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Bizarre news: "Robber who broke into hair salon is beaten by its black-belt owner and kept as a sex slave for three days... fed only Viagra"

This is a strange news story that could probably only be possible with modern medicine. From the UK Daily Mail:

A Russian man who tried to rob a hair salon ended up as the victim when the female shop owner overpowered him, tied him up naked and then used him as a sex slave for three days. Viktor Jasinski, 32, admitted to police that he had gone to the salon in Meshchovsk, Russia, with the intention of robbing it.But the tables were turned dramatically when he found himself overcome by owner Olga Zajac, 28, who happened to be a black belt in karate.She allegedly floored the would-be robber with a single kick.Then, in a scene reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, police say Zajac dragged the semi-conscious Jasinski to a back room of the salon and tied him up with a hair dryer cable.She allegedly stripped him naked and, for the next three days, used him as a sex slave to 'teach him a lesson' - force feeding him Viagra to keep the lesson going. . . .

Jailed for 56 days for offensive comments? Unbelievably, yes.

The notion that the government can determine whether your speech is offensive and throw you in jail is scary. You can read articles from the BBC and other sources and not find what it was that this 21 year old man actually said. From the BBC:

A student who admitted posting racially offensive comments on Twitter about footballer Fabrice Muamba has been jailed for 56 days.
Swansea University student Liam Stacey, 21, from Pontypridd, admitted inciting racial hatred over remarks about the Bolton Wanderers player, who collapsed during a FA Cup tie at Tottenham.
A district judge in Swansea called the comments "vile and abhorrent".
Muamba, 23, who suffered a cardiac arrest, is still in intensive care.
Sentencing Stacey at Swansea Magistrates' Court, District Judge John Charles told him: "In my view, there is no alternative to an immediate prison sentence.
"It was not the football world who was praying for [Muamba].... everybody was praying for his life."
Stacey broke down in tears as he was led away to begin his jail term.
As he passed the public gallery, he was briefly embraced by friends and his parents.
A second year biology student at Swansea, Stacey was arrested after his comments on the social networking site were reported by other users. . . . .

So what was the initial quote:

"LOL. F*** Muamba. He's dead!!! #haha."

In response to people being upset Mr. Stacey made two other posts. The second one could be construed as racist, though it wasn't made directly at Mr. Muamba.

Something to think about including if you want to explain the changes in the number of robberies over time

Economics technologycausingcrime technologysolvingcrime

Using electronic payments won't only reduce bank robberies, it should also reduce street robberies. But as this article points out, you will see more cybercrime (so-called substitution effects). It isn't just for underground economies that people like cash. They also like it sometimes to protect their privacy. From CBS News:

The Swedish Bankers' Association says the shrinkage of the cash economy is already making an impact in crime statistics.

The number of bank robberies in Sweden plunged from 110 in 2008 to 16 in 2011 — the lowest level since it started keeping records 30 years ago. It says robberies of security transports are also down.

"Less cash in circulation makes things safer, both for the staff that handle cash, but also of course for the public," says Par Karlsson, a security expert at the organization.

The prevalence of electronic transactions — and the digital trail they generate — also helps explain why Sweden has less of a problem with graft than countries with a stronger cash culture, such as Italy or Greece, says economics professor Friedrich Schneider of the Johannes Kepler University in Austria.

"If people use more cards, they are less involved in shadow economy activities," says Schneider, an expert on underground economies.

In Italy — where cash has been a common means of avoiding value-added tax and hiding profits from the taxman — Prime Minister Mario Monti in December put forward measures to limit cash transactions to payments under euro1,000 ($1,300), down from euro2,500 before.

The flip side is the risk of cybercrimes. According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention the number of computerized fraud cases, including skimming, surged to nearly 20,000 in 2011 from 3,304 in 2000.

Oscar Swartz, the founder of Sweden's first Internet provider, Banhof, says a digital economy also raises privacy issues because of the electronic trail of transactions. He supports the idea of phasing out cash, but says other anonymous payment methods need to be introduced instead.

"One should be able to send money and donate money to different organizations without being traced every time," he says. . . . .

