Critic blames video games for cop killing increase

Cop killings are on the rise in the US and Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, a law enforcement trainer and author of On Combat and On Violence, blames video games. Some quick stats before we go into Grossman's statements. There have been 54 officer killings this year, a 60% increase from last year and the worst since 1975 when there were 99. Too bad they couldn't blame video games back then. Or could they have?

There's some more reasonable assessment of why there's a cop killing increase in the Time article, but the most controversial is certainly Grossman's comments. He believes criminals have become desensitized to opening fire on a police officer due to the "cop-killer, criminal simulators." He says that in meth labs and gang houses they'll always find video games. He says, "The video games are their newspaper, their television, their all-consuming narrative. And their video games are all cop-killer, criminal simulators." But wouldn't criminals be more inclined to play games like that in the first place? Anyway, like we pointed out before, rates were still higher in 1975. Then again, 1975 was apparently the first year Pong was introduced to homes.

[Via GamePolitics]