This Week in Glassholes

This Week in Glassholes

Google Glass Explorer Becomes Last Call Punching Bag at Molotov's [UPDATED]

Google Glass is somehow still a problem. With the exception of a few people with $1,500 to burn and an insatiable desire to look like a dipshit, the San Franciscan’s have come together to say “fuck that” to Google’s latest obtrusion.

But in spite of collective opposition, and Google themselves reminding Glass users not to be “creepy or rude,” people persist in wearing them at the worst time.  And thus at last call Friday night, “I Love Social Media, Inc.” founder Sarah Slocum found herself in a fist and face kerfuffle outside of Molotov’s.  As she described the unfortunate situation on Facebook:

OMG so you’ll never believe this but… I got verbally and physically assaulted 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 wallet and everything.

It all started because, of course, bar patrons objected to being recorded while drunk and committing acts of “[obviously] embarrassing behavoir”:

But then, the witnesses said some people inside the bar got upset about the possibility of being recorded by the glasses. Brian Lester said he watched as a man insulted Slocum, then a man accompanying her retaliated with his fists.

“The crowd was jeering as any last call crowd would do with a fight outside of a bar,” Lester said. “She was running around very excited … and people were telling her, ‘you’re being an *** take those glasses off.”

“I think everybody was just upset that she would be recording outside of a bar this late with obvious embarrassing behavior going on,” Lester added. “And just rather insulted that someone thinks it’s okay to record them the entire time they’re in public.”

This is becoming routine, and Slocum’s tale is reminiscent of when Matt Hunt was booted from Telegraph in Oakland for refusing to take off his Glass, only to later claim he was assaulted and called a faggot by bar staff (Hunt later allegedly hacked Telegraph’s Twitter account to disseminate anti-gay hate speech, ultimately leading to Telegraph banning Google Glass).

People act up in bars, people get punched in bars.  The same story, but with a digital twist.  So it goes.

But Google Glass privilege is quickly becoming the men’s rights movement of wearable computers, with ridiculous Explorers banding together to protest businesses who partake in ‘Glass discrimination’ and openly taunt their detractors.  It’s the new normal—people are asked to remove Glass, only to throw a tantrum (as was the case yesterday at Grand Coffee), make up wild claims, or “[run] around very excited” in the face of an angry mob.

It goes without saying that punching someone in the face is an inexcusable response to someone flexing Glass in public.  But insisting on wearing Google Glass in a private establishment like it’s some sort of civil right is only going to lead to more situations like this.

UPDATE 3:30pm: Now it seems as though her boyfriend threw the first punch, according to a witnesses who talked to Mission Mission:

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!!!!!

And another source:

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.

Also not the wisest of decisions: turning your bar fight into an international media affair if your story isn’t tight.

[CBS]