Jack Thompson on Fox news talking about how the NIU shooter "trained on murder simulators". Note, in the video, that this is before the press conference that gives any detail about what happened during the shooting, or the shooter.
Gamepolitics gave the initial report:
Although we didn't catch the segment, Thompson e-mailed his comments to GamePolitics, attaching a screen shot from the Fox interview:
I was on the Fox News Channel this morning because of the possible violent video game connection to this latest massacre at Northern Illinois University.
In the e-mail, the embattled attorney related his violent video game crusade to his ongoing struggle with the Florida Bar:
I am certain that the past and future survivors of these incidents will not fully understand why The Florida Bar is seeking to destroy a latter-day Paul Revere for his telling the truth about companies and lawyers that are spawning, for money, these types of events.
GP: The facts are not yet in on the NIU rampage, of course, but that has never stopped Thompson from rushing to blame video games in the past. GamePolitics readers will certainly recall Thompson blaming the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre on games even while police were still securing the campus.
Among the few details known so far is that the shooter, Stephen Kazmierczak, had a stellar academic record. Press reports describe him as a 27-year-old graduate student, so he was well past the age where any type of video game content restriction would come into play.
Yes. Thats correct. He called himself a "latter-day Paul Revere". All this before any details had come out. Then the details started coming. This guy was unstable, and he had stopped taking his medication. Now, the logical connection is that when someone is taking medication for a psychological disorder, and then stops said medication, that might be explanation for erratic behavior. Nope. We continue to blame the video games.
GP reports on the NY post's article:
College Killer Crazy for Violent Vid Game
The article, written by a pair of Post reporters, claims that NIU rampage killer, 27-year-old Stephen Kazmierczak, was "obsessed" with Counter-Strike, which the paper describes as "an ultra-violent video game."
The Post quoted a former dorm mate of Kazmierczak's, Ben Woloszyn:
He played a lot of video games, especially Counter-Strike, really loud.
The Post article appears to draw a linkage between the player's actions in the game and Kazmierczak's shooting spree:
In the game, players use imaginary money to buy shotguns, pistols and other equipment they need to move around an imaginary world in which they're constantly under threat of being killed by roving terrorists.
In real life, Kazmierczak - who had become "erratic" recently after shunning medication for an undisclosed illness - purchased weapons like those used in Counter-Strike, including a Glock handgun and a pump-action Remington shotgun
Down near the bottom of the article, the Post also mentions the killer's very short-lived stints in the Army and as a corrections officer. These episodes appear to suggest an unstable nature.
GP: While the Post article seems to confirm other reports indicating that Kazmierczak had significant mental health issues, exactly why the paper chose to focus on his past video game play is not clear. Personally, I'm far more concerned about a disturbed person with a gun than I am about a disturbed person with a video game.
We should note that the New York Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News, which, as GamePolitics readers well know, frequently uses sensationalized reporting to smear video games.
Is there a connection?
Hey, as they say on Fox, we report. You decide.
I'd be remiss not to point out that game violence critic Jack Thompson alerted me to the Post report via several e-mails, one of which arrived under the subject line:
Screw Dennis McCauley and Hal Halpin and the ECA Donkey They Rode In On
I kid you not.
Sure, going off your meds is waaaay less interesting than playing video games. During all this, Gaming Steve had a timely article Entitled "What Constitutes A True "Murder Simulator"?"
GP Summarizes:
Author Robert Gauss begins by describing his expertise:
I've been working with simulator programs for the US Army for about six years now, which I believe makes me an expert on exactly what a simulator is, what a simulation does, and what the goals of these simulators [are]
Gauss specifically addresses the Grand Theft Auto series, but his points apply to aspects of other controversial games as well:
"Simulators" are devices used to mimic the actions and functions of a real thing, a real situation, or both and usually involves some sort of realistic motion
How well does GTA simulate murder? Just even a cursory look can see how GTA fails this test: Everything is presented via a 3rd person view weapons auto-load and auto-aim computer people mostly walk and drive around aimlessly and helplessly computer people don't act in a realistic manner when attacked bodies disappear and respawn _ hardly like murder if they keep coming back to life
Our "gang games" mentioned above do not even represent murder, but rather a cartoony environment It's not just unfair to call Grand Theft Auto a "murder simulator," it is laughably incorrect
GP follows up with another article entitled "NIU Shooting: Why Are Games Even Under Discussion?"
With his Friday appearance on Fox News, Miami attorney Jack Thompson has managed to once again introduce the video game violence issue into the aftermath of a tragedy.
In the past, some observers have referred to Thompson's media tactics as massacre chasing. Frankly, it's hard to disagree. Beyond that, one has to ask - given that NIU shooter, Stephen Kazmierczak, was 27-years-old - why are video games an issue at all?
Even if you buy into the notion that violent video games lead to real-world violence (and there is zero scientific proof to support that), the NIU shooter was far closer to 30 than 15. Short of an outright societal banning, how would Counter-strike - or any of the far bloodier games on the market - been kept away from Kazmierczak?
The bottom line at NIU, as at Virginia Tech, is that the shooter was a heavily-armed, deranged, homicidal adult. No video game rating system, no amount of retail enforcement of same, could have kept him from playing Counter-strike. No video game law - even if it were somehow constitutional - would have blocked him from buying Counter-strike or any other M-rated game. That's because such legislation typically seeks to prevent under-18's from purchasing violent games.
Moreover, Thompson has said in the past that the goal of his anti-game violence crusade is to keep mature game content out of the hands of kids. Stephen Kazmierczak was no kid. So, what's Thompson's point?
TV face time, perhaps?
UPDATE: Thompson e-mailed this to me in response:
Do you think the NIU shooter started playing these murder simulation games last week? You do know how long ago Doom came out, right? His friends say he was into this crap for years.
