Smartphones Driving Violent Crime Across US 204
alphadogg writes "Incidents of cellphone theft have been rising for several years and are fast becoming an epidemic. IDG News Service collected data on serious crimes in San Francisco from November to April and recorded 579 thefts of cellphones or tablets, accounting for 41 percent of all serious crime. In just over half the incidents, victims were punched, kicked or otherwise physically intimidated for their phones, and in a quarter of robberies, users were threatened with guns or knives. This isn't just happening in tech-loving San Francisco, either. The picture is similar across the United States. A big reason for such thefts, until recently, is that there had been little to stop someone using a stolen cellphone. Reacting to pressure from law enforcement and regulators, the U.S.'s largest cellphone carriers agreed early last year to establish a database of stolen cellphones."
Stupid situation (Score:5, Insightful)
Such a stupid situation that could be solved easily.
If the carriers had a service for the owner to remotely brick and unbrick the phone as well as transfer ownership (with the ability to brick) to another person this would be a non-issue.
It's a service that makes owning the phone more valuable to the end-user; yet, it's an externality to the phone companies. Rather than provide the best possible product and services, they do the barest minimum and reap unjustly high profits. They can do this because they operate out of the normal reach of capitalism - the state-sponsored monopoly. With a stranglehold on public property and the blessings of their government lawmakers, they can do pretty-much whatever they want. Capitalism has failed, therefore we need more government regulation.
That should greatly shorten this discussion. Did I miss any memes?
Re:Serious crime? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, cell phone theft is not serious crime. Serious crime is genocide, murder, rape, molesting children, kidnapping, torture, etc.
Sticking a gun in somebody's face, threatening them with a knife, or beating them are serious crimes. The others you listed are more serious but this isn't some case of some iPhanboi having an emotional breakdown because his iToys were stolen, if you read TFA you'd notice a great mean of these robberies are armed, involve physical violence, or the direct threat of it. Maybe that isn't "serious" where you come from, but if it isn't, you have my sympathies. Let me know if you need me to recommend a good realtor.
Naivete, Stupidity, Etc. (Score:3, Insightful)
In the 70's (Score:4, Insightful)
As I write whenever the topic of smartphone muggings come up:
In the 70's, people were held up for their watch and cash (remember cash?). Different decade, different stuff.
YOU are missing the big picture (Score:3, Insightful)
The modern world is complicated. You don't notice just how complicated it is because your brain is well-adapted to it. You are plenty intelligent enough to manage the level of complexity necessary for a prosperous middle-class life, so much so that you don't even realize just how much stuff you have to know and figure out in order to live well. You are beyond this level of complexity, and could probably handle even more.
However, there is a large segment of the population that are not so intelligent, and never will be. A combination of bad genetics and bad upbringing have limited their mental capacity. Long ago, when basically everyone was a farmer, this was not a problem...farming back then wasn't so complicated and pretty much anyone could handle it. But today it is a different story.
We have created, and are continuing to create, a world that makes flourishing (as opposed to barely surviving) too intellectually challenging for most people.
Those who get the short end of this stick do not think like you. They can't. They will never be able to make and run a successful business like you can, nor will they even be able to get a mental handle on what their legitimate options really are. They may attempt to work no-brain jobs, and the few of them that manage to keep such jobs will live a sub-poverty-level existence while surrounded by completely unobtainable symbols of wealth. Eventually, envy and frustration (or surprising desperate circumstances) will get the better of them and they will resort to the one thing they can figure out how to do: mugging you.
That is the reality, and posting career-counseling on blogs that are typically not even read by these people won't change that a bit.
Here is how this will play out, over the next several decades:
This problem will continue to get worse, resulting in more tax money spent on law enforcement, more of the maladjusts winding up in prisons (and there will be plenty, because we will build them). There, their needs will be completely met by your tax dollars, but they will be denied opportunities to breed, which is the only factor that will keep the problem from exploding into a bloody revolution.
Eventually, over the long haul, this self-selection will drive humanity as a whole to evolve more intelligence, which is a good thing. But the selection process is going to be expensive and is really going to suck for those who don't make the cut.