Grand Theft Auto IV Addiction Link To Criminal Rampage

Rampage blamed on game obsession

“Reid [the offender] was hardwired for violence and anti-social behaviour and programmed by his recreational pursuits” [involving the game Grand Theft Auto].

The Dominion Post Saturday, 31 May 2008

Like a character from Grand Theft Auto, the game he played compulsively, Tim Reid went on a rampage, stole a police car, and left a policeman unconscious and bleeding on the roadside.

Yesterday, his lawyer Chris Nicholls said Reid was remorseful for what happened to Sergeant Kevin Wellington in New Plymouth on December 29 last year, but he was a product of his upbringing.

He committed violent offences and compulsively played Grand Theft Auto.

Mr Nicholls said a video game that showed violence toward police was a public safety concern, with the game promoting the behaviour.

Tim Henare James Junior Reid, 25, of Mt Victoria, Wellington pleaded guilty to aggravated wounding, escaping custody, reckless driving, dangerous driving, unlawfully taking a motor vehicle and two charges of failing to stop, breach of supervision orders and being an unlicensed driver.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4566395a23955.html

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Application for Leave re Grand Theft Auto IV (unedited version)

The Society has sought leave under s. 47(2)(e) of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 (“the Act”), to apply to the Film and Literature Board of Review (“the Board”) for a review of the classification of the highly controversial console game Grand Theft Auto IV (unedited US version) [also known as or GTA 4]. As noted in our application for leave dated 27 May 2008, the unedited game was classified R18 by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (“the OFLC”) on the 21^st May 2008.

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Gay, Giggly, Liberal Reverend who Promotes A Culture of Death (Assisted Suicide): Seeks Martyrdom

‘I make it look like they died in their sleep’

Jon Ronson The Guardian Monday 12 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/may/12/mentalhealth.health

Summary

Irish police are seeking the arrest and extradition of the Reverend George Exoo,  “a giggly, gay liberal unitarian preacher, cultured funny, [and]charming.” who is “a leading figure in the right-to-die movement.” Like fellow right-to-die propagandist Dr Philip Nitschke, whose book The Peaceful [Suicide] Pill Handbook was recently classified and cleared by NZ’s gay Chief Censor, Bill Hastings, for sale in NZ bookshops, Exoo has helped over 100 people commit suicide. But, reports Jon Ronson, “most of his [Exoo's] clients were not terminally ill, just depressed and in need of psychiatric help.”

“I’m a midwife to the dying, for those who want to hasten their deaths,” claims Rev Exoo. He has announced publicly that he intends to commit suicide (see video link above) and so become the first martyr for the right-to-die movement, so that he and his nomosexual partner THomas McGurrin, can avoid extraditon from the US as suspects, in the assisted suicide of Rosemary Toole, who had been suffering depression, prior to seeking help from Rev Exoo. Under Irish law, a person convicted of the crime of assisting a suicide, faces a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

According to reports, Rev Exoo’s devoted followers showed no emotion when he publicly announced his intention to commit suicide (see video). Instead, they were utterly obsessed by a morbid fascination in the method he planned to use to take his own life, quizzing him on this matter. This cold, callous and clinical approach of right-to-death zealots, permeates Dr Nitschke’s pernicious book that documents in excruciating and meticulous detail, many options for committing suicide and assisting others to commit the act.

Chief Censor, Bill Hastings and his deputy, Nicola McCully, a lesbian, who hold the only two statutory positions in the Office of Film and Literature, have seen fit to allow this book that incites criminal activity and promotes a culture of death, into bookshops, for sale, throughout NZ.  Dr Nitchke told the media he was “thrilled” that Mr Hastings had cleared his book for sale in NZ.  

Grand Theft Auto IV: Who is the NZ distributor profiting from this offensive “Crime-Promoting Game”?

