February 15, 2007 -
Although GamePolitics has not seen any mainstream or game media reports linking video games to Monday's shooting at a Salt Lake City mall, it is certainly the elephant in the room.In today's climate, it's only a matter of time before the spectre of violent games is raised in any high-profile act of violence involving a young adult.
The games angle is beginning to emerge today, however. The Salt Lake Tribune's Rebecca Walsh examines shooter Sulejman Talovic's (left) motives in her column. Theories being advanced by casual observers include Talovic's Muslim faith, possible bullying at school, and, of course video games. Walsh writes:
Others speculate that Talovic played violent video games. Attorney Jack Thompson, who is lobbying Utah lawmakers to punish those who provide games that make child's play out of murder and mayhem, sent an e-mail to reporters with the headline: "Salt Lake City Teen Probably Trained on Grand Theft Auto Video Game." That rumor was stated as fact Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
GP is attempting to track down the context in which these remarks were raised in the Utah legislature, which recently declined to pursue a video game bill authored by the Miami attorney.
A second article, also in today's Salt Lake Tribune, reports:
Salt Lake City police... have not discerned a motive... With the permission of Talovic's parents, detectives searched their home but did not take any computers or video games...
Comments
... i think i saw that exact scene on a looney toons cartoon. or was it family guy?
so if Mr. John Thompson does get hit by a bus, he will come back without any harm....
[end of satire]
Oh no, I made a reference about killing another human being! I must've gotten that from a violent video game. Damn you Pac-Man!
End sarcasm.
If it is the truth then "he who will not be named" has just put another foot in his mouth...
The fact that he chases these cases doesn't faze me anymore. But to start unfounded rumors just to advance his own agenda? I'd call it a new low, but considering his track record, I doubt it is.
I'm so tired of this. Watching white-haired old people scapegoat things they don't understand.
I'm not buying all of the JT stories I hear. I think sometimes it's JT, and a lot of times, e-mail mostly, it may be someone spoofing him.
It doesn't surprise me that individuals will seek out to use and even abuse tragedies of families and communities just to push their personal, religious, and/or political agendas. Nor does it surprise me that such individuals would lie and deceive anyone and everyone regarding various aspects or even trivialize various aspects of those tragedies to push their personal, religious, and/or political agendas.
nightwng2000
NW2K Software
This case has absulutley sweet FA to do with him yet he wades in at the first oppurtunity spouting garbage as usual, can't the police get a restraining order on this guy to stop him from involving himself in matters that don't involve him??
And if the cops find a single game in his house then Jack's argument will b proven! I'll bet it won't matter if it's just Madden though, we won't hear that detail anyway.
I still can't get over the fact that Jack believes the things he says.
Every young "school" shooter = brainwashed by video games
And he's dead serious about that, there is no other cause for these killings.
There's one in Vice City and in San Andreas, though in San Andreas you can't tell from first glance that it's a mall. Still, the angle will be played, and when it fails the call to have judge fired or have the AG impeached will be thrown.
I would applaud that Tribune article, though - it's rare to see such a balanced report after something like this, with no finger-pointing or scapegoating to be found.
"So Mr. Thompson... you're saying, under oath, that an overly bullied Islamic teenager who might have been mentally unstable in the first place, played violent video games that caused his rampage, despite the fact we found no violent games in his house."
"Yes."
"Do you have ANY idea how stupid you sound by saying this?"
"I'm not the stupid one, YOU'RE the stupid one! You and your entire police force are stupid, it's quite clear he ditched the video games."
And, for the record, there IS a mall shooting scene in GTA Vice City, but you only have to break windows to complete the mission
According to CNN, the shooter was a survivor of the Srebrenica massacre when he was six or seven. That probably has something to do with it.
And at some point the industry, by way of the ESA, should file libel, slander, harassment, and malicious prosecution charges against the man and seek damages.
Odds are, that's really Jack. Back when he was spamming the GP forums, every time he showed up, there were people who would say "This can't be him. This must be someone spoofing him. Not even he's that bad. It always is him in the end, though.
Still, I think he's getting better. He said "probably", which is a lot more than he said about the neo-Nazi guy a while back (can't remember the guy's name), despite a complete lack of evidence.
How can he get away with this without being questioned on it's veracity? Are news outlets so dumb that they would accept a statement like this without proof?
"As soon as I heard about this I thought, “I wonder how long before somebody blames Dead Rising?”"
I thought the same thing too.
A Srebrenica survivor? Oh god. That's enough to leave deep mental scars. I'm not a expert, but if you wanted to explore the reason for his motives, I'd start here.
*sigh* Jack, for once, stay out of it. Show you have even the slightest scrap of dignity.
I have the odd feeling those close to him missed some of the less obvious signs. I also have my doubts that he ever got any kind of counseling. He was 5 when the shit went down.
The comment in the article about having no last psychological effects from the war..... he was a just the right age to understand what was going on to an extent. He was not old enough to work through something like that on his own. Life as a Refugee is incredibly hard.
He may have literally just snapped.
Jack will write this one of pretty quickly "He did it because he is a Muslim, oh ya a video game playing Muslim at that, pure evil." or some such bullshit.
