Greg Beato on the iPhone Crime Wave
During the last 20 years, law enforcement officials, criminologists, journalists, and other cultural observers have attempted to solve the mystery of the nation's declining crime rates. Was the post-1990 drop in murders and other serious crimes due to new police tactics that concentrated resources in unsafe neighborhoods? Was it longer prison sentences? The waning crack trade? Increased availability of abortions? Maybe, possibly, perhaps.
Bucking the trend, New York City in 2012 experienced its first overall increase in major crimes in 20 years. But this time, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly have decisively fingered the culprit: It was Steve Jobs. Or, rather, writes Greg Beato, the devices Apple produced under his watch.