GTA IV: Most Brazenly Violent Game Out-Violences Itself

Rockstar is the balls of the video game industry. Since its inception by the characteristically red-headed Scot, Dave Jones, in 1997, the game has taken the brunt of the debate over video game violence. And it's no wonder. What GTA did was take every imaginable suppressed human inclination toward violent actions and give them a space to play. If you ever imagined snipering people, stealing a car or running over pedestrians, this game gave you a place to run wild. And even if you had never imagined doing those things, you would after playing the game.

The critics believed that such wild imaginings would have practical repercussions - people would start pulling each other out of their cars and playing chicken with the police on the highway. Anyone exposed to this level of unrestrained, primitive, illogical street warfare would immediately become a sociopath. There is no evidence for such extreme thinking, and although we should admit that - for some unknown reason - playing GTA actually has a cathartic effect that both terrifies and excites the average, law-abiding citizen, it isn't a cult that will end with mass suicide. At least, there is no way of knowing that it will.

Still, despite being blamed by almost every parent and psychologist in the country for violent-inclinations in the human race, the makers of GTA have boldly chosen to ignore the disgruntled and take the game's concept to the most extreme level imaginable. It's almost as if they're inside the subconscious of the average gamer, and have been listening to all the terrible, scary thoughts that are quickly beaten down by the socially-installed conscience. If the social superhero is the super-ego, making sure that humans stay away from acting on their primitive desires by making them feel bad for even thinking about it, then GTA is the arch enemy trying to completely disrupt that plan.

If you ever played any of the GTA games and thought "my favorite part about this isn't really even the missions, it's the unrestrained killing-of-people" then don't think Rockstar wasn't listening. If you spent hours hunting the streets for pedestrians to run over, or secretly wished to see a little more blood... then Christmas has come early. April 29th, to be exact.

I consider myself to be a relatively stable human being. I know that I won't ever go about the streets murdering people or stealing cars, but if you think that you may be influenced - or pushed beyond the psychological boundaries that keep you in check - by GTA IV, then think about sticking to Mario. In fact, proof of psychological stability would be a damn sight better than whipping out your driving license to purchase a copy of the game. It might silence the horde who are about to go crazy over the newest, improved version of total-chaos-to-the-human-race, who are afraid that the things on the screen will immediately begin jumping out onto the streets and into their kids playgrounds . I can't say what people will do, but it seems like there's enough violence in the world for it not to notice another edition of GTA.

http://www.mahalo.com/GTA_IV_Leaked

Curtis Richardson: 13-year-old, Shot Dead in Gang Territory

On March 17th, 13-year-old Curtis Richardson was shot dead in front of his home.

"He was walking with his friends when one of his friends threw up a gang sign and they came back and started shooting," said a 13-year-old school friend of Curtis.

A resident named Vincent said that he was one of the first on the scene. "I ran around here and checked his pulse. He had a pulse but he wasn't moving or nothing," said Vincent. Vincent said that his father was shot and killed across the street a few years ago.

In South Central Los Angeles, these crimes are part of everyday life. The area is geographically divided by gangs, with Richardson's house resting on the cusp of the divide between the Bloods and the Crips.

"I've been living in a war zone since 1987," said Sister Herron, a resident of South Central and leader of the Youth Advocacy Coalition.

Herron was joined by author and civil rights activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson on the street where Richardson was shot. After a 35 percent upsurge in homicides this year, this coalition of civil rights leaders were asking Los Angeles to put violence on hold for 40 hours. After being passed by Los Angeles city council, the moratorium started at 6:01 pm Friday, the day Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr. was assassinated 40 years ago. Sister Herron reminded the crowd of the many children and teenagers who were killed in just the last month.

So why don't kids get the message and stop joining gangs? Because it's a lot more complicated than it looks. It's not a case of "just saying no." It's a case of massive, grand-scale bullying and defying an accepted way of life. "I've got family members in gangs, friends," said one of the girls at the memorial. "I mean, it's possible, you don't have to gang bang, but it's hard."

For many teenagers in Los Angeles, joining a gang isn't a decision they get to make. They're pressured by friends and even family members, as some gangs have an ancestry that is hard to defy.

And the rules of gang warfare are even harder to defy. In fact, turning a blind eye to the symbols of gang territory can be dangerous or even deadly. The girls from Richardson's high school explained that even having dyed hair can be a dangerous flag in an area that is controlled by the blue Crips gang or the red Blood gang. "I could walk around the corner and I might not come back," said one girl, who has a wide red streak in her hair.

There have been numerous programs in Los Angeles to try and curb the gang violence that is segregating the city, but nothing offers an infalliable solution. The girls from Richardson's school were sceptical that things could ever change.

"Some people learn and some don’t."
"Some people change their lives and some people don’t."

No matter how many activists come into their neighborhood trying to spread a message of peace, life and death are still just blocks apart. The police still had to patrol Curtis Richardson's memorial so that mourners could gather there. There are still reports of murdered children, and officials announcing that the deaths were "gang-related." The scariest thing is that this isn't a new problem for Los Angeles; it's become a trade mark.

Stop Violence in Los Angeles: for 40 hours

101 Freeway Death: The Romeo and Juliet of Hollywood?

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - A 20-year-old man died on the 101 freeway at 8:15 am yesterday; he took a gunshot to the head before his car sailed across five lanes of the freeway and crashed into the divide. Initial reports suggested that the man was the victim of a violent attack, but police are now considering the possibility of suicide. A tragic story is beginning to emerge.

