Jack Thompson Walks Out On Hearing, Court Recommends Enhanced Disbarment
The Florida Bar asked for an "enhanced disbarment" in the disciplinary hearing of Jack Thompson, held earlier this afternoon. The recommendation means Thompson would be disbarred and prohibited from applying to practice law again for ten years, according to 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida spokesperson Eunice Sigler.
Thompson's disciplinary hearing apparently ended in the attorney walking out of the courtroom after saying the judge did not have the authority to hear his case, a reader who sat in on the hearing told us.
The case proceeded without Thompson's presence and the Florida Bar issued its recommendation for the enhanced disbarment. Judge Dava Tunis' specific recommendations for sanctions will be included in her official report, to be due to the Florida Supreme Court by September 2nd.
Before walking out of the courtroom, Thompson filed what he called "Thompson's Formal Objection to June 4 Sanctions Hearing." In the rambling, 4,500-word objection, Thompson questioned Tunis' ability to preside at his hearing, calling her incompetent and arrogant and threatening to have her removed from office "in the days and weeks ahead." He also went on to call the people run The Florida Bar fascists and denied that he was involved some sort of "petty culture war."
Thompson wrapped up his 14-page objection by quoting from the bible, and saying that he and Senators Clinton and Obama understand the dangers posed by the Grand Theft Auto games.
"I am "guilty" of being right and ahead of the curve when it came to Howard Stern and as to Grand Theft Auto. Because I took on Bar complainant, Al Cardenas, the Howard Stern Show is off terrestrial radio and his influence diminished.
Because I took on this cop-killing, woman-bashing video game, the Presidential race is now addressing the issue and this particular video game.
Try to get me disbarred. Go ahead, do your worst, Referee Tunis. I will continue to do my best. "
We've contacted Thompson for a reaction to the recommended disbarment recommendations and will update you if and when he responds. In the meantime, hit the jump for the full letter.
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
THE FLORIDA BAR,
Complainant,
v. Case Numbers SC 07 - 80 and 07- 354
JOHN B. THOMPSON,
Respondent.
THOMPSON'S FORMAL OBJECTION TO JUNE 4 SANCTIONS "HEARING"
This document is hereby submitted to the referee at the commencement of this non-hearing sanctions "hearing" and read into the record as well, and thus I depart from the traditional identification of myself, a party herein, in the third person and instead speak in my own voice in the first person directly to the referee.
I object, strenuously, as I have in the past on the record, to the very notion that this proceeding can even occur, on various grounds any single one of which is fatal to its legitimacy, including but not limited to the following grounds:
You, the referee, are not even a judge. The law in Florida on that is clear, and it is found in Florida's Loyalty Oath Statute 876.05, et sequitur, held constitutional and binding by the United States Supreme Court in Connell v. Higginbotham.
We know now from a recently concluded State Attorney's investigation and Report that your first state loyalty oath was forged. We also know that your next two oaths, which you signed, did not conform to that statute in that the language deviated from what is required and they were not even notarized. A number of formal opinions by Florida's Attorney General state that such flaws are fatal regardless of intent.
The statute itself states that if any state official, including a judge, fails to comply strictly with the loyalty oath statute, then that judge is without legal authority to serve and must immediately be removed from office. I will accomplish your removal from office in the days and weeks ahead, as the litigation that will achieve that has already been filed by me in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. The Supreme Court of Florida, which you, the referee think is your ally in what you are doing here has ruled that your loyalty oath screw-up is fatal.
As Richard Nixon found, the cover-up is worse than the initial law breaking. When I found out about your forged loyalty oath and then about your two subsequent inadequate loyalty oaths, I moved for your recusal. You then immediately commenced a cover-up, refusing by a false, formal order to acknowledge the loyalty oath problem, pretending it did not exist. Proving the cover-up, you even more foolishly executed on February 4, 2008, finally, a loyalty oath, which I attach hereto, that complies with the state statute, but you did so too late to keep you in office, as the oath must be timely executed, and yours is years too late.
The law is clear; your post facto oath is invalid. This panicked oath is an irrefutable admission that you never had a valid oath in the first place. How could you do something so dumb? Easy; desperate people do desperate things. You will be removed from office, and all of what you have done in this Bar matter will be voided as a result.
