Teen Arrested for Making VA Tech Copycat Threat - to Jack Thompson
Teen Arrested for Making VA Tech Copycat Threat - to Jack Thompson
April 23, 2007
Anti-game attorney Jack Thompson said in a Sunday press release that a 14-year-old boy in Marin County, California had been arrested by local police for making a threat against the University of California Berkeley campus.As described by Thompson, he received the following e-mail on Saturday morning:
Hello, Jack Thompson.
I am going to shoot 20-30 people at my school, UC Berkeley, but I am not sure on what gun to use. Any suggestions? I am also looking for a game to train with. Do you have any ideas? I am fairly new to this.
Thank you for your time.
The attorney turned the e-mail over to police in California who arrested the boy and served a search warrant at his residence.
UPDATE: UC Berkeley's school paper, The Daily Californian has confirmation on Thompson's claim. Said a police spokesman:
Basically, we determined the 14-year-old did not have the means or will to carry out the threat. But, even when these things turn out to be hoaxes, we take them seriously.
The teenage suspect has a pending appearance in juvenile court. The Marin Indepedent Journal has more.
Comments
With regard to the letter: Yes, it was stupid. No, it's not protected speech, even in sarcasm - you'd be treading a very fine line to try to claim parody protection. The kid (if he's real - JT has faked this sort of thing in the past, if I remember correctly) should get a good talking-to by the cops, to impress upon him that this is NOT acceptible behavior. And, as a 14-year-old, he's not going to get even a quarter of the punishment that an adult would, so I'd say it's all good.
Like Scoops said, we don't know. I have an interest in things like this, serial killers and the likes. When someone says they're going to kill 20 or 30 people, it should always be taken as seriously as possible. Because you don't know.
We assume he was making a (terrible) joke. But you can't be certain of that. People who go out and mass murder, and serial killers, the thing that's common among them is you don't know. I'm assuming it's sarcasm as well, but in the end, that's all it is; an assumption.
And this kid should be thrown into some kind of disciplinary institution. If anyone should use discretion, it should be that damn idiot of a kid. Sure, at that age, they can do some rather stupid things, but that just pushed the line.
@Timothy
There are more than one way to find out things like that than just a newspaper. It may never make the paper, but that does not mean someone couldn't use it against us. It's a bad image gamers don't want, so we ARE an involved party, because it can turn into a false reflection of us. This is the opposite of how we should confront critics, and this kid had the balls, but not the brains to think it through, to do more harm than good.
The best way for gamers to combat bad PR is by proactively and regularly engage their representatives, editorials and voting booths. Some schmo being arrested in a town where that arrest is not even covered by the newspaper probably doesn't do much to anyone besides the parties involved.
If you'll forgive me for calling your post whiney, I'll forgive you for writing it to be too ironic and straight to be caught. Deal?
You can't be serious. First off, that second line about looking for a game to train on is obviously a sarcastic shot at Jacko. Secondly, if we were to arrest and send every stupid 14 yr old kid to a "disciplinary institution" (which in reality just makes them more fucked up), then there'd be more kids in juvie then there are actual criminals in jails. We'd be sending every 14 yr old this side of neverland away. I don't know about, you, but this kid doesn't seem that bad to me. This is pretty normal teenage rebellion stuff, I know I was just as bad or worse when I was 14.
If I was a cop and Jacko called me up about this, the most I'd do is tell the kid's parents, and give Jacko a stern talk about wasting police time.
Ignorance does not equal stupidity neither does poor taste. He SHOULD be able to get away with this sort of thing, and he may get away with this, and you know just as well as I know that if columbine and virginia tech massacres did not happen (or didn't cause as much paranoia) this letter would not be taken seriously for a minute.
I'm following the developments of this JT vs. Game Violence debate for my MA project, and will eventually develop a video documentary/debate. However, I need comments like these spoken out loud to include in the video.
I'm going to be holding several online focus group talks about this via SkyPE. If you want to have a voice, message me on RakuraiMedia1 on Youtube. More info can be found on my livejournal blog.
He said he wanted Jack Thompson to recommend a video game for him to train on. Anyone who reads that as less than absolutely sarcastic is far more stupid than the kid. And for christ's sake, he's just a kid. Get off his back. Jack Thompson is a grown man who practically believes in fairies.
