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Should Snatching an iPhone Be a Felony?
theodp writes "English comedian Russell Brand could be facing a felony conviction for snatching an iPhone from a would-be paparazzi and tossing it through a window. Singer/parolee Chris Brown also found himself in iPhone hot water after being charged with 'robbery by snatching' in a similar DIY-paparazzi-thwarting incident, which could be a misdemeanor or felony depending on the value placed on an iPhone. But in the world-of-crazy-pricing created by phone makers and wireless providers ($899 Nokia Windows Phone, anyone?), where the quoted price of an iPhone varies by a factor of 376 from the same company, should one really be charged with a felony for snatching an iPhone, especially when an iPad 2 can be had for $399 retail?"
This is no different than pick pocketing someone.
Usually stealing something directly from someone's person is a serious offense no matter how worthless it is.
Hell, if force is used it becomes robbery.
Nothing to see here, move along.
It's already a felony in basically every democratic city in the world to snatch whatever private property someone else owns, and tossing it away like that (out the window).
It's not yours, so you can't snatch it, it's that simple. Nothing complex about it.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Maybe. When I mean 'maybe' I mean maybe when I'm pissing off random thieves on the street by shoving my phone in their face repeatedly until I get a reaction.
Maybe then.
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
This is not about an iPhone being thrown around, it's about someone else's property being damaged in excess of $500 and that being a felony in Louisiana. Whoopdeedoo, big deal.
There is already too much crime. Civil liability should be enough. If it's unprovoked, simple battery might be in order. But felony?
Stop being so damn blood-thirsty. Breaking somebody's device because they shove it in your face should not ruin lives and occupations.
Shooting someone over a worthless piece of electronics. You must be Duhmerican!
I hate apple
Replace "iPhone" with "phone" or "mobile" or "smartphone" and absolutely nothing relevant changes.
That's it, though, isn't it? The story doesn't even involve Apple or its products save that it incidentally happened to be the brand of the specific stolen overpriced electronic toy. Hell, no iPad's were involved at all, and yet this click-bait summary managed to work them in anyhow all while mentioning that you can get one for less than the well-publicized $499!
When I clicked the check box to disable advertising I didn't expect the ads to reappear as articles. This is getting ridiculous.
Required reading for internet skeptics
I wish we could give a -1 Troll to articles themselves.
The interesting thing here is that the iPhone may have enough value to make this a felony, but his privacy has no value at all. Paparazzi can follow and harass him all they like and he can do nothing about it. Now you might not have sympathy for celebs, but they do the same thing to mothers of murder victims and others. A (British) paparazzi only today followed the mother of one of the dead Belgium schoolchildren (coach crash in Switzerland) to get 'sad mother' shot.
IMHO, throwing a paparazzi camera out of a window should have no more value than the damage to the phone. It was NOT THEFT, he can go get his phone, it was not assault, he did not hit the Paparazzi. It was not a mugging, no threat of violence was used. I don't even rank this the same as taking a normal persons phone and throwing it out the window because the Paparazzi was the person who came into close proximity and shoved the camea phone in his face.
He didn't go seek out the Paparazzi, the reason they're in conflict is entirely the Paparazzi actions.
So it's a misdemeanor since it's paparazzi, or possibly a 'jolley jape'.
I'm not an Apple fan, but an iPhone is not overpriced for the amount of quality design and hardware you get for it, and it's not a toy - it's a powerful portable computer that can do some impressive and useful things. A Tonka truck is an example of a toy, in case you've forgotten how to describe things without hyperbole.
I remember when Linux was good... too...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Avoid the theft/snatching charge.
Just punch the papparazi in the face and deal with the misdemeanor assault charge.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
OMG SO EVERYONE SHOULD GET IPADS INSTEAD OF PC's FOR WORK
that is what i see when i read your post....fact: ipad does not replace a pc. get this through your fanboy heads. its not a microsoft conspiracy either. I am a linux user.
-Noc
can i run visual studio or Siemens Step 7 on an ipad?
no? then bugger off while I write software for a million dollar industrial machine.
anyone can make a gimicky hardware toy, e.g OpenPandora, raspberry pi, apple ipad, but for real work cad (email and word dont count), I need a x86 Windows PC.
Where you work is not where almost everyone else in the world works, buddy. You can't replace the nations banking, trading, medical, and _____ infrastructure with iDevices, or Android devices, or :cough.crapberries:.
I don't know what you do, it really doesn't matter, but you are wrong. iPads are mainly used as consumer toys, not IT solutions (which is maybe 1-5% at this point).
Why would I want my democracy's rules to be determined by the same people who've proven they don't care about the rules?
Because perhaps they care more about the rules than some other people. Let me guess: you would have approved of taking away someone's right to vote for having smuggled slaves out of the South into Canada in pre-1860s United States.
Unless you're rich enough to write your own undemocratic laws
The following does not apply to phone theft or vandalism, but would you approve of taking away someone's right to vote for having violated an undemocratic law that was written by someone who was rich enough?