Tech writer may or may not have been attacked at Molotov’s for wearing Google Glass, but please stop calling this a hate crime

First things first, let’s be clear about one thing:  a hate crime is an act perpetrated against another due to their race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.  It often results in the death or persecution of entire groups of people, and it is deplorable.  It most definitely does NOT include a confrontation over a highly controversial and expensive piece of intrusive technology.  There’s no need to go all Tom Perkins over here.

Now, on to the story.  Over the weekend, tech writer Sarah Slocum vented on Facebook:

OMG so you’ll never believe this but… I got verbally and physically asaulted and robbed last night in the city, had things thrown at me because of some wanker Google Glass haters, then some *bleeeeeeeeeep* tore them off my face and ran out with them then and when I ran out after him his *bleeeeeeep* friends stole my purse, cellphone walet and everything..

Of course, other patrons of Molotov’s someone working across the street had a different take upon reading the article:

That is not at all what happened. It was after last call, she was wasted and being a bitch, someone called her a glasshole and her boyfriend tried to fight the dude, and got his ass whooped. The glasses fell off her face and someone picked them up and gave them back to her. Nobody robbed her either, this [person] is making all this shit up. Go Molotovs!!!!!

At this point I thought the name sounded familiar, and I realized I went to school with her, so I reached out with the above version of events.  Sarah went on to continue defending herself on Facebook:

I wasn’t being any sort of a bitch until after I was flicked off, called a bitch, had dirty wet bar rags thrown at me and had people invading my personal space and trying to rip them off my face.

Your “friend” must have been one of the people who robbed me or who were friends with the robbers and tech glass haters at that bar and must have been the wasted one because they can’t even tell the difference between males and females or remember the story correctly. No glasses fell of my face. Those were my friend’s prescription glasses who defended me and got in a fight with the guy that ripped the glasses off my face and ran out of the bar with them. And if anyone got their ass beat it was the guy that that assaulted me and ran outside the bar with the Google Glasses. The only injuries that my friend has is a scrapped knee. And actually he was jumped by two other **** while he was fighting the douch bag.

I was minding my own biz with a computer phone. Everyone has a computer or phone these days. And what have they done to the city? Given people cool cellphones?? And awesome technology that we all use and take for granted everyday? I realize that I represented the tech millionaires and billionaires in their eyes, but that isn’t me and I didn’t even pay for my Google Glasses, one of my developer friends gave them to me because he wasn’t using them and doesn’t currently have time to develop an app for them right now.

Now, the whole story sounds pretty crazy.  There’s conflicting versions of events and a lot of alcohol involved.  Someone else even sent me this message on Facebook:

I wouldn’t normally comment on such things but i actually met this girl on the street after the incident happened. Couple of things: It was 2am on a friday night when i met her she was less than sober (she had had approx a small child full of vodka cran’s) secondly from what she told me it sounded like she left her bag and phone unattended in a busy bar on a friday night. Her friends were so riled up (and obnoxious) that they almost started fighting with me when i argued it maybe wasn’t the smartest idea to wear google glass and film in a punk rock bar and leaving a bag and phone unattended wasn’t the wisest of decisions. I left her feeling sorry only for myself that i had spent 5 minutes of my life in her groups bosom.

So I don’t know what happened.  What I do know, however, is that it is absolutely moronic to label this as a hate crime, as Josh Wolford thought fit to do.  Perspective, people.  Please.

(Now, if you want to go ahead and call it a HAIGHT CRIME, by all means be my guest)

144 Responses to “Tech writer may or may not have been attacked at Molotov’s for wearing Google Glass, but please stop calling this a hate crime”

  1. Emo says:

    What a glasshole. I’m not anti-technology, but there is something intrinsically douchy about wearing google glass in public. Google glass is interesting, even kinda cool, in theory, but every time I’ve seen someone wearing google glass they have behaved like outrageous douche bags.

    • Brad says:

      Don’t wear glasses in public. Got it.

      ::eye roll::

      • Jasun says:

        if you can’t tell the difference between glasses (which are meant to help you see) and wearing a video camera on your face (which allows you to shoot video of WHAT you see and post it on the internet), you need more help than anyone can give you.

