GTA, Rap Blamed for Gang Problem in Maryland County
GTA, Rap Blamed for Gang Problem in Maryland County
January 30, 2008
Officials in Wicomico County, Maryland have blamed violent video games and rap music for what they say is a burgeoning gang problem.As reported by the Delmarva Daily Times, Wicomico County Gang Resistance director Dan Dougherty told a community meeting on Monday evening:
Now you turn on the TV and see carnage ... Extreme raw violence is making an impact on our young people, and we're growing an acceptance for it.
In Grand Theft Auto, you score points by killing cops, stealing cars and beating prostitutes. In the '80s and '90s, you didn't have video games, you didn't have the violence in the media, you didn't have the Internet. It creates a lack of respect for life and makes violence acceptable.
Comments
Was that intentional?
pong came out in 1972 so...
Hell you cant even say that the videogames back then weren't violent
Doom 1993
and the internet was invented in 1989
Why good sir,(Dan Dougherty) you fail.
They're a score, as I've been able to find, that is derived from your accuracy, kills, money, and destruction. It may be only 1 point per kill, but most "score" driven games out there are based on multiples of 100, or even 1000 for their basic value. And very, very few of them peak with a rating of 'Godfather' at their topmost value.
No, gamers may not care about their GTA score/rating, but it is there. To say it isn't is just ignorant. Yes, it's just as ignorant to think the presence of this rating, or the game itself, is the root cause of violence. That doesn't change the fact they're right on this one, small facet.
I...think you missed some important points somewhere in all these comments, but I honestly can't figure out what from your response...it had nothing to do with GII's idiotic drivel.
I will say this, though. You're barking up the wrong tree (and you should know this, if you've been around here for any appreciable length of time) by pointing out the CORRELATION between GTA-style games & rap music, and violent members of society. NO ONE is going to be "inspired" by GTA to go kill a cop or steal a car or beat a prostitute to death. If someone were to play a game and then go out and do one of those things, that person had some serious, serious psychological issues pre-existing, that had nothing at all to do with the game.
In such a situation, the game would be a simple, generic trigger that could have been any of a hundred things (like, say, a violent movie? Or hell, watching the news?).
Which is why there wasn't any violent crime or gangs in the 80s and 90s... oh, wait...
When will people stop using media as a scapegoat for these problems?
*sigh*
You didn't have teh internetz back in the 40s and 50s either. Or the middle ages for that matter. But look at how many people died back then.
Violent Movies:
Predator, Running Man, Red Sonja, Terminator, Total Recall. The list goes on and that is only one actor.
As for video games? One word, Arcades.
This is just another example of uninformed mindless drivel from someone trying to shift blame to a “soft” target. Wake up people!
"Violent Movies:
Predator, Running Man, Red Sonja, Terminator, Total Recall. The list goes on and that is only one actor."
How dare you forget Robocop!
BTW, the internet started in the 70’s and gained popularity in the late 80’s early 90’s. I wish people would at least use google before making such mindless claims. Maybe I’m wishing for a bit much.
GTA awards points for killing cops and prostitutes?
The internet is the breeding ground of gang violence?
So many things wrong so little time.
Methinks that Don's only proper source of info regarding this matter is Jack Thompson.
Conclusion: another village politico talking out of his arse. What's new.
They seem to be focusing on real crime prevention techniques, like community watch and such.
Regardless, that remark about how video games and the internet is corrupting the youth was uncalled for.
True. However, how long do you think it will take? It's only a matter of time before the ill informed and narrow minded take it upon themselves to save everyone from the Evil media.
couldnt have said it better
Ladies and gentlemen, I know that many were raised with the idea that getting a star if you're good is commonplace. Yeah, you kill a cop or two, see if you survive at all.
And what is this guy talking about with "oh, you didn't have this stuff in the 80s and 90s..."? Yes, and I'm pretty sure violence against our fellow man existed prior to that even. Hell, I truly believe organized crime would have been blamed on GTA if it was around at the time. My god...
"Dougherty spoke -- at times shouted with fury -- to a packed Delmar Town Hall"
Angry person, has he been playing video games, lol?
We also see again the complete disregard of facts and display of ignorance regarding the game:
"In Grand Theft Auto, you score points by killing cops, stealing cars and beating prostitutes."
Untrue. There is NO reward for killing police officers or beating prostitutes in GTA. The reverse is opposite, you are noticed by the police who escalate the efforts to catch you the more bad things you do.
