Disturbed teen links video games to 'sport killing'

Good stuff.

fuck this bullshit. i see one of these every other day. a good quote sums this up.

"protecting the rights of the minority by sacrificing the rights of the majority"

this keeps going on the puplic will be brainwashed into thinking violent video games lead to people killing each other. which will inevitably lead to them attempting to ban violent video games.

and in the end the truth wont matter because politics is power and people just eat up the lies.

Idiots. Stupid, fucking, idiots.

The people that try to draw relevance between video games and the everyday problems with the world need to take a little look back at that thing they called the Salem Witch-trials.

Jesus Christ, what a load of bullshit.

That assault on grammar was so bad I don't even know what you're trying to say. What's going on in the last sentence of the first paragraph and the first sentence of the second paragraph? Did you first 3 commentors actually comprehend this stuff?

"Certain individuals", eh. Now who could you mean?

@ 5:

Enough to get really pissed off, yes. But that was basically the extent of it.

This word, 'disparaging'. It does not mean what you think it means.

Anyone who's mind is feeble enough to be programed (to kill) by a video game should be castrated and sentenced to a life of manual labor - to remove their pathetic genetics from our gene pool and attempt to repay society for the harm they have caused.

Just to note, in another incident, a perpetrator of another homeless beating (with a golf club) referred to it as "like teeing off." Obviously golf leads to violence.

Thank you number 9!

This is just stupid. its been said many times before, but here goes:

If video games DO make people violant, why dont we se MORE violance?
Everyone and their grandmother kill virtual people everyday, so if its true, there should be pandemonium on the streets!

Some kids offing someone now and then isnt exactly an epedemic you know.

A thousand years ago, people would kill others and say they were doing "God's work". Clearly the Bible leads to violence.

About three thousand years ago, people would rip the heart out of a virgin cause they were opening up a new temple. Clearly the Wal-Marts of today are at risk for bringing back this ceremony.

Moral of this story, people kill people cause it's cool, it's always looked cool. We kill animals for the same reason, cause it's cool, or were hungry, and if we can't eat it or kill it, we usually sleep with it and experiment sexually with it. That's us, that's human beings... killing, eating, or fucking whatever we can find.

I can see why Doug Lowenstein says that the gaming press is its own worst enemy. After reading that lengthy article, I didn't come away with the slightest impression that videogames were being cited as the cause of violence here.

If anything, the article fingers "Bumfights" as the driving negative cultural influence.

But your article summary gives the impression that videogames are being blamed, an impression clearly shared by several of the commenters here.

In short, you, not CNN, not JT, are creating the impression that videogames are linked to an incidence of horrific real-world violence.

I swear if I see anyone doing this to a homeless guy I will start a sport called 'beating up idiots'.

I don't know if anyone else read the article but what they did to the victim is one of the most disturbing things I have ever read. After beating him with their bare hands, kicking him, throwing bricks at him, hitting him with a baseball bat repeatedly and even his own grill until he stopped moving. They then proceeded to shit on his face and rub it in all over him, place his head on the grill and stomp on it. Than they cut his face open with a knife to see if he was still alive. After that they bragged about it over town which is how they got caught. I have no idea what kind of events in ones life can lead to such a heinous act but video games have nothing to do with it. These kids were incredibly disturbed and I for one am glad they are facing jail time.

From the article:


Some teens have even taped themselves in the act. Others have said they were inspired by "Bumfights," a video series created in 2002 and sold on the Web that features homeless people pummeling each other for the promise of a few bucks.

A segment called "Bum Hunter," hosted by a Crocodile Hunter-like actor wearing a safari outfit, shows him "tagging" homeless people by pouncing on them and binding their wrists.

The distributors of "Bumfights" have claimed they've sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

But the company has had to deal with a couple of legal issues unrelated to the Baum case.

Last year, three former homeless stars of "Bumfights" won a civil suit against filmmakers. Santa Monica attorney Mark Quigley, who represented Rufus Hannah, known as "Rufus the Stunt Bum" to series' fans, said he is unable to disclose the amount of the settlement.

Also, in July 2006, a California judge ordered "Bumfights'" producers Ryan McPherson and Zachary Bubeck to spend 180 days in jail for failing to perform community service related to guilty pleas they previously entered to charges of staging illegal street fights.

"Bumfights" directors did not answer CNN's request for an interview.

in unrelated news the same idiots would smash Cinder block with their heads hoping to get magic coins. "After 100 you get a free life" nutball #1 was quoted as saying.

Although I wouldn't start a witch hunt, I still don't understand how exposing children to violent games could have ZERO influence on how they interact with others.

So these people kill people for fun. They were drunk and stoned and obviously insane. One of the killers said it felt like a video game, which means he felt absolutely nothing for this innocent homeless man. He felt as if this human being was a pixelated fictional character, so he shit on him and cut him up and jammed his head into his own grill and covered him in plastic. I don't think 15 years is enough for the older one. I hope he learns something in prison, and I hope he learns it with his mangina.

