Grand Theft Auto Led Teen to Kill 1311
Varg Vikernes writes "FOXNews reports on a lawsuit that claims the video game 'Grand Theft Auto' led a teenager to shoot two police officers and a dispatcher to death in 2003, mirroring violent acts depicted in the popular game. 'What has happened in Alabama is that four companies participated in the training of Devin... to kill three men,' attorney Jack Thompson told The Tuscaloosa News, which reported the suit's filing. Thompson is also filing suit against Wal-Mart, Gamestop, Take-Two and Sony." Gamespot has coverage of this story as well. Thompson has made something of a career out of lawsuits of this nature.
MY HOME TOWN ON SLASHDOT, DANG (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Americans need to get themselves straight.. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Americans need to get themselves straight.. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I'm pissed. (Score:2, Informative)
True. But sometimes just doing your job is still unethical.
Re:Americans need to get themselves straight.. (Score:5, Informative)
It wasn't GTA that made him kill, it was Alabama (Score:2, Informative)
No wonder he driven to kill -- he lives in Alabama.
Re:I'm pissed. (Score:4, Informative)
Judges are supposed to be impartial and fair, but juries are easily swayed by a convincing lawyer. That's why people use character, sympathy, the press, etc. to make their cases.
Re:I'm pissed. (Score:5, Informative)
No he isn't. He isn't a lawyer for the kid, or the kid's family. He's a lawyer for the victims' families, and this is a civil suit.
I suspect what's really going on here is that a lawyer with an agenda [misanthropic-bitch.com] has convinced grieving families of victims that big media is to blame for their loss. He's trying to shutdown violent video games, like he tried to shutdown gangster rap before that and Madonna before even that.
However, Jack Thompson has tried this before. He's failed every time. I'm confident that he will fail again this time.
Re:Americans need to get themselves straight.. (Score:5, Informative)
I would recommend reading this. [usdoj.gov]
It's a moot point anyway. If you're a male United States citizen between the ages of 17 and 45, you are a member of the United States militia. I refer you to USC Title 10, Chapter 13, Section 311.
RTFA (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I'm pissed. (Score:5, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Feb 1992 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I'm pissed. (Score:1, Informative)
Actually, if your kid is a sociopath, then there's a good chance it's caused by brain damage. That might have happened because you beat the crap out of him, or it might be because he was in a car accident or fell off the bars on the jungle him. However, once someone loses their ability to feel sympathy/empathy for anyone else, it may be only a matter of time before they start harming others for their own pleasure.
Here's a link for sociopath [wikipedia.org], also known as anti-social personality disorder. Note that only people older than 15 or so can be diagnosed with that, and before that it's called conduct disorder. Also note that 90% of serial killers are "psychopaths", meaning about the same thing.
The fact that there is no real treatment for someone with ASPD points us in the direction of nature rather than nurture.
Not to say that any kid should be playing this game, or that it didn't give him ideas. The parents in this particular case were doing something wrong. However, you CAN be a perfect parent and still end up with a devil if they're wired wrong. When you ask a sociopath about their behaviors, they might try to make excuses like saying they were abused as kids even when they weren't. It goes along with the whole repressed memory charade.
Re:I'm pissed. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I'm pissed. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:How'd he do it? (Score:5, Informative)