So I'm gracefully watching my CW TV shows, which for me also shares that channel with Pix 11 News (my local news channel). The commercial pops up for "tonight at 10pm, we have a hitting story about how 'Call of Duty' loss prompts shooting hoax in Long Beach."
HERE WE GO!
So long story short (or at least what the news tells the public);
A 17 year old male lost a game of Call of Duty so he called 911, impersonated the winner and said he murdered his entire family.
Now, if a kid is being a sore loser over a game, there is clearly some larger issue going on. Most people have common sense to know that it is not acceptable to be calling hoax 911 calls. Common sense is defined as anything known and understood by the general public.
What I'm confused about is this whole quote right here:
“Unfortunately this is a terrible, national problem for law enforcement. It’s called swatting, when people playing a video game, if they lose, they call the police and mimic the person that they lost to, and say that they killed family members and then they see how many people they can get to come down here,” said Long Beach Police Commissioner Michael Tangney.
Maria’s son won a round of Call of Duty and the sore loser he played, who lives somewhere else, in an unknown location, called in the hoax that led to a massive police response.
There is an actually term for such a thing?! Swatting...I wish we could just swat all these trolls like flies is more like it. The fact that this is a real issue, just shows how corrupt the United States has become.
Something doesn't add up. How does the loser of the game, know where the winner lives and what their name is and all this personal stuff. Maybe the New's people worded it funny, but it really doesn't make sense. Loser calls emergency 911 on winner's house? It doesn't really make sense unless they personally know each other, but even then, the whole story just doesn't add up.
The larger issue is not the video game itself, it is the kid! Society needs to accept it's responsibility and stop using a scapegoat for not making citizens to their standards. I see what society is doing here, trying to shed bad light on violent video games yet again. Instead, they should be focusing on the norms they created these boys (and girls) are following. Like how males are supposed to be masculine and how girls are supposed to be feminine. All these social constructs is what thrives teens to do what they do, not video games.
I am assuming this is a fake because it really just doesn't add up on any scale. Again, how did the loser get the winner's address. How did he know the victim's name. Even if he did know the victim's name, that phone call could have came from anywhere. It literally makes ZERO SENSE!
Here's a few articles if anyone wants to read up on it and/or tell me your opinions about this strange endeavor:
Article 1: Pix 11 Local News
Article 2: News 12 Local News
Article 3: New York Post