Cop sounds off on Games

Recently Time magazine has written an article about the surge in cop killings. It would seem that the deaths of officers is at its highest since 1975. The article takes some time to quote a Lt. Col. on his opinion that video games are to blame for this increase.

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, author of On Combat and On Killing, who trains the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, subscribes to that controversial notion. Grossman relates how officers raiding methamphetamine labs and gang hangouts often find violent video games left behind. "Every time they take down a gang house, there's always one thing that will always be there," Grossman says. "It's a video game. The video games are their newspaper, their television, their all-consuming narrative. And their video games are all cop-killer, criminal simulators."

Guess he missed the part that his force is out gunned, have to deal with cop killing innitiations, crap economies, and the fact that police have horrible accuricy ratings ("they miss their intended target some 70% to 90% of the time they fire in the line of duty") . I'll admit, my aim sucks with a Glock too. But no, it must be video games. Though he fails to define violent video games. Games like "Call of Duty" and "Medal of Honor" are considered violent...yet are extremely oriented around fighting for virtue and goodness. Other things to consider; How many police officers play violent video games? Ever play cops and robbers when you were a kid? Huh...me too.

Best slap in the face, was from an editor at Joystiq.com, that pointed out that in '75 (which had a higher rate then now), Pong was released to home systems. So, damn you Pong, for killing our boys in blue!