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Teen Killed over Ipod/Steve Jobs Calls family to offer condolences

Teen Killed Over Ipod

Quote:

Brooklyn Teen Attacked And Killed Over iPod Music Player

Authorities say a Brooklyn teen was stabbed to death Saturday evening by two boys who were allegedly trying to steal his iPod portable music player.

The attack occurred Saturday at approximately 5:30 p.m. near the corner of East 40th Street and Avenue D in Flatbush. Police say 15-year-old Christopher Rose was walking with three friends on his way to the Port Authority Terminal when a group of young men tried to take his iPod.

When he resisted, Rose was stabbed twice in the chest.

Police have arrested 16-year-old Darran Samuel and 17-year-old Darryl Stephen, both of Brooklyn, on murder, robbery and weapons charges.

Neighbors say the boy tried to run from his attackers.

"You heard him running and they were chasing him, and they were like, 'Get him, get him,'" one eyewitness said.

"He came down this block and the kid ran out of breath," said another. "He ran out of breath and the kids caught up with him."

"It's horrible," added a woman who lives in the area. "I have a 17-year-old that lives here – my daughter has an iPod – and I have to really be careful now about her going to school and coming home. It's a shame."

Earlier this year, New York City Police said that crime on the subways was up due in large part to the popularity of iPods and other electronic devices. From January through May, authorities say fifty iPods were reported stolen on the city's subway system.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jobs calls family of stabbing victim

Quote:

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs personally called the family of a 15-year-old New Yorker to offer his condolences after the teenager was killed last week during a fight over an iPod, according to a report published Wednesday.

The New York Times reported that Jobs and the victim's father, Errol Rose, spoke for a few minutes earlier this week after Jobs' assistant called the paper asking for Rose's telephone number.

"Some people talk to you like they're something remote. He was so familiar. After every word, he paused, as if each word he said came from his heart," Rose told the Times.

Calling him by his first name, Jobs asked how Rose was doing and conveyed his sympathies, the report said.

"He told me that he understood my pain. He told me that if there is anything -- anything -- anything he can do, to not be afraid to call him. It really lightened me a bit," Rose told the newspaper.

Christopher Rose was killed Saturday in Brooklyn after Rose and three friends were confronted by a group of teenagers who allegedly demanded that Rose give them his iPod. Rose was stabbed twice in the chest after he apparently resisted.

Apart from the iPod, the boys who attacked stole tennis shoes and a cell phone, the report said, citing police statements.

The Times said that a spokesman for Jobs declined to comment on the phone call, which reportedly took place Tuesday.

"We live in a world which is changing rapidly," Rose told the newspaper.

"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."

He was also quoted as saying: "We're failing these kids. We're not loving them the way we're supposed to."

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Classy move by Jobs, and completely suprising... How many CEOs out there would actually call the family of someone who was killed over one of their products? Sneakers and a Cellphone were also stolen.. wonder if the CEO of Nike would make the call or Adidas? nice to see some humanness in the world

I was just looking for this article mal :D :D you must be psychic or sumfin.

It was a great move by Jobs and I really think Jobs was sincere in what he said. It'd be nice to see more CEO's taking an active role in the public eye.

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_marq

Plus I can't get over this niggling suspicion that it's not entirely compassion motivated.

The cynic in me tends to agree - but in a rare instance of trying to believe that there is indeed good in the world (inspite everything I see to the contrary) I am giving Jobs the benefit of the doubt :)

Personally, I think Jobs should have just stayed out of it.

If I was a memeber of that family I would seriously question the motives of his call to console 'us.' Is he doing it to cover Apple's ass (the company that cares) or is he doing it just to make himself feel better about his and his company's tangenteal involvment in a murder.

By no means am I suggesting that Jobs should be held responsible, clearly that responsiblitity falls to the street punks. I just don't feel that his call to the family would help. Plus I can't get over this niggling suspicion that it's not entirely compassion motivated.

This doesn't surprise me about Jobs at all. When I buy a brand for some reason other than (or in addition to) price value, it's because of things like this. I feel good knowing that my laptop business went to a company headed by a guy like that.

It's unfortunate that somebody had to die, but I can't say I didn't see something like this coming for a while. When I first got my ipod, I used my old headphones for a while because I didn't want to advertise to muggers that I was carrying expensive equipment. When they broke and I started using the distinctive white earbuds, I couldn't help but think of that John Ruskin saying whenever I went out with it: "Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness." It's the damn truth. Poor kid.

Quote:

"We're failing these kids. We're not loving them the way we're supposed to."

That's a frighteningly astute observation from a father who just lost a son.

As for Jobs, i'm not sure of my opinion on that. Half of my mind reasonably and rightfully questions the motive... the other says, "why do you have to shit on a man's supposed good intentions, you cynical fuck?" So i'm a little divided.

Here's the way I see it-- Even if Jobs was just saving face for the company or his intentions weren't correct; at least the father of the kid got some solice out of the act. That alone makes it a good thing

One more final thought...

If my son or daughter were killed the last thing I would want is for it to turn into a media circus, and getting a phone call from a 'celebrity' in condolence and then having that phone call reported by the media is a good way for that to start.

Now this becomes "The iPod Murder" and it will be in the news for weeks and every good memeory about your lost son is trampled by the crush of reporters reducing him to nothing more than his death. I fear his life would be forgotten

I think it was probably sincere.

I mean, the cynic in me immediately went the "cover your ass" route, but then the logical side (a side I don't use too often...:) ) asked what exactly would he need to cover his ass about?