"In the ’80s and ’90s, you didn’t have video games, you didn’t have the violence in the media"
In the 80's and 90's, you DID have video games, and you DID have violence in the media! As pointed out earlier, look at all the Schwarzenagger and Stallone movies! It seems that if they grow up with it, it's fine, but once it's something that is new for the younger generation and they are not familiar with it, IT'S EVIL! IT'S CORRUPTING THE YOUTH!
AND PEOPLE STILL KILLED EACH OTHER IN GANGS!!!
Jesus Christ why are supposedly smart people so goddamnb DUMB?!
Epic fail.
Anyway, I don't bother taking anyone serious anymore as soon as they claim you "score points" in GTA.
Also, I like how they make it sound like you're forced to do all of that. Killing police, beating hookers, attacking civilians, etc. It's all optional. Stealing cars for the most part can be optional as well, though some missions require it. But still my point stands.
Also, if the FBI reports/studies are correct then violence was obviously worse back then since they've said it's been on a decline for a while now, at least among minors.
Parked cars aren't really that hard to steal since every idiot in Liberty City/Vice City/San Andreas leaves their car unlocked with the key in the ignition.
Back in the 80's and 90's, they had a different boogeyman; it was called gangsta rap.
(oh and Hello Godwin)
were all caused by videogames and rap music.....damn we all love the blame game dont we Maryland??
Stop blaming entertainment, get off your asses and do your damn job...and get your facts about games and the internet straight while you're at it.
/facepalm
/headdesk
/headdesk
/headdesk
/headdesk
/headdesk
/headdesk
Ok, I think I did enough brain damage to make me finally understan what was said... nope, not yet.
/headdesk
/headdesk
/headdesk
/headdesk
Seriously, having lived in the 80's and 90's, I'll have to say there was plenty of violence, and plenty of gang violence then.
Firstly, this person needs a history lesson. Secondly, are we to assume that no crimes have been committed in the '80s and '90's? Sorry Dan, but you fail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Race
Did this guy just wake up from a 20-30 year coma? Someone should tell him the story of Pong, the legend of Pitfall, and the history of Missile Command.
Never mind. I now know they never existed, he just told me they didn't. Forget my memories; they are merely implanted in me by the evil and vile video game industry to make me defend them.
Or not.
For the last time, GTA does not award points for killing cops or beating prostitutes. The vast majority of games do not award points. The closest most games come is experience points, game money, or skill points. Its been a while since I played a game that counts a score for the sake of a score. Maybe we should make a PSA informing the general public that killing cops in GTA is a bad thing in the game.
to be completely fair here, while your correct in that there are no points, as i recall (and i never played much GTA it's not my type of game) when you kill people, they do drop money which you can then pick up, it's really not much of a stretch to call the in game money "points"
Police never drop money though if I remember correctly, so they can't claim that you gain anything, positive anyway, from police really other than maybe a weapon.
Exactly, Space Invaders, Defender, hell even Pac Man has an element of violence. It's harder for me to come up with games from the old days that didn't have violence of some kind. And what media is he talking about? Is he talking about film and television? I grew up in the 70's and there was plenty in both. Don't forget some of the nastiest horror films originated in the 70's.
Are we talking about the same 80s and 90s? I wanna know where this person lived, because obviously they were living on another planet or Bizarro World.
Points are a reward for accomplishment and a measure of ones skill. Money in GTA was a game mechanic or tool to progress in the game. It's like saying cars, or the ability to run in GTA are the same as points.
This comment right here makes any point they were trying to make invalid. I was born in the 80's and as a two year old was kicking ass on my grandmothers 2600, in the 90's I was surfing the internet and watching violent movies and TV shows. I doubt that GTA has anything to do with the Gang Problem, lack of parenting and positive role model in the gang members lives yes I can see that being attributed to it. But video games?
(I should mention that I've always been a bit of a wimp. Ha, ha. And when we actually got cable, there was fun to be had. I just avoided scary movies.)
*Slams on brakes*
WHAT?!
You ingorant little TURD! Not only have videogames existed in the 80's and 90's. They also existed in the 70's as well. They were not just invented! In fact videogames was one of the piecies of technology that was born from World War Two.
Tennis for two anyone?
- Warren Lewis
Points. Anytime a critic of video games mentions points, they are operating under a nostalgic sense of loss of their own childhood (under the rose tinted lense of memory), and not functioning in the real world.