Secondly, we know now that six of the seven Florida Supreme Court Justices never executed valid state loyalty oaths. I have proven that, as has Florida and Washington, D.C. lawyer Montgomery Blair Sibley, whose own Bar referee, Judge Prescott, had his oath forged by the same person, Sayed A. Shah, who forged yours. What a coincidence.
The Florida Supreme Court entered its order seeking to deny me my right to represent myself before it on this disciplinary matter when I alerted the Court to its loyalty oath problem. They, too, in a panic, executed too-late, post facto, wholly ineffectual loyalty oaths after the whistle was blown on them. This just proves that sitting on the highest court in the state neither make you clever. The consequence of all of this post facto oath taking is that all that the Florida Supreme Court has done in this case is invalid and will be voided, and if you think I will not accomplish that end then a) you do not understand the lawsuit already filed, and b) you don't know Jack.
Thirdly, we are here today because you issued a written document you called "Recommendations" by which you announced to the world with this document you leaked to the press, that I am guilty on 27 of 31 counts brought by The Bar. In issuing and leaking this document called "Recommendations," you have clearly violated Florida Bar Rule 3-7.6 (m) which states in pertinent part:
The referee's report shall include:
(A) a finding of fact as to each item of misconduct of which the respondent is charged, which findings of fact shall enjoy the same presumption of correctness as the judgment of the trier of fact in a civil proceeding;
(B) recommendations as to whether the respondent should be found guilty of misconduct justifying disciplinary measures;
(C) recommendations as to the disciplinary measures to be applied;
English is the greatest of all languages. It allows its users to be very precise. Any rational person conversant in English understands, upon reading Rule 3-7.6, that the document containing findings of guilt must also contain "findings of fact" as to what I am guilty of. Your "Recommendations" have absolutely no findings of fact, and yet we are here today on that invalid document. There is absolutely no provision in our Bar Rules for a document called "Recommendations" devoid of such findings of fact. You and The Bar have made it up. You and The Bar have made a lot of things up in the last four years, and this is just your latest.
From the day this Bar effort began four years ago and in which you, the referee have become ensnared, although you have certainly warmed to the recruitment, I have been asking for a document that informs me what I have done to violate the Rules. Four years later, I still have no such document and no notice and thus no due process by virtue of that failure. You couldn't even come up with it in your "Recommendations." This is a game of "hide and seek," Referee Tunis, which you cannot win.
I have said it before, and I will say it again to you, and of course you will not listen, but the record must be made clear: You can't charge a lawyer and you can't charge a rapist with anything unless you tell him in the charging document with specificity--with facts alleged--what he has done.
We went into the trial here in November 2007 with no specific charges. The Bar said, "Here are the Rules you have violated, here are the documents, you figure it out." At the trial, there was absolutely no evidence--no facts--put forth that I violated any of these Bar Rules. My favourite "testimony," if you want to call it that, which highlights the problem of not telling an accused what he has done wrong, was from Alabama Judge James Moore, who admitted under oath, that I did not withhold any of my colourful disciplinary history from him, as Blank Rome alleged, but that in fact I gave him more facts than I was required to give. My sin was that I did not tell him how "serious" were my Bar sins.
I didn't even have to tell him I was merely reprimanded by The Bar in 1992 for trying to protect my family from death threats, but because I did not characterize my sins as more serious than The Florida Bar itself did, when I provided him all the facts, he said I had not "see the whole picture." Believe me, I see the whole picture. I am to be punished for telling the truth because I pose a threat to this white judge who put this black teen on death row in Alabama. That's the "whole picture." I am also to be punished, you have concluded, for going on 60 Minutes and warning the American people, like Paul Revere, that, inspired by video games, "the murders are coming." And they have come.
I am to be punished for trying to save lives, over the objection of Blank Rome, which gives more money to the Bush family than any other law firm in the world. This is the Bush family that put you on this bench and whom you have protected by refusing to give me a subpoena that puts Jeb Bush under oath about his personal, financial relationship with the two law firms that are behind all of these Bar complaints, Tew Cardenas and Blank Rome. You are Jeb Bush's protector and shield from Jack Thompson, and you have discharged your sordid task in that regard effectively.
