Thai Site Offers Local Perspective on GTA Cabbie Murder
Thai Site Offers Local Perspective on GTA Cabbie Murder
August 5, 2008
Frustrated by sketchy and somewhat conflicting English language news accounts of Bangkok's GTA Cabbie murder, GP went looking for local Thai sources and found Asian Sweetheart. The site is mostly pictures of "gorgeous Thai ladies," but the cabbie murder apparently got the owner's attention away from posting glam shots:
The English language news stories left out much of the detail about the victim and the accused murderer. The Thai news had interviews of the families and other people involved.
The story is very sad for many reasons. On the victim's side, they are a poor family and the man was the only person making any income, and not much because driving a taxi does not pay very well. He became the chosen victim because he was older and smaller than the first taxi driver the killer approached.
GP: Based on the fact that the victim was selected by the killer in the belief that he would be an easy mark, this looks like just another premeditated robbery, not some random violent act. Taxi cab robberies have been going on as long as there have been taxi cabs (more on that later).
The killer's family is also poor but the teen had always been known as polite and very nice, even getting the dek dee (good child) award at school. The mother was a house maid and the father a security guard. The kid was alone a lot and the parents never really knew what he was doing all that time he was playing violent video games.
The 18 year old confessed to the killing, which means he won't face the death penalty as some western media incorrectly reported. He gave a detailed account of how he planned for the robbery and chose the victim, although he said the killing was not originally part of the plan but he did it when the victim fought back.
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Posted 11/20/08 at 11:03am
E. Zachary Knight: Zel, I got your back.
E. Zachary Knight: Zel, I got your back.
Posted 11/20/08 at 10:47am
PHX Corp: looks like the kids are getting a more proper punishment in canada for nuking a cat
PHX Corp: looks like the kids are getting a more proper punishment in canada for nuking a cat
Posted 11/20/08 at 10:45am
PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/5094143/judge-bans-teens-from-video-games-for-cat-killing
PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/5094143/judge-bans-teens-from-video-games-for-cat-killing
Posted 11/20/08 at 10:27am
Shadow D. Darkman: @zel: Found it.
Shadow D. Darkman: @zel: Found it.
Posted 11/20/08 at 10:26am
zel: its at the bottom of the GTA 4 comments.
zel: its at the bottom of the GTA 4 comments.
Posted 11/20/08 at 10:25am
zel: Wow somehow while posting my message got posted like 6 or 7 times, anyone on that can delete the extra ones? O.o sorry bout that
zel: Wow somehow while posting my message got posted like 6 or 7 times, anyone on that can delete the extra ones? O.o sorry bout that
Posted 11/20/08 at 10:13am
ddrfr33k: @Alevan: It's the only way to fight dirty against PETA.
ddrfr33k: @Alevan: It's the only way to fight dirty against PETA.
Posted 11/20/08 at 09:52am
Shadow D. Darkman: @Alevan: Hey, Amy!
Shadow D. Darkman: @Alevan: Hey, Amy!
Posted 11/20/08 at 09:44am
Alevan: Love how Mejasco is taking the parody game lightly and with a sense of humor.
Alevan: Love how Mejasco is taking the parody game lightly and with a sense of humor.
Posted 11/20/08 at 09:42am
DeepThorn: Good morning
DeepThorn: Good morning
Posted 11/20/08 at 09:40am
Alevan: Good morning everybody!
Alevan: Good morning everybody!
Posted 11/20/08 at 09:36am
JDKJ: @Austin_Lewis: Perhaps. But rest assured that, as I always do, I'm giving it 100%.
JDKJ: @Austin_Lewis: Perhaps. But rest assured that, as I always do, I'm giving it 100%.
Posted 11/20/08 at 09:32am
Austin_Lewis: @JDKJ:come on, that was weak. @GP: Go to a real Roadhouse. It's a 50/50 they'll be awesome. Also, that city has gone downhill,
Austin_Lewis: @JDKJ:come on, that was weak. @GP: Go to a real Roadhouse. It's a 50/50 they'll be awesome. Also, that city has gone downhill,
Posted 11/20/08 at 09:03am
DeepThorn: Everyone should go to that PETA game site and click Ask Mama for Vegan Recipes, then change the subject and content text with animal based.
DeepThorn: Everyone should go to that PETA game site and click Ask Mama for Vegan Recipes, then change the subject and content text with animal based.
Posted 11/20/08 at 08:57am
sqlrob: @Novablack: If you're talking to me, it's a local Austin chain. I hit the one on Spyglass
sqlrob: @Novablack: If you're talking to me, it's a local Austin chain. I hit the one on Spyglass
Posted 11/20/08 at 08:56am
BearDogg-X: @ NovaBlack: I still say that Capcom could have countersued since "Diary of the Dead" was basically a ripoff of Dead Rising.
BearDogg-X: @ NovaBlack: I still say that Capcom could have countersued since "Diary of the Dead" was basically a ripoff of Dead Rising.
Posted 11/20/08 at 08:43am
magic_taco: JT is still here?, Figures, I have to get back to my business class, Wish you guys luck.
magic_taco: JT is still here?, Figures, I have to get back to my business class, Wish you guys luck.
Posted 11/20/08 at 08:34am
NovaBlack: where is that?
NovaBlack: where is that?
Posted 11/20/08 at 08:27am
JDKJ: Big shout outs to my man, nightwng2000, for pulling, at his own expense, and sharing the Orders in Numbskull's federal case.
