendment for publicly-funded elections), increase taxes on the rich, better education funding, increase voter access, reforming the criminal “justice” system so the prison industrial complex isn’t so powerful, arguing against the U.S. invading other countries, etc.
If the right-wing gun-lovers had fought corruption the way they fight to keep their guns, we might not be in the mess we’re in. Instead, too many totalitarians have used gun rights to distract and divide the people.
Your guns won’t save you when the SWAT team decides you’re a threat or a drone assassination is ordered against you.
RobG,
“…not worth loosing your life…”, it is losing. There is not a word in the English language as loosing; there is loosening. Loose is when something is not tight. Think lose, lost, losing; notice they all have one letter o.
Ok, was FindMy iPhone used to locate the murderer? Was it used to find the body? I would not want a kill switch. Why? I want to track the scum and remove them before they kill again!!! Why would you want the murdered to be able to kill the only thing tracking them? The remote kill is in FindMy iPhone which the family and police have access to.
Privacy advocates will scream, but I think we need a “locate” switch. So, a phone can be found regardless of find my iPhone settings. Wouldn’t that deter crime and get the guilty scumbags behind bars?
What an offensive political rant with little basis in reality!
In New York City, the crime rates have fallen to the lowest levels in history. The city has had more-or-less two police commissioners in the past twenty years or so: William Bratton and Raymond Kelly (with short stints of Safir and Kerik in between). These were chiefly responsible for the massive and consistent drop in crime in the city.
There is only ONE category in which the numbers have gone up, since recently: theft of mobile phones, especially smartphones. Anyone who has any intelligence can understand why: these devices are extremely easy to steal, and they are worth well over $200 on the black market: easy to steal, easy to fence.
By having the “kill switch” on all smartphones, these crime rates would soon fall in line with the other categories of crime, because unlike in some other cities in America, it seems that the police in NYC is actually doing their jobs effectively.
While there is no dispute that educating troubled youth before they “graduate” to murder is something that would certainly reduce these crimes, it is also not something that can be done right away, nor with immediate results, not to mention how much it might cost. While we’re doing exactly that, though, it might be smart to actually do what the commissioner says and require that the “Kill Switch” thing on all phones.
Remove the iPhones and the need for the criminals to steal things will NOT evaporate. The criminals will simply go back to stealing purses, wallets, watches, jewelry, etc.
That is precisely the misunderstanding I’m talking about. “Apple picking” is unique crime. The emergence of $500 devices that can be snatched from someone’s hand has created a breed of criminals that otherwise wouldn’t have developed.
Snatching a purse can easily bring you (next to) nothing. Same with necklace (which may be brass, rather than gold), or bracelet. An iPhone is an iPhone — the value is very clear, unambiguous and very high. Not to mention very easy to yank out of someone’s hand. Significantly higher risk to reward ratio than with any other similar snatching crime.
Always interesting thinking about the motivations of those who down vote reality. Must be the same idiots who argue against facts they don’t like because it might make them challenge their blindly-held opinions.
Wake up, morons! The best you can do is fool enough people into also believing your fantasies, leading them to join you in making choices that will fail horribly, affecting everyone. Thanks for nothing.
No, they won’t. Read Predrag’s post, and the point made will be seen valid. Criminality is about profitability. A purse or wallet isn’t worth jack compared to a smartphone, and statistics have shown these types of robberies have gone down. Jewelry has become easily traceable too. So half of MDN’s point is negated.
I am by no means excusing criminals who use murder in an attempt to get away with petty larceny; string ’em up as an example to other murderers. But don’t blindly equate all types of larceny; tech crimes are up because they make the criminal more money.
Since I can’t insert GIFs, I’ll ask MDN to imagine the “Slow Clap” scene from Citizen Kane as a proxy for my approval. One of your best takes ever.
I thoroughly disagree. One of the most pointless, politically tainted, useless and tasteless takes in a very long time.
Perhaps the government can mandate a kill switch for your inane commentary? Ya’ know, to keep us safe from stupidity.
The kill switch stops the person from taking the phone from being able to profit from it. It does nothing to the phone company being able to track it.
And, if you take the trouble to properly set up your iPhone, IS ALREADY THERE in iOS 7.
