I'm concerned about the long term repercussions of:
"We're gamers, we've been immersed in that culture where like we all want to be Superman. You know we're missing something partial in our brain that says, 'Yeah, this might be dangerous'," he said. "I mean it's Devin's place but it's also ours, like this is where we come to hang out."
I can virtually guarantee this incident and that "confession" by a gamer claimning gamers are insane due to the culture they are in and self destructive is going to come up at some point for the anti- video gaming crowd.
I'm also admittedly a little miffed that apparently there were two assasilants but the guy defending himself by pulling a can opener was also taken into custody. But then again in many places the law is that you can't defend yourself and have to flee, and can only use force to protect yourself if your chased down. Legally the guy might have had to turn over his DS where this happened and let the police sort it out, which is just wrong.
As far as coming to the aid of the clerk goes, I am also concerned that it can be argued that this showed warped priorities. But then again, it also raises legal questions if Hays was arrested, what would have happened if the Good Samaritan law was invoked and he had come to the clerk/owners aid.
While not as dramatic in a legal sense (above and beyond how I suspect this will be used at some point) this makes me think of "Kitty Genevieve" who started the whole good Samaritan thing when she was chased down and killed and nobody wanted to get involved while watching it happen due to fear of the repercussions to them. Incidently in the Watchmen movie a certain popular vigilante was supposed to have made his mask from her dress (I don't remember if this was in the comic or not since it's been a while).
Here was a guy being beaten down, and nobody got involved. What's more a guy defending himself was apparently arrested. I understand the reason for some of the applicable laws, but at the same time I have to ask "why haven't we learned our lesson here yet?", I thought Kitty taught us what we needed through her death.
Also as a final note in this long ramble, I will say that I think people who commit crimes like this in Hawaii are kind of stupid, darwinism at it's finest. I say this because the islands are not all that big (in a general sense) and there aren't all that many places to hide if you wind up being hunted. Unlike committing a crime elsewhere, where there are plenty of places to try and run to or hide in. I mean I understand they were wearing masks and relying on anonymity, but at the same time I'd think you'd have to be stupid to try something like this in that enviroment, because even if things go perfectly the odds are much lower than they would be elsewhere.