Early Sunday morning, police responded to an emergency call involving an attempted suicide. When officers arrived at the address on the 1800 block of Cordova St., they found Virginia Castillo, 19, had hanged herself. She was taken to hospital and died at 5:48 am. According to reports, Castillo had been arguing with her boyfriend, Marlon Gordillo Sical, 20, and had attempted suicide after Sical had run away. Three hours later, Sical too was dead, and what remained of his Sedan littered the freeway and silenced the busy road in sad memorial.

Police were investigating another freeway shooting in Long Beach when the incident occurred; part of a strain of freeway shootings involving road rage.

This story sounds like a Shakespearean tragedy; a Romeo and Juliet of Hollywood. What could have moved this young couple to such extremes?

Also, why is everyone shooting each other on the freeway?

Some experts say that weather has a correlation to crime. In warm weather, crime rates go up. It's a pretty insignificant correlation; as if sunshine makes people crazy.

The more accurate explanation is the simplest. Los Angeles is a difficult place to live. The divide between the rich and the poor leaves one half bitter and the other half scared. The tension is as clear as the transience and superficiality of the city. Nothing lasts. Not even the people. They either move up, into the hills, or down, into the dirt. There is no in between, no comfort in limbo. There is Compton, and there is Beverly Hills, and both are perpetuated by the stereotypes that live in the mind of Angelenos. This is a tough place to call home. As Jack Kerouac wrote: "L.A is the loneliest and most brutal of American cities."

Lonely. Brutal.

A fight for survival on a physical and spiritual level.

In a city of extremes, life and death are executed extremely. There is so much drama, and so little solace.

Dedicated to Virginia Castillo and Marlon Gordillo Sical. May they rest in peace.

Shootings in Hollywood

For the second time this week, two gunshots were fired in the Sunset/Van Ness area. The shootings killed one man at approximately 1am on Wednesday, March 26. No details have been released about the shootings last night at 12:50am.

My bedroom window overlooks the Sunset Boulevard off-ramp where the man was shot and killed on Wednesday. On Tuesday night, as I was lying in bed, I heard two shots. Police sirens followed, and it was reported in the morning that one man was killed and the two suspects fled on foot. Residents tried to administer first aid to the man, but were unsuccessful. Last night I heard two gunshots again, fired sequentially as if two rounds were pumped from the same gun. It was the same type of shooting that I had heard on Tuesday. However, this time I heard no sirens. I am waiting for the police to contact me for more information about last night's gunfire. The LAPD confirmed that no name has been released for the man killed on Tuesday night. There are no media reports. The LA Times homicide blog has not been updated with his information. Initial television reports, from ABC, claimed that the man was thought to have been homeless.

Outside my apartment is a long strip of land that runs along the freeway. Many homeless people live and sleep in this area, and some residents in the apartment building have suggested that they are stealing laundry from our laundry room. The garbage cans outside are often scavenged, and sometimes I can hear people going through them at night. However, I have always found the homeless people in our area to be friendly and not at all aggressive or threatening. They seem to keep themselves to themselves, sleeping on the embankment at Sunset/Wilton or inside the doors of the church on Wilton.

I don't think of this area as "rough", and aside from one experience that made me feel uncomfortable involving a man running across the street at night to tell my boyfriend I should be walking on the inside of the street for protection... I have never been deterred from walking home at night.

But hearing gunshots before you go to sleep at night might be the last straw for my naivety. Twice in one week. I only hope that no-one was killed last night, and that this won't become a regular event.

The NFL Stadium Threatening Lynwood Residents; What's Happening? April 14th Court Date

LYNWOOD, Calif. – For three years, Lynwood residents have been living in the shadow of an invisible football stadium. They have seen the value of their properties decrease, and the area has become a real-estate limbo since plans for an NFL stadium were mapped over their zip code. They don’t know whether to make themselves comfortable, or prepare to evacuate.

Silvia Villegas has decided to “wait it out.” She has lived in her house, on the west side of Atlantic Avenue within the designated stadium zone, for six years. She has seen city projects stagnate. The empty apartment complex at the end of her street was once remodelled to be a women’s center, and then an old-folks home, but was never opened, according to Villegas. Its windows have been boarded up since children started throwing rocks at them. Around the corner from her house, Ham Park is still a fenced-off dirt pile rather than a place for her children to play.

“Nothing gets finished,” said Villegas.

Three years have passed since each of these projects began. The contract for the apartment complex was passed in and out of enthusiastic hands, the shops were torn down to make way for the park, and residents in the stadium area were told to sell their homes early to make the most profit before the NFL arrives. But nothing has come to be.

According to Villegas, her neighbors have been trying to sell their house for a year. But no-one wants to buy property that is ear-marked to be torn down. And the football stadium that threatens five schools and 1000 homes has been weighing on the public mind since its inception behind the closed doors of the council chambers.

Since then, the council members involved were recalled and indicted for misappropriation of public funds, and the new faces at City Hall placed a preliminary injunction on the redevelopment contract. For six months, Residents have been holding their breath for word on whether or not the project will continue.

But on April 14th, they may be given an answer. “That day, the judge will decide whether or not the contract is enforceable,” said Mayor Pro-Tem Aide Castro. The redevelopment contract was amended at a meeting the former council members held in October 2007, after they had been recalled, which may mean that the contract is void. “Our stand is that the contract that was passed by the recalled council is not enforceable,” said Castro. “When you are recalled, you lose your powers.”

Aside from a monthly newsletter from City Hall listing events and menial announcements, Villegas and her neighbors have heard little from the new council, and nothing about the stadium that threatens to uproot them.

A New Reputation, A Clean Slate for MacArthur Park