This incident ought to drum up more rabble-rousing than the Romans cheering for a bloody crucifixion. Surely by now you've read the terrible news about the "Mortal Kombat" murder, in which two teens killed a 7 year old girl they were babysitting by re-enacting the fighting game and using her as a punching bag. They have since been charged with child abuse resulting in murder and are currently being held in custody.
That's the news, plain and simple. This tragic turn of events will not only scar the lives of those involved, but will also have a major impact on the world of gaming, regardless of its fault or lack thereof in the matter. If you want to hear my rant on the topic, follow the jump, but I can't promise I wont sound like I'm on a picket line.
[Via Rocky Mountain News]
So, if you are anything like me, the first thing you thought when you read that headline is "Who the hell still plays Mortal Kombat?" A natural reaction, even in the face of such a evocative and depressing news story. But it's not a reaction that most adult Americans will share. Most adult Americans will think "When the hell are they going to ban those terrible things, how many more children must die?" Those terrible things, or course, are not stupid teenagers, or liquor stores that sell to minors. Those terrible things are video games.
The fact that these two minors were drunk was not mentioned in the headline. I'm not saying I think alcohol should be a scapegoat here. Not every drunken teenager commits manslaughter. But the fact that alcohol decreases inhibitions, where Mortal Kombat arguably only affects the human mind in the same ways the average Jean-Claude Van Damme movie does (not much of an effect), it leads me to point the finger at alcohol before anything else.
Even in saying that, I'm dodging the real culprit in this tragedy, and that culprit is of course the 16 year old girl. From the article it is not clear if the male in question had anything to do with the crime. He may become the scapegoat along with video games, or he may be guilty. In one report he was just a "referee" between the older sister and younger sister while they were playing Mortal Kombat. But from an eyewitness report (implying that there were more people with the babysitter and the guy during the assault), he bragged that his hands were "lethal weapons" and that he kicked the 7 year old girl. Can this eyewitness be trusted?
Regardless of if he did or didn't hit the little girl, the 16 year old sister was still the one babysitting her. If my best friend in the whole world, my biggest idol in the entire universe, or even Ron Workman laid one finger on my 7 year old sister, I would not only kick him out of my house immediately, I'd probably call the cops. So whether the male was involved at all, the sister is still the one that I blame. Letting someone beat your little sister to death is the same as doing it yourself.
But who wants to blame a beautiful teenage girl for such a terrible crime? Our society is desperate to hold on to those intra-psychically entrenched schemas, those "black and white" absolute perceptions of our world that are supposed to help us make sense of a reality filled with more horror than we can accept. One of the schemas that many people in our world hold on to is "Pretty teenage girls are good." I have witnessed more blind worship of pretty teenage girls for simply being pretty teenage girls than I have ever witnessed video game induced violence, video game induced seizures, or any video game induced problems of any kind.
Facts like that don't integrate very well with another schema that many adults share. That schema is that video games are the devil. Or more like "Everything that's different than what I grew up with is the devil." That of course includes video games.
So how does our society deal with a news story detailing a pretty teenage girl killing her little sister? My bet is that society will hold tight to the safe and comforting ideas discussed above. It takes a very strong, intelligent, and fair minded person to put aside those comforting but thought distorting perceptions of the world and look at the terrible truth. This newspaper couldn't. It resorted to blaming Mortal Kombat. I couldn't at first. I instinctually blamed alcohol. And the police, well, we'll have to see who they blame.
I'll be watching this story like a hawk to see if either of these kids end up in jail. If the powers that be at Dtoid permit, you can be sure to read more about it from me here on the front page.
Contest:
1:44 AM on 12.20.2007
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If they don’t get life in prison or death sentences, I will have lost all faith in this country’s judicial system.
