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Subscribe to RSSA 40 percent jump in theft of Apple products is the main reason why crime rates in New York City have not declined this year, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly writes in a speech set to be delivered later Tuesday.
"Overall crime is up 4 percent. In the absence of the Apple thefts, we would be experiencing a decline," Kelly wrote.
Kelly said there were 11,447 thefts of Apple products so far in 2012, an increase of 3,280 over the same period last year.
Related story: Thefts of iPhones, other Apple gadgets spike in New York
Automatic shut off technology when a phone is stolen making it unusable and tracking systems like the “find my iphone” application can help reduce this growing crime problem and aide police in finding thieves, Kelly said.
Additional undercover officers will be soon be assigned to patrol the subways where some of the robberies are taking place.
Related story: NYPD urges iPhone 5 owners to be smart, register devices
The NYPD is also set to announce a new crackdown on street gangs in an attempt to try to further reduce violence and robberies across the city.
Dubbed "Operation Crew Cut", the NYPD will double the size of its anti-gang unit to 300 officers to stop local street crews that are increasingly responsible for committing violent crimes.
Read the original story on NBCNewYork.com
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is expected to announce 150 additional detectives will join the gang unit. "We’ll focus those resources not on large, established gangs such as the Bloods and Crips, but on the looser associations of younger men who identify themselves by the block they live on, or on which side of a housing development they reside," Kelly wrote in a speech set to be delivered to the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in San Diego.
NYPD Transit and Housing Bureau officers will also assist in increasing patrols to try to keep local street crews in check. Detectives will also increase their monitoring of social media where crew members sometimes boast of the shootings or robberies they committed or plan to commit, Kelly said.
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NYPD, the most corrupt police department and with the most powerful labor union in the socialist city, blames theft of Apple products for the rise in theft crime. Of all the various goods stolen in crime ridden NYC, the NYPD identified only Apple products as the cause of the increase in theft crimes. Using their logic, let's blame the theft of alcoholic beverages for increase in drunkness. Or blame the theft of guns for the increase in gun related homicides.
The inescapable fact is that the NYC socialism has created a social environment conducive to criminals. The policemen of the NYPD, protected by their powerful labor union, are part of the network of criminals in the corrupt culture of city government.
Yea they'll cut crime in New York - and the thugs turn up in Allentown by the busload.
It's been painfully obvious that major cities have been padding crime statistics for a long time, but blaming an increase on a corporate line of products takes the cake. Because surely it has nothing to do with the fact that New Yorkers aren't entitled to their 2nd Amendment right for self defense, or that the NYPD is too busy building a fortress down at the WTC, or that busting kids for non-violent drug crimes seems to be the primary objective for community policing. And the NYPD sure doesn't seem to have a problem allocating plenty of resources and manpower to an interstate and even international anti-terrorism surveillance netowork. Good grief.
Maybe if the NYPD stopped sending officers all over the country, and even all over the world, there would not be a rise in crime in the city. The NYPD is acting more like they are the FBI than a metropolitan police force. They have undercover officers all over the planet chasing terrorists instead of focusing on the city which is their responsibility. Something should be done about all of the NYPD officers who are illegally operating outside their jurisdiction, many times without even informing the local police forces in the areas where they are operating. There have already been a number of cases where local police forces have ended up arresting NYPD undercover officers operating in their jurisdiction because they thought the undercover officers were actual terrorists or criminals. This is a complete waste of the NYPDs resources and also results in the local police forces involved wasting their time and resources. Someone needs to tell the NYPD to stick to their own jurisdiction and stop acting like a second FBI. That might actually help bring down the crime rate in NYC.
"The inescapable fact is that the NYC socialism has created a social environment conducive to criminals"
You invalidated your entire argument with that one sentence. Try again ignoramus.
Blaming Apple products? How stupid do you think people are to believe that spin? No, don't answer that.
plork, were you born that stupid that you can't see that Wire557 was being sarcastic, aka "joking".
Actually, wire557's original comment wasn't all that far off the mark. Back in the late 60s/early 70s, NY had an ad campaign to stop people from leaving their car keys in the ignition. The ad was "Don't help a good kid go bad", as if it was the car owner's fault if his car got stolen, rather than putting the blame on the thief.
That's what happens when the government bans Big Gulps!
NYC gun laws are so draconian, they are a de facto gun ban. A direct violation of the NYC citizen's human right to self defense. But why would violating human rights be an issue in NYC?
LOL! In other words, we are going to go into the hood and rough up black and latino people so that white people who have the money to buy expensive Apple products can keep their iphones and ipads.
Is he going to use the same police officers who couldn't shoot a man 3 ft in front of them without wounding 10 people down the street?
The Goon Squad. Kelly Mubarak.
The only thing they can think of to deter crime is to bust some heads and kill people. With the cost of living so high in NYC, there are desperate people trying to get money. Some steal diapers, others steal from your bank account--like the thieves on Wall St.
Why not send your Goon Squad to Goldman Sachs or Bank of America?
Yup better just buy an Android. Because thieves wont steal an Android.
The solution is clear...ban Apple products in NYC. Seems a reasonable next step for the Nannystate that they are.
