[This is a follow-up to DeWang’s Chinese iPhone shopper tasered and tackled story]
So being a repeat customer of Apple, or going to Apple Store to pick up products you already paid for online, may be dangerous to your health? Perhaps only if you are Chinese like Ms. Li, and don’t expect to receive much sympathy from the media. The news coverage this poor woman received so far is decidedly biased. Many sensationalized Nashua police department’s announcement she had $16,000 on her, in order to make the “black market scalper” smear stick. Fox News even gone as far as questioning if the woman was stealing American technology for China (note to Cavuto, these iPhones are made in China, and are available for sale in China.)
However, one can take comfort in the fact netters around the world have responded very differently than our supposedly impartial media. Here are some reader comments around the world, in defense of Ms. Li:
Boston Daily
Christopher King
As a former LE attorney I say it is far too often NH cop culture. They did this at the same exact time I was addressing the Nashua police accreditation panel about police abuse!!!
[Note: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfVQaabWeuw]
Paul Maloney
Thank God we have the New Hampshire police to enforce the rules of civilized society! Who knows where we’d be if she bought three..or even four?
Motti Bembaron
Apple policy always had a racist attitude to foreigners. It gets most of its business form China and Middle East but it does not stop Apple from having a bigot attitude for those without a fair skin. It’s not the first time Apple stores refuse to sell to foreigners.
starvs starvs
Reasonable enough. In a police state.
Here are some comments form Chinese netters:
作者:ibf8799
这就是霉国的人权
[This is human rights in America]
作者:xiaorong981
靠屠杀印第安人发家的强盗的后代，你能指望有多文明礼貌？
[What can you expect in term of civility? These are descendants of robber barons who massacred Native Americans]
@天闲山人
民主的电击，惨叫都是那么的自由！[Tasered by democracy, even the bloody scream rang freedom!]
值得同情吗？不值得同情吗？不说民族，同样是人类，她不过是想要帮朋友买手机就受到这种待遇，她还是一个手无缚鸡之力的女人！我不明白，连这些评论的美国人都感到不公平，为什么我们的网民却能如此冷血的反问“值得同情吗？”
[Deserving of our sympathy? Never mind ethnicity, is she a human being? Treated like this for buying cell phone for freinds, she’s a helpless woman! I don’t undersand why our commentary are so cold as to question “deserving of our sympathy?”, when American netter commentaries are that this is unfair?]
Mister Unknown says
To be fair to Fox News (which is surprisingly not as anti-Chinese as I would think, relative to other US media outlets) and Cavuto, it doesn’t seem like he was blatantly badgering her fiancee, Cavuto is just trying to present the opposing view, and giving her fiancee an opportunity to refute that view. I think this is a normal practice in journalism. That said, the fact that Cavuto had to resort to the “Chinese espionage” card shows that there is no decent argument on the other end. Of course, it appears that the interviewee was not well-informed enough to explicitly point out the ridiculousness of the charge (i.e. iPhones are assembled in China, and it would be a hell of a lot easier for “Chinese spies” to purchase them in China).
That said, I think this overlooks another issue – that of Apple’s pricing in China. People will continue to come to the US and purchase iPhones as long as Apple continues to ridiculously overprice their products in China. Good luck trying to enforce the resale ban.
no-name says
Speaking of the ‘net, an interesting article concerning how US police generally treat or handle women is available at http//:www.scribd.com/doc/104568032 and reading it should give you a better idea of the routine police brutality meted out to the weaker sex in the U.S. (the land inhabited by Miss Nancy Pelosi).