This past weekend, London was rocked by violent rioting following the fatal shooting by police of 29-year-old Mark Duggan. The scenes coming from Tottenham were particularly chilling, but The Evening Standard is on hand to bring reason to the madness by blaming games. Wait, what?
In its article, "Lawless London," the paper says that children as young as ten were "inspired" by videogames to join the looters and burners in their violence.
"Children aged between 10 and 14, said to have been inspired by video game Grand Theft Auto," claimed the paper, "were seen rampaging through Enfield and Brixton as riots and looting also spread to Dalston and Fulham."
The Standard got this information from one single policeman and one resident of Enfield. No official link or evidence of the opinion was provided. Nice to see that the "real" journalists out there are pretending to not know how riots actually work in order to push another anti-game agenda.
WRONG: 'GTA inspired children to riot and loot in London' [CVG]
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
Likes
PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Dynasty Warriors 3
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
64 comments | showing # 1 to 50
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
12:15 PM on 08.08.2011 | 
I hear they were all wearing shoes and shirts too so someone better get on that shit and ban them!!!
But really, who reads news on paper anymore.
and I cant see arguments saying Red Dead Redemption or LA Noire would hold up :L
People tend not to upend cars and set things ablaze because they lost a match in Madden/FIFA.
I wonder what they would have blamed the L.A. Riots on had it occurred to the people of the early 1990s that the video blame game would become so popular one day. Lethal Enforcers, perhaps?
Y U NO DENTAL HYGIENE?
In other new Gta "Australia" will be pretty bad ass ! Jk but seriously :-D
I hope they burn themselves with tea...
This is fucking classic. The magnitude of incompetence and dishonest reporting demonstrated here is simply awe-inspiring.
Might I ask, who exactly said the children were inspired by Grand Theft Auto? No, no, no; far be it from me to spoil anyone's unabashed exploitation of a nation's tragedy.
also its 2011 video games rake in more money than hollywood. why do people still blame videogames for things done by people?
Why not blame the kids parents or the free for all mentality that can take over even the most non violent of people when a riot breaks out.
Just my guess, but before the police killed that 29 guy, they were no-riot!
Maybe the police should kill a other to see what it do ! Does REALLY the people get upset when the police kill them ? Really? :P
I just said it, it has been said, ergo...truth!
Yep, that'd be something. I totally see media missing that mark by a longshot and calling him The Homosexual Psychopath though.
The media is silly.
Riots are caused by scumbags disrupting peaceful protests because they know they can get away with it. The kind of scum who read these tabloids, and the kind of scum who don’t keep an eye on their scum kids during a riot.
Wait, is this not a tabloid? It looks like a tabloid.
@freequebec86
Ahem. I think you are confusing the 'spy scandal' with the hacking scandal, which involves one media mogul's collection of budget gutter tabloids. In addition, we Brits do not suffer from 'tabloid love'. Nobody with any self-respect reads tabloids in Britain. The only reason I would ever come into contact with a tabloid is if I found myself stranded on the toilet with no bog roll and a discarded tabloid to hand.
Britain can't handle it's own people, HAHA! Fuck the terrorists, they can't even handle themselves.
Guns solve all, shopkeepers with guns, riot over, this even flies in California. Also is 90% bystanders and 10% hoodlums really a riot?
WHY U NO USE TANK CHEAT?
All this so I can get a front page spot on Destructoid.
Gotta have goals right?
Coincidence?
I wonder when or if society is ever going to get a new scapegoat.. The gaming thing has been going on for far too long. I hardly ever see music getting blamed for things anymore. Have books been blamed for anything lately?
Guess I'm gonna go uppercut the first asian I see now.