A bunch of 1%ers going wah, wah, wah about their latest precious apple i-whatever that is feeding their i-obsession and getting all the police attention and resources while the rest of us in the 99% get mugged, raped and murdered.
If these i-obsessed 1%ers didn't wave around, gush about and flaunt their i-existence to the 99% who have to watch this arrogant i-nsanity they wouldn't be having their latest precious little i-candy toy, made by enslaved Chinese factory workers that take jobs from the 99% here, taken from them by some starving homeless out-of-work desparate person who has no idea from where their next meal is going to come.
If they have that much money to spend on all that i-junk, their taxes are too low and the government needs to get more of their money to kill the deficit and help those who are still looking for work. Letting them keep it just sends it to China for more i-junk that puts the rest of us out of work.
Ooh, shiny.. must steal!
Must.... have..... the precious! We wants it!
Please don't insult Smeagol by associating him with NYC criminals.
That was a low blow, wasn't it. Besides, everyone knows Gollum uses a droid.
It's a sad statement on our society that people are defined by the phone they carry. Mine makes phone calls...that's it. If I want to go online I have a laptop, but I an actually go a few hours without checking my email. People are addicted to being "connected" as they ignore the people sitting right next to them.
A bunch of 1%ers going wah, wah, wah about their latest precious apple i-whatever that is feeding their i-obsession and getting all the police attention and resources while the rest of us in the 99% get mugged, raped and murdered.
If these i-obsessed 1%ers didn't wave around, gush about and flaunt their i-existence to the 99% who have to watch this arrogant i-nsanity they wouldn't be having their latest precious little i-candy toy, made by enslaved Chinese factory workers that take jobs from the 99% here, taken from them by some starving homeless out-of-work desparate person who has no idea from where their next meal is going to come.
If they have that much money to spend on all that i-junk, their taxes are too low and the government needs to get more of their money to kill the deficit and help those who are still looking for work. Letting them keep it just sends it to China for more i-junk that puts the rest of us out of work.
This is just one more example of how much revenue Apple generates. They are affecting crime rates in NYC! Haha. Buy Apple stock AAPL on the dips and you can't go wrong for awhile anyways.
Think about this too, Apple has no fiscal desire to recover stolen I-phones but they do have a motivation to brick stolen phones.
But no kidding, stolen iphones that are not recovered are more money for Apple, they have absolutely no fiscal motivation to recover stolen i-phones but do have a motivation to brick stolen I-phones and do that all the time.
If you are a stock holder, you like that, if you are a consumer, you may not like that. But tracking your i-phone so that it can be recovered from theft, is also a can of worms in invasion of privacy issues. If I was going to install an app to track my phone, I would want to consciously do that with a lot of caution and would want full control of it.
Of course there are inbuilt features into Apple products which help police track down stolen goods and arrest the thieves. See this real-life example from London, England:
Yes, all the phones these days do have GPS tracking technology, but it's a grey line. I would rather take my chance on loosing my i-phone rather than a real time tracking system that knows my real time position full time. The trade off with theft recovery is the ability for others to track your every move in real time when your phone is not lost.
I would rather take my chances with a lost i-phone rather than a system that tracks me in real time. At least, not without my knowledge and full agreement with all aspects of that.
john....so? Are you that important that someone would actually WANT to track you? Or are you worried that you are no longer free to commit crimes and hide from the cops. And if you must commit crimes, dont take your phone with you...
You don't have to be important. It could be an ex-girlfriend with a gun or knife.
Jphn, just having your cell phone turned on, you can be tracked (maybe not quite as accurately), but tracked non the less. Tower triangulation is a reality. Sorry.
We have entered an age where there is virtually no privacy. The only way we have privacy is to do all the normal things so that our data is just dust in the wind with all the rest of the data: i.e., not call attention to ourselves.
Peace, Myst
That GPS is a problem. Last year TPTB used it to track and target me while driving home. The assigned would be assassin "pit maneuvered" my car that was paid for...now I'm making payments again on a new car. They were heard saying,"spit it out and chew another piece, or we'll find you!"
thatguydownsouth, That's a huge leap in logic that just because I don't want to carry around a tracking device without my knowledge, that I must be doing something illegal.
I'm more worried about the potential illegal activity that could occur on the other (receiving) end with access to that kind of knowledge in general.
Not even George Orwell imagined the idea that people would be willing to allow themselves to be tracked in real time with satellite triangulation accuracy (GPS).
It can be a real problem for naive tourists who are sailing the high seas in their yachts. Pirates have been known to use the data to capture their ships. That's an example of what this kind of tracking data can lead to.
So no, I do not like my cell phone tracking me in real time without my knowledge, and neither should you, regardless of what your activities are.
Easy fix... Just ban Apple products.
By gosh, by golly! Why didn't we think of that. Who knew the solution was that easy. You're a genius!
"Easy fix... Just ban Apple products."
Please. Don't give Nanny Bloomberg any ideas. Assuming he hasn't thought of it already.