Grand Theft Auto IV (also known as GTA 4) – a computer game formatted for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 – was launched on April 29, 2008 and sold nearly 2.9 million copies in the United States in its first five days.1 The game – made by Two’s Rockstar studio – with first-week worldwide sales forecast of up to $US400 million, was submitted to the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) on the 4^th of February 2008 by the Film and Video Labelling Body Inc (FVLB).

The computer game’s distributor, the applicant to the FVLB, recorded on the application form, its identity as “TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE”. All other details relating to the company were deleted from the form by the Chief Censor, Bill Hastings, when he provided the application form to the Society, in response to its Official Information Request (OIR). The applicant’s contact person, return street address for the publication and contact telephone number, were all deleted.

The Society Investigates……..

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DROWNING IN DEPRAVITY: PARADISE LOST

Drowning in depravity

POLICE PROBE SUICIDE TOUR

by Sean Scanlon and Deidre Mussen

Sunday Star Times 18 May 2008

Two investigations have started into claims an American woman [calling herself Cassandra Mae and Susan Wilson] helped a non-terminally ill Aucklander die in return for $12,000…

She allegedly flew here last August and assisted a woman in her 50s, suffering depression, to commit suicide. Police confirmed they and the coroner are investigating serious allegations it is illegal to aid a suicide in New Zealand.

Sources say the Auckland woman withdrew $12,000 from her bank account, money which remains unaccounted for, in the days before her death.

The American woman’s actions will also be scrutinised in a euthanasia documentary to be televised in England this week, and her behaviour and that of an American reverend she worked with were exposed in English newspaper The Guardian last week…..

Australian euthanasia campaigner and head of Exit International, Philip Nitschke, said … he believed Mae planned to bring Nembutal into New Zealand from Mexico [and] the Auckland woman [seeking to commit suicide] may have spoken to an Exit co-ordinator before her death, but he could not be sure.

It is not the first time a depressed but not terminally ill New Zealander has suicided. In March 2006, a Wellington woman killed herself with lethal drugs she smuggled home from Mexico after seeking advice from Nitschke.

For more see:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4552548a10.html

Death With Dignity?

 Article by Michael R. Bott BA

“The Nazis had a scheme for killing the mentally insane which they called ‘mercy-killing’ or ‘euthanasia’ ; apparently, they could hardly wait for the smokescreen of war to put it into effect. By an order dated Sept. 1, 1939 – the very day war broke out – Hitler authorised the Chief of his chancellery, Buehler, and his private physician, Dr. Brandt, to administer ‘mercy killing’ to incurable persons.” [Ref. 1: Gideon Hausner. Justice in Jerusalem (NY: Holocaust Library, 1968), p.90].

Introduction

Euthanasia, as far as the 20th century is concerned, is no new thing. Immediately after the Second World War, revelations about the Nazi Holocaust meant that euthanasia fell into disrepute. However, euthanasia, once considered unthinkable, is now widely practised in the Netherlands. In Australia, in our own part of the world, the Northern Territory Government has recently voted to allow voluntary euthanasia.

It is with macabre irony that the capital of the Northern Territory is named after the man whose theories have done much to undermine Christian values – Charles Darwin. (His ‘theory’ of natural selection was defined in terms of  ’survival of the fittest,’  a phrase first coined by Herbert Spencer).

For full article go to:

http://www.christian-apologetics.org/html/death.htm#t2 Read more

Dr Philip Nitschke and SPCS Executive Director interviewed on Australian Current Affairs Programme – PM

Controversy in NZ over Australian euthanasia book [Full Interview Transcript & Audio Link]

PM – Tuesday, 13 May , 2008  18:46:00

Reporter: Kerri Ritchie

BRENDAN TREMBATH: In New Zealand, right to life groups are outraged at a decision allowing a pro-euthanasia book co-written by Philip Nitschke to be sold in the country.
The Peaceful Pill Handbook was banned in Australia last year, but an edited version has been cleared for sale to New Zealanders over the age of 18.
While opponents are demanding the decision be reviewed, Philip Nitschke is now vowing to make another attempt to get his book into Australian shops.
New Zealand correspondent Kerri Ritchie reports.
KERRI RITCHIE: There in black and white, The Peaceful Pill Handbook outlines ways people can commit suicide.
Philip Nitschke hopes his book will be in New Zealand shops within a fortnight.