And for all the adults who are thinking of burning copies of Halo 3, I can only say this: seeing something and then acting it out EXISTED LONG BEFORE VIDEO GAMES. Ever hear of the expression “monkey see, monkey do”? I’m sure you have, and I’m also pretty sure you’re aware that it wasn’t coined by Mario. People have seen movies where characters fly and have subsequently jumped off of buildings while high on acid (hell, people have done that without the visual stimulation, just the chemical one). You can’t blame video games. If two teens get drunk enough to think that kicking the crap out of a seven-year-old is a good idea, it’s their fault and their fault alone, regardless of outside stimuli. You don’t see drunk drivers try to defend themselves against a manslaughter charge by saying, “Oh, I recently saw that episode of Heroes where the cheerleader rams into a brick wall at 70 mph,” do you? This is a tragedy, but let’s not be hasty and allow Joe Lieberman or Hillary Clinton to start up some new anti-videogame legislation.
Great write-up, Jonathan. I agree on the whole “she’s a small white girl; she couldn’t possibly have killed her sister or have allowed it to happen, right?” bullshit. The fact is, both of them were drunk, and that’s technically illegal to begin with. But once again, if you’re drunk enough to act out a martial arts video game, the game isn’t the problem.
Also, Rocky Mountain News changed the link slightly; the story is now located here.
The problem here isn't video games. And I don't really think it's alcohol either. Both *may* have contributed to it, but I think the main problem here is the Teenagers themselves. Anyone who can beat a 7 year old to death has some real problems going on in their head, same with someone who would stand by while this is happening.
It's just a really unfortunate case of wrong place and time for that poor girl.
(Just kidding!)
but video games, with a M rating (and i'm not saying it's the girl's fault for playing. I constantly played MK underaged like every other person in the world.) is being played by the girl. Even though supervised, it aint much supervision if both the bums are drunk and underage.
Now what should be the "kicker" is if the guy (who is black as you see there.) will get some hard time for killing a white little innocent girl. I mean, it's pretty much bonus points down the line for being black, being drunk, and the girl being so young. I'm being serious with a hint of joking.
but seriously, this stuff is sad. I get tired of hearing the "3 year old child is dead by 14 year old by [insert wrasslin move/game move/etc]" story. It's painful and sad cause a human life is either dead or in danger and games are usually the first to come in someone's mind.
I assume Jackie Jack's gonna try and rear his Miami ass in this somehow.
Here is what I'm going to predict,
1. The current political candidates will jump all over this as another brick for their election platforms.
2. Wacko Jacko (and his ilk) will add this case to their little list of things to point to and go "ZOMG VIDEO GAMES WILL WALK INTO YOUR HOME ANDJUST FLAT OUT FUCKING KILL CHILDREN"
I hate to be such a pessimist, but I can't be the only one who feels like no matter how many logical, reasonable, well worded and downright undeniable arguments we make, the only ones listening to them with any seriousness is gamers just like us. Not the ignorant parents, anti-gaming activists and politicians who, if public perception of events like this are going to change anytime soon, are the ones we really need on our side.
If you are 16 and even THINKING about punching a 7 year old girl with any sort of seriousness, there is something fucking wrong with YOU.
Not the liquor, not the games,
YOU.
12/20/2007 02:00
It's those interracial relationships I tell you!
(Just kidding!)
-
He did say he opposed to diving things as "black and white." You interprit what he meant by that.
I agree with Technophile. In all of these "video game inspired murders," the killer always happens to be psychologically unbalanced. It's the kid, not the Kombat.
I hope there are more branches of the media that can point out the real cause of this dreadful act.
When I was 8, my friends and I all watched the first Mortal Combat movie, and afterwards we all jumped around the room and tried to fight and karate kick each other and whatnot. But that was a full HALF the age of these kids. We certainly didn't hit each other enough to cause injury, let alone KILL. When my brother fell off the couch and hit his head on the floor, we stopped fighting and got the babysitter.
Still, I thought the white girl line of comments in this post was insensitive and over the top, as well as totally inaccurate. The general pessimism is understood, but both culprits were arrested in this case of child abuse, and neither were "white".
If there was a larger question about external conditions, it is why the fuck were these kids drunken babysitting? Why were the girls locked outside naked? Why was there family in the condition they were in ? We don't have any information on that, and certainly the answer is not that the family grew up enacting mortal kombat, so there is nothing we can make of the story.
