Sometimes a theft is just a theft. But not when the item being stolen is Google Glass, and especially not when the victim is a tech writer in San Francisco.
Kyle Russell, Business Insider:
On Friday night, I was assaulted while walking down the sidewalk in the Mission District of San Francisco.
A colleague and I had just finished covering a march in protest of a Google employee who had recently evicted several tenants after buying and moving into a home in the area…
The aforementioned colleague and I were on our way to the 16th Street BART station — I’ll note that I wasn’t using any device at the time — when a person put their hand on my face and yelled, “Glass!”
In an instant the person was sprinting away, Google Glass in hand.
I ran after, through traffic, to the corner of the opposite block. The person pivoted, shifting their weight to put all of their momentum into an overhand swing. The Google Glass smashed into the ground, and they ran in another direction.
The thief and vandal hasn’t been caught. And to young Mr. Russels’s surprise, people on Twitter haven’t been very nice about it:
Ahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahaha RT @kylebrussell: Just had Glass torn off my face and smashed on the ground in the Mission
— creeping horror (@redfivetwo) April 12, 2014
.@kylebrussell I’m going to shove your pathetic nerd body into a locker.
— creeping horror (@redfivetwo) April 12, 2014
Google Glass looks dumb. People who pay their own money for it are suckers. By all means, point and laugh at them. Tell them to turn the damn things off, because you don’t want to be a part of the little movie they’re making about themselves and their fun new toy.
But that doesn’t give you license to steal other people’s property and destroy it. No matter how silly that property looks. No matter how pumped up with class-war-fueled righteous indignation you feel. If you want revenge on people who spend their money in ways you find frivolous, then earn your own money and spend it however you want.
Unless you’re too stupid and/or lazy to do that? Yeah, you probably are. If you had the wherewithall to do anything for yourself, you wouldn’t have become a Marxist. Never mind.
In the meantime, young Mr. Russell, don’t take it personally that people on the Internet are dicks to you. Hell, they’ll heckle a guy who gets hit by a car and crippled for life. If they decide they don’t like you, then you don’t qualify as a person to them. Just live your life as best as you can, and laugh at the little creeps who jump up to nip at your ankles. It’s the best revenge.
And if that revenge involves wearing dumb-looking glasses… Hey, last time I checked, this was still America. Even in San Francisco.