OK, we’re going to start this whole ordeal with some links to the other people who have “reported” on this story.
Reading those articles, you would think that San Francisco is a hostile wasteland of violent anti-gentrification sociopaths, just waiting for a chance to rob, rape, steal and beat their way to a city free of Googlers and tech buses. But this entire story is complete BS, and was fabricated by a very, very drunk woman who was in no way shape or form accosted on the night in question.
Long story short: Drunk woman was too drunk, and the bar was not pleased.
(Related: A guide for Google Glass etiquette)
Let me start by explaining the story from the beginning. First of all, for the past couple of months, there have been protests around the city at Google bus pickup locations. Google has been running a bus and, lately, a ferry service to its campus for years now, and these buses have become the symbol of “gentrification” in SF.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: gentrification? In the second most expensive city in America, probably No. 5 worldwide? How on Earth do you gentrify a city where the rent for a studio apartment starts at US$2,000? The answer is: You don’t. SF was gentrified long ago. Back when I moved here in 1998, people were freaking out about gentrification and software taking over the city.
And yeah, it’s a problem. The rents aren’t going down, and the population of the city isn’t going up. That means all the Burning Man types and the blue-collar families that have called SF home for decades are now being forced out of the city. Sure, that sucks. I feel for these folks.
But the sad truth is that all these techies coming to SF are exactly the type of people the protestors tend to like hanging out with. They’re liberal, friendly, mostly white (as are the protestors), young, hip, and tech savvy. Sounds just like the protestors, eh? I even have a friend who works at a startup doing super tech security stuff, and he’s joined in on these gentrification protests. It’s very silly, considering a lot of the protestors could easily be gentrifiers if Google offered them a job. They just haven’t yet, and I think jealousy is a big part here.
Anyway, back to the Google Glass lady. So, imagine a city where people with tattoos are not happy with the wealthy tech people. Now, imagine a very, very drunk woman and her boyfriend walking into a very tattoo-heavy bar 30 minutes from closing and begin to film the bar’s patrons.
How do you think those patrons would react? Even if they weren’t anti-gentrification Burning Man types, they’d probably be pretty PO’d. Well, they were, and they asked the lady to stop filming, at which point she became loud and belligerent. She fell, lost her Glass, and someone picked it up and handed it back to her. Her male friend was drunk too, and took swings at folks in the bar when she fell. His attempt to defend her failed and he, himself, got decked.
I’ve actually gotten all of this from a bartender at Molotov’s, the bar in question. According to this drink-toting person, whom I shall keep nameless, this lady with the Google Glass was a “Glasshole,” pure and simple. If she wasn’t drunk, stumbling and filming people against their will, this would have ended with much less violence and kerfuffle.
So let’s all stop copy/pasting whatever was printed on some other news site. For crying out loud, even Forbes and CNBC have reported on this! It’s such a non-story, and to top it all off, all the journalists covering it have given only the side of the story from this Google Glass lady. The other side is much more valid and likely to be true, as it’s not being told by someone who had a blackout from drinking too much that evening.
So, everyone worried about Google Glass hatred: Put your outrage back in your pocket and move along. Nothing to see here but two drunk losers whining to the media after some local people with tattoos on their arms put them in their place.