I don't know what's worse, that video games are already being marked as valuable evidence, or that the media is mentioning it without knowing if this guy was a gamer at all.
Like others have said here, is anybody exploring to effect that being a genocide survivor or being a refugee might have had on this guy's psychology? Why must we always jump immediately on GTA when we hear of a spree killer?
You may ask, why?
Well, because Thompson is obsessed with two things: Winning and this site. It's only a matter of time until he sends out his press releases to every gaming site/blog on the map because the shooter was still in his adoloscene years.
Jacob Robida is a perfect example because GP mentioned a quote from one of his buddies about shooting the shit and playing GTA. Not even 2 days later Johnathon Bruce comes waltzing in with press releases saying GTA made him do it, government regulations, typical tripe/rhetoric, yada yada.
I expect to see the same thing happen in the coming days.
If you read the article carefully, it refers to an e-mail he sent around on Tuesday. GP had it, didn't print, due to its totally speculative nature, as in where JT says the kid "probably" was a gamer.
You have to understand, the man scours the Net, he finds stories like this well enough on his own, doesn't need GP to alert him.
BTW, we're only discussing it today because there were developments in regard to the lack of games found by the police. Also, that JT's claims apparently were spoken in the Utah legislature, although no specifics on that yet.
Can you have compassion for ONE MINUTE without trying to push your agenda!
-----------------
I had a bet with my wife as to how long it would take JT to stick his nose in this. She gave him 4 days, but since JT is still "fresh" in the minds of Utah-nians, and the recent controversy with Slamdance/Columbine Massacre... I gave him only three days. It seems I was right, I should celebrate with a game of Vice City.
He "probably" trained on GTA. He also "probably" ate cereal that morning and "probably" was wearing shoes. Possibly not. "Probably" gets you nowhere.
He was a kid, and games are "probably" just for kids.
The kid was wearing a trenchcoat. So were the columbine guys. Therefore he "probably" played Doom and SCMRPG! It's just common logic!
JT is the type of asshole that "probably" would take advantage of a terrible event like this just for publicity.
The kid "was" a refugee from the Bosnian war. Of course, what use are definitive facts when we can just say "probably".
Watching his family killed is much more traumatic than playing a video game. And JT is such a heartless creep that he would take advantage of this for his own selfish gain. Sick.
I have three theories:
1. Homeland Security. We fear a financial crises if people stopped going to malls and spending money - even if for a few days.
2. Homeland Security. The guy was a refugee from Srebrenica and was, most likely, Muslim...setting off all sorts of alarms in D.C.
3. It happened on the same day as some guy went ballistic in Chicago, binding and executing several people. Sorry, don't have a link to this event but, at the time, it sounded equally random and "terrorist" like.
Regards,
Gus
I don't think any of those theories are correct. Look at the front page of every news source, and the main story on every news channel.
Anna Nicole Smith
This is a country full of shallow people, obsessed with the lives (and deaths) of celebrities. Five random innocent people killed aren't nearly as "important" as one famous woman who probably overdosed herself.
(Note: Nice, the front pages have changed! As of yesterday, they were covered in Anna Nicole, nice to see that it's been reduced to a footnote now)
Some might think it's crass that this is the first thought that ran through my mind while such a tragedy was unfolding, but I guess unlike many others I have come to accept that these things are a part of life. With or without violent media.
JT sent one letter, one heartless jackhole letter. He was probably on drugs at the time and didn't know what he was writing. The more we discuss it, the more impact this letter has. Until the bigger media listens to him theres no point in us giving it any publicity.
Of course, I might not be able to write another post without adding an unjustified "probably" in there somewhere :)
Saying the shooter "PROBABLY" played video games is like saying a child "PROBABLY" plays sports now and then. JTs speculation has no more evidence in its favor than the shooters age.
That lawyer sickens and disgusts me. He has no evidence that his agenda is even remotely involved in the mall shooting, but he'll jump all over it anyway to try to stir up some unrest - nevermind that Utah already shot down his bill.
"I'm sorry but violent video games can only be the cause of SCHOOL shootings this one was a MALL shooting so video games are ruled out"
Anyway if they really want us to believe that video games spawn serial killers then they must tell us how someone came up with the idea for silence of the lambs if serial killers never happened before that.
Because everyone knows that if you shoot a gun with a mouse you can shoot a gun in irl. *sarcasim*
Which one? The Grand Theft Auto that came out for Playstion in the in the 90s or the GTA that came out on the GBA a couple of years ago? Won't those graphics make great argument for the realisim VG violence.
What I mean was that after seeing his "masterwork" on GP, it would encourage him to follow the case through, and quite possibly try to tact himself on it as well. In the meantime, he would inform us about his psuedo-victories, why he's an expert, etc etc.
He has used GP and other gaming blogs as vehicles for publicity before. I am not saying we shouldn't report on his latest facades and antics, but knowing his mannerisms, he will no doubt try to rub this shooting in our faces while trying to convince the Salt Lake PD that videogames were the prime suspect.
Does anyone else find that line a tad biased? Child's play? Since when was Grand Theft Auto designed for, or even marketed to, children? Last time I checked, GTA was rated a mature game. Admittedly, it was a very small point in an otherwise good article, but it seems a little biased to add this to something written in a neutral faction.