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After days of destruction, Macron blames a familiar bogeyman: video games
npr ^

Posted on 07/07/2023 10:31:28 PM PDT by algore

Over the last week, protesters have lit thousands of cars on fire, attacked schools, town halls, police stations, banks and businesses, and set nearly a thousand buildings ablaze.

Some in the Paris suburb of L'Hay-les-Roses rammed a burning car into the mayor's home. Estimates of the damage have been projected to be about $1.1 billion.

As a result, thousands of young people have been arrested since the rioting began in the days after 17-year-old Nahel M. was killed on June 27. According to France's Interior Ministry, the average age of those arrested is 17.

The crisis has exposed deep rancor within marginalized and often low-income communities over discrimination — Nahel is of North African descent — and a general lack of opportunity.

President Emmanuel Macron has mostly blamed social media for the devastation, but he has also claimed that video games have inspired copycat violence and vandalism.

"It sometimes feels like some of them are experiencing, on the streets, the video games that have intoxicated them," Macron said in a press conference on July 1.

He added that protesters are using Snapchat and TikTok to organize themselves and spread "a mimicking of violence, which for the youngest leads to a kind of disconnect from reality."

Concerns that video games promote shootings, massacres or rioting are now about half a century old; it has been traced back to the 1976 release of Death Race, an arcade video game which put players behind the wheel of a car to mow down humanoid figures for points.

The argument gained renewed traction in the 1990s with the release of much more realistic first-person shooter games.

Just three months ago, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva blasted video games for "teaching kids to kill."

(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: blood; europe; france; games; luladasilva; riots

1 posted on 07/07/2023 10:31:28 PM PDT by algore
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To: algore

Muslims like video games. Who knew. Hmmm.


2 posted on 07/07/2023 10:43:00 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: algore

Video games?? lol


3 posted on 07/07/2023 10:43:04 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: Secret Agent Man

4 posted on 07/07/2023 10:51:41 PM PDT by algore
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To: algore

Nice Luger.


5 posted on 07/07/2023 11:03:33 PM PDT by MikeSteelBe (The South will be in the right in the next war of Northern aggression.)
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To: algore
According to France's Interior Ministry, the average age of those arrested is 17.

Having crimes committed by juveniles in the hope
that they won't be tried as adults.

They don't expect anyone to make the connection.

Minimum Ages of Criminal Responsibility in Europe

France.

Persons under the age of 18 “able to understand what they are doing” are criminally responsible for the felonies, misdemeanours or petty offences of which they have been found guilty, and may be subject to measures of protection, assistance, supervision and education according to the conditions laid down by specific legislation. There is no absolute minimum age set at which children become able to be held criminally responsible, but a child will usually be considered to have “discernment” between the ages of 8 and 10.

Children aged 13 to 18 years can be criminally sentenced, including to prison terms and children aged 16 to 18 can in certain circumstances be subjected to adult sentences. [Criminal Code, Article 122-8; Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, “Juvenile Justice in France” May 2008]

A "mental" child with no “discernment” up to age 18?
There's the play.

6 posted on 07/07/2023 11:06:44 PM PDT by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: algore

How out-of-touch with reality must he be, to think that the French people will buy that one?


7 posted on 07/08/2023 12:55:40 AM PDT by Chad C. Mulligan
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To: algore

From the article not shown here, “

“Fueled by rage over the police killing of a teenager during a routine traffic stop June, throngs of young people in France have been lashing out against alleged racial profiling and calling for greater police accountability.

Over the last week, protesters have lit thousands of cars on fire, attacked schools, town halls, police stations, banks and businesses, and set nearly a thousand buildings ablaze”.

“...calling for greater police accountability”

How about accountability for themselves!


8 posted on 07/08/2023 1:17:50 AM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: algore

Time for Parental Advisory stickers?


9 posted on 07/08/2023 5:08:42 AM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: algore

No. No. No. It’s obviously Rock ‘n’ Roll music that is driving the riots.


10 posted on 07/08/2023 6:40:24 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("All he had was a handgun. Why did you think that was a threat?" --Rittenhouse Prosecutor)
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