February 18, 2008 -
The Northern Illinois University campus is still reeling from Thursday's rampage shooting by an apparently deranged 27-year-old man.But that hasn't stopped anti-game violence activist Jack Thompson from threatening NIU with a lawsuit. Over video games.
Thompson e-mailed GamePolitics a copy of a letter that he faxed this morning to the university's public safety department in Dekalb:
Pursuant to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request production of copies of all documents that reveal Steven Kazmierczak’s play of violent video games, including but not limited to the use of his computer to play Counter-Strike, which he apparently, according to the New York Post, used to rehearse for his Valentine’s Day Massacre at NIU.
The killers in the two worst school massacres in history—in Erfurt, Germanay, and at Virginia Tech University—similarly trained on Counter-Strike to rehearse for their killing sprees.
If I am not provided with this information, I shall bring a civil action to secure these documents.
GP: Frankly, I had difficulty believing that anyone would waste the time of busy investigators and intrude into the NIU community's period of mourning over something as trivial as the video game habits of a grown man. For that reason, I asked Thompson to verify that he had actually sent the fax to the university. His response:
Of course I sent it to them, you idiot.
The NIU investigators have already responded, professionally, and told me they will get me this information in due time. This is how you do this, which you wouldn't know.
I can't vouch for Thompson's version of the NIU staff's response.
Comments
1) accept his FOIA request, as per the law
2) let it sit for the legally allowable amount of time while they deal with the stuff that's ACTUALLY IMPORTANT (like, say, helping the campus community to recover after a senseless tragedy)
3) respond to him, as required by law, saying, "we have no official records in regards to the deceased's video game playing. Now, go away."
Because, why the hell would they have any records of it? Does Jacko think that colleges maintain files on every student who has ever fired up anything from Wolfenstein 3D to GTA4? Get real. Even if they do have some records, what the hell is that supposed to prove? Basically every kid everywhere has played a violent video game, and as Cho Seung-Hui proved, you don't have to play video games to be goddamned nutcase.
Also, unfortunately, disbarment is a pretty rare occurrence, so we might not get the pleasure of seeing this guy be professionally discredited in this way. I hope I'm wrong about this, though.
No kidding. It's like for some reason he's looking at his law lisence and is mistaking it for a Secret Service badge or some crap.
February 18th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
How much lower can this man sink? "
Well....he could always skin a few babys to make himself some clothes
but other than that i dont think its possible(but i wouldnt put that baby thing past him)
your not winning, because videogames had nothing to do with this massacre, massacre chaser.
The simple fact that jack thompson continues to be a two-faced liar in the face of this tragedy proves that he is after nothing more than the destruction of the videogame industry. I'd love to see him proceed with civil action, because I think he's lying about them responding. I still remember when he tried talking to some government figure in manhattan some time ago claiming that said government office was already helping him yet I emailed them to find they were having nothing to do with thompson.
@ken
nay. he may be an enemy, but saying that just gives him ammunition to use against us later by saying something to the effect of 'these pissant gamers are so deranged that one even posted to piss on my grave when I die'
yes jack thompson is the lowest of the low. that does not mean we have to sink to his level, however impossible that may be.
can you show us the letter he mailed you? I want to see how many times he lied.
It is questionable what he intends to do with said history once he gets it (in due time, which one might hope to be a longish while) but I hope it proves there was not violent game history, afterall Steven Kazmierczak was 27 years of age and hence an adult. No save the kiddies here jackie so you might as well crawl back into your hole.
Must remember JBTs logic (or lack thereof). He is never wrong. When he is wrong he is/was not wrong or it is not an exact science (ie no one could be right)
Why is JT *STILL* not in a padded, LOCKED, jail-cell?
Its very sad tragedy for all those families. Last thing any of them, the police and the friends need....is some imbelice on a crusade for something unrelated to their feelings. Let the families and friends grieve in peace.
He quite obviously has no shame.
Ah well. You know what they say about people who live in glass houses.
Jack, do not try to pursue me, I do not live in the USA, but you still need to be taken care of.
We are Anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
We do it for the lulz.
Expect Us Mr. Thompson
You make me embarrassed to post on 4chan.
...
Your heartless, uncaring behavior has -- Again! -- rendered me speechless, Mr. Thompson. *headdesk*
That's really the worst move he ever made. Now, more peoples will call him a massacre chaser (because a class action about information so precise shows that he's no altruist).