As long as broken iPhones and iPhones with bad ESN’s still fetch high prices, having a kill switch will not deter anything. The criminal can still profit quite handsomely off a dead iPhone.
The only thing a police-controlled kill-switch is going to do is embolden police brutality. Every cop in the land will have one if legislation like this goes through in the blue states. Don’t let them fool you with their anti-theft demagoguery. The kill-switch is for THEIR protection, not yours. Fight this sort of crap anytime it comes up!
“What video of me beatin’ the crap outta the plaintiff for jaywalking, Judge?”
“Case dismissed, the officer is excused to go get more doughnuts.”
The iPhone has such a high value that a kill switch will make no difference. When a broken iPhone sells for more than a fully functioning Android phone, how is a kill switch going to make it less attractive? It’s not. iPhones are in a class by themselves.
Btw … Had Megan just given up her phone she would probably still be alive. No object is worth more than your life.
sorry but that is more like a 50/50 thing. When females get kidnapped and the kidnapper is heading out of town, the law will tell you (unofficially of course) to escape. If you get out of town, you will likely end up dead.
So, I decided to Google to find out more information about this crime. According to a CBS report given at the time of the sentencing, in the guilty plea, Esters (the murderer) says it wasn’t Boken’s (victim) cell phone that he wanted but rather her cash and other property. When she struggled, he shot her. The point is that this unfortunate murder wasn’t even about the cell phone at all.
Truth hardly matters to a politician using and parading a tragedy for their own aggrandizement. Thanks for the clarification on what happened, Dale.
You want to read about a New York murder? Look up the murder of Kitty Genovese, a very sad commentary on human nature.
Well if they required a real kill switch that caused the iPhone to explode next to the criminals head that might help.
It’s impossible to make any kind of statement on this without sounding callous, but MDN’s take is precisely right. Exactly what on the planet could any smart phone manufacturer have done that would’ve prevented this piece of human filth from murdering another human being for a material possession? Because this is a horrific tragedy that no one should ever have to endure doesn’t mean that people get a free license to make up whatever egregiously wrong bullshit they want in order to drive home some ill-defined point regarding it was to blame. The NRA has more blame in this situation than Apple or any smart phone manufacturer ever will.
Give me a fkng break! Let’s outfit cars with electrocution devices to thwart hijacking, and let’s make exploding jewelry in the event of theft, and let’s make all Rolexes self-destruct when touched by a thief! Good grief! Liberalism at its worst! Blame everything or everyone for your own misfortune and punish everyone else to ease your pain! WTF!
He( the thug) had the right to bear arms?
Why are the gun laws in the US such a joke?
And the likelihood that the devil spawn was using a legally registered gun is………..?
This is really sad, but a super strange solution…
How is a kill switch going to deter the violence of the crime? If the hood wants the phone, and victim, kills the phone by the switch, the victim stills gets a pummeling anyway, if you want apply this logic to all purse snatches, result no effect and the violence of the crime continues! Grow Commissioner Bratton, take a lesson from NYPD TV Commissioner Reagan, or Tom Selleck!
New York. City of Savages.
Where you from? City of dimwits?
An even better solution would be to make it a capital crime. That will probably eventually lead to a reduction of other crimes too.
I wanted to add that, giving government control of when they can “kill” our phones is the worst idea ever.
The real target should be gun lobby that allows easy access to guns even for murderers!😱👎
It’s amazing that we’re talking about controls on a phone when we should be discussing controls on guns. It shows you how far off the rails this country has gone. A gunman steals a phone and because the politicians are afraid of getting tough with the gun lobby they go after cell phones.
I’m usually a MDN commenter proponent. This one not. It’s not Apple blocking the kill switch, it’s the carriers wanting to sell more phones and charging monthly insurance.
You should be 100% behind this move. OF COURSE, there should be something done about crime, and this is a wholesale way to impact one crime that is widespread.
Air-Evac these cell phone thieves to the CDC or Clinical Research Lab, Brooks AFB Texas, examine their brains and find out what is causing this violent epidemic.
The same arguments have been made for guns. Nothing changes.
Has everyone missed a key point? iOS 7 effectively has a kill switch. Once you register the phone and enter a passcode, the iPhone/iPad can not be repurposed unless the original code is entered. Attempting to get around this will “brick” the device. So only the clueless would rob someone of a new iPhone…