JDKJ: Big shout outs to my man, nightwng2000, for pulling, at his own expense, and sharing the Orders in Numbskull's federal case.
Posted 11/20/08 at 08:02am
NovaBlack: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21188
NovaBlack: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21188
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Comments
Interesting. Sounds like the root cause here is poverty. It's tempting to blame the parents, but they can't help it if it takes so much to make ends meet, and furthermore this guy was an adult (that reminds me, what'd the age of legal majority in Thailand?) and is responsible for his own actions.
-Gray17
I don't see anything about GTA IV in this.
Sooo, GTA4 has, what to do with this again?
I agree, there is no mention of the game, but I think it's a necessary follow-up to disprove the connection between GTA and the murder.
Well according to a "reliable" and "trustworthy" source, it beams subliminal messages into your brain, hence what caused him to do this.
Of course this particular source is being forced into early retirement, so take that into consideration.
Ummm...so where's the part where he trained for hours on end playing GTA4? Where was the part where he wanted to renact a GTA-style murder?
I think that, with the ban, the Thai government saw an oppertunity and took it. More people exploiting a tragedy to further their own goals. Ugh.
"The kid was alone a lot and the parents never really knew what he was doing all that time he was playing violent video games. "
I believe that's the part that hinted at this.
True, but as you stated at best that's just hinting at the game. They never actually say GTA. It could have been Counter-Strike or fighting games.
So yeah, the guy who killed the taxi driver was looking for money. The end.
-Entertainment isn't the reason the world sucks. It's the reason we know the world sucks. For information on games and psychology, look up: Jonathan Freedman(2002)Block & Crain(2007)Grand Theft Childhood, by Harvard researchers Larry Kutner&Cheryl Olson
Yeah, Dennis, we believe you. You "found" this site while "looking for information about the cabbie killing", okay... ;P
/b
Oh man, that was too funny! Dennis, like many, was just lokking for his asian porn fix when he came across a great news story. It's okay man, lots of people like asian porn. There is nothing to be ashamed of.
Oh, and to Billy Bangkok (the one person who posted on the page), good on ya.
-Entertainment isn't the reason the world sucks. It's the reason we know the world sucks. For information on games and psychology, look up: Jonathan Freedman(2002)Block & Crain(2007)Grand Theft Childhood, by Harvard researchers Larry Kutner&Cheryl Olson
"The people who produce and distribute this stuff...hard to put into words. What kind of garbage fills their minds?" says the owner of the site which features so many half-naked women. What kind of hypocrysy is that? Enough said.
Exceptions occur with people and their behaviors every day. Too bad it doesn't cause them to shut down.
Bear in mind we're talking about Thailand, a country known for being lax on things like sexuality and porn, and where a child prostitution market is alive and well.
Thailand is not the US or the UK; they don't have the same views on certain things that we do. It's only hypocrisy to us because we consider having a site full of half-naked women a cultural taboo.
Not condoning what the site is or what it does, just stating a fact.
Robbing for money? Absolutely preposterous. Everybody knows that GTA was behind this. The whole robbery angle is a cover-up.
Let's ban alcohol. People kill because of it.
Once again, the planning and execution stage go entirely and completely against the 'cranial menu' stress-activated auto-reaction argument of people like Jack Thompson. This wasn't conditioning, he wasn't under pressure or duress, he didn't 'automatically revert to his videogame antics'.
The guy might have been doing a crime that was 'like something out of GTA', he might have been inspired by it, but he was commiting a crime, and he knew it, else why plan? The sheer level of involvement says quite clearly that this was not a spontaneous reaction bought about by conditioning, it was a lucidly made decision to do something that the criminal was fully aware was illegal. The fact the person got their inspiration from a Video game is utterly irrelavant, he was looking for inspiration and would have found it anywhere. Criminals who are determined to commit their crime always have a 'reason' why they are different to other criminals.
On close examination, this doesn't do anything to support the arguments of people such as Jack Thompson, because it suggests the criminal was acting in precisely the opposite manner to what they have been suggesting. The inspiration on this occasion was a video game, but the criminal knew he was a criminal, knew he was breaking the law, and planned to do so. That's not conditioning, that's choice.
You beat me to it. This was a premeditated act, that's absolutely undeniable, and completely nullifies any video game defense BS.
He was poor and his family left him alone very often because they were busy. Usually it's common for those kids to act out; hence a robbery. This has to do more so with family issues.
Maybe the Govt pay him to do it and blame the GTA for what he has done
I think it's probably more the case of the Government really wanting a reason to do it, some kid did it, and mentioned GTA, and they decided to close the door before anyone could say anything otherwise. It's a lot harder, after all, to undo a law, than to create one.
I noticed a lot of visitors coming to my blog from the link in this story so I came to see what everybody is talking about.
A lot of commenters said that GTA was not mentioned. I guess I left it out of my post because I assumed people knew the basic story. The kid said in his confession that he planned the taxi robbery to copy the one in GTA. That's what got everybody upset about GTA.
Also, Thailand is not lax on porn as one commenter said. Porn is illegal here. It can be found at underground outlets but it is definitely illegal. It is even illegal for a Thai citizen to act in a porn movie in another country. If that person returns to Thailand and it is discovered they face arrest.
And the person who thinks looking at beautiful women is somehow like killing for fun... I don't have words for that either. Mainstream actresses and models appearing in magazines like FHM and Maxim (Thai editions) - you think that is porn or something dirty?
In case you didn't read the update, GTA is now illegal in Thailand and anyone caught selling it or making it available to kids at gaming shops faces a fine or arrest.