        • Brink says:

          How about no more standing around with phones recording bands at live shows, preventing everyone from dancing and otherwise enjoying and engaging with the show? If you can’t tell the difference between unobtrusive technology and intrusive technology, check where you’re standing. If you’re texting while walking across the street, or taking a photo of someone bleeding on the ground, game’s up. It’s not like Glass brought this social retardation into the world, and it might even help mitigate it.

        • ACDW says:

          LOL! Nailed it, Jasun.

      • Cam says:

        It’s a camera on your fucking face !!!! Before you assume someone wants to be in you wanker life opera ask them, I hope someone smacks them off you nasty little shitface with a baseball bat.

    • ACDW says:

      Perfectly said. They have no sense of decorum, class or awareness – it’s ALL. ABOUT. THEM.

  2. Josh Wolford says:

    Of course I’m not seriously giving it the gravity of a true hate crime. I’m 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.” It’s Glasshole discrimination, I guess. If it came off as insensitive, that was not my intention.

    - Josh Wolford

    • Ladies Who Punch says:

      Lemme guess Josh, you’re a straight white dude who grew up in at least a middle class background. Of course you would use the term “hate crime” freely since you’ve never really experienced anything that would make someone hate you for something you can’t control.

      Your privilege is showing.

      • Josh Wolford says:

        Thank you for your obviously well-informed recap of my life. I’m sure that blanket assumptions about my race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status will add a lot of constructive weight to this. The headline was made in a tongue-in-cheek manner, and it was been amended with clarification. Although I never set out to offend anyone (except for Google Glass owners, maybe), I clearly did. Mea culpa.

      • umm says:

        let me guess, you’re a racist with a chip on your shoulder.

      • HateCrimePhilosopher says:

        so true. I hate these straight white guys. They think they’re being hated all of a sudden. But they’ve never experienced hate in their life.

        Well, except this one time where I punched a rich guy for being rich. But he totally deserved it because he was rich white and straight. Go me!!! Cops agreed with me! He later died due to brain injuries.

        I hate people richer than me. But, no, really, I’m a really good person and a smart thinker.

    • F driving all the way out to Mountain View says:

      have fun in high school forever you little explorers you! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICng-KRxXJ8

    • xcelflo says:

      W/out even had read Josh’s article, only going by the headline, I was leaning towards taking it as humor/sarcasm/a jab AGAINST Glassholes; it seemed too juicy to NOT go Colbert and/or The Onion on this bar fight.

    • van says:

      Listen Josh, don’t you dare act as if everyone who has Google Glass feel that way. As a gay man who also is a Google Glass explore it is disgusting to compare what happened to her with discrimination. How exactly has this women been discriminated. Can she not get married, not adopt children, not rent an apartment, worry about being killed walking down a street with skittles? Do you watch the news, do you talk to any other humans than other white straight dude or are you really that stupid?

    • Patrick says:

      Josh, I don’t think she was necessarily targeted because she was wearing Google Glass. I think she was targeting because she was being drunk and obnoxious and everyone around her was drunk and obnoxious. The Google Glass was icing on the cake. I don’t think this is part of an anti-tech narrative. It’s a drunken bar fight with someone inappropriately using technology.

      • Patrick says:

        Also, this event seems more kin to a straight couple being asked to leave a gay bar because they are aggressively making out than a hate crime.

  3. Tom in SFCA says:

    On this lady’s Facebook thread she insisted “I wasn’t even recording until someone said something to me!” But, of course, no one aside from the user can know when the thing is recording, right? If you are wearing Googleglass then people will assume it’s recording, and why shouldn’t they? It’s intrusive. Period. You go into a normal bar late at night and point a video camera at strangers and many of them won’t like it. This gal not only doesn’t care, she doesn’t even think it’s reasonable for others to not want to have those things pointed at them. She brought this all on herself and so far has learned nothing.

    • Sam says:

      Every phone is a video camera. Can we please abandon the notion the glass hate is rooted in privacy concerns (nobody complains about phones) and accept that it is old fashioned nerd punching with a dash of class warfare thrown in?

      • cacarr says:

        What Sam said — nerd-punching, with a dash of Tofflerian techno-panic.

      • Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable says:

        Are you kidding? If people were walking around with their phone filming stuff, I would object to it just as strongly.

      • anadromy says:

        Come off it. victimization fetish here is getting downright Tom Perkins-ian.

      • WixosTrix says:

        Nobody is walking around holding their phone out on record and if they are it’s noticeably obvious. With Glass it is not and that is what makes people uneasy.

      • Katie says:

        Yes, every phone has a camera…..that you have to hold a certain way and point at people in order to film with. It is rather obvious when somebody is using their phone to record video. That is kind of the whole point here – there is no way to know when someone with those glasses are recording. Why is this so hard for some people to understand?

      • Cam says:

        If someone is recording you with a phone it is pretty obvious. If someone is recording you with google ass, who knows except the recorder ? Can we all please stop pretending that glassholes are actually concerned with someone thing other than their own personal douchstyle brand ? Please ?

    • HateCrimePhilosopher says:

      So true. Every time in my life someone held a huge camcorder, i walked right up to him and assaulted him and took all his equipment.

      I support criminals and anarchists and am an anarchist myself. But don’t hurt my children.

  4. scum says:

    Andrew, my friend you quoted was working across the street as at the door when this happened, so I would believe his version. Also according to the KPIX 5 story I watched the SFPD said no report has been filed.

  5. OMG LOL says:

    It’s hard to look at her face without Google Glasses on. I can’t imagine how much worse she looked with them on. I’m sticking with the superficial as this whole exchange is moronic.

  6. CATMOM says:

    This is a creepy PR stunt, really lame. Let’s stop talking about it and publishing it in news.

  7. Tuffy says:

    I saw your exchange on her FB page, Andrew, and that’s about when I ceased feeling any sympathy for her.

    Remove the device from the situation and it’s just another unremarkable bar fight.

  8. Floyd says:

    This sounds way more believable a story than what was posted on the chronicle: http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2014/02/24/woman-i-was-attacked-in-s-f-over-google-glass/

    Her version is super fishy. “Finger in my Wendy’s chili” fishy.

    Either way, expect Slocum to pen an article for Medium any day now.

  9. Jeremy says:

    Google Glass seems to be having the same social effect of smelling really bad. It may not feel fair that people treat you bad, but you can only fight human nature so much.

  10. Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable says:

    Fucking glassholes. They’re obviously awful, but I don’t think that equates with it being OK to physically assault them, either. Just ban them from bars/restaurants.

    • thanks for mutton says:

      according to the eyewitness, and uncontested by slocum (so far), it was her mail friend who threw the first punch after she was called a name, so its not a dick move to wish that her googgles got smashed on a curb.

    • HateCrimePhilosopher says:

      yup they are awful alright. Anybody with a random piece of hardware on is pretty awful.

      That’s why i will never use a cell phone. Only an old desktop computer.

  11. Troll says:

    Surely she meant, Haight Crime given the locale, right? Damn Google Glass can’t transcribe that well YET.

  12. Nappy Bill says:

    I wear my Go-Pro all over and nobody trips out on it. I’m a cool person, though, who knows which way the wind blows. Stoked

  13. Audrey says:

    This does seem like a creepy PR stunt. I looked at her FB profile and she posted 6 links to stories about her and comments enthusiastically about having interviews lined up. The fact that she calls herself the victim of a hate crime makes me think she wants to be Rosa Parks for glassholes. The whole thing just seems so sketchy.

    • SomeBody says:

      Apparently she takes psych meds and is kind of known to be a crazy so and so among friends and acquaintances.
      It is also telling that she is a social media reporter. Publicity stunt by a nutjob gone awry.

  14. fighter, I barely know 'er says:

    Stay the fuck out of Molotov’s with or without your expensive toy on your face.

  15. jml says:

    So while I don’t think this is a hate crime in any way, shape, or form, can someone explain to me how being a tech-addicted nerd, worshipping the Googleplex and spending large amounts of money on things with little current real world applicability is any different than being a religious dweeb, worshipping a mythical fantasy creature lurking invisibly in the sky and spending money on the false promise of an afterlife with little real world footing?

    I mean if we protect people who believe in an invisible man why not protect people who at least aren’t crazy enough to attach themselves to fantasies and are attached to actual hardware?