Fourthly, most of what I am charged with I did not do on behalf of any client but in pursuit of efforts to secure enforcement of laws for the common good. The Florida Supreme Court ruled, again in English so that any rational person can understand, in Florida Bar v. Brake, that a lawyer cannot violate Rule 4-8.4(d) unless he is "engaged in the practice of law on behalf of a client." I had no client, Referee Tunis, in almost all of this, and thus you have had no jurisdiction over any of that. You have ignored this clear Florida Supreme Court ruling, and you will be undone by this cavalier disregard for the law in this regard as well.
Fifthly, you have received numerous motions to recuse, all of which have been facially and legally sufficient. The law in Florida in state court is clear as to recusal. Once you receive a motion to recuse which on its face conforms to the requirements of Florida Statute 38.10 and Rule 2.330, Florida Rules of Judicial Administration, you must withdraw from a case. You are not allowed to assess the validity of the facts in the motion. The filing of a motion that conforms to the statute mandates recusal, period.
There is no wiggle room on this. You have wiggled, repeatedly, like a nightcrawler on a hook. You have thumbed your nose at this Florida recusal law as well, and this alone will undo you and which renders whatever you do today and after null and void.
Sixthly, we come to an issue about which The Florida Bar's Board of Governors and I are in total agreement. The Governors have come up with a new Rule that before Judges can serve as referees in Bar matters they must be trained as to how to discharge these specialised duties of a referee. In the other Bar case you had Arthur Teele was the respondent, and he solved your problem by killing himself in the lobby of the Miami Herald. I'm not giving you that out.
The Bar Governors have decided: No training, you can't be a referee. Leaving aside your bias against me, which you have never missed an opportunity to express, proof of your incompetence and total lack of training as a referee has been legion. You did whatever The Bar told you to do, even to the point of refusing to give me hearings, refusing to issue subpoenas, and refusing to afford me any semblance of due process. Smiling and saying "Have a nice day," after you have just informed me that I can't get a continuance for my wife's cancer surgery and chemotherapy is not due process, Referee Tunis. It is incompetence wedded to arrogance, poorly masked by a happy face.
Going into this complex "disciplinary" matter with no training on what a referee should do and how you should act undoes all of what you have done and will yet do to me, as the new Bar Rule--let's call it the Tunis Rule--will alone be a basis for reversal.
There is more that I could say and frankly want to say at this Star Chamber, kangaroo court "hearing," but the record has probably been sufficiently made to date to make it easy enough to undo this mess, but I note here, as I conclude my objection to these proceedings:
You have been so cruel and at the same time so foolish as to call my pleadings herein "propaganda." That word means something, given how propaganda was used in the last century by the Third Reich in Nazi Germany to justify the placement of people of faith in "relocation centers" where they were starved and gassed as the "final solution" to the problem they posed. A human spirit that could do that is more than capable of doing to me what you have done. Clarence Thomas, at his Senate confirmation hearings, spoke of those proceedings as "a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree."
The US Senate, Referee Tunis, has nothing on you and your high-tech lynching of the uppity Christian who stands before you.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas warned in Lathrop v. Donohue that integrated state bars, like Florida's, if they were left unchecked as to their ideologies, would turn into, his phrase "goose-stepping brigades" for nonconforming lawyers who did not fit the majority's mold. There is a reason my e-mail address is amendmentone@comcast.net. It is because of the fascists who run The Florida Bar identified as such by a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
You also smeared me with the epithet that I am involved in some petty "culture war" into which I have tried, you allege, to recruit you. Some of us, Referee Tunis, simply know and dare act upon the fact that children should be protected from corporate predation, whether it be the violent pornography in Grand Theft Auto IV, sold to my 15-year-old son in a sting he did at Best Buy in Dadeland, in which women proclaim "I'll suck your cock real nice" then do so, only to be killed by the hero in the game. We actually do something about the sale of simulators to underage teens on how to kill policemen in ways you would not even imagine, which is precisely what Devin Moore did in a police station in Fayette, Alabama. We come against radio broadcast descriptions, in our hometown on WQAM-AM, by Howard Stern as kids are going to school at 8 am by female amputees on how to lubricate their stumps and place them into the anuses of men to achieve orgasm.
Those of us who have done something about this do not want you in what you derisively call a "culture war" anymore than we would want Frank Fuster to run a day care centre. I represented Ileana Fuster in her divorce from Frank Fuster, and she knows more about what I have been trying to do and why I have been trying to do it over the past twenty years than you even care to know and yet which you mock. It's your and The Bar's culture war on me and upon people of faith that indicts you, not me.
