Posted by Marcel Klum on 11 September 2003 - 19:04 · 19 comments & 2280 views
Miami attorney Jack Thompson is at it again, this time suing the maker of Grand Theft Auto because the video game supposedly drove some dopey kids in Tennessee to go out and shoot up passing cars.

Thompson is nothing if not relentless. His attempt to tie the 1997 Paducah, Kentucky slayings to game play came up empty, but he still maintains that violent video games are at the root of just about all social pathologies, except maybe failing to cover your mouth when you cough.

Sixteen year-old William and 14-year-old Joshua Buckner have already pleaded guilty to reckless homicide, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment. But they can only be held under state law until they are 19. That fact, together with the teens' claims that the video game was their inspiration for heading out to the Interstate with mayhem on their minds, has victims' families understandably feeling that justice has not been served.

Enter Thompson, who has been hired by the family of Aaron Hamel, a 45-year-old registered nurse who was killed by the teens' wild shotgun blasts. After filing suit against game maker TAKE2interactive last week, Thompson promised a "huge verdict" which would "take their blood money from them and send a message to their boards that they have to stop this practice or there will be other suits on behalf of other people, killed by these games."

News source: /.
View: Article @ Reason Online
View: Stopkill website


The networks just cannot keep away from Thompson when he talks like this. Like some dependable character actor, the wise Oriental Keye Luke or the spongy creep Victor Buono, the excitable Thompson fills a recurring role. He is in great demand on the morning shows to rivet the bleary eyeballs of parents with tales of kids seduced into mass murder by a few dancing pixels. Scant months ago Thompson got network airplay for his claim that the X-Box title Halo somehow "trained" the Beltway Sniper to kill. The U.S. Army would seem to have first dibs on that honor, but that does not fit Thompson's preferred solution—sue Microsoft for big money.

Thompson's Web site, Stopkill.com, makes clear that wherever there are video games, you are bound to find killers. In fact games are not games at all, but sniper trainers and "murder simulators" churning out "thousands of 'mini-Manchurian Candidates' ready, willing, and able to act out the violence that they have been taught is fun and consequence-free."

And the only way they can be stopped is for Jack Thompson to sue the pants off the wealthy video game companies and secure money damages. But why stop with video games? Surely anyone can use the parlor trick "prediction" that Thompson is fond of making anytime a teen shooter pops up on the national news ticker. Thompson "predicts" that if police search diligently enough they will find evidence that the accused was a video game player. One could just as accurately predict he—and it is always a he—was moody and didn't eat his vegetables.



There are 19 additional comments
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(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #1 Posted by Homie on 11 Sep 2003 - 20:26
QUOTE
killed by these games.

wtf, noone was f*cking killed by "these" games
Quote this comment #1.1 Posted by Mandalor on 11 Sep 2003 - 21:10
A couple of questions

1. who gave these kids unathorized access to weapons
2. who forgot to teach their children that what they see on tv is FICTION

so can we sue the parents for neglect?
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #2 Posted by dataschmuck on 11 Sep 2003 - 20:27
This reminds me of the time when they said Microsoft Flight Smulator was used to train Al-Quada members to fly into the Twin Towers.
Does this mean that since I won the Nascar 2003 I can enter the Real Nascar and beat the pants off everyone? Ooh, wait, I beat Splinter Cell, I should easily be accepted into the CIA or something!
GTA doesn't teach kids to go shoot the sides of Semi's. Nowhere in the game do I remember a mission that had a requirement to shoot at an 18 wheeler. The game allows you to if you so choose, and thats just it. If you choose. Free will.
Violent games are not the problem. I think anybody who was raised right, and is not clinicly insane, would somehow realize that shooting a shotgun at moving traffic is not going to be cool. How did they get their hands on a shotgun? Where were their parents or guardians, and why were they letting them play this game?
Isn't this game rated "mature" anyways? does 17 and 14 fall under the mature age group?
Stop blaming video games for peoples mental problems! The kids were retarded, and probably have been long before GTA ever came out.
Quote this comment #2.1 Posted by Danrarbc641 on 11 Sep 2003 - 20:47
17 does, the M rating is 17 and up. But the 14 year old isn't.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #3 Posted by neural-shock on 11 Sep 2003 - 20:45
why didn't someone kill him yet?
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #4 Posted by sodapop on 11 Sep 2003 - 20:48
Games are part of the problem. Right along with undisciplined/hateful kids.
Quote this comment #4.1 Posted by ukogyC on 12 Sep 2003 - 10:41
You're right. It's not only video games, there is also a huge part of education also. It's a combinason of both!

