Tim Cook Addresses George Floyd's Death and Ensuing Protests and Riots as Apple Temporarily Closes Some U.S. Stores

[Muzzakus]

Everyone deserves an iPhone, I demand it should be sold at a discount to the less fortunate. This is the way.

Oh and by the way, fix the broken ass text selection in ios13. Do you even use your own product?

 

[BigDO]

Why can’t Tim just focus on products? Jobs never spoke on social issues of the day

Because Tim is not a narcissistic sociopath?

 

[justperry]

(Sadly)Nothing will change, it will be business as usual in a couple of weeks, same goes for gun violence, Covid-19, Climate change, overpopulation .... and so on.

 

[needsomecoffee]

Even if Steve Jobs lived to this day, he would not be able to micro-manage all of it, even with all the VP's reporting to him. Also, I would not expect Tim to go pester the iOS engineering team to knit-pick about the stability of a product

It is all about incentives and measures. I think the biggest difference between Tim and Steve is the degree of beholden-ness to investors. Tim manages to maximize share value. This undoubtedly leads to incentives and pressures driven by increasing share and revenue/profit per user. I followed Steve a long time in the news, and never got the sense that he put share value first. If products did not measure up, he got pretty pissed. Plus there was always the fact that an elevator ride with Steve might end your career at Apple, our your entire group would get a scathing. I do not think Tim's personality evokes this fear - and that is likely a positive relative to Steve in many ways.

 

[Kabeyun]

I am disturbed by those (including the media) that use the word "protesters" in the cases they should be using the word "rioters" or "looters".

In this case, “protesters” are a superset of “rioters.” “Looters” otoh are opportunists.

No most. You don’t become a cop to be nice guy. You become a cop because you like to pull the trigger.

If you have interest in reality, most LEOs (about ¾) finish their careers never having discharged their firearm in the field. Darned data will trip up comments like yours every time. Heed the adage: “It Is Better to Keep Quiet and Be Thought a Fool Than to Speak and Remove All Doubt.”

To everyone else, look for unsupported weasel words like “most,” “barely any,” or, common around here, “vast majority,” as red flags.

 

[ghanwani]

Excellent PR move. I say bullish for AAPL.

 

[Juan007]

In this case, “protesters” are a superset of “rioters.” “Looters” otoh are opportunists.

False, "protesters" are a disjoint set from "rioters". 99%+ of people you see on the streets are protesting civil rights injustice and not causing harm to anyone or anything. Meanwhile an external group of infiltrators are taking advantage of the protesters and undermining the movement. Two separate groups that have nothing to do with each other.

 

[Mr. Dee]

You clearly don’t get meaning of that campaign... 🤦‍♂️

You obviously never got it, ;the 1984 ad showing a lone female vigilante (Macintosh) fighting against the establishment what message was that sending out?

I might also add, Jobs was concerned and spoke to Rupert Murdoch about FOX News and the wrong message that network sends out.

So back to this being about Jobs never took up social issues, the whole idea of the company being about social change. Some of you just want to hijack Apples history for your own good since many of you started using Apple products this morning or otherwise known as the Apple Watch generation.

 

[Abazigal]

Why can’t Tim just focus on products? Jobs never spoke on social issues of the day

Probably because the two were nothing alike.

While Steve Jobs held the title of CEO, the reality was that Tim Cook was largely the one handling his actual CEO duties (the day to day running of the company), which in turn freed Steve Jobs up so he could have a more active role in designing products.

In a sense, it was like Tony Stark outsourcing the running of his company to Pepper Potts so he could be free to create new iron man suits.

As such, it’s no surprise that Tim Cook was made CEO of Apple after Steve Job’s death, because that was what Tim Cook was already doing at Apple anyways. Meanwhile, the successor to Steve Jobs as product visionary would be Jony Ive (until he left Apple), and my guess is that said role is likely now held by Jeff Williams, though it is likely still a joint responsibility by the design team overall.

That’s why I don’t blame Tim Cook for “not focusing on products”, because that’s not his job, nor is it his expertise. Rather, given Tim Cook’s expertise is in operations and numbers, it’s little surprise that he has taken well to being the new public face of Apple. Nor is he afraid to use the exposure afforded to him as Apple’s CEO to speak up on issues that are important to Apple.

