Stuart Harling is an 18 year old murderer who was convicted of stabbing nurse Cheryl Moss 72 times. An open and shut case, really -- the guy's a killer and deserves his time in jail. Of course, for the mother of the sicko, it's not that simple. Something other than the guilty party HAS to get the blame, and naturally, she has used videogames as the scapegoat.
"Stuart was 11 or 12 when I bought him the PlayStation. For a long time I didn't even realize games had age limits on them," griped idiotic Lorraine Harling, confessing her sheer ignorance. "We'd just buy him the game that all the other kids had. I didn't really know what they were about. I think most parents are the same."
Pathetic dishrag newspaper The News of the World ran a typically sensationalist piece on the murder and its non-existent link to games, capitalizing a ridiculous amount of words for scaremongering effect: "One of baby-faced Harling's favourite games was the notorious Manhunt, where players SLASH and SLICE their victims with meat CLEAVERS, cheese WIRE and CHAINSAWS, or suffocate them with plastic bags." I love how they call him baby-faced, as if to try and claim that Stuart Harling would be a blessed angel were it not for those EVIL games full of WIRE and CHAINSAWS!
"I know these games are played by kids across the world, but some are truly horrific. And if they can cause a trigger to be pulled in someone's head they should be banned," Lorraine added. Yet another young kid goes mental and kills, and yet more excuses are made for him. People wonder why criminals re-offend? We make them feel like they're the poor victims.
[Cheers, Aerox]
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.
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Contest:
11:10 AM on 11.09.2007
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whos fault is it again?
But i am sick of the scapegoating. really, are people just mindless robots that can be programmed by the tv? music? video games?
I think people should be held for the actions, not their imaginations and fiction. that is how all law should read. fuck the thought police..
http://www.metropolis-mailorder.com/product.php?prodnum=MET+134
To think we will ever live in a world of true peace is a pipe dream at best.
...well we know who is really to blame now.
also, there be shameless self promoting in these here comments. DO NOT WANT
Seriously, none of this is Rockstar's fault at all. None of this is the fault of horror movies, or evil music either. Even the bible is not to blame for some of the stupid things that people do in the name of their god.
People who murder can be called heros, or psychos, or villians, or all of the above.
Cops kill, Soldiers kill, Presidents sign death warrants, the jails kill. So, are they to blame too? They are the ones who are actually killing. Not the artists, and musicians, and game developers. I call it what it is. People make the choices, they control what their bodies do. They are responsible, not bad parenting, not art.
Children make big mistakes. This is part of growing up. For some its little, for some its huge. I mean it's a shame for those kids to throw away their lives like that.
When someone kills someone else, it means they are beyond liking anything. They are beyond wanting freedom, beyond love. Beyond caring. This goes far deeper than any scapegoat or excuse that people can throw out there..
Seriously, none of this is Rockstar's fault at all. None of this is the fault of horror movies, or evil music either. Even the bible is not to blame for some of the stupid things that people do in the name of their god.
People who murder can be called heros, or psychos, or villians, or all of the above.
Cops kill, Soldiers kill, Presidents sign death warrants, the jails kill. So, are they to blame too? They are the ones who are actually killing. Not the artists, and musicians, and game developers. I call it what it is. People make the choices, they control what their bodies do. They are responsible, not bad parenting, not art.
Children make big mistakes. This is part of growing up. For some its little, for some its huge. I mean it's a shame for those kids to throw away their lives like that.
When someone kills someone else, it means they are beyond liking anything. They are beyond wanting freedom, beyond love. Beyond caring. This goes far deeper than any scapegoat or excuse that people can throw out there..
...but not like I am a whiny bitch or anything
And.. if she "...just buy him the game that all the other kids had." then that should say two things : It's your fault for being ignorant and if all the other kids had them and didn't turn into psycho's, what does that say about their mother/son relashionship?
Criminals don't reoffend because we treat them like victims; in this case only the mom is whining. Criminals reoffend because there is no rehabiliation program whatsoever, and prison is a place filled with uncontrolled organized crime ties. I don't exactly know how prisons are run in the UK, but this is an argument that was made before Parliament:
"People reoffend for three reasons. The first is that they do not have a home to go to on release. Forty per cent. of people leaving prison are homeless, so it is no surprise that they go back to offending. Secondly, their social networks have been disrupted. Some 25,000 inmates are placed in prisons situated more than 50 miles from their homes, while another 10,000 are in prisons more than 100 miles away. It is therefore no surprise that their links with spouses and families are broken. The absence of that communication also leads to serial offending.
The third reason for reoffending is that people leaving prison cannot find employment. Why can they not get work? In part it is because they have been in prison, but the main reason is that they are not educated. Ten per cent. of the total number of people targeted by the Government's numeracy and literacy strategies are prison inmates. They have no opportunities, and I hope and expect that the Government will turn the problem around at its cause."
It's easy to look at super specific cases and say OH LOOK PRISONERS ARE BEING CODDLED AND TREATED LIKE VICTIMS, and that might be true in a very, small percentage of cases. The cases where it tends to happen are ones where super rich people have flagrantly violated the law and cheated tons of people out of money, and then, when they're finally given their ridiculously light sentence they're sent to Country Club State Penitentiary where they get to golf and interact with their families, but with ::gasp:: an ANKLE MONITOR. OH THE INDIGNITY.
Video games are MURDER!
Hope she and all the other idiot parents get killed but their fuck up off spring, cunts!
Awesome.
She took all the health packs and tea bagged him.
and then knock her head off with a bat !!!!
A. "Manhunt" is called manhunt. It's in the title. It IS the title.
B. Look at the cover art for the game.
C. Look at the back cover of the game, it says in big red letters "THIS IS A BRUTAL BLOOD SPORT"
I'm at a loss for words.
Criminals often are victims of circumstance. This kid's mother clearly didn't pay enough to him, which was probably a pretty major cause of his anger. Also, being primarily raised by a TV and video games, particularly for a loner, is going to give one seriously fucking skewed world view. Ultimately though a person is accountable for their own actions, and should be punished accordingly. I do believe however that when handing down judgements, the circumstances of the crime should be far more carefully considered than they currently are.
->vexed alex: Haha(not sarcastic).
Yeah, you're right. You are all the same. You're the same parents who stuff Whoppers down your kids throats because you're too lazy to cook them a real meal. You're the same parents who leave the TV on as a babysitter while you're out at the local dive playing pool all afternoon. You're all the fuckin same.
Trash. You fail at everything, especially parenting.