This photo sure brings back good memories. I guess soon I'll be blaming wetware for societies ills, and lamenting the loss of 16-bit perfection.
(Although there is an arguement that video games have stagnated, with the only improvements being in the graphics department, but I digress)
Gaarg. Ate my linky.
It's been a long time since I played and I can't check (it was stolen), but I wouldn't be surprised if kills, or possibly even /hits/ contributed to that point value. I recall that it can get pretty high over the course of the whole game.
I'm just sick and tired of idiots shouting from the rooftops there are no points in GTA. They're wrong. Scary as it is, Thompson, et al are right about one thing.
Also, unless I am missing something, I have never seen much "gang chatter" on the internet. Is this guy suggesting street gangs are just hanging out behind their computers playing games and surfing the internet?
What? Did Robocop, Predator (1 & 2), Alien series (most of them), Lord of Illusion and other various ultra violent films not make it until the 2000's? I must be a time traveller. It's absurd to think that the 80's and 90's are more violent than the 2000's.
Correlation != causation
And what about the time I spent playing tribes 2?
All my memories before 2000 must be a lie. Everything I remember from the 90s must be a lie.
Man, I forgot what a good looking system the Genesis was. I wish more console designs would attempt a look like that.
They are gang members. They steal their TVs, video games, computers and Wi-fi connections. They don't have to buy any of it. I wouldn't be surprised to see them running an extension cord from the neighbor's garage to power it all.
/sarcasm.
Been living with gang violence for over 20 years out here now, in sunny Southern California. Gang Violence isn't because of video games, TV, rap, the Internet, or whatever else Dan Dougherty can drum up. It also isn't exactly a new problem either. Scapegoating media for gang troubles is the sign of someone who probably shouldn't be "Wicomico County Gang Resistance director".
In real life, you score points by speeding.
Only one of the above is true, and the points are on your drivers license.
I've never played GTA. It's just not my style and it doesn't really interest me. But what you describe sounds more like a game performance summary. Lots of games provide similar screens upon completion (Metal Gear Solid, Zone of the Enders, Shadow Hearts). These screens usually state how many enemies you killed, how many times you died, how long you played, the number of missions you completed and how you ranked, ETC.
Even if some of the GTA games express your performance in points at the end, that’s not the same thing as the speaker describes. He's acting like points are the instant gratification the player seeks. Like there are numbers in the corner of the screen slowly ticking up as you kill cops and pedestrians. That people play the game strictly to see how much mayhem they can wreck and who can earn the most points. That is not the games objective, and even if it were, to blame gang violence on the game is ignorant at best.
What world is he living in? Because I want whatever he's smoking to make him think such bulls^%t is true, it's gotta be the good stuff.
We had every bit of that violence in the media, if not worse. Look at clips of news from the 40's and 50's, they showed the dead bodies after being shot in the head back then. Same issue, different scapegoat.
In the game, merely pause, go to your running stats screen, and they're the first item on the scroll. Then 'achievements' such as distance traveled (by foot, bike (in SA), car, etc etc), total kills, cars stolen...all sorts of destructive data.
It may not be instant gratification like you refer to, but it is STILL a score of points. I'm also not saying it turns anyone into a vile anything, or even a not-so-vile anything. Just that it exists.
You did, however, have the gang members that instigated the LA Riots, the chicago housing wars, where gangs actually took over the housing projects at cabrini green and converted them into makeshift forts. Up until cabrini green, what we call "gangs" were very much organized, national crime syndicates with a very clear distribution of power. Targeted enforcement has youth crime at the lowest it's been in three decades. Gang violence is the result of gangs. And the only way to stop them is to take the money out of it. Legalize Marijuana. Pot is the low-hanging fruit that keeps gangs in business. Granted, they have other interests, like armed robbery, extortion and arms deals, but most of their money comes from drugs. It's not GTA that makes dumb kids resort to joining gangs, it's fat smelly wads of dirty money, and the guarantee that they'll never have to work a job to get it.
Of course, we can expect politicians to not understand this - as it's already been evident and clear in History that this happens.
We can blame games, rap, TV.. but it's not the real cause. Just as much as radio wasn't the cause of gangs in the 20's and 30's.
It's prohibition version 2 - what do they expect?