The Preamble to your and my Bar Rules, Referee Tunis, prohibits the bringing of Bar complaints by opposing parties and counsel as a means of collateral attack. Such SLAPP Bar complaints are illegal and they are void. When I provided you a letter from The Bar's own prosecutor in Ft. Lauderdale saying just that, you refused to have a hearing on the matter. You refuse to have a hearing on any matter that threatens to derail this locomotive in whose engine you oh-so-primly sit, as it careens toward the bridge that is already washed out.
Just this past week you entered an order asserting that The Bar has never demanded a mental health assessment of me. I have the letters from The Bar that prove you a liar. It was in response to those repeated demands that I went to one of The Bar's own favoured forensic psychologists, Oren Wunderman, Executive Director of the Family Resource Centre of South Florida, who spent hours examining me, administering tests, and he found me a) wonderfully sane, and b) a person whose Christian faith has enhanced his activities as a lawyer. The Bar has a real problem in that Dr. Wunderman simply echoes what The Bar itself had to formally admit in 1991 when its insurer paid me damages for forcing me to undergo forced psych evaluations, on the order of the oathless Florida Supreme Court.
The Bar then formally found my actions stemmed from my religious faith, and it has never gotten over being bested at its own game. This latest instalment of this anti-Christian persecution is simply payback by The Bar, and you have allowed yourself to become part of it.
You have chosen to ignore Dr. Wunderman's findings and The Bar's own previous findings as to why Jack Thompson does what he does, because you must: To do otherwise would have given me a hearing to which I am entitled under Florida Statute 761, called the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act, held constitutional by the United States Supreme Court, which provides me a total defence in these Bar proceedings and which also, when they are over, gives me a cause of action against you personally and against the State of Florida. This act provides that if my actions stem from a religious impulse, then The Bar cannot discipline me for acting upon my religious impulse. Good luck to a Bar whose own formal findings establish why I do what I do.
When I wrote a letter to Al Cardenas, calling him to be ashamed of what he and his law firm have done to harm children by fronting for the Howard Stern Show, I was acting upon the Scriptural template of John the Baptist confronting Herod about marrying his brother's wife and the example of Jesus confronting the Pharisees, who called them "hypocrites, whited sepulchers, and vipers." Jesus was not a silent doormat and neither am I.
This Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which you arrogantly chose to pretend does not exist and on which you would not give me a hearing as to my defence thereunder, has been found to protect as a religious practice the consumption of peyote because there is a religious sect that makes doing so a sacrament. You cannot be serious, Referee Tunis, if you think that a jury will not look at what you have done to me for what I have done, in the name of Jesus Christ, and not be appalled at your discrimination against this uppity Christian "propagandist" whom you smear as a mere "culture warrior."
Finally, and then I am done with this formal objection to these proceedings, over a year ago I taught an evening class at Miami-Dade Community College on the campus a few minutes from here. When I was introduced by the professor as the man who got Howard Stern off terrestrial radio, which Stern himself admits, and despite the Bar complaints of Tew Cardenas and other porn lawyers made at the time, all of the African American women in that classroom gave me an ovation. They get it. They understand the racism and the misogyny by Stern targeting them. You, a white woman of privilege living on Key Biscayne, obviously don't "get it."
Those black female students are the people who will be on my jury in the trial in which you and The Bar will be a defendant. I do what I do for them, and not for you, not for the ultra-liberal extremists on the Board of Governors like Steve Chaykin, my actual designated reviewer who publicly states that lawyers like Jack Thompson who oppose gay adoption are "enemies of The Bar and outside the core values of The Bar." My other designated reviewer was Ben Kuehne, to the left of Stalin ideologically who is an operative for the ACLU, which national organisation has targeted me for years. Kuehne is now under federal indictment for money-laundering and you, you obstructionist sitting illegally on that bench, would not issue a subpoena to allow me to depose him. In that single act of ministerial arrogance you violated any conceivable notion of due process under our Constitution. In doing so, you embarrass the bench more than any words I could write about Judge Ron Friedman.
