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?

Comments

Another blame

[Taulin]

The next thing you know people will start blaming the break dancing craze on Electric Boogaloo.

Isn't there one?

[Apreche]

Is there one single reporter out there who is also a gamer? If I was a reporter I would go interview the parents. So, you bought this game for your children? Do you rent adult movies for them too?

New at 10: Parents buy mature and adult video games for their children, then blame the game companies when their kids make mischief.

Re:Isn't there one?

[drakaan]

How about placing the blame where it belongs: squarely on the shoulders of the young idiots spray painting crap.

Ask those 12-to-14 year olds "Did you know that spray-painting objects that don't belong to you was wrong?" or "Did you know that spray painting objects that don't belong to you is illegal?" and see how many answer "no". Then slap the ones that answer "no" until they tell the truth and be done with it.

They were wrong, they damn well knew they were wrong, and they don't want to get into trouble or take responsibility for what they did, so they're blaming somebody else to see if they can slide.

Pathetic.

Taking responsibility for our actions

[CsiDano]

Why do people think they can blame their actions on somthing or someone else? The only thing that made those kids pick up a can of spray paint are their own minds. Even a 12 year old knows graffiti is vandalism and they know it's wrong. Society needs to stop allowing people to scapegoat their actions. We are responsible for the things we do. Were these kids going to jack cars and run people over, maybe grab a flame thrower and torch cars and then get away with it by blaming GTA. Nobody is responsible for their actions anymore, aw jeez McDees made me fat, Smith and Wesson shot my face off while I was cleaning my loaded gun and Jack Daniels made me beat my wife.

GKU? Gang Kids United?!?

[CodeWanker]

Jesus, what a lame graffiti. They should be locked up for conspiracy to commit weak-assed self-expression.

Here's My take...

[databoing]

Ok, so graffiti didn't exist before GTA came out? If it didn't or it wasn't a problem, then they might have a case.

Graffiti has been a problem for decades. To blame it on a game is as ignorant as it is outrageous. I remember when some kid shot up his school and the media was all set to blame that on video games. The problem isn't the games, it's that the world that the games are based on (real-world) sucks.

Murder happens. Vandalism happens. Playing a game that incorporates this and then going out and doing this stuff doesn't make you any less of a murderer or vandal. These kids will most likely get sentenced as is proper in PA law.

The GTA angle is just a sad attempt to push a political agenda (far-right tightwads). I'm tired of conservatives thinking they have the right to tell me and whoever else what I should be able to buy. If they had their way, there wouldn't be any games with a hint of violence.

Where would that leave us? I dunno, puzzle/board/card games, I guess.
Tetris and Solitaire.

Yeah.

Right...

Ah Greensburg

[CrazyJim1]

I grew up near Greensburg, they're now putting in the largest Wal-Mart in the world there. Not much to do in the area except go to Westmoreland mall. Kids get quickly bored in that area. I wouldn't say GTA: San Andreas is to blame. I'd say corporate commercialism and liability is.

If there were places for teenagers to hangout, like skateparks, there would be less influence to go out and do stupid things. Any time a teenager brings a gun, drugs, or hurts himself on your property, you lose your property to lawsuits. So no one caters to making fun places to hang out, its nothing but people's houses and stores out there. Maybe its like that everywhere now.

well...

[TheCarp]

could be worst... ever talked with a real graffiti "artist" about their "craft"?

They would have you think that they are the great revolutionaries, fighting the supression of the individual by putting their tag everywhere and thus destroying the mindless uniformity and attacking the collective subconscious or some such.

Now admittedly I like some graffiti.... theres some absolutly beautiful peices of artwork that people have illicitly put up in backalleys on walls. Stunning stuff. Of course thats the stuff that doesn't get washed off, because well, it really does make the place look nice.

If this was what they defended I might be with them, but the vast majority is just a bunch of silly words written in paint marker or scratched into a plexiglass bus window. Crap. Nobody appreciates it but them, it just makes a place look run down and ugly.

"Yah I am a counterculture revolutionary because I can write a word in really funked up letters that nobody can read"

At least these kids if they blame it on GTA, probably wont do it again

Dumbasses.

-Steve