Dear Mr. Thompson,
I am what is known as a recreational gamer, who has repeatedly heard your name on news, game media, and talk with other gamers. I am saddened by your constant assault upon the gaming community. And I would like to take this opportunity to point out many flaws in your theories. My largest concern is your constant one sided views on gaming. I have played games since I was 15. I am a normal college student, who in fact is currently pursuing a private pilots license, and who plays many violent video games. Or as you prefer to call them, murder simulators. To tell the truth, I have been bullied near my entire teenage and close to my adult life, made fun of, looked down upon, and I have found these games, such as Grand Theft Auto, Doom 3, America's Army, to actually help me calm down, to relax me and allow me a time to think and clear my head. They have been stress relievers, they have been distracting efforts from points of stress, and they have helped me cool my head. My father even plays video games, though he has only recently gotten into it. I am 22 years of age, pretty damn weak, and often never violent. Yet your constant portrayal of games and gamers, truly is untrue, yes there are the loud mouthed morons that play and cuss and are ill advised to play with, but that is a vast minority. I am of the majority, the intelligent, hopeful, kind of gamer that loves to enjoy a good game that let's us step back from the stress of the day and relax. Now, onto your theories. One that you constantly bring up is how shooters "Train" on First Person Shooters (Or FPSs for short). This is physically impossible, having played many FPSs and having fired a .45 colt semi-automatic pistol, a .38 cal. revolver, a 7.62 WW2 era Soviet combat Rifle, an AK-47 Soviet designed Assault Rifle, and a .22 cal. single shot bolt action rifle, I can say this freely and easily that it is impossible to train one's self on a computer simulation for the use of any, I repeat ANY, firearm. The only way the could possibly train is through the military or through the Police force, both of which require mental evaluations. There is a difference between computer games and actual fire arms, a very large difference. That difference is the fact that the physical act of firing a firearm is no where near as easy as it is to click a button on a mouse. All games can do is show the bucking and firing of a weapon. Nothing more, Sure it can show you how the simulated recoil can react, but that is nothing compared to the actual act of the weapon, in the hands of an inexperience shooter, that weapon can pose a huge threat to the shooter himself. The recoil could be so much more than what he is expecting that it could buck back and smack him in the forehead, break his shoulder or even fly out of his hand. This alone should be enough to prove that theory wrong. Another problem I have is your constant use of the term "Murder Simulators," this may make some sense in the terms of GTA, which I must point out penalizes you for the injury of innocents and police, but most games place a good guy, against terrorists or criminals, or even aliens or terrestrial threats. Another point I must state is that blaming games for acts of violence is never, NEVER targeting the source of the problem, which could be any number of things, including bullies at the school, problems with finances, problems with family members, or any other number of things OTHER than gaming. In the end, it's up to the parents to decide what games are right and wrong for their kids, and all you are doing is providing a scape goat for these parents when something goes wrong, horribly wrong. That's all I feel I can really sat at this time, until I can find more of your theories that I can hopefully point out as wrong.
You Mr. Thompson claim you are an advocate for the first amendment, yet you continually attempt to deny others from expressing and using that first amendment. You are a representative of the law Mr. Thompson, yet so far you have insulted it. I ask you sir, as a concerned citizen, why? Why do you do what you do? You say that it's for the betterment of our children? Sir, this is a weak statement, children will find violence in many other forms, street gangs, drugs, school bullies, abusive parents. Video games are a weak excuse for causing violence. I plead to you Mr. Thompson, stop this now. It's horrible, disgraceful, and it only makes you look the fool in the end. I have loved gaming for many years, I will continue to love gaming for many more. There are games with huge worlds, games with ideas that enthrall me, there's a game that is to come out later this year that is based around Norse Mythology, a subject I am greatly entertained by, and I hope to play it, and its later installments, but you Mr. Thompson seem to want to hold that away from me, just because it has the use of weapons, and adult themed ideas, such as death, or destruction. It's a truly saddening thing to see the law twisted and worked like it is being today. So please Mr. Thompson, consider your actions before you commit them.
Sincerely,
A concerned Citizen
While I was doing the basic arms training at the age of 22, I found it rather diffucult handling guns (and I play FPS only), so please Jack Thompson SHUT THE FUCK UP - go to play WoW.
amendmentone@comcast.net
But he tends to pick out one tiny bit thats easiest to make a snarky comment about, and ignore the rest. He wouldn't acknowledge any points I was making or anything. So don't expect to much, no matter how well written your email is.
