Boy Kills Homeless Man and Blames Video Games - Stepmother Speaks Out

[Optimus Prime]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2007/02/21

Scroll down to, A rare opportunity, it was definitely an interesting read.

 

[sub]

That was interesting

 

[Vegeta]

I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but this kid needs to get life in prison, no matter what.


They're of course using video games as somewhat of a crutch in hopes of evading the law; but no one would listen anyway. What's driving people [kids] to do these things? Boredom? They took a homeless man's life. What would have stopped them from taking the life of a child, or grown man or woman--would they "rationalize" in that case and think their "lives matter more than a homeless man's"? These kids don't deserve any respect or sympathy from anyone, and using video games as an excuse at their age says a lot about their sense of reasoning. There are some video games that have bad moral, those that are real-life simulations and allow you to break the law without any real consequence--at some point you can't be affected by this as you realize it's "just a game", but I do think it can play some part in these acts of violence, if the person committing has had a history of abuse or trauma.

 

[Optimus Prime]

The stepmother basically explains how the kid was ****ed up to begin with, and he's only scape-goating video games.

 

[frsrblch]

****ed up doesn't cover it.

 

[Chakra-X]

15 and tried as an adult. Aw man that kicks ass.

He better hope his cell mates don't like video games.

I love how those who actually take in the "video games caused it" line think that all video games are Grand Theft Auto.

 

[[S]]

It's a phase rock went through it in the 80s rap went through it in the 90s and now apparently it's time for video games to go through it.
Mad mothers will accuse everything truth is there has to be something in the kids life that ****ed him up it can't just be the kid right so people blame anything they can. Hopefully it'll blow over without too much trouble for gamers.

 

[Sicron]

And the sad thing about this is that the media will truly only tell the rest of the world how much games suck and destroy your child's mind. I bet Thompson is already preparing his next speech. Too bad this email will never get to see the daylight in the media world.

 

[sub]

It's a phase rock went through it in the 80s rap went through it in the 90s and now apparently it's time for video games to go through it.
Mad mothers will accuse everything truth is there has to be something in the kids life that ****ed him up it can't just be the kid right so people blame anything they can. Hopefully it'll blow over without too much trouble for gamers.

If you read the article, the parents weren't nessisarilly bad, they tried everything in their power to help the kid but nothing got through to him. He was just ****ed up, plain and simple.

 

[DaRkOwNs]

well you guys just remember something when your older and have children

you didnt go on a shooting spree after you played grand theft auto (cause we all know there is no gorier game than that) so why would your kids?

 

[frsrblch]

I'm not letting my kids play violent games until they're old enough anyway.

...that's if I do a 180 and decide to have kids at all.

 

[MF29]

This kid can suck donkey balls.

That's seriously outrageous, I'm glad he's in jail, it should be a life sentence in jail.

 

[Arthos]

The fact that he smeared his own stinking leavings on the corpse basically means the kid was out of his damned mind.


And while we've all forgotten about Jack Thompson, I'm sure he hasn't forgotten about us... now what I'm curious about is why we've not heard him say anything yet? Or are people finally not listening to him anymore.

 

[[S]]

If you read the article, the parents weren't necessarily bad, they tried everything in their power to help the kid but nothing got through to him. He was just ****ed up, plain and simple.

I realize that ,I was saying MADD or whatever the video game counterpart is will try and blame anything they can always trying to focus the blame on one sole reason but sometimes it's just the kid, not his parents or video games or anything else. People use video games as a scapegoat for society's problems. My previous post had some sarcasm that didn't come out too clearly so i apologize for that.

A while back in the "violent video game..." thread I made it clear i don't blame parents at all infact Pride,Davidskiwan and Zeonix even decided to call me out on it so i just want to clear up i never said his parents were bad and this is something i've been talking about for a while.

 

[DJ-Ready]

And while we've all forgotten about Jack Thompson, I'm sure he hasn't forgotten about us... now what I'm curious about is why we've not heard him say anything yet? Or are people finally not listening to him anymore.

I was just thinking the exact same thing.

But I bet even if that kid would tell on court he never played any video games the media would still blame the gaming industry ... I mean, its a cliche (sp?) that every teenage murderer played video games isn't it?

