UPDATE: An earlier version of this article sported the title “We Now Have a Report of a Google Glass Hate Crime.” Of course I wasn’t seriously giving it the gravity of a true hate crime. It was a bit tongue-in-cheek. I was just emphasizing the fact that the Google Glass explorers community considers themselves as such–a community, or a group. It’s just a comment on the fact that the offenders pretty much said “you people are ruining our city.” If it came off as insensitive, that was not my intention.
A San Francisco woman claims that she was assaulted and robbed inside an area bar by some Google Glass haters. Sarah Slocum says she was “verbally and physically asaulted and robbed last night in the city” by a couple of individuals who were none-too-happy with her wearable tech.
“I have video of one of the girls saying that ‘we are destroying the city’ and video of the guy ripping them off my face,” she says on a Facebook post.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the alleged assault took place in the city’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Although Slocum says that she filed a police report, the Chronicle quotes officials who say they are unaware of any incident.
“The only thing that I got back that night was the glass. I filed a police report yesterday but the police have not found the people or guy that did it or my stuff. I don’t plan on getting anything back. It happened at this bar called Molotov between Ashbury and Valencia and was started by these two girls who acted like they owned the place and must go there regularly because lots of their friends or the locals there started *haighting* too and backing them up,” says Slocum.
“These…people were just bitter, ugly, nasty, angry, jealous, confused and threatened people and this was apparently their hive.”
Google recently put out a nice little guide to not being a Glasshole–you know, a Google Glass-wearing asshole.
“Respect others and if they have questions about Glass don’t get snappy. Be polite and explain what Glass does and remember, a quick demo can go a long way. In places where cell phone cameras aren’t allowed, the same rules will apply to Glass. If you’re asked to turn your phone off, turn Glass off as well. Breaking the rules or being rude will not get businesses excited about Glass and will ruin it for other Explorers,” explains Google.
Maybe they need to come out with some suggestions for how to deal with Google Glass from the other side–”don’t rip them off someone’s face” or something like that. You know, keep it simple.
“I hope this doesn’t deter anyone from getting Google Glass. Usually the experience is 180 degrees different, and right before this happened I was showing one of the normal, excited and curious individuals there how it works, letting them try it on and demonstrating it for them. This is the experience 95% of the time,” she says.
Right now, this is just a report. But there’s really no reason to believe that Slocum would just make all of this up and open herself up to scrutiny and possible criticism (it’s the internet after all). Sure, we’ve seen some Google Glass explorers go to some extreme lengths to ride the publicity wave before, but it looks like Slocum just wants to get this story out there.
She recently filmed an interview with a local news station that will air tonight.
I’m sure any video Slocum can pull off her Glass will help. Imagine that–if Google Glass wound up capturing damning video of a crime–a crime spurred on by a hatred for Google Glass.
Image via lawrencegs, Flickr