Call of Juarez: The Cartel Irks Texas Police

[Callate]

Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio said he's not familiar with the game

...Second verse, same as the first...

 

[RelexCryo]

The man is an idiot, plain and simple.

Yep. I am pretty sure that in this game you are a vigilante who fights the cartels...which would mean that if the game actually did hypnotize children into doing anything, despite all the evidence to the contrary, it would promote people to join the police, or possibly vigilante behaviour. Of course I vigilanteism is also illegal, so meh.

 

[Natdaprat]

When will people learn?! "This game is about WW2, that means everyone who plays it will think it was all fun and games!"

 

[geoflo1024]

The man is an idiot, plain and simple.

He's drawing a logical conclusion: That stylizing gang life as "chic" could cause teens to jump on board.

Sure, he's probably wrong, but it doesn't mean he's an idiot.

Making huge assumptions about a game we know next to nothing about, on logic that hasn't proven to be true under non-biased studies, is pretty idiotic in my book.

I am a resident of Brownsville, TX myself, and a recent graduate of the University there. The University sits directly on the border, and as a consequence our REK Center was shot at, and we had to go into lockdown twice when the automatics and grenades came out (no, I'm not exaggerating). So yeah, I live right on the border, and yes, I would share our Sheriff's views that publishing a game that might glorify the violence here is irresponsible on the developer's part, but I'd like to point out a few things:

First, while I can't speak for our Sheriff, but if you pick apart what he said, he said it was sad that these types of games are protected by the freedom of speech but the violence is real. He never says that it should be censored. It's an inexact parallel that laments that the violence isn't as fake as the speech that represents it.

Second, It's very obvious that the press was just baiting him for a reaction. He had very clearly never heard of the game, so I doubt he went to the press and asked them if there was a game he should be outraged about so he could get it on record. He said the game "leads one to believe that the game deals with narcotic trafficking organizations." Notice that he at no point says that your part is to glorify these organizations or take part in, only that the game deals with them.

Third, These are two different people being quoted. The Sheriff (whom I've been defending) is clearly level-headed even somewhat dismissive about the situation, whereas Chief Garcia is the one that's actually blowing things a bit out of proportion.

In any case, I think this is one of the sillier articles for Escapist to run with as I can almost guarantee you that nobody anywhere cares about what the local police of my little city think. All Escapist has done is taken some dismissive comments from baited policemen of a small city on a game they weren't even aware of, and presented it as though they will now start a campaign to stop the game's production. Shame on you Escapist. If you find yourselves with no news, might I suggest you write up one of those lovely editorials? I do so enjoy them.

 

[Leg End]

"Sadly enough these kind of games are protected by freedom of speech"

(O_O)

Shall anyone give a demonstration of what happens when something isn't protected?

Like... what he just said.

Would it be possible to get him arrested for that statement? Without Freedom of Speech, yes.

I am now led to believe he watches Faux News.

 

[Leg End]

The man is an idiot, plain and simple.

Yep. I am pretty sure that in this game you are a vigilante who fights the cartels...which would mean that if the game actually did hypnotize children into doing anything, despite all the evidence to the contrary, it would promote people to join the police, or possibly vigilante behaviour. Of course I vigilanteism is also illegal, so meh.

Police actually tend to overlook vigilantism because it tends to deal with those they hate but can't touch.

My front lawn is proof of this.

Seriously, I need to install security cameras. :/