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GTA Blamed for Graffiti
Voodoo Extreme is reporting on a group of Greensburg, PA boys who went on a Graffiti spree and then blamed it on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. From the article: "The boys range in age from 12 to 14 and are charged with institutional vandalism, criminal conspiracy, criminal mischief and desecration of venerated objects." Is it just me or, um, should 12 year olds not be playing GTA?
No it's not just you. But it's not their fault either. Someone had to pay for the 50 dollar game. Where are their parents. My parents still don't like me playing Grand Theft Auto. Fortunately it's outside of their control. The parents should be out cleaning the graffiti alongside their children.
E.g., if I get syphillis from a hooker, can I sue/blame the hooker and not be arrested for soliciting? Or that is a context argument. If I was 14 and got shitfaced drunk and say shot somebody, could I "blame" alcohol and avoid prosecution?
So where is this tolerance level coming from? These kids admitted to obtaining and viewing for personal use what for them is illicit material. That's enough for a paedophile webring so why not a bunch of vandals who were too stupid to avboid getting caught?
Acting stupid isn't much fun when there's someone around who knows better
Kids spray paint shit. Most stores won't sell spray paint to you if you're under 18 to help mitigate this problem. I had a friend who spray painted his middle school and almost got caught. His parents have always thought he was the golden child, he just never got caught doing anything bad. The funny thing is they always thought I was the "bad influence" when we were kids, the opposite was sometimes true. We were both hell raisers, he just played the "good son" part better.
And can already get a headshot in UT2004. She loves to watch me play Doom3, and as a result has ceased to be afraid of the dark. Granted, part of my duty as a parent was to explain to her in depth that John Carmack is just a mere mortal (let the flaming begin!), and I also used it as an opportunity to show her how many wonderful opportunities there are for her in CG and technology when she gets older. True, I've taken some of the magic out of her childhood, but I also feel that I've given her more of a pragmatic outlook on life. She's watched all 3 of the LOTR movies, Matrix movies, X-Men movies and Spiderman movies, but I've also made sure she's seen the 'Making of' portions, so she can see things like the good guys and bad guys hanging around the makeup trailer together, the CG used to create Gollum, etc. In a nutshell, we refuse to shelter our daughter from what the world has to offer, and not only has it made her smarter and more critical as far as her thinking skills go, but I believe it has given her an advantage her classmates haven't been afforded the opportunity, and her counting, reasoning verbal, and reading skills prove it.
End of Line.
is the media.
How else would the kids know they can deflect blame by blaming something else?
A proper corrective measure for these kids should be a 48 hour marathon of every 'positive/inspirational' TV and movie in existence (disney, care bears, etc). That way, since they are so easily influenced, we will have happy, sharing, giving, happy members of society as a result.
THEN they can go to the media and say "its a wonderful life" inspired me to help my community'.
Since I was the author of the RPG game they tried to blame it on, here's my 2 cents.
The game is not the problem. The kids are about half the problem. The other half is the parents. These parents care more about watching the latest episode of E.R. then they care about keeping an eye on their kids. So when the kids nag them for a video game, they buy it and never look at it or the kids again.
There is not a single video game that my (10 year old) son has that I have not played and know the exact content of. Yes, my 10 year old has a few "T" rated games. No, he does not have an M rated game, nor will I ever buy him one, not even when he's 18. If he wants it, he'll have to earn the money for it.
What should happen is very simple. The courts should sentence these kids to clean every inch of the graffitti by hand. No power tools, no power-washers or sand-blasters. By hand with brushes and elbow grease.
At the same time, the parents should be taken into a counseling session and taught that the word "NO" exists. Then they should be taught that having kids is about *responsibility*. Then they should be fined about $500 each, and have all video game consoles removed from their home for six months.
All I can say is that if my son did this, he'd be limping into court, and he sure as hell wouldn't be sitting down. And I'd be burning his video games. He'd come home to a room devoid of toys with nothing but books and a desk.
This just reminds me of the week prior to Christmas when I watched a mother at a video-game store buy her 8 year old son a copy of Halo 2 because he said, "I waaaaant this!" Never looked at the box, never asked the two guys behind the counter, never even considered it. The two guys behind the counter tried to point out that it was M rated and she wouldn't listen. I finally stepped up and said, "Maam, would you let your child watch a slasher horror film?"
She said, "Of course not!"
I said, "Then why are you buying him a game with graphic violence and mutilation?"
"Oh my goodness, really? But there's no warning label."
That's the level of people who raised these kids.
Life, the Universe, and Everything... in my image.