I think this argument comes down to the symantics. What are "points"? By the dictionary definition, JuryRigged is correct as a "point" is simply a single unit used for measuring/counting something.
But in games the term "points" have become to mean more than just to count something. Games that use a points system (and there are modern examples - Geometry Wars came to my mind) use them to show you how good you are at the game.
In GTA, there are no points in this sense, as a high tally of dead people does not mean that you are good at the game (killing random people on the street is not very challenging). So they are not so much "points" as "statistics", showing you a record of what you have done rather than rating your skill at the game.
But it is all really just symantics... what is important is what the word means to most people out there, which is that points are good and you must get lots and lots of them to show that you are good at the game :) So in that context, GTA does not have any points.
WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTT?!?!?
You have got to be fucking kidding me!
/facepalm followed by repeatedly smashing his head into a wall.
...I'm surprised these less-educated people dont talk about Half Life? You can shoot Speacial Forces and security guards. Oh wait...the Spec Forces are shooting at YOU...to silence you. The Barney's are just to nice to shot. Besides, Having one run with me in Half Life was pretty cool....like having a second buddy to guard my back!
I guess this guy means the 1880's and 1890's? Thats the only way this statement makes any sense.
@Cecil475: 'In fact videogames was one of the piecies of technology that was born from World War Two.'
Yeah but what other technology also came from WWII? The A-bomb! See a connections? QED. \sarcasm
That's funny.
Violent media is cause of violence in youths and young adults. Because humans weren't violent prior to the 21st century, uh-duh. The LA riots never happened, nor did the mobsters of the 20s, 30s, all the way to the 50s. There were no gangs or crime in the 80s, just as there were no drugs in the 60s or 70s. Don't even bother researching into the medieval era up to now. Everyone was at peace back then, and no one ever hurt another human.
/dance Ignorance is fun.
Nightmare on Elm street, and Friday the 13th.
but he's right.. if you talk outta your ass that is.
You had gang violence long befor you had video games and internet.
The "Wanted" you get when you kill cops in GTA isn't the good kind of wanted, it's the kind that involves the SWAT teams.
The only point I have is I don't see where the internet comes into play in all this? Is it supposed to be a violent internet? Do I turn on the internet and see violence is on every channel?
All in all, it sounds like an old man complaining about how much better things were "back in the day" and forgetting that there were largely the same problems back then, too.
Maybe they're not that smart to begin with?
No, some 'channels' have porn too, it just depends on what your agenda is.
It's all really serious business.
You DON'T. The counter in the upper right corner is your MONEY, not a score.
Everybody get out your tin hats, its time for the 'TV/Rap/Games r teh ebil' brigade...
Violent gangs have been around since the beginning of civilization and they have always sprung from the same well, POVERTY.
However, it is true that current culture popularizes these gangs. So now that rich white kids want to play, NOW it's an epidemic of corruption. Knowing the facts about this subject, you can see the underlying racism. I'm not saying it's overt or intentional, but it is there.
Time to admit that humans are violent and will find any reason to mame, hurt and destroy each other and they don't need video games to cause it.
The fact that you and others here can make a distinction between Galaga points and GTA points is the entire point! The issue is the ignorant press and civic leaders CANNOT make this distinction. They treat the "points" or "score" as the objective of video games based their dim view of them. This is a a gross mischaracterization of modern games. I'm not diminishing our proud video game ancestry - I'm only pointing out that a lack of understanding is causing these people to place blame where none belongs.
So does GTA have points? Yes. Is the man quoted in the article using the term correctly? No.
"In the '80s and '90s, you didn't have video games, you didn't have the violence in the media, you didn't have the Internet."
Boy, I sure hope this is just hyperbole. If not, he probably believes in the conspiracy that recorded history only lasted 1,000 years, and 1980 was actually 1993! And many of the Roman emperors were in fact British kings!
You need to think about this statement a little more.
"So does GTA have points? Yes. Is the man quoted in the article using the term correctly? No."
Because this:
"effort is lost by these empty rebuttals that certain attacked games don’t have points. The plain “GTA doesn’t have points” shout is a hardly intelligent argument that will fall on deaf ears. It fails to point out that gamers in general do see a difference, if achieving nothing else."
is just not true. That distinction that "gamers in general...see" but others do not, is precisely WHY these rebuttals are not unintelligent. It is indeed a matter of semantics; look at the reasoning behind the words. There is no score in GTA in the manner, purpose, or context that this man is insinuating with his ignorant statement.
