Ah, New York City; a teeming metropolis on the cutting edge of, well, just about everything. If you want to see what trends the rest of the world will be following six months from now, just go to New York and ask someone what they were doing three weeks ago, right? After all, it's the trendsettingest place on earth-- or so they'd have you believe. Startling new evidence reveals that NYC is not always at the forefront of style; trust us, we love New York as much as anybody, so we were shocked to discover that, rather than leading the pack trend-wise, the Big Apple is currently playing catch-up in a field that most people would consider to be one of the city's real fortes: urban crime.

Check it out: faithful viewer Justin Sevakis forwarded us an article from NY1 News which reports that there's been a "14 percent rise in subway felonies this year through mid-March" down there in the city, which, in and of itself, may well be a trendsetting increase in subterranean crime-- we don't know. What we do know, though, is that the reason why New York's subway crime is on the rise is because muggers are reportedly "increasingly targeting iPod owners" when scoping out marks to roll. And why not? If you see someone rocking out with white earbuds, you know he's carrying a small, expensive, and in-demand consumer electronic device that you can probably pawn for three figures easily (well, the iPod shuffle may throw that figure off slightly), and moreover, he won't hear you coming as you approach from behind while swinging a sock full of quarters. It's just good sense.

But longtime viewers will see where we're going with this. Way back in February of 2004, we told you about the latest trend in robbery to have emerged over in London: thugs zeroing in on oblivious music-lovers with white earbuds. Yes, newspapers reported that the muggers of London had clued into the wisdom of targeting iPod-owners well over a year before the trend has now become apparent in New York. Oh, sure, you might be able to make a case for NYC having put a fresh, new spin on London's original innovation by moving the iPod-swiping onto a subterranean public transit system, but that doesn't sound like enough to make it leading instead of following. Unless we hear about a new rash of iPod thefts on the London Underground six months down the line, this time it sure looks to us like New York has shown up late to the party while sporting last season's haircut.

It's possible that someone has alerted Mayor Bloomberg to this embarrassing faux pas, because the city appears to be taking steps to eliminating a style of crime that's "so last year": according to NY1, New York's Finest are cracking down on subway iPod theft by placing "'impact teams' of eight officers and a sergeant at stations where robberies are most common." If you yourself happen to ride the trains in NYC, though, you may want to lend them a hand: consider replacing your iPod's trademark white earbuds with a set of less iPod-specific 'phones. Like, say, a pair of $4000 Stax SR-007 Omega IIs; sure, they'll still get you jacked something fierce, but at least it won't be because you were listening to an iPod, and therefore you won't be contributing to your city's collective embarrassment. It's practically your civic duty.