I blame Rockstar and their GTA series ... ;P

 

[Spunky]

Reminds me of my former step brother, except for the gangbangers, guns, and killing a homeless guy... That article brought back some painful memories...

Edit: Maybe I should elaborate. My step brother once locked himself in his room, and repeatedly stabbed his own foot with a butter knife. This kid had some problems...

 

[Skiwan]

A while back in the "violent video game..." thread I made it clear i don't blame parents at all infact Pride,Davidskiwan and Zeonix even decided to call me out on it so i just want to clear up i never said his parents were bad and this is something i've been talking about for a while.

What exactly do you mean by, "calling you out"? you make it sound like we were attacking you.

Personally, I think its 90% nurture. maybe this kid was unmanageable when he was older, but when he was 2 or 3, he had some major faults in his upbringing, In psychology they told us the first 7 years of a childs life are the most influential in cognitive development.

Fact is nobody really knows, but it seems to me, from the people ive met and the people they are surrounded by, why they act as they do. Then again there are just some ****ed up people in the world, like my dad, and he's done some ****ed up things, not gonna go into it that much in depth, but my mom heard from my dads mom, that when he was born, she didnt feel like she loved him, her other two kids she did love from the moment they were born, (my aunt and uncle) they're great people, I couldnt ask for a better aunt or uncle. My dad on the other hand is a different matter all together.

ugh digress... I think the woman has a point, but there's loads of contributing factors, personally I see them saying "we tried all we could" too late, may be a bit insensitive, but the earliest years of our life is where we form most of our behaviour. It could have escalated out of control by the time that the child is no longer able to be disciplined.

 

[Corefinder]

Hopefully it'll blow over without too much trouble for gamers.

Dont worry abaut it, violent/non-violent videogames wont disapear anywhere.

Just like smoking, every one knows that they are bad for health and contain addictives, (like niccotine, that do not need to be in there yet they are) and all that is still and probabbly for a long time to come legal.

And by some miracle some games are "censored" in some country, dont worry abaut that either, internet will provide..... o_o mods and that sort of things of course.

 

[dan_esf_fanatic]

Mad mothers will accuse everything truth is there has to be something in the kids life that ****ed him up it can't just be the kid right so people blame anything they can. Hopefully it'll blow over without too much trouble for gamers.

Ah I can see it right now: Mothers around the world uniting and bringing down video-game stores, companies, burning games with flamethrowers etc. Luckily they can't burn the internet ^_^

 

[Sandstorm]

Now here's a valid question (you guessed it, it's that thing I do -- the side of the table that's not being heard):

Is this an authentic email, or just someone writing to claim **** to further a pro-game agenda?

It's a possibility that a video game or the media affected the child, and it's a possibility that it didn't, but I don't just automatically trust any source, especially not one claiming to be a stepmother, mother, father, or best friend unless it is verified and/or verifiable.

Of course, everyone just automatically trusts this source, because, it's in our favour. That's a double standard. Just like you distrust their sources, so too should we distrust ours unless we can verify it.

Alright, so now the other side of it (where we assume this is a trustworthy source):

Is it true that this is not the fault of the parents? Who ****ing knows. We can't prove it was, and we can't prove it wasn't. That's 15 years that we aren't privy to.

She says they let him draw and/or read in his room, in which case, they weren't grounding him very well anyway. The idea is to deprive him of EVERYTHING that may be interesting and leave him with time to think of what he did. Not hand him a pencil and some paper, and say "go draw, because that's the worst ****ing punishment we can conceive of."

Likewise, why didn't they simply send this child to a boarding school or a military school? There were so many things they could have done with this child to improve him as a person, and improve his behaviour, and they didn't do any of it.


So...

Of course, it's quite possible that there could be a happy medium where the two correlate. I don't personally believe that a video game is responsible, and I don't think that a movie made them do this, and I don't believe that music would taint someone's life.

I think it's a mixture of two sources, such as parents using video games as a babysitter, while ignoring the child. Perhaps it's a child lashing out because he felt parents didn't pay enough attention to him (or possibly no attention at all outside of punishment?).

So yeah, I don't believe this source unless she is verified. I don't believe his bull**** excuse that it was a video game. I do believe the thought that the kid was already messed up, but, I think that the parentage is heavily to be blamed.

And penny arcade is just crap...