The Steve Chaykins and the Ben Kuehnes who have hijacked this Bar, and who have hijacked you, the referee, are the ones who have fashioned Justice Douglas' "goose-stepping brigades" that will undo both you and The Bar. I have put up with your serial breaches of Florida laws, of the Canons of Judicial Conduct, of the Constitution, and of common decency for a year and a half now. When this is done, and when you recommend my disbarment, and when the Supreme Court does disbar me, as I am presently bound and gagged and unable to represent myself before them in this matter, even though I now have a client whom I represent before them in that very same court, the tables will be turned. It will then be my time at bat, and a jury of normal people in this County will undo all that you have done.
Even now, this day, I thank God that I am who I am, in the situation in which I now find myself, rather than the one in which you brazenly put yourself. From the Gospel of John 15: 18-25 I end with the words of Jesus of Nazareth, which you, Referee Tunis, have proven true:
18"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. 23He who hates me hates my Father as well. 24If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25But this is to fulfil what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'"
Having only scratched the surface with what is wrong about these lawless proceedings and why they are illegitimate under the laws and Constitution that you were supposed to take an oath to uphold, I have no choice, as a matter of law, but to depart from these proceedings now and not participate in them other than to object to them, which I have now done.
To do otherwise, to participate in any fashion in these invalid, unauthorized, unconstitutional, vicious proceedings, waives my objection to them and in fact validates them. I will not do that because I am too good a lawyer to do that, having practiced law, Referee Tunis, in continuous good standing for 31 years, despite the efforts of the anti-Christian Florida Bar that recruited you to do exactly what you have done like a good little soldier in your own little culture war on a man who protects the children you should be protecting.
Jesus said, "If any of you should cause one of these little ones to stumble, then it would be better for you that a millstone be tied around your neck and that you be cast into the uttermost depths of the sea."
By perseverance and by God's grace, I have fashioned a legal millstone that I will place around your neck and the neck of The Bar. Don't blame me, Referee Tunis, when you feel the water rising.
I have been invited to be one of four honourees this year in Utah at what is called America's Freedom Festival. I will ride with the other four honourees in a parade attended in the past by 250,000 folks lining the streets of Provo. The petty hypocrisy by which you, a referee, seek to harm me cannot undo the blessing that awaits me, by God's mercy and grace, in middle America a month from this day. I attach the news release from the Freedom Festival so that you can see that I am being blessed because I have stood against The Bar, not in spite of that stand. I have put myself in harm's way, at the hands of harmful people like you, Referee Tunis, and in doing so I have "fought the good fight" to protect little ones who mean more to me than anything you think you can do to me.
You are the one who is out of touch, Ms. Tunis. Senators Clinton and Obama have both warned the American people, specifically, of the danger posed by the Grand Theft Auto games. The Blank Rome lawyers who protect this game want me disbarred because I dared to sound the alarm about Grand Theft Auto on CBS' 60 Minutes before Senators Clinton and Obama followed my lead. Now, in part because of my efforts, a recent poll shows that 65% of the American people want a federal law to prohibit the sale of games like GTA to kids. I am "guilty" of being right and ahead of the curve when it came to Howard Stern and as to Grand Theft Auto. Because I took on Bar complainant, Al Cardenas, the Howard Stern Show is off terrestrial radio and his influence diminished. Because I took on this cop-killing, woman-bashing video game, the Presidential race is now addressing the issue and this particular video game.
Try to get me disbarred. Go ahead, do your worst, Referee Tunis. I will continue to do my best.
I HEREBY CERTIFY that this has likely been hand-delivered this June 4, 2008, to Bar staff counsel Sheila Tuma in the courtroom.



View: AU Comments (1) | US Comments (324 comments)
Wow...Treason, fake judges, Nazis, hypocracy, blacks, and a rant by a bastard!
...all in 4,500 words! Even Forsyth couldn't manage that shit!
Fucking lunatic.
this guy and gertsman or whatever that guy from gamespot that got fired, REALLY enough already. if you don't give them the press they will just go away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OR will have one more news story when they jump off a bridge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
freespeech
Don't tell Jack, but I listen to more Howard Stern now than I did ten years ago. I don't think Howard's hurting. In fact, I think he's pretty well off these days on satellite radio.
CosmoEnemaster
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Oh My God, I can't stop laughing!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
mixmastermind
JT wrote in his letter:
"I have been invited to be one of four honorees this year in Utah at what is called America's Freedom Festival. I will ride with the other four honorees in a parade attended in the past by 250,000 folks lining the streets of Provo."
Is it me or is he unable to count?
Iceman B.