A self help way to stop people from talking on cell phones in public?

technologycausingcrime

Apparently signal jamming is illegal, but I am sure that a lot of people appreciate this crime occurring. That said, there really isn't an externality problem here because the owner of the bus or train bears the cost of deciding whether people should be able to use their cell phones in public. If people value using their cell phones less than the other passengers dislike them being used, the owner of the transportation will make the most money by not allowing them to be used. From CNET:

It might be the 7:30 a.m. bus and you might be semi-comatose from a long night of self-anesthesia, but some people do insist on talking into their cell phones about last night's cabbage stew or a lover who smells of cadaver.
You can tell them to be quiet. But this, too might be ignored. So one rider in Philadelphia decided he'd use an alternative method: he says he simply jams all cell phones on his bus.
I know many will be grateful to NBC 10 in Philadelphia for discovering this remarkably simple method at achieving world peace.
"I guess I'm taking the law into my own hands. And, quite frankly, I'm proud of it," the man told NBC.
The man--whose name is Eric--said he found people talking on their cell phones during rides on public transport both irritating and rude. (Oh, but surely they're interesting, once in a while.)
He said he used a cell phone jammer that he bought online. . . .

RIM Blackberry apparently used to coordinate rioting in the UK

technologycausingcrime technologysolvingcrime

If the text messages are stored, Blackberries might be used to prove coordinated actions for riots.

An article by Reuters talks about it here:

In Britain, pre-existing social problems were compounded by initial austerity measures -- including shutting down "non-essential" public services such as youth clubs -- and then fury at a perceived attempted cover-up of a police shooting.

A blizzard of social media incitement -- primarily using Blackberry smart phones and their semi-encrypted messaging system -- and wall-to-wall media coverage then look to have sparked copycat rioting as surely as satellite TV and Twitter coverage of Egypt's protests sparked similar events elsewhere.

"It does look as though social media is changing the balance of power between the state and the individual, whether that is manifested as regime change in Cairo or looting in Tottenham," said John Bassett, a former senior official at the British signals intelligence agency GCHQ and now a senior fellow at London's Royal United Services Institute. . . .

A proxy for the number of Illegal Aliens?

IllegalAliens technologycausingcrime

With Illegals using others Social Security numbers, it would be interesting to know what percent of these cases involve illegal aliens. They might all use the ever popular 000-00-0000, but some might get other numbers.

Imagine filing your tax return and learning that someone else got your refund. With your name and Social Security number, no less.
The IRS is grappling with a nearly five-fold increase in taxpayer identity theft between 2008 and 2010, a Government Accountability Office official plans to tell a House hearing Thursday. There were 248,357 incidents in 2010, compared to 51,702 in 2008.
The GAO findings, obtained by The Associated Press, don't begin to describe the pain for a first-time victim, who must wait for a refund while the IRS sorts out which return is real and which is a fraud.
Many identity thieves don't get prosecuted, according James White, director of strategic issues for the GAO..
"IRS officials told us that IRS pursues criminal investigations of suspected identity thieves in only a small number of cases," White says in testimony prepared for a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee. . . .
"We want to know why this problem is apparently getting much worse," said Rep. Todd Platts, R-Pa., chairman of the subcommittee. "By bringing these issues to the public as quickly as possible, the committee hopes to give citizens the necessary information so they can protect themselves from such identity theft." . . .

Facebook and Twitter make it easier for criminals to know who are the undercover police

technologycausingcrime

Is this the reason for the increased attacks on police officers? What risk does this pose for police to be blackmailed by drug gangs?

In the midst of what officials call an "appalling" and "alarming spike" in attacks on law enforcement around the country, officials are warning the success of sites such as Facebook and Twitter has made police even more vulnerable.
While police have for some time used social networking sites to identify and investigate suspected criminals, now criminals are using such sites to identify and investigate law enforcement officers, including undercover police. In addition, hostage-takers and suspects who barricade themselves in buildings are monitoring social media to track police movements in real time, and gang members are launching their own surveillance operations targeting police.
Social media "will be used against you," Lauri Stevens -- organizer of this week's Social Media, Internet and Law Enforcement conference in Chicago -- promised police officials who have gathered from across the country and overseas to swap ideas over harnessing the changing media environment and protecting against its dangers.
After police first discovered a DVD inside a suspect's car in October, Phoenix authorities issued a "security alert," telling law enforcement officials that officers were being "targeted" on Facebook and that posting photographs and other personal information on social media "may create serious officer safety consequences."
It also may create serious safety consequences for the friends and family, including young children, of officers who appear in many of the photos on DVDs recovered by authorities, conference attendees were told Tuesday. . . .

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