I've read a lot of interviews, seen a lot of clips on Jobs over the years and he seems very...genuine, for lack of a better word. I think this was probably on the up and up. Jobs didn't comment on the call and the boy's father seems to have been the one to mention it in the first place.

Personally, I can't imagine someone being killed over a high dollar trinket that I made. A trinket that I'm the public face for.

Sorry to hear about the kid. Getting stabbed to death over an Ipod is pretty fucking pathetic. At the very least, the whole affair reminded us that while the world may have a bunch of ignorant, emotionally stunted shitheads, it's also full of genuinely nice people.

I agree with Guthmund - What does he have to cover his ass about? He didn't get the kid killed, his product didn't malfunction and explode. I think most people don't give enough credit to CEO's for being humans, too. People with children, families, and emotions.

I'll give Jobs the credit for being a good guy and doing a nice thing for the family.

i honestly think it's a good gesture on the part of jobs to call teh family and offer his condolences. I mean, Ford/firestone killed many with the rollover problems and not once did you hear of a ceo offering anything. Kids were often killed for their nikes and not once did you hear of a ceo personally calling the people to offer condelences.

I think it's a good thing and may not be totally magnanimous, but it is definitely something i wish others would do.

According to this, the fact that Jobs made the call was only released to the media by the father after the event. That suggests that Jobs' intentions were sincere.

Are there any legal implications? For example, if Nike or Ford CEOs apologized, could they then be held liable? I've always wondered about that.

Whatever Jobs's intentions were it's a better thing to have made that call than to have not made that call. He sent his sympathies, he didn't take responsibility for the kids death and there's absolutely no way apple would be liable for the kids death.

true..forgot about that.

I don't think jobs apologized in that way, just that he mainly offered condolences.

but no, i don't think there arelegal implications for jobs apologizing, otherwise, every owner of any company making anythign luxurious would be held liable.

I don't see any evidence that Jobs or Apple tried to make this call public. It seems a classy response to a shitty situation.

in assessing job's motives...i think it's best to remember that he's a pretty impulsive person. i wouldn't suspect that much more calculation went in to this than the intitial reaction that he thought it was the right thing to do.

I got an email from a high-school kid. He went through my charity's leadership camp the previous Summer. He wrote to thank us. Because of the camp, he felt he had the skills to organize the memorial service for his friends who were gunned down earlier in the week. I cried like a baby when I read his email.

My point is that the things we do affect people far removed from us. When we discover the heavy implications, sometimes it can be overwhelming. Mr. Nobel started a peace prize when his invention (dynamite) was weaponized. I bet Steve felt guilt and sadness that his invention cost a father his son.

Quote:

Originally Posted by martinguerre

Well said. I find it sad sometimes that if someone reacts to a nasty situation people immediately suspect them and wonder "why" they are doing it. Perhaps the man was just truly sorry for the loss of the boy.

Otherwise...I find it repulsive that we live in such a materialistic world that a young man would be killed over something as meaningless as an electronic device. There is no respect for our fellow man any longer and lives are as disposable as diapers now. All these guys will get is a slap on the wrist while some Mother has lost part of her life and her heart...forever. It makes me shake my head.

Kudos to Job for his actions. May the other two kids that did this crime rot in hell.

Don't judge Steve Jobs as if he is an average guy. He's much more than that.

For example:

http://news-service.stanford.edu/new...bs-061505.html

I have always heard and read good things about Jobs so I think it's just the way he is.

As for saving face..... I don't see how. The product didn't really cause the death, it was the fact some greedy fucks wanted it from the rightful owner and killed him for it.

It's much like 10 years ago when kids were killing kids for their Nikes or whatever shoes were hot. It's in no way the company's fault, so I don't see how Jobs is saving any face (maybe bad publicity but I don't even really see that.)

As for the phone call being public, perhaps it wasn't meant to be, but JObs' people called the paper for the boy's home # and who knows if the father didn't approve to let it be known. I cannot see this being a publicity stunt in anyway, Jobs doesn't need it and can make other "public" moves.

Maybe I'm naive but I truly think this was a class act by a class act man.

Sorry Flat I had to post the link, some people choose not to link move and this speech by Jobs is important and shows his true (or rather what I believe is his true) character.

LINK ABOVE IN Flat's post:

Quote:

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

I've got to believe the call was sincere. If so, I think it was a classy thing to do. If Jobs didn't leak the story it was OK and especially if it helped the parents.

I suspect that incidents like this aren't really about whatever piece of property was stolen. Ten years ago it was designer sneakers and athletic jackets, Gameboys. People steal small, valuable electronics, sure, but when it comes down to murder, I think there's something else going on. It's as much about exerting dominance. I think that even if the boy who was killed hadn't had an Ipod, he'd still have been a target, but his attackers would have found some other excuse to harrass him. Teenage boys manage to kill each other over turf or respect; they don't need expensive items for that, though they probably do act as a stimulant.

Hello pan6467

Since my FIDO days I'm reluctant to post long messages esp. when a link will do.
Guess I over do it.

We should all be as lucky as Mr. Jobs :-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by flat5

Don't judge Steve Jobs as if he is an average guy. He's much more than that.

For example:

http://news-service.stanford.edu/new...bs-061505.html

Thanks for posting that - it was the first thing I thought of when I read the story about Jobs calling the kid's father. I read that speech last week and it's been stuck in my head ever since. Actually made me think about changing some things around.

I'm sure Gates wouldn't do this.

It's stuff like this that makes me glad to be a Apple user. Shit, I'm even wearing my apple shirt today, totally didn't notice that.

Man, everybody got right off the foot assuming because Mr. Job is the head of Apple and got lots of money has to be saving face for the company.

The humane element isn't completely gone these days you know?