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The NY Times reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs called the family of Christopher Rose, the 15 year-old who was killed over an iPod this past weekend. Apparently one of Jobs's assistants called a NY Times reporter to get the Rose family's phone number, and Jobs called Errol Rose, the father who lived with Christopher in Pennsylvania specifically to shield him from NYC's violence. Jobs expressed his sympathy and told Rose "if there is anything - anything - anything he could do, to not be afraid to call him." Rose has also been incredibly eloquent, and mournful, about the situation on the streets that led to his son's death:
"We live in a world which is changing rapidly. We have the technology that can give us the iPod and everything else, but it's not all these things. We have to work on the minds and the hearts. We're failing these kids. We're not loving them like we're supposed to."Darran Samuel, 16 years old, is still being held for the murder.
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Not enough love? Sure. An unequal and unjust distribution of resources in our country? More likely. How about Steve Jobs donating money to help improve the economic and educational standing of low-income, inner-city neighborhoods? There's a start. And then hugs all around.
Just to make clear, the quote is from the father of the victim, not Jobs. If anything, I'd hope Apple would create a scholarship program or something as a start.
Don't even get me started about how I might try to understand, realize, or whatever idiotic word others might use, how poverty, bad home lives, abuse, drugs, dark, empty streets,and blah, blah, blah, might lead others to oh, let's see, kill someone for their iPod. Punks are punks are punks. And Steve Jobs had nothing to do with it.
Sure, blame everyone else and everything else (how dare that young boy who was killed have the nerve to be enjoying HIS iPod!). "We" are not at fault. The killer punk is. May he rot or fry in jail.
Hey, Mayor, if the New York Police Department is reported to have stated that it's iPods that are causing crime to rise on subways (see 7online.com), then I'd have an independent investigation into the intelligence level of the NYPD for thinking that an inanimate object is responsible.
Steve Jobs doesn't owe anyone anything. I'd hardly call an iPod a necessary item for anyone--poor or not poor. This has more to do with old-fashioned teenage bullying and fighting. The presence of the knife was there because of socio-economic environment (like the presence of shotguns in backwoods towns). The iPod-lust was just pure human greed.
There is something that Jobs could do since he has so much influence in the computer field--speak out about all those video games that make aggression and violence so much easier for some many kids.
Want to know more? Just go to google and type in "video games" "aggression" "children" .
Video games develop ones impulses--a violent game quite simply develops violent impulses.
Are you kidding me? If we start blaming video games, then no one can be held accountable. I doubt that these kids killed for an iPod because of a "video game." And by the way, all of my years of playing "Ms Pac Man" have not improved my cherry eating impulses.
The iPods are becoming the Air Jordans of this decade.
The New York subway authority has put up ads trying to curb iPod theft: "Earphones are a giveaway. Protect your device"). Now, a kid has been killed and newspaper editors who own an iPod felt threatened. What if they would be next? This was not just any robbery -- this was an "iPod murder." The attackers were looking to steal the kid's individuality and become part of a pack of white-budded urbanites that use the same device to enhance their uniqueness.
And so hysteria begins.
>> I just couldn't help ranting about this: http://dbrom.ro/owlspotting/2005/07/ipod-murder.html
Even if Video Games inpire Kids to be Violent (i.e. "Grand Theft Auto") It's up to Parents to raise their children.
It's called kindness people. Jobs didn't think he owed anyone anything. The family didn't say anything to that effect either. For him to call was a nice an kind thing to do. People sometimes do stuff like that event when it isn't owed.
...and Rose, It was the boy's FATHER who talked about the need for understanding. Being this kid's dad makes his opinion on the subject more important than yours. I won't argue either way. See I'm not related to the family, so I don't have that right.
Doesn't anyone remember respect?
Hey, I know it was the boy's father. And undertand my butt if you need to understand something. The perpetrator(s) of this crime are guilty. Not video games, "white-budded urbanites", not the "socio-economic environment" which the author says made the "knife" a necessity, not "shotguns" in the "backwoods".
And I don't UNDERSTAND evil doing evil nor do I have to. But it will be dealt with. Apparently, the killer has been caught. And he's 16. I cannot offer understanding or sympathy to this person.
When I first saw the headline, I imagined the "iPod Murder" as someone wielding an iPod at someone else's head. Or perhaps the white earbud cords as a lethal choking wire.
You remind me of the fanny-pack clad rubber neckers who try to tell me how to feel about 9-11 when they don't live here and they weren't here when it happened. You don't have to understand anything; again, I'm not even saying I disagree with you. I'm not saying you should offer anyone sympathy. But I am saying, absolutely, that you seem filled with righteous indignation that DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU.
It's something I'm generally fed up with: that whole "The Nation Mourns..." crap. The people who loved them mourn, people like you use it as an opportunity to spout obvious hot air when you have, in fact, lost nothing.
I know the whole i-pod thing is the craze of the year, but it should be noted that the perps also took Christopher's shoes and cell phone. It's the same old story of senseless crime. The kids that tracked the perp for two miles deserve praise I must say.
Jobs had the option to acknowledge or ignore that the kid had an Ipod when he got killed and he chose to acknowledge it. It was a classy thing to do that took about ten minutes of his time.
Jobs had the option to acknowledge or ignore that the kid had an Ipod when he got killed and he chose to acknowledge it. It was a classy thing to do that took about ten minutes of his time. What's to criticize?
JC: The only distribution of resources that leaves everyone equal is when everyone has zero. I don't know what apple contibutes in the way of charitable donations, but it is probably more than every single individual that reads this board combined.
Greed and envy are two of the deadly sins, and neither are rationales for killing someone for an MP3 player.
No sympathy for BTK killer either. Anyone can have an opinion about anything. Don't have to have personal experience to think and feel and have opinions about things. Chill.
I've suggested 3 times in 3 different ways that murderers are scum and rubberneckers have no decency. I'm fully aware that "Anyone can have an opinion about anything." And such hot-button contrarian comments as "serial murderers are bad," reflect some of the best debate I've seen outside of those "I hate Mondays" t-shirt.
If I think you're exploitative and insensitive, which I do, I won't "chill."
(BTW, I note that you haven't even said one thing about the family, except that they didn't deserve a call from Steve Jobs.)
Has anyone been mugged over an iPod Shuffle?
did you read the first comment janine? perhaps rose was responding to JCs implication that steve jobs and society in general bear some responsibility for the actions of a murderous 'scumbag'?