Man jumped by thieves in broad daylight after buying Apple iPhone 6 in Baltimore mall

10 years ago

“Just minutes after buying an iPhone 6, thieves attack a man in Towson,” Jessica Kartalija reports for CBS Baltimore. “He camped out all night to get his hands on the new phone.
‘I was like I have to get it; I was like I have to have the 6 Plus,’ said Braden Myers. ‘I wanted the Plus, too.'”

“But Myers never imagined that within minutes of buying one at Towson Town Center… ‘A fist straight across my face into my jaw, knocking me down on the ground. And then him grabbing my phone and trying to rip it out of my hand. I held onto it with all my might,’ Myers said,” Kartalija reports. “It happened in broad daylight. When people ran to help, the thieves took off.”

“Myers was lucky. Last year, more than 1.5 million Americans had their smartphones stolen – many of the thefts were violent,” Kartalija reports. “Police say it’s always a good idea to stay alert, and, if possible, walk around with your cell phone in a purse or your pocket.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, he was lucky. He only got assaulted. Just a fist to the jaw.

Ah, the insidiousness of diminished expectations.

So, law-abiding citizens, don’t use your iPhone in public, just hide it away and cower in fear, because our society is broken to the point that the so-called authorities cannot or will not properly address the root issues that force law-abiding taxpaying citizens to have their unalienable right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness violated.

Criminals who assault others and attempt to steal their property should be hit with responses that strongly dissuade them from even contemplating, much less committing such crimes in the future.

Authorities who suggest that law-abiding citizens curtail what is perfectly acceptable behavior — such as using an electronic device, or wearing a watch, or carrying a purse, or walking in new sneakers in public — in order to avoid being assaulted in broad daylight need to take a huge step back and, for a change, consider the forest for the trees. “By using your iPhone in public, he asked to be assaulted” is the equivalent of saying “by dressing like that, she asked to be raped.”

The authorities have, in many cases, simply given up. Law-abiding taxpayers should demand more. Much more.

Yes, an iPhone “kill switch” is nice. Yes, it even protects iPhone users from those criminals who happen to know that Activation Lock exists. Criminals who don’t, well, good luck with that. Activation Lock is a bandaid trying to cover over cancer. It does nothing to mitigate the root causes of crime. The criminals will simply steal something else in order to feed their illegal drug habits or whatever caused them to commit a crime by assaulting/robbing someone.

iPhone thefts generate press. District attorneys, attorneys general, and state senators don’t like that kind of press. It’s not conducive to their job security. Transferring the crime from iPhones to pickpocketing, purse snatchings, etc. doesn’t generate the same press. Hence the calls for “smartphone kill switches” in election/appointment years.

Impinging the rights of citizens in order to “reduce” (read: transfer and hide) crime is wrong. Impinge the criminals to the point where crime is actually reduced and people who are supposed to be free can freely use their property in public.

Big ideas, not little. Steve Jobs, not Michael Dell.