Tyrone Spellman is a jerk.
Actually, "jerk" doesn't quite cover the guy who beat his 17 month old child to death after she accidentally knocked over his Xbox 360. He became so upset by a child too young to realize what she had done that he punched her in the face and literally threw her about the room. I'm probably going to have to spend a few hours coming up with a new insult for this guy, and it's probably going to take a few packs of smokes, a bottle of Mad Dog and a thesaurus full of swears.
Mr. Spellman's trial started recently in Philadelphia and the entire proceeding is the sort of thing that gives Jack Thompson a hard-on. Above and beyond the fact that almost every point actually having to do with gaming is mis-reported on in the courtroom, Mr. Spellman would have been a dangerous sicko whether he was playing GRAW or Hungry, Hungry Hippos. As usual, the media coverage seems to actually be trying to connect his playing video games with the fact that this guy decided to go smash in the head of a child. To wit, I present a quote from the article;
Spellman, 25, said he was playing one of Tom Clancy's "Ghost Recon" games - a violent combat epic - in a front bedroom of his family's Brewerytown home that Thursday morning, Sept. 7.
Does adding the phrase "a violent combat epic" actually add to the validity of this article? Do they actually believe the game somehow caused Tyrone to wig out and kill a child? The levels to which the media will sink to pin violence on the latest societal scapegoat have gone too far. If this was a less heinous crime, I'd like to say that they were as bad as the perpetrator, but, well, you can't really compete with the kind of scum who murders a kid.
Contest:
1:45 PM on 12.14.2006
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(I've been obsessed with that word ever since I started watching Rob & Big....)
Either way, Spellman was a baby killer way before he ever touched Tom Clancy, as Nex said.
Games don't make people violent. Shitty childhoods do.
jackal thompson should try to ban war
A psycho is a psycho. The fact he was playing a game has nothing to do with it.
Jesus Christ . . . I just had a horrible thought. What if he left the mic on on his controller while he was doing all this?! Holy fuck, maybe people actually HEARD him doing this!
Excuse me. I feel sick to my stomach.
"Them thing's DANGEROUS!"
(lame Dane Cook reference)
This is just horrible beyond words. And then I read that his girlfriend or whatever is 8 months pregnant, so that means another child on the way. It's a good thing that this guy is going to be put away for a long time. He should be absolutely prohibited from ever SEEING the new child.
Sickening.
you're actually on to something with cars. automobile related accidents are one of the biggest killers. If the government wanted to do the best thing to protect us, it would build better roads and regulate driving and motor vehicles more. Not outlawing gambling or regulating violent games...
That said, since when does a Xbox 360 cost $600?
Second, I HATE THE GENERAL MEDIA!!!! They will put every twist they can to make their money. They know video game violence has been a HUGELY controversial topic for years now and they just won't give up.
Answer for the mass media: yes, one American (or western) child killed in insane rage is more important than 1000 little Arabs starved, bombed and orphaned.
Stalin was right: one man dead is murder, 1000 dead is a statistic (only he said a million...)
Who hits a kid? There is nothing that should cause that. Much less a fucking game system, fuck buy another, shit let her knock it over and break it three times before you even yell, The third time would at least be funny, shit she'll 1 1/2 old, what a fucking D-bag,
Also that man needs to be butt raped to death in prison for what he did to his poor daughter, Some people.namly him should not procreate. I Chose not to have kids so my kids wouldn't have to deal with Douches like him or the kids of douches like him that did survive.
And then when the press / court whoever tried to turn it onto the games, they have not got a clue, they do this all the time. Everyone knows what to expect when buying a game, they have ratings on and everything but I dont feel like going out killing people after playing a round of GOW. And abyway games like GRAW are about combating terrorism anyway!
I hate that guy, and I hate people that try and make great games sound like a danger to society.
"Tyrone Spellman, 25, struck the 17-month-old toddler and threw her across the room last Thursday, police said. When the child's mother returned home to the 1500 block of North 29th Street, Spellman told her the girl was sleeping."
I think that was in the Inquirer
Oh yeah, link would help.