Does this sound like a placement/martyring to anyone else?

"A hooded man queuing to buy the new Grand Theft Auto IV, the notoriously violent computer game, stabbed a passer-by in the head and neck. Up to 100 people witnessed the attack."

A hooded man...in line to buy a video game that is (falsely) touted as being the cause of violent acts...stabs a passer-by...in the head and neck...with many witnesses.

I'm sorry, something doesn't add up. I'd be more willing to toss Achem's Razor out the window on this one and say the most logical answer, being that this wasn't staged or pre-planned, isn't the right one. Then again, with them saying the stabbing was away from the whole store completely, it seems like another case of connections made with such a distance that its almost laughable to see anyone attempt to stand behind them.

I'm not surprised.

Perhaps it was here, perhaps some other site, but someone posting from the UK was keen to point out that this happened in East Croydon. Apparently, if their account was to be believed, it would have been more surprising to be wandering near East Croydon and NOT end up getting stabbed.

"The source also said that the stabbing did not occur outside the store, but a quarter of a mile away outside East Croydon station."

WOW.

" “The victim had categorically not pre-ordered the game and GameStation is confident that he was not a GameStation customer; neither was he a part of the queue outside the Croydon store, a source told the Games Radar blog.

The source also said that the stabbing did not occur outside the store, but a quarter of a mile away outside East Croydon station."

@Keith Vaz

Grasping at straws...

...yur doing it right!

He won't retract his statement, if anything he'll just spin it stating that "It could have just as easily happened in the queue outside of the game store... OMGGTADIDIT"

Let my people... er... post go! (From the spam filter.)

:)

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software

a quarter of a mile ... speachless

The only possible answer has just popped into my mind. The stabber was none other than Dr Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic). Now there's a [fictional] person that could stab you from a quarter mile away.

Please Vaz... say Mr. Fantastic was the mugger. Please.

So lemme get this straight. This guy was influenced to stab someone by a game he couldn't have possibly played yet as he was standing in a line to get said game?

Ignoring the distance factor that has been mentioned, that's some hard *ahem* "logic" to follow there.

I'm gonna guess that the negative influence emanating from GTAIV is so potent that just being in the presence of a single copy and not even playing it is enough to drive other wise normal, safe, law-abiding people to crime...Or...somebody is lying and/or twisting facts to suit their own needs.

With a politician like that no wonder why London is this way at this time period.

@Ben.

Occam. Occam's Razor. Vaz still looks like a chipmunk to me.

Whoops Keith jumped the gun there. Still the good news for him is that it's impossible to make himself look any more of an idiot than he already does.

Gift.

Mr. Keith Vaz is a despicable excuse for a politician, and it doesn't surprise me that he's been convicted of accepting bribes from the Hinduja brothers in exchange for passports.

@Calantyr

I assume you frequent the Black Sheep. Good man.

Millions of people were out to get GTA that night over the world. The idea all those people could be together and and incident NOT kicking off is naive at best. There were hundreds of incidents like this for the release of the 360, the PS3, Halo; hell, even Harry Potter. It has nothing to do with GTA, GTA just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Lie: It makes you look good
Truth: Will make you look stupid

A sad world we live in

"A hooded man who WASN'T queuing to buy the new Grand Theft Auto IV, the notoriously violent computer game, stabbed a passer-by in the head and neck. Up to 100 people AT A TRAIN STATION A QUARTER OF A MILE AWAY FROM THE NEAREST VIDEO GAME STORE witnessed the attack."

"[Grand Theft Auto] is a violent and nasty video game and it doesn’t surprise me that some of those who PROBABLY DON'T play it behave in this way."

Fixed.

The hell? We're not a blog!

Vaz: Superduperdouche!

I hear that some people got stabbed and attacked too in lines during the Playstation 3 launch. And possibly the Xbox 360 launch. And people got injured during shoving in K-mart blue light specials.

Cabbage patch kids rush had quite a few injuries.

How many people got hurt over Tickle Me Elmo? Those things incite violence.

A quarter of a mile away? I know the lines were long, but they weren't that long.

Check the details Vaz.

Hmm.

This could be a confusion about the store location. Gamestation IS about a quarter of a mile aweay from East Croydon station, but what IS right next to the station is a second-hand videogame store (You turn right outside the station, and it's on your right). It's a small self-run business. I'm guessing a journo saw the stabbing happened near to a videogame store, and made the connection with the queue that was happening at a shop nearby (well, a quarter of a mile away) and erroneously put the two together.

Put that together with a fat, corrupt politician (hey, I can say that, it's been proved!) and you have your headline.

That's my theory, anyway.

New name for this jerk: Keith Chav. Pass it on :)

As Benji said, '...it would have been more surprising to be wandering near East Croydon and NOT end up getting stabbed.' Its not exactly the nicest area by any stretch of the imagination, When I drive through, I drive quick and with the doors locked!!

This idiot needs to actually take a look at the game.

Is it really THAT violent? The fighting could be considered violent, sure, but it's not really, and there's barely any blood.

And interestingly enough, knives existed before video games.