A follow-up question elicited this from Thompson:
He started on them years ago. They retarded him. Are you retarded too? apparently
Oh. It gets better.
From the Chicago Daily Herald
SPRINGFIELD -- A DeKalb-area state lawmaker is urging colleagues not to rush "knee-jerk" gun control legislation in response to the horrific shootings at NIU, saying the incident is symptomatic of far greater societal problems.
"That (gun control) doesn't seem to impact the kind of gun violence that goes on," said state Rep. Robert Pritchard, a Hinkley Republican whose district includes the Northern Illinois University campus.
"I think we need to broaden the discussion to include what other factors are weighing on these kind of deranged individuals," Pritchard said. "I think video games is a part of the problem, television, movies. Just a whole culture of violence."
Guns aren't the problem you morons! Its the fault of video games!
But wait, you say. Can there be even MORE?
Yep.
Jack Thompson, Seeking Killer's Video Game History, Threatens NIU with Lawsuit Yes, thats right. Thompson is threatening NIU with a lawsuit if they don't fork over details about the killer to him.
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.
Is Thompson the only nutjob riding the crazy train to anti-video game nirvana? Nope. Equally nutty nutjob Lyndon Larouche thinks so too. In an article (really, I can't make up stuff this good) "International Fascism: Microsoft Will Kill More Youth than Hitler"
February 17, 2008 (LPAC)--For anyone who had doubts on the strategic analysis put forward by Lyndon LaRouche and his associates in the mass distribution pamphlet, "Is the Devil In Your Laptop?", reread it and think again. According to yesterday's New York Post, another young killer, Stephen Kazmierczak, who killed five people and wounded 16 others at Northern Illinois University, was allegedly addicted to Microsoft's Counterstrike killer video-game. "He played a lot of video games, especially Counter-Strike, really loud," said one of his dorm mates.
The Post stated, "Kazmierczak - who had become "erratic" recently after shunning medication for an undisclosed illness - purchased weapons like those used in Counter-Strike, including a Glock handgun and a pump-action Remington shotgun, which he bought legally on Feb. 9. [See Virginia Tech Article] "At around 3 p.m. Thursday [Feb. 14], Kazmierczak shot up a class containing between 70 and 100 students before killing himself. "He had a blank look on his face. He was there to kill," said a witness. 'Anyone that could walk into a room and just start shooting has no emotions.'"
The intended effect, to foster an environment of mass suicide terrorism in the U.S.A., is a by-product of the 'Revolution in Military Affairs' policy [See Expose], organized by Felix Rohatyn and George P. Shultz; the same individuals, who not only helped to install the fascist Pinochet into the Chilean government, but are the prime backers of a fascist Bloomberg Presidency.
Note: Microsoft doesn't have anything to do with Counterstrike. At all. I don't know where they made the connection, outside of the fact that you CAN play it on Xbox or Windows. Then again, you can play it on Linux too, so does that make Linus Torvalds Stalin to Bill Gates' Hitler?
You really can't beat that.... can you? Please lord, say it isn't so...
MSNBC Rips Thompson Over NIU Claims, But He's Busy Arguing with Fake Actor
Writing for MSNBC, contributor Winda Benedetti casts a critical eye toward Miami attorney Jack Thompson's claims that the NIU rampage was sparked by a grown man's video game play. From Benedetti's piece:
The attorney-turned-anti-video-game crusader has what can only be described as a breathtaking genius for transforming ghastly national tragedies into shining moments of self promotion.
On Friday, police were still struggling to figure out why But Thompson had it all figured out. Faster than you can say wild speculation and reckless sensationalism, he leapt in front of Fox News cameras and suggested that video games were to blame.
Meanwhile, Thompson obsequiously responded to a parody article, posted in style of Samuel L. Jackson, apparently believing it to be the real thing:
Mr. Jackson, I enjoyed your post about NIU and about me. Unfortunately, you could fit what you know about school shootings and their causes in a sleeve of Titleist golf balls. I'm a six handicap, and would love to play you a match anywhere anytime.
More importantly, Mr. Jackson, I saw you and the Jack Thompson spoof at the Spike TV Video Game Awards Show. Very funny, really.
Here's a proposal: Why don't you debate me on this issue Saw you in Black Snake Moan this weekend. I thought you deserved an Oscar for your performance. Brilliant.
Thompson later posted a follow-up indicating that he understood the Samuel L. Jackson post was a fake, but not before he circulated his original response to GamePolitics and Kotaku.
UPDATE: Thompson claims that he has been libeled by the MSNBC article and plans to sue.
Benedetti's piece is actually really good. She points out the thing that I've been amazed nobody is harping on like mad:
While the video game connection remains tenuous at best, what seems far more pertinent are initial reports that Kazmierczak previously had been placed in a psychiatric treatment center and had recently stopped taking antidepressant medication.
This is not the first time Thompson has put his mug in front of every camera possible immediately after a mentally disturbed gunman has opened fire on innocent people. When last we spoke with the controversial Florida attorney, he was blaming video games for the massacre of 32 students and faculty at Virginia Tech last April.
Not-so-funnily enough, while Thompson's misinfomation-laced pronouncements claim that the shooter _ Seung-Hui Cho _ had a passion for violent video games, a governor-ordered review of that horrific incident found no connection whatsoever with games. Instead, what the review panel found was a young man with a long history of psychiatric illness and a student who fell through the cracks of a deeply flawed mental health system. In fact, according to the the extensive 260-page report, it's unclear if Cho _ who was passionate about books (gasp!) and not video games _ ever played anything more aggressive than the kid-friendly "Sonic the Hedgehog."
Oh the drama.