  16. techmartyr says:

    she keeps reposting this onto her facebook over and over again. clearly she hasn’t learned anything and loves the attention. This is spam. I’d recommend everyone marking it as so.

  17. You guys are just as rude as the Glassholes you describe and envision. I’m having a hard time seeing all this hatred, from both sides. Has humanity really come to this? Are we really in an age where people can get riled up over any issue and fling their proverbial vocal trash all over the place?

    I just don’t understand why people can’t take this some rage to the streets and hustle down our politicians who are the real jerks screwing us over. You get your panties in a bunch over a white female with Glass, and see fit to ridicule her for it, yet you bend over to the NSA and Congress, handing your real rights away with every year.

    It all leaves me with a sad vision of our country, and of humanity in general.

    Where’s the compassion?! :(

  18. Daisy Homp says:

    dead in the wild. “I’m watching real-live movie!”

  19. ChugItNugget says:

    You are filming in fucking Molotov’s, not the marina. That’s one rowdy don’t-take-no-shit bar, and she expected to be treated like nothing is wrong when she is filming* in there with the most sketchy tech toy available?

    *if you have it on, expect that people presume you are always filming.

  20. fuck google glass says:

    Get your camera out of my fucking face. No further discussion or debate needed.

  21. zoid says:

    hamlich

  22. woohoo says:

    do people who support bashing this woman because she may have been recording them support cops beating on people who are recording them?

  23. Mamenmelapinga says:

    Molotov her FACE!!! next time…

  24. woohoo says:

    http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2014/02/17/nypd-cop-attacks-man-video-recording-deleting-footage-man-recovers-footage/

    clearly the guy recording the police should have known better. he was in “one rowdy don’t-take-no-shit” part of the city and deserves what he got. right?

    i’m sure the cop just felt “Get your camera out of my fucking face. No further discussion or debate needed.”

  25. Lindylula says:

    I think those things should light up when they are filming. Person in question who resents being filmed (aka 99% of people) can respond as they anyone would if they were being filmed without their permission.

  26. OJ_Jurer says:

    Another example of a new SF techie, who has no idea of where she is..or care to to know for that matter.

    Highly educated I am sure, but equally ignorant.

    Techies, please take this a s shot over the bow and try to begin to understand why we strongly feel you are acting like total D-BAGS!

  27. BigDolla says:

    None of this story is a blanket statement on life in SF or even about Google Glasses. It is a tiny story about a dumb girl with terrible city skills and lack of respect towards other bar patrons, nothing more. She must be incredibly naive or drunk for thinking Molotov’s was the right place to take unwanted pictures of bar goers. Did she think the patrons at Molotovs would ask her twice or nicely to stop recording video? Did she really believe leaving her purse and phone unattended in a bar at 1:30am with a bunch of rough and tumble drunks was a good idea? Had she not been so easily scammed out of her belongings there would not even be a story here. Throwing a towel over a camera is a violent assault now? How fragile and out of touch is this woman? With the glasses on perhaps she is living in a special virtual reality where the rules of common sense don’t apply.

  28. David says:

    Sorry, but the way Sarah described it and from a quote I saw on The Verge about someone saying people like her were “ruining the city”, actually yeah this is like a hate crime. Again, pay attention to Sarah acknowledging that she represented the elite tech folk that are driving gentrification in SF right now. Connect the dots. There were definitely pent-up emotions on the perpetrators’ side.

    • Troll says:

      Most people who are wrong are indeed sorry, so it’s alright.

    • Grizzled Mission says:

      If a genie granted me a two wishes, the first would be wealth, but the second would be universal understanding of what “hate crime” and “hostile work environment” mean, as a legal matter. No one seems to have any idea, and the terms have been “popularized” in a way that makes them meaningless.

    • Dustin says:

      And Sarah’s workin’ her non-story HARD.

      Spin it girl!

      What a great promo for her public relations/social media business… She’s got all of the right buzzwords in her talking points—every angle of her story is hot! Maybe, if she wasn’t so drunk, she might have pulled it off without looking like the whiny, douchey, clueless, opportunistic, wanna-be hack that she is.

