As usual, the British are getting things backwards when it comes to dealing with crime.  The latest comes from West Midlands, where the police have issued a warning to iPod users: ditch the white headphones or pay the price.

Fashion-conscious music lovers are apparently being targeted by muggers. The Times tells the sorry tale of 22-year-old language student Roland Baskerville, who lost his 20GB model on the mean streets of Birmingham: “I was walking down the road near to my home when a man who was walking the other way pointed at my headphones.”

The thief then asked Baskerville if he was listening to an iPod and, receiving an affirmative answer, he “pulled a knife out and started waving it at me, saying: ‘Well hand it over, then.’ I gave it to him and he ran off. He must have known I was wearing an iPod because of the white headphones.”

I have a novel idea.  How about locking up the bastards who are preying on innocent people instead of telling the people not to have nice things?!

I guarantee you that this kind of crap is much less likely to happen in Texas for one simple reason.  If you pull a deadly weapon on me while I’m walking around with my iPod mini, I’m going to respond in an unfavorable (to you, at least) fashion. 

We get more of what we condone or tolerate.  By meekly submitting to robbers and other thugs we’re sending a message that it’s OK to rob us.  If a few of these bastards ended up dead it’d send a better message.  I’ll take the safety of the streets in states where law-abiding people can carry weapons over the faux-safety of England’s streets any time.