You can also listen to the story in REAL AUDIO and WINDOWS MEDIA and MP3 formats.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2243906.htm Read more

Submission to Secretary 15 May 2008 re The Peaceful Pill Handbook Revised Int’l Edition

SPCS Submission to Secretary of Internal Affairs dated 15 May 2008: Application seeking leave to have the classification of The Peaceful Pill Handbook (New Revised International Edition), co-authored by Dr Philip Nitschke, reclassified by the Film and Literature Board of Review. Read more

Review sought by Society over release of pro-euthanasia book

A review is being sought over the controversial release of a pro-euthanasia book by Australian Philip Nitschke.

The Society for Promotion of Community Standards [SPCS] has written to the Film and Literature Board of Review [see letter below] seeking a review of the decision [web-link below] to approve the book for R18 release. Read more

Is there a causal-effect between exposure to video game violence and violent behaviour?

Video Game Violence and Public Policy

David Walsh, Ph.D.

National Institute on Media and the Family

Concern about violent video and computer games is based on the assumption that they contribute to aggression and violence among young players. That conclusion was originally based on the extensive body of research about the effects of television violence on children’s behavior. Prominent organizations like the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Medical Association have all concluded that the scientific evidence shows a cause-effect relationship between television violence and aggression among the children and youth who watch it. Based on this research, many social scientists have hypothesized that we should expect video games to have an even greater impact for the following four reasons.

http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/walsh.html Read more

Society’s Submission to the Ministry of Culture and Heritage

Submission Re: Consultation Paper: “Broadcasting and New Digital Media: Future of Content Regulation”

Ministry of Culture & Heritage January 2008

Society’s responses to Ministry Questions submitted 11 April 2008

Q 1 What concerns are appropriate to be addressed through content regulation.

These concerns should include all content that could be considered “objectionable” and/or “injurious to the public good” …. all the matters covered under Sections 3(1), 3(2), 3(3), 3(3)(A) and 3(3)(B) of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act (1993), which was amended in 2005. Concern should also include all matters related to issues of fairness, accuracy, balance and personal privacy, as well as others currently dealt with in Section 4(1) of the Broadcasting Act (1989). Consideration also needs to be given to the current set of principles established by the Press Council as well as matters dealt with in s. 21 of the Human Rights Act 1993 relating to the treatment of classes of persons.

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Chief Censor’s Office Report on Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA 4)

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BSA Report on Children’s Television Viewing: Cause for Alarm

Media Release: 8 May 2008

The Society is not surprised that over half the sample (56%) of more than 600 adult “primary caregivers” of children aged between six and 13, who were interviewed as part of a report into children’s television viewing habits; were unable to identify 8.30 p.m. as the time after which programmes that are NOT suitable for children are shown on television The report containing this statistic entitled Seen and Heard, dated 6 May 2008, was commissioned by the BSA – the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

In response, the Families Commission issued a media release, calling for the 8.30 p.m. “watershed time” – to be more widely publicised by broadcasters. But is this an adequate response if the Commission is truly concerned about certain so-called “adult-only” material – pornography, sexual violence, graphic violence, blasphemy and obscenity – being viewed, or potentially viewed, by tens of thousands of our country’s children and young persons every night of the year from 8.30 p.m. onwards? Society president John Mills says the Society says “it is a totally inadequate response” and notes “we have written to the Chief Commissioner, Dr Rajen Prasad, pointing this out and called for more effective solutions from him to the problem of children and young persons being exposed to unsuitable, morally corrosive and corrupting television content.”

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