      The thing is, I don’t have anything against ‘techies.’ I like ‘em, and I know that they’re generally hard-working, smart, and really not the kind of rich that should be garnering protest. Best of all, they generally make/build/hack/DO stuff… they’re productive… they create value, and I think that’s awesome. Contrast that with the likes of Sarah… all the PR hacks and social media whiners who don’t create or add value—they just puff up their collective bubble with all of their hot air. So thank you Sarah, by showing the rest of us who our collective ire should be directed at for ruining San Francisco. It’s not the ‘techies’ — it’s YOU!

  29. Mobity Mosely says:

    I want to know what a “computer phone” is. Maybe I should surf to the Google and search the interweb.

  30. Ned says:

    There’s an obvious solution to these Google Glass fights.

    Google needs to make Google Glass 2.0 completely indistinguishable from regular glasses. Problem solved.

    • Cam says:

      How about a light that lets people know that they are being recorded rather than just being an even sneaker pricksleaze ?

  31. HateCrimePhilosopher says:

    If you discriminate against someone because you believe they are wealthy or of some kind of social group because they have a random piece of technology that you don’t have, then yes, that is a Hate Crime.

  32. Brillo says:

    The law defines certain protected statuses for a crime to be called a hate crime, and income, profession, and headgear aren’t on the list. So it’s true, the law has already decided… that this was not a hate crime.

  33. Soo van ness says:

    So if she was just mugged like most people who walk around without a clue there would be no story and I would get 10min. Of my life back? Why oh why did she stop at Moltovs and not just keep walking to let other people in the neighborhood show her the real respect she deserves…I do love that sfpd also ignored that bogus call, oh to hear the recording of that!

  34. Queen says:

    I would’ve thrown a drink at her ugly face. What an attention cunt.

  35. K Mack says:

    This just made me less sad about my move to the East Coast. I grow more and more freaked out over what the hell is going in SF as I see what wins the news there. I did not think the town could get more “white people problems” or whatever is pc to call it. Bitching about your bagel line, wearing google glasses, frat party of techies acting entitled…its all wack. Just take a vacation anywhere else and you realize what real problems are and how retarded it all sounds….oh noooo my late went up to $4.25…….my food pop has an hour line (yet you instagram it every 10 seconds)…..i got made fun of for wearing google glasses at a dive bar and rolling out with douchebags…….woe is me, there is a homeless person in my parklet (ps they are public)……that bitch in my office got the same wary parkers……my delivery service spilled my diet coke all over my kale salad….. your whining is ruining whats left of this town. UGH.

  36. haha says:

    it’s not a hate crime, it’s a love crime. as in, everyone seems to love hearing about this kind of “crime”. yay!

  37. Jason Curtis says:

    Cloyne is Suck!

  38. Chugmeister7 says:

    I don’t mean to fan the heated flames on this or anything.

    But

    I do kind of feel that while it may not be considered by law a hate crime, hateful and aggressive attacks on someone based on something they have or like that differs from your own at least carries the spirit of a hate crime.

    I do feel the Google glasses are a kind of lame and intrusive, but I certainly wouldn’t attack someone because they think differently than I do, or attack them on the internet yelling about how they deserve it. Saying someone deserved to be robbed because they have something worth robbing them for? Really? That is beneath you people, relax.

  39. I hate idiots says:

    Bitch deserved it.

  40. Get Out of the Last Real Spots We Have Left If You are an Intolerable Douche says:

    Let me just say this, I don’t want any clash warfare going on because in a hospitable World, one could come to realize that class divides don’t have to be something that stares the one with lesser in the face, taunts them, goes into their bars, into their areas where people with less just want to get along with each other, feel camaraderie and joy in living with what they have. I’m not even going to use the key words that are thrown around everyday. But when you come into a place with a shitty attitude, are generally being rude and idiotic to everyone who regularly attends and has made a community out of some of the only places they have left in this City overrun by high priced shitholes, boutiques, high end whatever shops brimming with people who want to talk about marketing, streamlining this or that, revenue, what the fuck ever to do with their bullshit takeover and financial monotony … and then argue that they deserve to do that, FUCK THAT SHIT. Fuck this bitch and her shitty friends, fuck the God of Money, fuck defending these people. There are approximately 80% left of all other locations they can go to and be alienated towards each other in a false sense of polite elitism without spilling over into the maybe 4-5 bars that are still open and are still being visited by people who want these places to stay the way they are. That’s it. Not even going to insinuate one way or the other who attacked who.