"Ihrcke smeared his own feces on Baum's face before cutting him with a knife"

Where in GTA do you do that again..?

intersting mix of info i got outta that article.

i have never ever played a video game where u kill homeless people.

and alcohol and marijuana are irrelivent to the case. marijuana especially has never been accosiated with violent behavior.

also the article says alot about peer pressure and the "thug" attitude had to do with several cases of these types of crimes. if anything the "thug" attitude come from movies and music. neither of which i believe have any more to do with this than video games. but video games to not convey a thug lifestyle.

and people have to look at the context of video game violence. many target doom, and alot of other FPS games driving shooting violence. well the context is usually war. so by their reasoning enlisting in the army would have a MUCH, MUCH LARGER inlfuence on gun violence because u are ACTUALLY killing people. yet all our troops are killing and dying in iraq with the president sending more all the time. why dont we look at that as an influence. my case and point is video games dont make people kill each other. these kinds of disturbing crims still happened long before pong. are people forgetting that?

p.s. and to anyone who take what i said the wrong way: know that i have a proud family heritage of military service. and i am a die-hard troop supporter. i DONT support murder and senseless wars.

@ #21

You have to collect 100 bum heads before getting the ability to smear shit on people.

...

The point of this being posted is that it's become commonplace for individuals to use video games as a scapegoat for their crimes. Expect He Who Should Not Be Named to release a statement tomorrow.

Interestingly enough, this story and the person who wrote the report for CNN was featured on Headline News tonight. I watched with bated breath for the video game reference... but it thankfully never came.

None of this really matters. What really matters is that Britney Spears shaved her head. Focus people!

A Clock Work Orange anyone?

That movie probably has more influence then any video game would.

Videogames ARE just like sport killing. Except nothing dies. And it's not morally wrong. And it doesn't scar the participant for life. And it involves a bit more skill and action than pressing a button with good timing.... oh, wait, it bares no resemblance whatsoever.

crackdown made me jump

Sweet mother of mercy. I don't understand how homeless people ever even became a source of entertainment. That's just sick, man. If someone's able to live with themselves after pulling that kind of crap they obviously have something more wrong with them than can be blamed on video games. Or anything. Actually, how about you just put 'em down like rabid dogs. Not much difference, except irrepressable homicidal urges aren't contagious.

How anybody could feel the same sense of rage and violent urges against a random homeless person that you'd routinely feel against an animated Jigglypuff is beyond me. Everybody I know can tell that killing bums is just as horribly wrong as killing Jigglypuffs is so so right.

I frequently jump on mushrooms and bang my head on bricks to see if i can get certain power ups. DAMN YOU SUPER MARIO DAMN YOU!!!

Stories like this really disturb me. Remember, there were three of them. Not one psycho, but three people that all thought this was a good idea. There should be a lot to learn from this case, because more sickos were in on it. I hope that some people can really examine this case and find the underlying causes for the act. Obviously, they are all freaks. But comparing their upbringings may bring more light and knowledge than trying to look at one psycho doing something and then trying to pick which things in his life influenced him. Knowledge that may serve good in the future. Just as long as we aren't blinded by morons and people looking to use this story for political gain.

People need to drop the absurd notion that violent entertainment is a key culprit in these heinous acts. We have a hundred years of profiling experience in America alone and entertainment is often cited, but never considered a true cause by professionals and people who somewhat know what they're talking about. Horrific acts of violence preceed games and TV by thousands of years. Were these kids abused and ignored? What made them such sick twisted fucked up wastes of good air we could be breathing?

Can't believe nobody said Jack!!!!!

shoot. I would venture to say that every killer ever has breathed air, drank water, and eaten food. Do you suppose there's a link between eating and breathing and killing?

@31

Well, I hear that if you say his name three times in front of a mirror, he comes and takes your Xbox away. Wouldn't want to take the chance, really.

#31.

SHHH! Don't you know? When you say his name, it gives him power over you. You know, kinda like Candyman or Beetlejuice...

#24 - My original thoughts exactly.
Though after reading the article, I think the problem they were having was not playing video games, but drinking and doing pot. The video games part was probably because he didn't feel like the bum was a "real person," and it was okay to kill him.

What's really important is that Anna Nichole Smith is still dead!

Focus people!

I don't think that this has anything to do with a 'connection' to video games, as I'm sure the media and other sources will try and spin it. The comment seems more akin to the 'old' analogy of "it was like a movie," except with a video game. I think this is because video games are becoming more mainstream and thus analogies to them are easier to make.

Clearly this nutball was going to kill someone regardless of his affinity for video games.

Check out www.gamejonez.com for a good story about video games and teen violence (or the lack thereof) in America.

Particularly interesting was the fact that 2004 marked a 40 year low in the U.S> murder rate...the same year GTA San Andreas was released.

Video games don't kill people, psycho's kill people.

Anyone reading about this might want to read this post at Penny Arcade

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2007/02/21#1172088960

It's relevant, in a serious non-comic way.

They will do this anyway, they just have something to blame it on.