Except that it really fucking sucks, what happened and was happening to Zoe. :( I hope she had some good moments in her life.
First example - Two people robbed a 711. In other news a 5 year old black girl missing. Also the Iraq War, will we ever get out?
Second example - Two people robbed a Farm Store. Wait this just in a 5 year old girl is missing. She's white and blonde. We're going to go live to Kentucy, where a huge manhunt is on the way to find this little girl. We have the childs parents here via satellite. Wait we have surveillance of the kidnapping. *5 hours later* We're still following this breaking news. 5 year old Jennifer was kidnapped. She was white and blonde. Will be covering this story around the clock. Lets look back now on Jennifer's life. She was born 5 years ago in a small town in Kentucy. She went to kindergarten at martinville elementary. Will be interviewing her classmates.
Even if the media and police aren't seriously questioning the teen girl, you know her family and friends are.
I would rant SO much more, but I have to go to school, I hope I don't shoot someone out of videogame stimulated aggression on the way there/.
Shadow- I do expect that the fact that these two were an inter-racial couple to be used at some point for explaining what went wrong here.
Meronkun- Thanks for the compliments and the criticisms. I take both seriously. But for the record, I think that the quote you are referring to, the “she’s a small white girl; she couldn’t possibly have killed her sister or have allowed it to happen, right?” were actually not said by me. That was just the way BrOnXbOmBr21 interpreted my post.
Not to say his interpretation was entirely wrong, but I'm just saying.
That shit's fucked up.
Some will blame games, some will blame the boozes, but I blame the fucking authorities for not doing their fucking job when the previous abuse was reported. If it is confirmed that the abuse was reported to the authorities then the girls death is to partially their fault.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was something else behind this relating to family issues before alcohol got a chance to amplify it.
Playing violent video games does not make a criminal. I'm sure that there are plenty of journalists just wetting themselves to get their chance at the "Murder Simulation" story of the year, and it saddens me that it's come to this. Mortal Kombat is going to make me a better martial artist in the same way that Contra is going to make me a better soldier of fortune. I don't see how pressing buttons (or making simple gestures in the wii's case) can make me or anyone a killer.
I'm pretty sure that a lot of media outlets are going to conveniently forget to mention the alcohol and the troubling home situation that this poor little girl was already in. This is a tragedy that I hope doesn't get repeated again, and I can only hope that Games Industry isn't scrutinized too horribly for this.
It does sounds like video games are really being used as a scapegoat here, kind of an "Oh shit" response to what's happened. It seems like they were drunk and just messing around, when things got too serious, I really don't think they were trying to kill the kid, but it happened. I also don't think video games had ANYTHING to do with this now.
(goes to check link from Macca)
We should ban stupid people.
That won't stop the older folk to blame the games... (blind folded)
When I did military service, we had to shoot at human-shaped targets. Why? To desensitize us, so that we would not hesitate, or hesitate less, if we had to do it in real life. What are we doing in FPS? Shooting at human-shaped targets. It's not real, of course, but to the brain, it makes little difference.
I think our answer to this should be: Yeah, it's possible that violent games desensitize people, especially children. That doesn't mean we should ban adults from playing them, as this would be censorship; it just means we need adequate ways of preventing children from playing them. And I think we all know that we do not have these adequate ways yet. Maybe it's time to stop opposing laws which prevent sales of violent games to children.
you seem fairly new here so don't go assuming all gamers want to repeal laws that ban sales of m rated games to minors...
I for one, and I know a ton of editors, that completelely agree, believe that the games are rated M for a reason, and that the law should be upheld.
Did MK play a role in this outburst of violence? Most likely it did not. Anyone who has played videogames has at least heard of MK and what it presents. It's bloody and violent and could has already been an attempted martyr for the gaming violence pandemic. As it's been pointed out there was alcohol on the scene , they were drunk , and were most likely lacking mental and moral compass.
In conclusion just let me say the following...I am sorry for the families loss and I wish them my best. But in all honesty the only thing to blame here are the two "children".
PS: The girl is far from pretty and lets leave "The Damme" out of this xD He is a mage you know?
-Rev