The latest story to stoke the tech-vs.-everyone else debate in San Francisco hit the news last night as one local woman claims she was verbally and physically assaulted because she was using Google Glass in a Lower Haight punk bar.
Alleged victim Sarah Slocum, who works as a tech writer PR and business consultant, was in Molotov's on Haight Street Friday night when she claims someone ripped the head-mounted computer off her face and ran off. According to Slocum, another person told her that her friends and she were "destroying the city." Writing on her Facebook page over the weekend, Slocum relays her version of the events:
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..
Slocum says she pursued her attackers and eventually got her face computer back, but not before one of the suspects stole her purse. She says she also filed a police report, which the Chronicle says SFPD was not aware as of Monday night.
Of the attack, Slocum later wrote that she hopes it "doesn't deter anyone from getting Google Glass" and that before the incident occurred she had been showing "one of the normal excited and curious individuals" in the bar how to use it.
On the other hand, accounts from neighbors and other witnesses inside the bar that night paint a different picture. One patron pointed out to KPIX/CBS5 that Molotov's is "probably one of the more punk rock bars in the city. It's not really Google Glass country." To clarify, the man also said that no one should be victimized, but "a level of tact in that sort of establishment might have behooved her."
Still more accounts claim Slocum left her purse and phone unattended in the bar. Slocum herself also wrote that she "would like to put pressure on the owners of Molotov" because "clearly the bar has video inside of person who took my purse, which [she] would like passed over to the authorities so [the suspects] can be apprehended.”
As for whether or not she recorded any of Friday night's incident with Glass, Slocum says she has video showing one of the attackers and the moment her device was ripped off her face, but that she hasn't "been able to get [the] footage off glass."
Also of note, the Glass team is on the case, per a message RTed by the alleged victim.
UPDATE: We've got the Google Glass video.
[Chron]
[Haighteration]
[CBS5]
[Facebook]
