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Jack Thompson Claims Death Threat, Spreads Blame Around
Miami attorney and self-described "anti-game crusader" Jack Thompson issued a press release a short while ago in which he claimed that his life was threatened by a 16-year old boy from Houston, TX.
According to Thompson, "the specific, grotesque death threat was captured on tape, and the identity and location of the boy have been determined. Law enforcement is now involved and an arrest may be imminent. The boy's mother has confirmed that her son did this, and that he is a player of the hyperviolent game Doom 3. Her response has just been to 'ground him and take away his games for awhile.'"
Thompson's release indicates that he sees the threat as "just the latest installment of the video game industry's intentional targeting of (him) for harm. In the past several days a video game Internet site criminally orchestrated harassment of Thompson, including the filing of dozens of baseless Bar complaints and even a person going door-to-door in his neighborhood illegally handing out pamphlets referencing that video game site to his neighbors lying about Thompson's activities."
"Take-Two/Rockstar, the makers of the Grand Theft Auto games, which is the video game developer being sued by Thompson in Alabama for those games' training of a teenager to kill... have led the 'shoot the messenger' assault upon Thompson. Take-Two has posted on its Rockstar Games web site the false and defamatory assertion that Thompson is a bisexual pedophile."
"Take-Two's law firm/lobbyist, Blank Rome of Philadelphia, which is the largest single lobbyist contributor to the Republican National Committee, has launched a personal attack on Thompson apparently because it cannot win the case on the merits. Blank Rome has a long history of such assaults on opponents..."
"...the above is just a portion of the intentional, orchestrated assault by the video game industry, its lawyers, and its minions of teenaged terrorists to drive Thompson from the public square with illegal harassment and extortion violative of state and federal laws."
"The criminal threats on the life of Thompson by video gamers, knowingly orchestrated by the industry and its Internet-based 'news' sites prove yet again that virtual violence can bleed over into real-life crime... Thompson will seek prosecution of those who knowingly incited this death threat as well."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Thompson is clearly attempting to draw a linkage from this incident to his recent dust-up with Penny Arcade, as evidenced by the fact that he copied U.S. Attorney John McKay on the press release. McKay's turf is the Western District of Washington, where Penny Arcade is headquartered.
Somewhat surprisingly, Thompson also copied Dr. David Walsh of the National Institute for Media and the Family on the message, with a subject line reading, "Dave, you helped start this with your LIE that I said you were endorsing my efforts." The story of Walsh's well-publicized disavowal of Thompson was broken here on GamePolitics.
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