It's like claiming that a parent is being irresponsible by giving their child a book because it could be used to bludgeon someone to death. Sure, it's technically a true statement, but it's not the purpose, design, or likely use of the book, and having it isn't going to inspire the child to beat someone with it.
Hyperbole, sure, but an accurate comparison.
Rap and violent video games are merely the symptom. Not the cause. Wicomico needs to dig deeper to find the solution for this problem.
Give my little cousin more credit here, children are way more intelligent then that, they just lack the common sense for some things (shoving stuff up their noses, eating the gum from the bottom of the table) stuff that you do not do in a video game. (Hygiene, bed time, eating your vegetables, turning that two bit vase into itty bitty bits trying to get the cookies from the top shelf, things like that)
There's been a gang problem here for years. The only reason it wasn't more widely publicized is because the politicians sat on it. Now that they can't cover it up any more, their blaming fingers are just twitching like crazy.
Or "The Wizard" that movie was SOOOOO violent.
His comments are greeted by our run-of-the-mill "games don't cause violence" arguments. I've read them a million times, but think that GTA is a game that would appeal to gang member. In the game you play a criminal who, based on the gamer's personality, can do whatever he wants. While most of us may see, say, drive a stolen cop car into the actual cop as entertainment/irony/release/etc. a gang member; who isn't as like us may merely see games as a un-artistic excuse to cause harm without being arrested. Someone with that state of mind may see it as inspiration!
Now, before i'm quoted by Fox News, Jackie Boy, or any other biased attention chaser, I must remind that I too am a gamer, and by God I will stand up if a out of touch lawyer gets his way, and the comments of the un-filled in news man or mr. doughtry are spread like wildfire to the American public (a public who has forgotten to protect the ones they love and leave it to a bunch of old dudes in Washington to do it for them. aka, lazy paranoid twits.) All i'm just saying, that most gangbangers can not be called a gamer LIKE US. (yes yes, a guy who plays a game could automatically call themselves one; but you don't learn every Mario character in history just by playing a demo for Brawl.) That's all it seems to take at the moment; one guy to fuck things up for those who embrace it as a passion and work of art.
And yes, then there's rap. I am quite biased of rap, so i'm really not the most likely person you could quote on the matter. But I believe that rap is more of a factor than games; because it appeals more to these people. I except rap as a art form (well, rap at its core is an art. Most rappers today have no right to be called artists. I'm glaring at you, Soilja Boy.) Rap came from the streets, and the gritty lyrics prove that; and thats what gangbangers like.
I would love to hear your responces. Not only do they give me a warm feeling, I can use any corrections that alot of you sure may spat at me. Spat being the controlling word, i'm sure most of you have already think i'm a twit.
I'm just tired of seeing every gamer on hear automatically post the same comment when someone points a finger at their favorite game. Yes, these things are all old news to us; but not to everyone else in the world.
I just wonder how he can breathe with his head shoved so far up there?
Anything you say, Chief.
Doesn't this moron know that gangsta rap first became popular in the 90s and that the first GTA game came out in 1998. And this dumbass is supposed to be a gang expert. If this moron knew anything about gangs he would know that gang violence exploded in the 80s and 90s and it wasn't due to video games or rap music. It was due to the crack cocaine epidemic. In fact you can trace the origins of gangsta rap to that as well. This fool fails on every level. Stop talking out of your ass and actually do some research. Gang violence is down, the only reason we are seeing a slight increase is because all the bangers who got locked up in the 80s and 90s are getting out of jail now.
And you didn't have gangs. Oh, wait...
I'm just curious, what 90's did this guy live in? Among my earliest memories is playing SNES with my friend at age 3 (in '92), and I distinctly remember my divorced mother meeting a boyfriend online when I was 5 or 6.
Incidentally, I also distinctly remember my mother forbidding me to play Mortal Kombat on any of my friends' systems (and obviously I never owned the game myself). This is what we call "parenting." Try it sometime, folks, it might actually do your kid some good!
There has been depictions of violence in the media since the beginning of the printing press. The Holy Bible and Holy Quran contain lots of depictions of violence, gore, death, ect.
That sounds like something that Jack(ass) Thompson would say
i see. A lot of those are tried and true points I forgot udderly. Sometimes I wonder why I even comment at all. Thanks for clearing up my mistakes.