I don't think he'll sue. Each time he threatens to sue, he backs down and we never heard of it again. He just want to appear menacing (changing mask).
However, if he does sue, that will become almost personal. But for now, I just have to think and wait.
@dairantou
He'll get disbarred soon enough. With a move like this, I don't think he'll be able to paperwork his way out.
Yep.
There's proof right there, because I'm apparently infallible and everything I say is fuckin' law.
See how this works, Jack?
I mean, who has the (lack of?) balls to threaten to sue a college that just lost a bunch of kids to a psycho who decided not to take his pills??
Jack, you're sinking lower, and lower, and lower, and fuckin' lower in your tactics.
how is everything.
to jack.
fuck you, you sick fuck
to Anonymous251
will Anonymous acutaly do something or is this just for show.
So you're going to file a lawsuit?
Questions:
What is your cause of action?
Are you sure you meet the pleading requirements (they're higher than they were a couple of years ago...check your recent case law)
Are you sure you can survive a motion to dismiss?
Are you suing in federal or state court?
Under what statute are you planning to file?
Does that statute provide a private right of action?
Who are you representing? Yourself?
If you are representing someone, are you a member of the Illinois bar?
If you are not, have you disclosed that to your client?
Bottom line...I have a better idea of how this is done than you, and I'm still in my first year of law school.
Out of all of you who are currently enrolled in college, or who have been through college already, how many of you ever had to fill in a form or provide information regarding the video games you play?
Addresses, phone numbers, bank details for fee payment, I had to provide all of this, but never once did a questionnaire or interview from the college contain the question "So, what kind of video games do you play? Violent ones?"
You might as well try to sue a person's local garage that fixes their car in an effort to get their exam result information. Or threaten an ice cream parlour they frequent because you want their medical records.
Never mind the incredible gall of the man in doing this in the first place. Try and forget the amazing display of bad taste and lack of compassion he has shown here. Ignore the insult to the grieving staff and students of the college. What you are left with is a stupid and pointless request, asking a entity for information is does not have.
They print out ALL this stuff (basically anything not confidential under the law) place it in a room (so just hundreds of thousands of pages of junk) and tell Jack
"Here ya go, you can look through this, but you aren't allowed to take any of it with you...hope you brought a notebook and pen"
That would be perfectly legal and in any case quite a bit of what Jack is asking is probably covered under the Federal Education Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) so he's not likely to get much of anything anyway.
He says this and that about videogames and how they de-sensitize people, but if you look at Jack, he really has no sensitivity whatsoever. To file a lawsuit and daydream about money while some of the victims have yet to be buried is staggering. No word or phrase in any language can accurately capture the disgust I feel towards Jack and others of his ilk. (Though Jack is the obvious ring leader.)
Just once and for all, I'd like the news channel to bring on someone like Hal or Jason Della Rocca and finally shame and destroy Jack and his talking points that he's been using for years now.
Though I'm not holding my breath. Hopefully a disbarment will have to do.
We wouldn't know anything about being a blood-sucking, crackpot lawyer.
In this case, I'm going to go out on a limb and say they may be a little slow with this response because they do have a few other things going on right now. This is not a personal attack on NIU, it's just that I know them a little more personally than most others here.
In other words, Mr. Thompson probably won't get a response until sometime next year at the soonest. (Just kidding, it's probably going to take more like a month.)
The NIU investigators have already responded, professionally,"
I love the fact that he calls you an idiot and then praises someone else for professional communication skills.
Jack, calling someone an idiot is not professional.
See, this is me being unprofessional:
Jack, you're a complete and total idiot.
This is me being professional:
Jack, I have concerns about your ability to process the difference between professional and unprofessional communications.
from the washingtonpost.com.
"Kazmierczak grew up northwest of Chicago, in Elk Grove Village, and played saxophone in the school band. He spent time in a mental health center in his late teens, and police have said without elaboration that he had stopped taking some kind of medication in the days or weeks before the shooting.
His girlfriend, Jessica Baty, told CNN on Sunday that he had stopped taking an antidepressant about three weeks ago because "it made him feel like a zombie." "
you were all like "did u write this?" and then he was like "lol ya whose naem was on it stoopid."
sad day.
John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law
1172 S. Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
This only goes to reinforce his public persona as a hypocritical, festering cesspool of moral bankruptcy.