........who found absloutly nothing. I hope.
- Warren Lewis
1) We obviously don't share Jacky's opinion on much.
2) What if it wasn't and you laughed it off?
The kid's only 14. I imagine he'll just have an uncomfortable time in jail, an uncomfortable time in court, and an uncomfortable time with his parents. He's learned a lesson about being a smartass, at least.
Acutally he would need to make it 100% clear that he was not serious about that threat. "
He might be able to scrape by on that by pointing out that he said in his e-mail that "my school" was a university... *shrug*
This isn't a big deal but will probably be treated as one.
I think it's amendmentone@comcast.[something]
An attempt at irony, I think.
Why? because he's a stupid kid. The gaming community is much like most other communities when it comes to diversity, and like all other communities we have our fair share of idiots. They take on actions that are just plain stupid and often do not realize the possible consequences of their actions (specifically that making threats, whether real or not, is against the law and can get you in serious trouble). They think their being big shots, that they're getting in JT's face, when all they are really doing is making the rest of us look bad. It's just stupid and immature behavior.
@griff
Acutally he would need to make it 100% clear that he was not serious about that threat. Making threats, idol or not is NOT protected speech.
This email really sits on the fence between threat and parody, leaning more on the side of "threat". I think the only way to see this through will be in front of a judge and then in front of a therapist, because that's exactly where this kid's going to end up.
Is it just me, or is it that internet junkies tend to not see a real effect when something major like the VA Tech shootings happens? 4chan is my example, a site almost synonymous with anonymous disregard for tragedies. Just a side-thought.
Seriously, this is just a sarcastic email gone wrong. So much for free speech, I guess. Sure it's "heightened sensitivity", but a joke is a joke, and their is no way anyone should be able to mistake this email for real, given who it was sent to.
However Jacks response was equally childish. Jack is going to claim the kid was actually going to do it. Jack will claim that this kids represents gamers. jack will... Nothing new really.
Jack is going to grasp for straws at every juncture, really were just giving him rope to hang himself with. Every time we give him to much though, he digs a deeper hole to jump into.
If he wants my IP fine,as always let him sue me, he will rather quickly make the jury hate him if it even went to court. Pay my court cost maybe even compensate me for my time.
The kids won't get off the hook, joke or not he made a threat during a time of heightened sensitivity. He whispered fire in a strangers ear during the movie, and there is an arsonist on the loose that likes setting cinemas on fire, hit 3 already the same week.
GG, Jack, you moral tour-de-force, you
Assuming he exists and everything actually happened the way Thompson described it.
Attention Idiots - DO NOT MAKE THREATS!!! Even if sarcastic. It's not funny and the only possible outcome is going to be a negative one.
I mean, I feel for him, but he should've known JT would retaliate given ammo. Anyone else remember when he tried to get Penny Arcade for "harassing" him? Not that anything actually CAME of that...
Leave the kids alone Jack.
But this was probably meant as an sarcastic comment to Mr J now his "games did it" argument falls flat.
I wonder if it is real though. Does anyone have some more info on this?
To be honest, I have far better and more productive things to do than Email Thompson, I might as well try to convince Castro to give 'Democracy a go'.
It's kinda funny that this is the level Thompson is now stooping to though, if this is his body of evidence, i.e. 14 year olds who can't tell the difference between an Internet joke and a letter to a lawyer who is mancally obsessed with finding fault with gamers, then it suggests to me that he's clutching at straws for his 'links' now.
He always parades these arrests around as though he has performed some public service though, he hurls off insults indiscriminately, putting his Email address at the bottom of his posts, knowing full well that some immature idiot is going to think he's too good to get caught, and then acts as though he single handedly defeated the Taliban when he gets a bite.
Sorry, but this says as much to me about Thompson as it does about the idiot who Emailed him.
head over to the boards and say hello lol
what a dumbass
I really don't want this to be a flame war, but I chuckled a bit when I read your post.
"Damage? To the game industry? The only real damage done are these whiney posts to the “gamer” population."
Scoops just said it all above... as an indie game designer, a professional game programmer, and an avid gamer, I am furious that my name is being tarnished by some idiot kid thinking he's clever. Now we have to spend more time, effort, and money defending ourselves against this constant barrage of political attacked fueled by morons just like this.