Weren't they playing football on Genesis right before Ricky's confrontation in the alley? See, videogames do lead to violence.
Or is my memory just making that up?
Besides that, this guy is barking up the wrong tree, as the main possible reason people form gangs is for a sense of belonging. And that could easily be solved by funding more after school programs. Not by whining about violent media.
What you've done is portray how a person with a 'gangbanger' mindset would be attracted to GTA, and use it for inspiration.
What Dan Dougherty said is this, "[Video games, media, internet] creates a lack of respect for life and makes violence acceptable."
He is laboring under the false presumption that media creates real-world violence. What you said is how violent people are drawn to and inspired by such media. I agree with you, and call him an asshat.
I hope you can see the difference.
WTF????
We had the Atari 2600, the NES, the SEGA Master System in the 80's and also we had the SNES, SEGA Mega Drive, the PlayStation, the N64, the SEGA Saturn, hell we even had the SEGA Dreamcast all back in the 90's
Who ever wrote this piece of garbage never even played Videogames at all...
I will be surprised if they know who MARIO is?????
This shows a complete lack of any knowledge of Videogames...
You expect people to just swallow this piece of rubbish?????
...This week has hurt my head between statements of stupidity and JT refuting negative comments against a game.
Ugh.
Nightmare walkin'
psychopath talkin'
king of the jungle just a gansta stalkin'
Livin' life as a firecracker quick is my fuse
then dead like a death pact for the colors I choose
red or blue, cuz or blood, well it just don't matta
Sucka die for your life when my shotgun scatters
The gangs of L.A. will never die...
...just multiply
Colors.
Interesting.... According to the Department of Justice, in the 80's and 90's we had even MORE violence. Kinda blows that theory...
Wait according to wikipedia the bloods and crips both existed in the 1970s and according to every text book ever written organized crime saw a surge in the 1920s (although I'm not sure if you want to relate the two).
My BULLSHIT meter gives that statement a 500/10.
Really either this is him avoiding his resposibilities (it's not my fault it's the game's fault, I can't do anything about the problem when we have these blasted games here) or he's a complete moron.
No, dammit NO. Being chased by the polic while I'm trying to complete a mission because I accidentally ran over a cop on the sidewalk is NOT A REWARD.
Since when is having the Police, SWAT, FBI and the Military trying to kill you rewarding? Hell, going around and killing pedestrians might drop a few bucks if your lucky, but honestly... gaining 15 bucks by mowing down 50 people, and having the absolutely annoying FBI trying to kill me is not very rewarding, dammit.
P.S. I lol'd at the "no games in the 80's or 90's comment"
And I am betting that most gang members do not play video games or use the internet. Or stay in much, unless they're out of crimes to do. They are practically vagabonds.
Seriously. Rambo 1, 2 and 3 all came out in the past decade.
So did Terminator, and all of those other violent movies. In fact, violence was created in 2000 by scientist trying to prove evolution true. Back in the 1980s and 1990s people all lived in harmony, television was innocent and the police were unnecessary.
Complete and utter bullshit, that completely killed their credibility.
And just for the record, in 1972 I was 6 years old. Every night the news would show brutal and gruesome pictures of casualties in Vietnam. I distinctly remember seeing people throwing dead bodies on a HUGE pile of bodies. No violent media? please!
If I had seen your post earlier, I would of responded (I was at work).
Others had pointed it out, but let me get in on the fun. What you described was someone with a desire to commit violent acts using the game as a way to do it without getting caught. The person you described most likely wants to commit, and may have committed, the violent crimes that GTA allows the player to perform. There's a world of difference between playing as a criminal (Cops and Robbers?) and wanting to be one. Games, music, and other form of media may influence the individuals, but something else has caused them to choose crime or violence. Most likely a bad home life, peers, neighborhood, poverty, or so combination of those and other factors.
I'm not a big fan of rap myself, but I do not believe that it influences people any more than any other media. I just can't believe that people would kill because they think 50 Cent is cool. I do agree that gang members may be attracted to it due to what it represents, but that doesn't mean it’s bad. Violent people will be attracted to violent things and street thugs will be attracted to music from the "street".
Just remember: I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend, to the death, your right to say it.
Now if only I remembered who said that...
Nice chat!
Though it was probably someone else originally, I seem to recall Peter Griffin said it once, after his house got repossessed.
But yeah this whole thing is stupid, more of the same-old same-old.
^My opinion in a nutshell.