Cygoku
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #5 Posted by MrDennis89 on 12 Sep 2003 - 00:39
If violent games really cause people to do violent things, I'm sure we'd all be dead by now.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #6 Posted by noll3095 on 12 Sep 2003 - 01:11
Of course games cause violence, that's why the Nazis were told to play video games for 2 hours a day...
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #7 Posted by Dark Warhawk on 12 Sep 2003 - 01:50
you see they have already balmed books, movies,music, so the last thing they can balme is video games. once this nonsese is done they will have no choice but to blame the people that did it. i mean they are 16,14 they knew what they was doing.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #8 Posted by destrox on 12 Sep 2003 - 02:30
Its sad that a legal attorney at law has the *balls* to say and believe in what he's saying here.

The day he pulls his head out of his own ass and realizes that none of this is from the game anymore then it is the MEDIA ON TV, and MOVIES, and THIER PARENTS.

**** if anything this guy is just being a giant walking banner saying "Hey everyone, Incase you didnt notice this game is really bad, better not play it! " And the last I checked, kids go for this stuff.

At age 16 and 14 these kids knew exactly what they were doing, hell i was working since i was 14.
(5 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #9 Posted by kionee on 12 Sep 2003 - 03:29
Funny how no one has mentioned the Army's own FPS, which trains people in the art of warfare....hmm
Quote this comment #9.1 Posted by SecretAgentMan on 12 Sep 2003 - 05:28
Probably because "most" people know that games are not the real problem here.
Quote this comment #9.2 Posted by kionee on 12 Sep 2003 - 05:51
QUOTE (#9.1)
Probably because "most" people know that games are not the real problem here.

I didn't mean the people here, I meant the idiots like this Thompson person.
Quote this comment #9.3 Posted by Fedr0 on 12 Sep 2003 - 06:27
Probably because the army'd go after him?
Quote this comment #9.4 Posted by kionee on 12 Sep 2003 - 08:20
QUOTE (#9.3)
Probably because the army'd go after him?

We can only hope so
Quote this comment #9.5 Posted by SecretAgentMan on 12 Sep 2003 - 11:38
I agree.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #10 Posted by BonkedProducer on 18 Sep 2003 - 14:29
Interesting Stuff here:
After reading this I sent Mr. Thompson the following E-Mail:

QUOTE
To: jackthompson@attbi.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 2:19 PM
Subject: Could you please explain this too me...

Mr. Thompson,
Could you please explain to me how murder occurred prior to the existence of mass media and video games? By this, I am referring to periods in history that were much more violent than the one in which we currently live, say perhaps, the old west, or the middle ages etc. Prior to the existence of television and video games, were there not murders among us? How about individuals such as the zodiac killer, or the “son of sam” Who trained these people to kill without regard for the consequences – did Pac Man encourage all murders that occurred in the US in the early 80s? It seems to me that you fail to place blame where it belongs, on the individual that committed the crime.

Did shoplifters learn to steal from art? Did car-jacking become a household world after or years before the game GTA ever was dreamt of by its developers? Did Asteroids train people to use smart bombs? I really see absolutely no point in your arguments other than to sensationalize your cause and bring you press while taking blame away from sick individuals that have little or no care for human life. Why do you clog our court systems with frivolous law suits regarding art imitating life, when our overburdened court system could be much better used to provide proper punishment to the individuals that fail to meet the strict standard of “hey, killing people is bad.”

I understand that everyone has to have a cause, I just don’t see a valid reason for yours, but I am trying, so please, take a moment to explain to me how violence, theft, crime in general existed before mass media “taught” us how to do these things. I would really like to see the reasons you site for this. Be brief or expound away, I would prefer that you address me on this issue rather than toss this in your trash bin as I expect it will be.

Thank you for your time, I understand you are a busy man, what with tons of frivolous lawsuits to file in the off chance that you may pad your pockets,

Paul Couture


And I actually recived this reply - WHOA!

QUOTE

I'm getting a lot of emails from gamers. Would you please tell me the website or chatroom at which my involvement on the gaming copycat issue has been brought up so I can join in on the discussion with everyone else? Thanks.

Jack Thompson


So of course I sent Mr. Thompson here.... we'll see what he has to add.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #11 Posted by Desturbd1 on 31 Oct 2003 - 02:21
I actually sent the guy an email myself. I asked, "Hi, I was just wondering how exactly video games "teach" people how to kill. Last I checked, guns were operated by neither mice nor control pads. As far as showing where to aim on the human body, I think it's pretty much common knowledge that getting shot in the head is worse than getting shot in the foot."

His reply, which to me is highly indicative of both his intelligence and his respect for the people he's supposed to represent: "Actually, they train idiots just like you. Glad to help."

What an amazing man, I wonder what the families of the supposed "victims" of the violence video games create in the minds of youth would think if they knew he considered them idiots.
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