Slashdot Mirror
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."
"If I ever meet you, I will Kick Your Ass"
Jack Thompson is a douche, but threatening to torture and kill him just reinforces his ideas that violent games make people violent.
Real_men_don't_need_spacebars.
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.
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.
If we're to believe Jack Thompson, the games are to blame. Why, then, did they arrest the kid? It's certainly not his fault. GTA made him do it.
Everybody famous gets death-threats. It's no suprise. It's just this moron's got the ability to use it for ammo...
Whoa! Theres a game where you can shoot Jack Thompson? Why was I not told of this!? /sarcasm
"'Shoot the messenger' is the video game industry's strategy,"
"Shoot the messenger"? Jack Thompson isn't a messenger, hes the guy trying to burn down the castle. (Undermining the ESRB and backing out of a $10,000 donation to a charity if someone makes him a mod to his specifications is not going to win you any friends in the industry.)
Is it just me or are his claims getting more outrageous as time goes by?
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.
I mean, sure it feels nice, but when will children learn that a life of misdemeanor isn't the answer?
That green slime had it coming.
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.....
Dude! Where have you been these past few months (longer?)?. Jack Thompson is this stupid lawyer dude who hates violent video games. He thinks it turns kids into monsters you see, violent monsters. Among his many exploits, he is most famous at the moment for not honouring his word about giving $10,000 to charity if someone made a game to his specifications. He has also been know to be argued into the ground by a 12yr old, aswell as attempt to sue penny-arcade for harasment (they gave the $10,000 to charity in his name).
I guess penny-arcade were too big for him, so he's gone after kids instead. I wonder if the kid could counter-sue JT for slander?
PS It's late, I have work tommorrow. If you want links http://www.google.com/ is your friend.
Thompson sounds like the little kid that keeps poking his sister on the long car ride and then goes crying to mom and dad when his sister slaps him.
I am not a gamer, I haven't even played any retail computer games in several years, but Thompson is annoying the heck out of me.
I would hope that the judge would see the situation for what it is and would tell Thompson that he is getting what he is asking for and if he doesn't like it then he should find a new political platform to beat on.
If you want to torture and kill Jack Thompson, just do it. If you threaten him first, the police will show up and arrest you before you get the chance.
You're assumed to know some more names as well: Bill Gates, Lex Luthor, Steve Ballmer, Darl McBride, Dr. Evil, John C. Dvorak.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
I believe I'd be correct in saying that Jack lives in Florida? Well, purely from the information in the artical, he's broken state law by recording the conversation - you need both parties' consent. (According to wikipedia - look up telephone tapping.)
That the kid lives in Texas, where no such law is in place, might change matters, and the kid might also have got his answerphone. But I'd love to see Jack get a lawsuit slapped on him for this.
I'm not a lawyer, but I have a crack legal defense strategy for him, and it even comes down to one word...
Satire.
;)