You know the drill by now. Some filthy little sh*thead decides to be antisocial and delinquent, then tries to dodge accountability by blaming videogames, something he knows will deflect the blame in the eyes of reactionary, out-of-touch adults. Such is the case of Maryland teen Nathan Hartley, who rammed two kids with the door of a speeding car, and is accusing Grand Theft Auto of teaching him how to "door-check."
Naturally, the mainstream press jumped on the story, basically making up "facts" about GTA: "In the popular game Grand Theft Auto, players drive virtual cars and intentionally hit pedestrians by smacking them with open car doors. It's called "door checking," and prosecutors say 18-year-old Nathan Hartley decided to try it with a real car last summer."
Uh ... yeah. I don't remember that ever being in GTA, but I'm sure the fine folks at WTOP-FM know more about the game than I do.
Interestingly, PS3Attitude contacted Hartley's prosecutor John Mark McDonald, who confirmed that the defendent tried to blame games, but that such silly claims were never deemed valid. Despite the inane nonsense spouted by WTOP-FM, the prosecution hadn't considered videogames to be a factor at all. You can hit the jump for McDonald's response to this chicanery.
The suggestion came through the Defendant. I have never seen Grand Theft Auto, and had never heard of ‘door-checking' until this case. It was a defense he set forth in attempting to waive his case back to the juvenile court. The State did not introduce the game into the prosecution of this case. It added nothing. My comments on the game were to rebut his reasoning for doing what he did. I did not suggest that the game was to blame for his conduct, and would not. The blame lies entirely with Nathan Hartley. I stated as much in court. As I indicated, I have never even seen the game and I was not passing any judgment on the game. I was simply arguing why I felt his justification was not valid.
Nathan was trying to get the case bumped back down to juvenile court, but was unsuccessful and has been sentenced to seven years in jail.
Contest:
3:01 PM on 07.25.2009
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It's sort of Jim's personal crusade.
It started with Jack Thompson and now he reports on every little piece of bullshit someone tries to throw against gaming.
He also seems to be in charge of everything containing pedophilia that get's put up on Dtoid.
Now how awesome would that be if we put that next to his job description.
Jim Sterling
Reviews Editor and
Pedo Crusader
GTA cannot kill that what does not exist.
There are no ''points'' in GTA.
Arrange bikes into a swastika? Developer's fault for letting you have that much freedom. They clearly promote nazis.
Full male nudity? Totally racist, since it's a white penis.
And don't get me started on the "innocent" relationships in Persona. The devs TOTALLY intended people to make hentais out of underage students. It's ban dodging the eroge laws there.
Not that I've ever looked at any P4 hentai. Obviously.
Seriously, this guy should have gone with the Carmageddon defense or better yet Carmageddon II. This is the best awful game ever.
In all honesty though, GTA has become the brand name of bad behavior, basically like Kleenex, every time some one does something bad, it must be that damn GTA, making our kids so angry!
As a counter to this story though, maybe it's a testament to the poor news coverage in the LA area, but I hardly ever hear about these stories through mainstream news outlets, they only seem to grow in outrage through gaming websites as everyone starts to get defensive over the medium. I too can't stand hearing these lame defense scenarios, but we have to make sure we don't turn it into a situation of protesting too much.
They're just keeping the community informed of anything video game related. Even if it's something that has been done in the past (DMC, God of War, Ninja Gaiden) Bayonetta will still get coverage on this site.... so don't be surprised to see multiple posts about video game related crimes either. Altough similar, I find that each story is slightly different while still being just as entertaining as the last.... The same thing could be said about game genres.
Also, door checking confirmed for GTAV!