So yeah, this damages the industry.
And congrats on the attempt at slandering me by referring to my post as "whiney". I'm glad you didn't take the time to actually use logic to contradict me, I don't think I'm up for any real "thought" right now.
"Also, your post is ironic."
Good, I'm glad you caught on. Next time maybe you'll even see the attempt at deadpan humor as well.
That was a clever little letter, now never do it again.
How can this damage the game industry? It gives Laddy Jack one more semi-credible thing to point to. One more instance of him being able to say, to a national media audience, "Look what kind of people these gamers are. Look what these games do to people. There oughta be a law."
He makes up enough stupid shit about gamers on his own, we don't need to help him in his demented quest. Frankly, the only thing that surprises me is that we don't hear about more of this.
As an aside, what is it that people find funny about this? Just the fact that he's making fun of Jack?
I have a suggestion: if you want to send him any kind of correspondence, ask yourself: WWJD? That's 'What Wouldn't Jack Do?', which would be 'take the ethical high road'. We're better than him. Let's prove that by not stooping to his level.
If John Bruce merely wanted to legislate video games, then the context of this letter wouldn't make sense.
Yet, most notably in the past week, John Bruce's blatant accusations that violent video games cause school shootings, the context of the letter as being sarcastic is clear. Most notably in the portion about asking John Bruce's opinion about what game to train on.
In fact, without that line, it would be less viewed as sarcasm. Which is why it is very easy for an intelligent person to see it as sarcasm. Indeed, despite not being very intelligent, it's most likely that John Bruce recognized the sarcasm, but as usual, set out to use and abuse through misinformation and deceit regarding the context of the letter just for his own personal, religious, and/or political agendas.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
"F him, this kid deserves to be fined for the damage he just did to the game industry.
this kid deserves to be castrated so he can’t make any mini-dipshits.
I really, really want to punch this kid."
Damage? To the game industry? The only real damage done are these whiney posts to the "gamer" population.
Also, your post is ironic.
The preceding letter was satire and was not ment as satire and was not meant to be taken seriously, if you actually thought this letter was serious please get a CAT scan as your brain may not be functioning properly.
That above anything else will guarantee no trouble whatsoever from the law.
I'm going to go and watch tv tonight, maybe on 10-20 different channels, but i'm not sure what type of TV to watch it on, I was hoping you'd have some suggestions.
Trencher
Also, this dude is a flipping IDIOT. if thompson is threatned, espically if it involves video games, he'll get retaliation by tracing the e-mail
Awhile ago during the PA deal a young kid threatened JT through an e-mail and JT reported him to the police right away. The threat wasn't viable, though, and it wasn't immediately after a nation-wide known shooting so nothing came of it.
That's just the kind of guy JT is, though. He runs his mouth like a hooker in a sailor town, but the moment someone comes along with something directly relating to him in a negative light he cries to the police. Hell, he even wanted the police to arrest Jerry and Mike for the "I Hate Jack Thompson" T-shirt thing.
The fact that Jack will use this as a bludgeon in his rhetorical armory does not change the fundamental free speech issue here; this person satirically attacked Jack, and he decided to report it as a real threat because he knows that the police are obliged to respond seriously. Just because Jack is an asshole, doesn't mean he should be able to throw you in jail for using the wrong words. We, as advocates of free speech in games and presumably elsewhere, should be recognizing this as an abuse of the system, not lambasting the victim for saying something reckless.
What's worse, when we turn our backs on people like this, we're allowing Jack Thompson to define the standard for appropriate speech. This is exactly what he wants, and exactly the reason we're opposed to his cause in the first place.
F him, this kid deserves to be fined for the damage he just did to the game industry.
While we're at it, this kid deserves to be castrated so he can't make any mini-dipshits.
I really, really want to punch this kid. But that's probably just the violent video games talking...
I ask this because the idea of being charged for making a threat is that your 'victim' needs something along the lines of actually feeling an 'imminent danger'.
In this situation the 'threat' was not made to the school. There was a statement (albeit a dumb one) made to a 3rd party. That 3rd party rightly forwarded the information to the local authorities.
But what is the charge here? I think this one will be a big lesson for the young individual but there will be no actual charges laid in criminal court after the police have had a chance to investigate.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/original/thompson-calls-for-fbi-investigation-o...
