Technology spreading the work of dumb criminals
July 15th, 2008
Hollywood fiction would have you believe that most criminals are evil geniuses who mastermind their plots with fail safe logic and clockwork precision. Bunk. As a cop once told me, "If crooks were so smart, our jails would be empty, not full."
New evidence points to the possibility that criminals are getting even dumber than in previous eras. And it seems that technology is probably dumbing them down faster than ever before. Here are some examples from an ABCNEWS.com story ("Dumb criminals caught on tape"):
- A 15-year-old girl allegedly posted a video of herself viciously beating another girl on MySpace.com.
- A young man allegedly posted a video of himself busting church windows and harassing people at a drive-through window on YouTube.
- A man broke into a surveillance camera store — and got caught on (duh) a surveillance camera.
One thing criminals might want to consider: It seems that the police have caught on and are starting to post their video-captured crimes on YouTube. They say it's taking on a life of its own and is giving people a chance to view the tapes repeatedly at their leisure, making it more likely that someone will ID the person who committed the crime.
None of this tops my favorite true story, though, about the wannabe bank robber in San Francisco who handed a "Give me your cash — I have a gun" note to a teller. Not so slow on the draw herself, the bank employee said, "I'm sorry we don't honor these. You'll have to take to the bank across the street." Naturally, when Einstein showed up there, police were waiting for him.