Teen Charged With Harassing Thompson

A young man has been charged after reportedly threatening Jack Thompson with torture and death, reports Gamespot. Thompson claims the boy is already in custody for his crime. From the article: "The Sheriff's Office public information officer, Lt. John Martin, could not confirm for GameSpot that the child had been arrested because the detective and sergeant assigned to the case had both left for the day. However, he did confirm that the boy had been charged with harassing communication, a misdemeanor offense."

Comments

Aaaargh, stop proving his point.

[kyle90]

Jack Thompson is a douche, but threatening to torture and kill him just reinforces his ideas that violent games make people violent.

Re:Aaaargh, stop proving his point.

[alvinrod]

Any chance that this whole thing was just blown out of proportion? Look at all the other crap that Jack has pulled and all of the things he's said out of context or completely blown out of proportion.

From Article: 'The specifics of the torture with which Thompson was threatened are so grotesque that they cannot be properly placed in this news release," Thompson wrote in a mass e-mail addressed to news outlets, politicians, and industry groups. "The torture was to end with the shooting of Thompson, as in this teen's favorite games.'

So far, the only thing we really know is that Wacko Jacko said he did it, but doesn't really give us much for specifics. Considering all the other crap he's spouted off, I really wonder how much of this is the actual truth and how much of this is some kind of delusion that Jack has dreamt up.

If some kid was stupid enough to make death threats against Thompson, he probably deserves what he gets. Just because Jack is an asshole doesn't give anyone else the right to be one. Hopefully the kid will learn from this experience that you can't go firing off your mouth without thinking first. Hopefully Jack will get disbarred and learn the same.

Re:Aaaargh, stop proving his point.

[Mooga]

Oh Gosh, I justed killed the English Language.
Let me fix that:

I think that Jack Thompson is always so angry because he doesn't play any videogames. He need to relax and play some Super Mario. Then he'll always be in a good mood and not have to go after gamers.

Re:Aaaargh, stop proving his point.

[lazlo]

So what we need in order to have a proper control for this experiment is to take some people who don't game, expose them to Jack Thompson, and see if they develop a desire to torture and kill him.

Sounds like fun. I'll take bets.

Arg not this shit again.

[KriKit]

Chances are the kids mentally disturbed. But that won't change the fact that, "Videogames made him do it." (C) Copyright 2005 Jack Thompson. Nice to see he's playing the role as a maryter, and enforcing the fear that videogames make for a violent society. "The threshold for accepting charges or declining them is whether or not the complainant was in fear for his life," Martin noted, "not whether or not the complainant had the ability to carry it out. But just making threats would be an offense in itself." Whats that about? I hear about people being threatend and stalked and don't have any recorse. Local police wont do anything, just file a report.

Gee, thanks!

[Jeff DeMaagd]

If true, that person is basically giving the sensationalist some more ammo. Before, there wasn't much to agree with his statements, but now he's got some concrete examples of "pixelantes".

I don't care what you think about a person, or how wrong they are, uncivil discourse only gives the target more ammunition and greater resolve. If you can't handle it civilly, ignore them.

Re:Video games made him do it!

[basscomm]

I imagine it'd be a bit tougher to arrest GTA.

Read that again?

[hackwrench]

Since Jack Thompson has not mentioned suing any games that end with him being shot and given his aggressive legal posture on this point, one can safely conclude that he has sanctioned whatever videogames end with him being shot. Jack Thompson seriously needs to consider the stupidity of such a thing. Furthermore, he says that there's more than one game that ends with him being shot. Weird.

JT

[king wilson]

so....

    Other than the police confirming that the kid was charged with a misdemeanor, the only info in the story comes from a Jack Thompson press release?

    I think Slashdot needs to update their story posting policy, to only include stories that have the slightest chance of being factually true.....

Re:In other news...

[SharpFang]

You're assumed to know some more names as well: Bill Gates, Lex Luthor, Steve Ballmer, Darl McBride, Dr. Evil, John C. Dvorak.

Re:What weight do Thompson's actions have in this?

[idonthack]

Of course, the sister will be the one that gets in trouble.
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