Jack Thompson Enlists Seattle's Finest Against Penny Arcade

First VGCats, now Penny Arcade: Penny Arcade's rather expensive jab at Jack Thompson has caused the Florida attorney to go off the deep end. He has enlisted the Seattle Police Department in a desperate bid to get even with the creators of the webcomic. Yes, you read that right, folks, Jack Thompson is calling the cops on Gabe and Tycho for donating $10,000 to charity. Part of a letter Jack Thompson faxed to the Seattle chief of police Gil Kerlikowske reads as follows:

"A Seattle business by the name of Penny Arcade... employs certain personnel who have decided to commence and orchestrate criminal harassment of me by various means... This company has done this because I dared to go on CBS's 60 Minutes in March and again in July to explain a wrongful death lawsuit I have brought on behalf of two police officers and a police dispatcher in Fayette, Alabama, who were shot in the head and killed by Devin Moore who obsessively trained on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to kill them.

As you may know, this incredibly violent Rockstar Games product is actually a 'cop-killing' murder simulator. There are a bunch of computer geeks out there who think that the video game industry has a constitutional right to paint a bullseye on your back and on your officers' backs... That is what this criminal harassment of me by Penny Arcade is all about. They're even selling an 'I Hate Jack Thompson' t-shirt, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. These idiots have been so careless as to post on their www.pennyarcade.com web site what they are doing regarding the harassment of me.

I look forward to working with your fine Police Department to shut this little extortion factory down and/or arrest some of its employees."

Given the fact that Jack Thompson submitted an erroneous URL to the chief of police, it might take some time before detectives will be able put the crackdown on this so-called "crime." That is, if they ever stop laughing at Jack Thompson's ridiculous proposal. Which I doubt they will.

a letter Jack Thompson faxed to the Seattle chief of police Gil Kerlikowske

From other reports of the story, it turned out that BatJack tried to put the Penny Arcade URL in the letter, but got it wrong. It turned out that the wrong URL he gave to Seattle's Finest leads to a site featuring lots of pictures of charming young women who have misplaced their clothes.

Just updating for reference:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6136737.html

Seattle police pass on Penny Arcade flap

Florida lawyer's harassment allegations considered a civil matter on the surface, criminal investigation still possible.

Web comic Penny Arcade made headlines last week when it was the subject of an angry complaint letter sent to the Seattle Police Department alleging organized harassment and extortion. In his letter, Florida attorney Jack Thompson said he looked forward to working with the police "to shut this little extortion factory down and/or arrest some of its employees."

However eager Thompson may be for that, it doesn't look likely to happen anytime soon. A representative with the police department told GameSpot today that it hasn't found any crime to prosecute in the matter.

"Our preliminary review of the document has led us to believe that it is most likely a civil matter," police spokeswoman Deborah Brown said, "but we have forwarded it to the chief of our criminal investigations bureau to make sure that it is correct."

Unless the chief of that bureau finds some criminal activity that wasn't apparent upon first examination of the complaint, this part of the ongoing dispute between Thompson and Penny Arcade is resolved.

Calls seeking comment from the office of US Attorney for the Western District of Washington John McKay, whom Thompson also contacted for help in his spat with Penny Arcade, were unreturned as of press time.

By Brendan Sinclair -- GameSpot
Posted Oct 27, 2005 4:15 pm PT

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