Grady Judd, the sheriff of Polk County in the state of Florida, said yesterday that is ready to arrest Tim Cook in case he refuses to unlock any iPhone in the possession of his agents who are carrying out the criminal investigation of a crime.
The statement was made during a press conference that the sheriff held yesterday, he was talking about the case of some criminals who took pictures of the body of the victim killed after committing the crime, he was collaborating with the police to give them access to the data from their terminals.
If this had not happened and Tim Cook would have refused to unlock the authorities' iPhone, the Polk County Sheriff would have issued an arrest warrant for Tim Cook and the Apple CEO would have been arrested if he ever arrived in the territory over which the sheriff has jurisdiction.
Of course as in reality Tim Cook would never be arrested by someone for the position he has in the fight with the FBI, but the authorities are becoming more and more hostile and not only towards Apple, but also towards the CEO who is leading it at the moment, a rather strange thing.
You cannot create a business model to go, 'We're not paying attention to the federal judge or the state judge. You see, we're above the law,'. The CEO of Apple needs to know he's not above the law, and neither is anyone else in the United States.
