May 1, 2008 -
Labour MP Keith Vaz, a longtime critic of violent video games, was quick to relate a recent London stabbing to Grand Theft Auto IV.Will Vaz be as quick to retract his comments now that further investigation seems to negate such a link?
As initially reported by the Times, the incident occurred late Monday night as buyers queued up for the midnight launch of Rockstar's controversial crime game. Initial news reports indicated that the attacker was in line for the game:
A hooded man queuing to buy the new Grand Theft Auto IV, the notoriously violent computer game, stabbed a passer-by in the head and neck. Up to 100 people witnessed the attack.
Vaz told the newspaper:
[Grand Theft Auto] is a violent and nasty video game and it doesn’t surprise me that some of those who play it behave in this way.
However, VNU reports that linkage of the stabbing incident to GTA IV may be a case of "media panic":
"The victim had categorically not pre-ordered the game and GameStation is confident that he was not a GameStation customer; neither was he a part of the queue outside the Croydon store, a source told the Games Radar blog.
The source also said that the stabbing did not occur outside the store, but a quarter of a mile away outside East Croydon station.
Via: Kotaku
Comments
"A hooded man queuing to buy the new Grand Theft Auto IV, the notoriously violent computer game, stabbed a passer-by in the head and neck. Up to 100 people witnessed the attack."
A hooded man...in line to buy a video game that is (falsely) touted as being the cause of violent acts...stabs a passer-by...in the head and neck...with many witnesses.
I'm sorry, something doesn't add up. I'd be more willing to toss Achem's Razor out the window on this one and say the most logical answer, being that this wasn't staged or pre-planned, isn't the right one. Then again, with them saying the stabbing was away from the whole store completely, it seems like another case of connections made with such a distance that its almost laughable to see anyone attempt to stand behind them.
If anything, it was a mugging. People were in line to get the game, and he knew they'd have money.
WOW.
The source also said that the stabbing did not occur outside the store, but a quarter of a mile away outside East Croydon station."
@Keith Vaz
Grasping at straws...
...yur doing it right!
The nearest dedicated computer game store is at least a quarter of a mile away, at least any store that would have GTA IV so soon after release. It's hard to imagine that someone would follow a victim so far from the shop, just to stab them in THE MOST VISIBLE and PUBLIC places for miles when they could have done it in a secluded alley dozens of times along the route.
Yeah, I call lunacy.
:)
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
(1 week later)
Military actually finds Hussein in Iraq, Politician says "GTA caused a tear in the space time continuum allowing him to go back in time movae to iraq and be found there just so they can say they had no involvement and to cover their butts, we hypocritical,selfserving faith based few know the truth, My good buddey Jack Thompson plans to sue Rockstar for inventing GTA, Space Time rifts, Gravity, Wendy's, The baconator, Physics, space flight, and guns."
Please Vaz... say Mr. Fantastic was the mugger. Please.
Ignoring the distance factor that has been mentioned, that's some hard *ahem* "logic" to follow there.
I'm gonna guess that the negative influence emanating from GTAIV is so potent that just being in the presence of a single copy and not even playing it is enough to drive other wise normal, safe, law-abiding people to crime...Or...somebody is lying and/or twisting facts to suit their own needs.
I could go on (the 365 would give me a decent connection to the Mayan calendar, which everyone knows is the holy grail of wacko conspiracies) but my head has a very important engagement with a brick wall -- it's the only antidote to the horror of living in these modern times.
Fangamer
Occam. Occam's Razor. Vaz still looks like a chipmunk to me.
What a failtard.
Gift.
LOL Is that your new 'thing'?
I assume you frequent the Black Sheep. Good man.
Millions of people were out to get GTA that night over the world. The idea all those people could be together and and incident NOT kicking off is naive at best. There were hundreds of incidents like this for the release of the 360, the PS3, Halo; hell, even Harry Potter. It has nothing to do with GTA, GTA just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I was pointing out that, even though it came from FOX News, a story a few days ago indicated the stabbing was committed by the passer-by against the person in line, not by the person in line.
Was that a different case?
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Truth: Will make you look stupid
A sad world we live in
Except GTA wasn't even in the wrong place. GTA was sitting around with its friends having a smoke halfway across town.
"[Grand Theft Auto] is a violent and nasty video game and it doesn’t surprise me that some of those who PROBABLY DON'T play it behave in this way."
Fixed.
Seriously, what stupid question is that? Of course he's going to retract such a statement, like he has accepted manhunt wasn't responsible for Stefan Pakeerah's murder......
Yup, the BSB rules. Wasted far too many evenings there. :)
Everything about the way this event has been reported is just outright misleading. The trouble is that it's worded in such a way that people will probably get away with it. Never let facts get in the way of a good story, eh?
How many people got hurt over Tickle Me Elmo? Those things incite violence.
Check the details Vaz.
This could be a confusion about the store location. Gamestation IS about a quarter of a mile aweay from East Croydon station, but what IS right next to the station is a second-hand videogame store (You turn right outside the station, and it's on your right). It's a small self-run business. I'm guessing a journo saw the stabbing happened near to a videogame store, and made the connection with the queue that was happening at a shop nearby (well, a quarter of a mile away) and erroneously put the two together.
Put that together with a fat, corrupt politician (hey, I can say that, it's been proved!) and you have your headline.
That's my theory, anyway.
You can pretty much links everything bad that happens in the western world to GTA this way. Oh wait, isn't it what they do already?
Reminds me of some of the crap spouted during the 80s video nasties scare - especially The Deer Hunter. Reports claimed that the movie was linked to numerous murders between 1974 and 1983. Some of the "evidence" for the earlier murders seemed quite convincing... until you considered the fact that The Deer Hunter was released in 1978!
Nothing changes, but I'm sick and tired of assholes like this jumping on "issues" like this instead of fixing real problems like he's meant to have been elected to do. I can take this crap from Jack Thompson, but an elected MP? It's shame how the government resources he's wasting should have gone to much more deserving causes.