This letter seems like a satrical way to make that point, while at the same time it misses all the raving lunacy that peppered the VT shooters letter. While it's true we are not the letter sender, and we are not psychic, I would bet money on this being a joke, the sender being ground through the system then released with diminished or dropped charges, only to have his below-18 record purged, or kept secret, or however they do it.
If this were a completely deluded, psychotic kid, tired of abuse and determined to do something about it; who happened to see a news report featuring a "school shooting expert", what kind of letter might he write seeking advice? It might read,
"Hello, Jack Thompson.
"I am going to shoot 20-30 people at my school, UC Berkeley, but I am not sure on what gun to use. Any suggestions? I am also looking for a game to train with. Do you have any ideas? I am fairly new to this.
"Thank you for your time."
Think about it. If you were completely nuts, this is exactly the kind of letter you might write. This is my point as to why it should be taken seriously, and why we shouldn't just laugh it off because of what we know about the person this kid wrote to. To a lot of people watching on TV, Laddy Jack is a sane and rational individual. We know he isn't, but a good many people never see that side of him.
Ultimately, the best reason to take it seriously is that most people who do snap do stuff like this before they do. At the very least, this kid does need some help. He may not be a raving, gun-toting maniac, but he does have some issues.
To say it again, threatening to kill people is never funny.
Bad Jokes are bad no matter how you meant it.
I agree with those of you that state that this puts gamers in a bad light. It has to be the worst thing anyone could do.
So now we know just like these kids:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,267741,00.html
Don't tease the alligators.
Threatening to kill people is illegal. Always has been.
Would you prefer that the police didn't act on death threats?
Americans are pathetic.
Maybe it won't get any coverage, if we're lucky. In any case, this is the exact kind of thing the gaming community needs to stand against. It makes us all look bad. No to mention the fact that sooner or later someone from some media outlet will trawl through the comments on a site like this, when someone makes a "joke" like this and see thirty people talking about how funny the jackass' message was.
Wake up people, this letter was stupid. Full stop.
I did have to lol at that. Nice point, but wrong way to do it.
Chances are, simple teenage rebellion against parental values will save JT's kid.
Also, Marin is an area filled with money, and sits in an area of the bay that is generally removed from everything else. As a result for most teens in that area, there's really nothing to do. For a teen in Marin, this probably gave him some much needed excitement.
With any luck he'll get some community service and he can get more of a thrill picking up trash on 101.
"We need a way to sterilize the stupid. "
But... But... John Bruce already has a kid. It's too late for him.
Oh.
You mean...
Oh.
Yeah.
Uh.
:)
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Plus, I'd suggest not emailing the moron anything anyway because even if it is intelligently written all he'll do is send you back a message saying how amazing he is and how you and your friends compose the dredges of today's society and should be institutionalized.
Frankly, I hope the kid was arrested. Threatening to kill people is not funny. Not now, not if no one had been killed at VT last week, not ever. It's also not protected speech. It is a crime. I don't care if he was trying to be funny. If you were a student at Berkeley, or knew a student there, or were the parent of a student there, how funny would you find it that someone was sending messages around like this? How good would you feel if the authorities wrote it off as a bad joke, without looking into it? How would you like a bunch of people sitting around the comments section of a blog saying, "It's a joke, leave the kid alone"?
Stupid, stupid kid.
By the way, nowhere in the email does the kid state his age.
On another note, some people in this thread need to get some perspective. "This is war!" is one of the more ridiculous comments I've seen recently. It's not war. It's a mouthpiece with an agenda and air-time taking on free speech.
The kid will walk. He'll get a scolding from authorities, sure, but he gets a pat on the back from me.
@Serrenity
It's a good idea, but he's a difficult man, and although completely insane to the point of disbelief, he should be handled with care. Yes, action should be taken, but it comes down to what kind of action, and how it should be handled. Basically, if you want gamers to do something about him, you have to be very careful as to not get our image damaged any more than it already is, as he will quite certainly play the BS card. Over, and over, and over again.
Which means you should also consistently provide evidence, something legit, to counter him. That's my idea, is to counter him publicly somehow, with actual intelligence and professionalism. So it both discredits him, and by not letting him get to you, it deteriorates his image.
not a very smart move kid.