  41. Dave says:

    It’s weird that she calls herself a “tech writer” when she clearly can’t string two sentences together.

  42. Devin says:

    Lol, these over privilege white people with their useless Google glasses. You’re not cool wearing it, it doesn’t look cool. It makes you look like a douche bag. Stop wearing them in public and keep it to yourself.

  43. UN TROLL says:

    uh Dear google glass wearing person,
    please stop staring at me…oh my god your staring is also stored somewhere….(and now my reaction stored somewhere) please stop that. please let’s stop this

    —untrolling

  44. JonhDoe says:

    People who wear google glasses are so pretentious. Know wonder people call them glass holes. Her whole story is fabricated.

  45. Slowcum says:

    Google shills think they can get away with anything.

    • 1 says:

      she keeps reposting this onto her facebook over and over again. clearly she hasn’t learned anything and loves the attention. This is spam. I’d recommend everyone marking it as so.

  46. ghostface says:

    Not a hate crime. Sarah Slocum stop shilling this useless toy. Get back to reality, stop living in a fantasy world. The world doesn’t revolve around you.

  47. Robert says:

    This lady looks like the Louboutin attacker of yesteryear. Methinks somethings up.

    http://sanfrancisco.grubstreet.com/2012/04/louboutin-marina-drunk-girl-balboa-attack-update.html

  48. TheJam says:

    I work in tech, in wearable tech at that – and while I don’t have anything against Google Glass as a “thing”, how that thing is used could quite easily cause a heated situation like this to occur. I also happen to love Molotov’s, and the vast majority of the patrons there are very cool people. To get them that riled up was almost certainly preceded by some seriously obnoxious behavior. Judging by the fact that Sarah’s story hasn’t been consistent whatsoever, that other witnesses described her as being a drunk a-hole, and the fact that she says in one interview she wasn’t filming anyone, yet lo and behold – has video of what was going on – more or less proves she’s not only full of doodoo butter, but a bit of a c*nt to boot. IMHO – she got what she deserved. Maybe not having her purse ganked (if indeed that even happened), or being physically assaulted (which I highly doubt occurred) but someone should have yanked those things off of her head and smashed them into a bagillion tiny little pieces. This isn’t a hate crime – this is called tough enforcement of common courtesy.

  49. Dan White says:

    This sounds like an advertising stunt by Google for those creepy glasses. This twit is on the payroll.

  50. Tuffy says:

    So she was running the same game the next night at Kilowatt.

    A friend of mine just posted this:, “I encountered this person at Kilowatt on Saturday. She was incredibly aggressive and absolutely in your face about wearing her glasses. I walked away from her, shielding my face. She followed me tauntingly yelling (no really, yelling) “it’s not recording! It’s not recording. Get over it.”

    I can honestly say I was polite when I asked her to put the glasses atop her head when speaking with me. This woman was absolutely looking for confrontation. She got it. She is awful. Simply awful.”

    • Troll says:

      Wow – for a victim of a hate crime, she sure moved on rather quickly. Gee, wonder if she has other motives…

  51. OaklandNative says:

    The woman who yelled “you’re killing the city,” is my hero. It’s not being anti-tech, but everything Google-ification represents — Ellis evictions, $3,000/month studios, etc. Molotov is one of the last bastions of artist-, working-class-friendly life in the city and she went in there flaunting her “Google glaass.” Wrong scene, sister. Do you go to volunteer at Glide wearing Prada? Same point. I’m anti-violence of any kind but reports are that she and her boyfriend helped instigated and she even boasts about someone trying to mess with her and getting a beatdown on her FB feed. She’s milking this for all it’s worth and if she gets a book deal or her own show out of it, I’m going to hurl. And then move back to Oakland.

  52. Joe Locu says:

    Thank you Ms Slocum. Another hipster PR social media know nothing that I will make sure never to hire, or to recommend. She clearly does NOT understand tech or common decency.