It's a wishful thinking, positive affirmation thing. The presumption is that if I say it often enough I will overcome my "retardedness" (all the while still drooling, dragging their knuckles and saying really stoooopid things). They are to be pitied.
Interesting calling him Nanny Bloomberg when Apple creates the Nanny state for it's customers. No thinking required...Apple will do it for you.
@ plork or should I say DORK! You must know nothing of NYC. They have a habit of banning things like soda over 16oz's. Get it!
Plork, you can not really be that stupid so please stop acting so here.
"Interesting calling him Nanny Bloomberg when Apple creates the Nanny state for it's customers. No thinking required...Apple will do it for you."
You might be right. I wouldn't know, don't use any kind of cellphone, and know nothing about any Apple products. But I will stand by my Nanny Bloomberg statement.
What a load of old cods. Kelly is such a tard. peace
Apple phones ain't all that.
WTF???? It's the APPLES...stay away from the Apples...he hates the Apples
...
I agree.
Get these Apple gadgets off the market.
The are making criminals out of these poor, misunderstood theives.
Obama / Biden in 2012.
...
I think the real root cause is thieves and not Apples.
I read the lead in and for a split second I thought 'they're stealing apples?'
maybe the thieves should switch from apples to pears or oranges,or perhaps bananas although i have read that we are soon to be experiencing a produce shortage due to this summer's drought conditions
If the Big Apple had as much Apple-control as (lack of) gun control, there wouldn't be such a problem. Of course since the current mayor has pretty much stolen the city from the people, I don't know why there's so much uproar over a few apples gone rotten.
And I'm certain that the Bloods and the Crips will be more than pleased to hear "We’ll focus those resources not on large, established gangs such as the Bloods and Crips, but on the looser associations of younger men who identify themselves by the block they live on, or on which side of a housing development they reside."
I kind of read that as "well, we've been totally ineffective in stopping the big crime operations with their control of drugs, prostitution, gun distribution, murder ... so we're going to move on to something less challenging that we might actually be able to use to fudge the crime control figures into making us look good on the books..."
Yeah okay.Get you a CCW and most of the time you will come out on top,same thing here in Detroit,folks are off the hook and more often its blacks at least where Im from,yeah its my race and its sad.
Well, the solution is obvious: ban Apple products like soda. No Apple products in any of the 5 boroughs. Done.
As an Android user, I always try to sit next to the guy with the iPhone! That way I can use my phone in peace. :p
Thieves can get more $$$ for apple products which is why they are popular. It's kind of like Air Jordans in the 90's.. not many could afford them so it was easier to steal them from someone else.
Operation "CREW CUT" How effin racist is that!
Hey Kelly, take out all the theft of cars and money, and crime will go down as well. Take out all crime and crime has dropped 100%! Great job!
What utter nonsense! At least the headline--criminals are to blame for crimes, not Apple products. Good grief!
A bunch of 1%ers going wah, wah, wah about their latest precious apple i-whatever that is feeding their i-obsession and getting all the police attention and resources while the rest of us in the 99% get mugged, raped and murdered.
If these i-obsessed 1%ers didn't wave around, gush about and flaunt their i-existence to the 99% who have to watch this arrogant i-nsanity they wouldn't be having their latest precious little i-candy toy, made by enslaved Chinese factory workers that take jobs from the 99% here, taken from them by some starving homeless out-of-work desparate person who has no idea from where their next meal is going to come.
If they have that much money to spend on all that i-junk, their taxes are too low and the government needs to get more of their money to kill the deficit and help those who are still looking for work. Letting them keep it just sends it to China for more i-junk that puts the rest of us out of work.
All I have to say on this subject, watch out for the predictions of George Orwell in 1984 because this is one thing that even he didn't imagine. People willingly walking around with tracking devices complete with video and audio in real time.
I am just saying, be careful and don't be naive with it.
Apple can track stolen devices at the risk of your privacy, and that should be developed, with extreme protections in place to make sure these tracking abilities are not abused.
The risk of loosing an i-phone or anything else is not worth the loss of privacy. Keep it in perspective.
It's a good thing that Apple has no fiscal motivation to recover lost or stolen i-phones, because it's a potential invasion of privacy if they did have a motivation to recover stolen i-phones.
Unless of course it's a truck load on the way to a distribution center and is not on Apple's books as sold yet. :)
In that case Apple would have the right to track the hell out those lost i-phones :)
No kidding though, almost all cell phones made these days have the GPS tracking potential, it's not unique to Apple. Just be aware of it and use it with caution.
I remember when Motorola first came out with the first mobile GPS tracking chip 3V logic for cell phones, it was about 3mm square SMT package and that was about 15 years ago.
But the bottom line on this article is that Apple generates a lot of revenue. When was the last time you heard the Mayor of NYC complaining about a crime increase because of a specific stolen consumer product?
Buy AAPL on the dips with "bad news" like this :)
Oh come on commissioner taking another's property by force(mugging) or without force(burglary) are crimes. This coupled with your public release of NYPD's tactic of using facebook to catch criminal gang members, is a definate indication that you should condider retirement. You were in the marines and a general would not give his battle plans to the enemy general before the battle. Let's get with the program Kelley because you are definately losing it.