The Kickham Comment - Boston Criminal Attorney Blog
In my last post on this subject, I wrote of the literally unbelievable torture intentionally inflicted on an innocent dog, named Puppy Doe by the Animal Rescue League doctors and volunteers that tried, to no avail, to salvage its broken body and life. Police investigators have so far discovered that the female puppy was sold by its original owner on Craigs List, after the owner was reportedly told by her landlord that she could not keep a pit bull in the apartment she was renting. So, what did she do? Reportedly sold the dog on Craigs List. Except that she didn’t know who she was selling to or what their background was.
Horrifically, the buyer was a monster that happened to look human. Unimaginably, it was the sole intent of the buyer – some sick, twisted sub-human animal or animals – to buy the dog for the specific purpose of torturing it. What was done to this dog over at least the next two months was so horrific, that words cannot describe it. Doctors at Boston’s Animal Rescue League described a dog that had been intentionally starved down from a normal weight of 40 lbs. to less than 18 lbs. The animal had several broken bones, all over its body. Its skull had been perforated. Its nose had been repeatedly burned by cigars or cigarettes. Its tongue had been sliced apart to resemble a serpent’s. It’s limbs had actually been drawn and quartered, in medieval fashion, as though it had been torn apart on a rack. Veterinarians treating the dog described this case as “the worst they have ever seen.”
Like me, you must be shaking right now, unable to imagine the twisted scum that would do this: The sociopathic, psychopathic garbage that would do anything even resembling any of this nightmare, made real. You must be asking yourself, “What in God’s name could cause anyone to do such things? How could any human being do this?”
The answer may be closer to you – closer to all of us- than you dare to consider: Violent video games. Actually, to call these twisted things “games” implies sport, or healthy competition.
They are nothing of the kind. They are the most graphic, realistic, twisted depictions of sadistic violence that the human mind can imagine — and they are virally infectious, especially to the young brain watching them. Let’s make something clear: Not only are these things unspeakably violent – they are frighteningly realistic. These are NOT “animated cartoons.” These are computer graphic imagery (cgi) generated films that are so realistic, it is hard to tell if what you are seeing are real people, or not. These things reward the “player” for killing the most people they can possibly kill — and in the most graphically violent and sadistic manner possible. These things are NOT a western-type of shoot-out, a la John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. They are exercises in pure sadism, butchery, and cruelty, against men and very much against women, also.
That’s what they are. Now let’s talk about who watches these things, and what they do to such people: While not “exclusively,” a great many of these things are watched by young males between the ages of 14 – 28. In the still-developing brain of a teenager, these twisted, pathological exercises in barbarity “stimulate” the pleasure centers of the brain. Over a very short period of time, the images not only desensitize the viewer to this type of barbarism and cruelty, they actually create the craving for more – in almost an addictive way. The result? Not only is the young mind numbed to the practice of sadism and cruelty, and to images of living beings in incredible pain and suffering, but the person using these videos comes to want more and more. Psychologists who are experts in the field of sociopathic behavior have stated this far more than just once.
Eventually, this desensitized, numbed, un-empathetic, unsympathetic, cruelty-craving individual becomes sociopathic: He or she seeks out living victims. Where do many of these types start this real-world nightmare? With animals. Later, it is not uncommon for these sociopaths to proceed to doing the same with children and weak adults – those who cannot defend themselves. That’s how this works in the real world. Don’t let the twisted people who manufacture this sewage and the even more twisted individuals who use them, tell you any different.
It cannot be said that the above progression of events will take place in each and every individual using these videos (and I am pointedly not saying that they will.) However, it can be generally said that the cumulative effect of viewing these videos is to desensitize the user to taking part in acts of sadistic cruelty and extreme violence, making him or her feel that such sadism and barbaric cruelty is “acceptable,” “OK,” even normal behavior. As a Boston, Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer, I’ve seen so many violent young criminals in the court system, I’ve lost count. Before they are even out of their teens, many will face a Massachusetts rape charge. Or a Massachusetts assault and battery charge. Or even a Massachusetts murder charge. A great, great many of these younger defendants, have previously used these violent video games. These awful video games are disease-filled. They are showcases of mental illness. They are training videos for the most violent of crimes. They are virulent. And they must be stopped.
But don’t look to the U.S. Supreme Court to do that, anytime soon. They’re too busy concerning themselves with “commercial free speech.” Click here to read about the law they struck down last year, which was already a weak attempt to merely limit the sale or rental of this garbage to persons over 18 (but not under.) California passed a law a few years ago to do just this. The video industry sued, and the case went to the Supreme Court. Their decision? A state can’t even pass a law so weak as one which says that the sale or rental of these things can be restricted to customers 18 & over only. Not allowed — A 13 year-old can buy or rent one of these things, no questions asked.
Anyone who wants to know how something like what was done to Puppy Doe could happen, should think long and hard about what violent video games are doing to the population of this country. There is not much reason to be optimistic about where this country – and its culture – is headed. Straight down into a violent abyss, I fear.