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Broken Kid

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 at 12:03 pm by Jami

Damn, why’s Thursday turning out so serious? You may have heard about that fifteen year-old and his friends who beat a homeless man to death. The teen then blamed video games as a violent influence that motivated his actions. Great, just what we need. Seduction of the Innocent part II, here we go.

In a post on their forums, Penny Arcade’s Gabe put the responsibility on the parents. In response to his post, he received a letter from a woman and Penny Arcade reader involved in case. She wrote in to defend the parents and to further explain that in this particular instance, neither the parents nor video games deserve the full brunt of the blame. Apparently, this kid was just broken:

What I gave you today is a very small sampling of the kinds of things we were dealing with every single fucking day with this kid. When people hear about what he’s done, I can always sense the “I’m sure there was something you could have done” comment coming up. What would you have done? How do you deal with a kid like this? Like I said, we did everything the counselors suggested, and nothing seemed to matter.

The full text of the letter is posted in Gabe’s post. Unless we spread the word, we will never hear this angle of the story in the media and Jack Thomson will have more than enough ammunition to bolster his crusade against the video game industry. And with the help of the media, this time he might actually accomplish his goals. This kid was fucked from the start and no amount of Grand Theft Auto could have made him any worse.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 at 12:03 pm and is filed under News, Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “Broken Kid”

  1. AvatarBartoneus
    Posted: Feb 22nd, 2007 at 1:34 pm
    1

    I definitely don’t blame the kids parents, in light of the information that he has a brother raised in the same circumstances who has turned out to be a caring, productive individual. However, it definitely did not help that the kid was fifteen years old with a 29-year old step mother. She was 14 when he was born, and it can really put a strain on how the children can view her as a mother when it’s culturally and physically unlikely for her to have fit that role. This all assumes the story related through Gabe is entirely true, but I’m inclinced to believe it until proven otherwise.

    Again, I don’t blame the parents, as it is clear from this that the kid really was just rotten. Playing the abuse card multiple times, to many people, is just not right. And when given so many opportunities to prove that he just doesn’t want to be a decent human being, the blame lands squarely on him.

  2. AvatarD-W
    Posted: Feb 22nd, 2007 at 3:19 pm
    2

    I think it’s speaks to the American culture that blaming video games, music and such for behavior is so easily accepted. It’s like we’re teaching our children that they don’t have to take responsibilty for their actions because there is always a cause outside of themselves for doing something wrong.

    I think it’s hard for people to believe that children could possible be capable of such acts without some outside stimulus. Sometimes things are what they are. In the counselor/social services/teaches defense, I would like to point out that they all are required by law to report and investigate abuse and making mistakes usually is punished by lawsuits and pinkslips. There is a better safe than sorry mentality that usually leads to people assuming the child wouldn’t lie about such a thing even when all evidence points to the contrary. It sounds like the parents did everything they could to help the boy and there was nothing more they could have done save having him committed to a psychiatric ward. One can only hope that the descision makers in his trial see through his smoke screen and put him away.

  3. Avatarwarrior_monk721
    Posted: Feb 22nd, 2007 at 11:34 pm
    3

    People really need to take responsibility, and in this case only the kid was supposedly to be blamed.
    Several things could have lead to this kid turning into a monster.

    1. From the women’s email it seems his parents are divorced. Maybe it messed him up, not exactly ever heard of it, but who knows?

    2. Outside interference, it says he brought gangbangers into the home. Maybe they had a role in it?

    3. Drugs?, and no.2?

    Maybe the kid had no sense of right and wrong? Lack of morals, as crazy and ‘right winged’ as that sounds, it does have a effect on someone’s life.

  4. AvatarMr.D
    Posted: Feb 23rd, 2007 at 7:31 am
    4

    Having no sense of right and wonrg isn’t merely ‘lack of morals’ that’s being psychotic. I read the letter yesterday and I’m inclined to believe that this kid is just a fucktard. I’ve know people who have come from the same area/schools/background as me and my friends and had decent families and have ended up being criminals whilst we haven’t. Some people are just like that. The world in general doesn’t like to accept the fact that SOME people are just bad. For no reason.

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