Cook is redefining the Apple CEO role and by extension, the role CEOs should play in today's society. And I personally wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

[!!!]

Most cops are genuinely good people who put their lives on the line everyday while dealing with very tough tasks at hand. I hate that one lunatic is making all cops look horrible.

Also I hate that some lawless losers “capitalizing this opportunity” are turning this real sad tragedy into possible justification to why some cops have to act the way that led to Mr. Floyd being murdered.

this whole thing is really sad in so many different dimension... especially sad to be confirmed that there are good number of bad people in the United States.

This whole thing is just a few bad people making everyone look bad.

 

[Ethosik]

Cook needs to stop trying to be a civil rights leader and spend more time running the company. iOS 13 was an absolute mess. If iOS 14 is the same way, I’m gonna post this news Story in every single thread where people are complaining about the problems with it.

You do realize that is what managers, directors and Vice Presidents are for right? CEO does not micro-manage every department. They are typically involved with the much larger discussions as in which company to acquire, getting out of China to some level, and so on.

 

[Breaking Good]

For Tim Cook normal is using a blind eye to the use of inhumane chinese labor. For Tim Cook normal is an all all male, all white leadership team. He regular quotes an idolizes MLK, but rarely, or truly practices any of his values. Tim Cook isn't a humanitarian. He's a capitalist posing as a humaniatarian, when it is to his financial advantage. When it is in his and his companies best interests.

"“Capitalism has often left a gap of superfluous wealth and abject poverty [and] has created conditions permitting necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few.” - MLK

Exactly! Tim Cook is a hypocrite. I'm still waiting for Apple to open a store in Mondawmin Mall, Baltimore.

Oh! Wait, that's right. The people who live in these neighborhoods could never afford to pay Apple's ridiculously high prices. How convenient for Apple.
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The vast majority of cops are good...

If this is in fact true as several in this thread claim, then why are we seeing these protests across the United States?

It seems to me that the people protesting could find better uses of their time if police brutality was as isolated as some here claim.

 

[Kabeyun]

False, "protesters" are a disjoint set from "rioters". 99%+ of people you see on the streets are protesting civil rights injustice and not causing harm to anyone or anything. Meanwhile an external group of infiltrators are taking advantage of the protesters and undermining the movement. Two separate groups that have nothing to do with each other.

“99%+”? Wow. I’ll refer you back to my comment about unsubstantiated weasel words like “99%+”. Unless you counted them all and know each one’s personal background, in which case I’m impressed how you come up with your fractions. And here I am thinking that you just made it up out of thin air to try to support your opinion.

 

[techwhiz]

Flame Suit On.

Apple, Intel, Broadcom, Google and Facebook have a history of passing over qualified black and hispanic candidates.
Their diversity programs are lip service and do nothing to make sure qualified candidates get a fair shake.
Managers have a history of hiring people that look and think like them while passing over clearly qualified candidates.
Asian managers hire Asian engineers.
Indian managers hire Indian engineers.
Silicon Valley looks diverse at 10,000 feet.
It is not diverse when you are on the ground. It's very segregated.

So while Tim Cook, talks about the mistreatment of Black folks in America, he should look inside Apple.

 

[jntdroid]

If this is in fact true as several in this thread claim, then why are we seeing these protests across the United States?

It seems to me that the people protesting could find better uses of their time if police brutality was as isolated as some here claim.

I don't think anybody believes these situations that make the news are the only examples of police brutality. With roughly 800k sworn officers in the US right now, it would be silly to think this doesn't happen more often than the national news reports (and to all races, not just African Americans).

But, it's also silly to swing the pendulum all the way to the other side and vilify all cops.

Power hungry cops exist. Racist cops exist. That needs to be dealt with, and protests are a great way for a population to, within their rights, initiate some change (without the violence and destruction).

But good cops exist as well, that are not power hungry and are not racist. You just never hear about them (though there have been quite a few examples the past few days that people seem to be conveniently ignoring in the name of this "f#@$ all cops!" narrative).

Edit: I'll also add that personally I believe that most of the protesters are doing it right, the media is just focusing on the small percentage that are being destructive.

 

[techwhiz]

The vast majority of cops are good, but just as when the safest form of transportation like a jetliner crashes or a small amount of phones are exploding or anything that poses a threat to human life, it is investigated thoroughly until a solution to mitigate the harm to human life can be found. But if we just throw our hands up and made excuses because it doesn’t affect you or your family then we will never find a solution.

The vast majority of cops aren't good.
You had four bad cops in this incident.
The other three lied on their reports ad said that the suspect was combative which was a lie.
They stood by while their "blue brother" killed a Black man.

If you are cop and you ignore racial abuse; you are complicit and part of the problem.

But your point is appreciated.
They don't investigate.

Here is something to ponder.
They lie when there are cameras around.
What do they do when there are no cameras?

 

[AtomicDusk]

Great message to share with employees. Good on him.

 

[bpeeps]

A portion of people in every occupation is bad, so I guess every career field is damaged.

Bad dry cleaners don't murder people. Bad hair stylists don't murder people. Bad interior designers don't murder people. Get this through your head.

 

[jntdroid]

Bad dry cleaners don't murder people. Bad hair stylists don't murder people. Bad interior designers don't murder people. Get this through your head.

That comment was in response to someone implying that the "entity" of police officers will have their reputation damaged because of the actions of a portion of that entity, which isn't really fair to the good portion of that entity.

In no way does what he said imply the seriousness of an officer murdering someone should be dismissed or compared to bad actors in other lines of work.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Why can’t Tim just focus on products? Jobs never spoke on social issues of the day

Because Tim is an American citizen who believes in the right of free speech, regardless of his leadership of Apple.

 

[roland.g]

No most. You don’t become a cop to be nice guy. You become a cop because you like to pull the trigger.

Wow. That was the most intolerant, narrow minded, and prejudiced statement I have heard in a while.

Many cops are cops because of sense of duty to protect and help people. In truth the group that hates bad cops more than any other group is good cops.

 

[Neepman]

Because Tim is not a narcissistic sociopath?

That narcissistic sociopath gave us world changing products. I couldn't give a sod about the collateral damage caused in the process.

 

[roland.g]

most are bad people. Go look at some videos on social media from just rhe past 24 hours. Nevermind the countless murders of people of all different colors committed that were covered up, unprosecuted, or had the perpetrators rehired without any punishment whatsoever. Rules for thee not for me. They protect each other and cover up the wrong doing with zero oversight.

In 2019 1099 people in the US were killed by cops. Most of those were shooting at cops and otherwise unfortunately chose not to comply when committing a crime or fleeing from one, instead choosing violence that required lethal force. Of that 1099, 265 were black. Unfortunately there is no statistic as to the number that truly died needlessly and could be qualified as murder like George Floyd.

In 2019, over 7,300 blacks people died due to civilian to civilian homicides.
While the George Floyd death is horrific, where is the outrage, the concern, the BLM when it comes to the 7,300. Do we only care about the 265. Shouldn’t there be outrage over the other deaths.

 

[miniyou64]

That's actually a pretty stupid statement, sorry! How is that different from saying "Most people on certain communities are criminals" just because there are some, or just because they don't like the cops? Cops exist because of crime. And I am not talking about the US, but the world in general. The less crime, fewer cops you will see. You, me, and everyone else expect our streets to be safe and when the safety falls below our expectations we blame the police. It is easy to become emotional and forget how they put their life at risk every single day and with what kind of people they generally have to deal on a daily basis.

So all the minority police officers enforcing the law are just pawns of white supremacists?

This has absolutely nothing to do with race. It’s power structure of a corrupt government arm that gets away with actual crimes constantly with zero oversight or accountability, and the luxury of operating behind closed doors. Police have no problem ruining your life no matter what color you are.
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Wow. That was the most intolerant, narrow minded, and prejudiced statement I have heard in a while.

Many cops are cops because of sense of duty to protect and help people. In truth the group that hates bad cops more than any other group is good cops.

right. Is that why they don’t speak out against the bad cops? Is that why they enable them?

 

[Apple_Robert]

I am so tired of hearing and seeing BLM (Black lives matter). In my opinion, all life, regardless of race, creed or color matters. The message should be just that, “we all matter,” not just BLM.

What happened to George and many others over the years isn’t right, and never should be diminished or forgotten. It is a disgrace. At the same time, I don’t think the protestors (and some in the media) are doing justice to the core issues, by leading with and making “black lives matter “ the sole focus.

Good on Tim for speaking out.