Is it wrong for me to think of this as the best birthday present EVER. Ah, June 4th, how I love you.
CrimzinD
@Truvill: Fuck yeah!
Klappstuhl
Oh well, I missed a perfectly golden oppertunity to get my photo op and GTAIV signed right as he stormed out the hearing.
TC
"Because I took on this cop-killing, woman-bashing video game, the Presidential race is now addressing the issue and this particular video game."
So, the other six and a half million people playing the game had nothing to do with that? Jack is WAY ahead of the curve.
NeoStarr
Looks like he's going to be hanging around Crecente's house more often.
polarenvy
"This just proves that sitting on the highest court in the state neither make you clever."
"neither make you clever.." or what? I'm sorry Jack, but incomplete or incoherrent thoughts just make it really hard for me to even believe you ever revise anything you write. Did you mean "doesn't" make you clever? And did you honestly put your email in there? Your firstamendmentrights are going to get spammed like no one's business.
I swear you started out by saying you were going to NOT use third person, and yes for the most part you didn't use third person pronouns. It's just every time I started to forget what madman would ever right this kind of crap, you reminded me of your full name.
HumanBomb
Doesn't ol' Jack have a son or something? I feel bad for the kid, he must get a lot of shit from gamers about his father. But yes, Jack, you need to GTFO, for even having the audacity to say stuff like that about the judge and the others.
Yoyoenix91
"Next time on Judge Thompson: a tenant and landlord fight over owed rent. Are video games to blame? Judge Thompson Rules!"
Fortyseven
I don't remember ever reading a paragraph begin:
"Sixthly, ......."
Bez
I couldn't even read more than a few paragraphs of his testament there before succumbing to the lolz. Really makes me wonder where crackpots like this garner support.
Infinite_Monkeys
Im a day late to this one but, you can get a copy of his 14 page statement. Game Politics has a link to it. Includes a home or work phone number for him. Thought that was funny.
ShaggyB
@MURDERFACE: oops erase that first as in my comment. We still need a edit button.
MURDERFACE
Once again JT as went from normal bat-shit crazy to mildly retarded villainy. Congrats JT you lost your fucking mind enjoy your long vacation.
oh yeah by the way.........................................
+ Watch video
MURDERFACE
What the hell? Why does it say that this story has 6 Diggs now, when 2 hours after the story was posted it had 116... when I was one of them. Something smells fishy, either way.. Lucky 7!
GameBreaker
@Ashkihyena: And yes, I know his stance on video games, but honestly, he's a politican, whose not to say once he gets in, he won't flip flop on that?
Ashkihyena
@gaijira: Sorry dude, but I don't consider myself a troll, if I did, I'd be saying things like "OMG, the PS3 is the sux!" and crap like that.
I'm just not a huge Obama fan, never have been and never will be, and of course, when douchebag Thompson mentions someone, it kinda makes me not want to support them even more.
Ashkihyena
Fake Samuel L. Jackson will be pleased with this development
jboy3533
@deadjesterx: "1 - There needs to be proof that video games do not lead to violence in the form of very concrete research."
I'm not sure that such a thing could be proven in a scientific sense. I think can be shown that that proposed correlations between violent video games and violent behaviour are meaningless. However, this has been shown over and over again for games, and for every other form of 'bad' media.
Still, the basic logical fallacy of 'post hoc, ergo propter hoc' will continue to form the foundation of every idiotic, moralistic argument that's used to justify censorship.
"Even then there will still be a few who would ignore said research and get on their soap boxes. Just take a look at global warming/climate change to see what people are willing to ignore.
2 - We're basically going to have to wait until the older generation isn't in power anymore or at least until they don't have the same clout in politics/media. Rock and roll, movies, and comics all had to go through this shit and things didn't really settle until the older generation that demonized these mediums were out and the younger generation that grew up with them were in."
I'd agree with the second part of point 1, which seems to undermine point 2.
The thing is, these stupid arguments are still levelled against popular music, only now it's hip hop instead of rock. Today's movies are generally bland and lacking controversy, so they largely escape, but the same shit is occasionally thrown their way.
I think it's a matter of economic clout. The music and film industries simply don't have to give a shit about such rantings. Nutty censors and moralists don't have a hope of denting their profits (or, at least, are far from being the biggest threat).
Frankly, the game industry is also big enough not to have to give a shit.
73mike
@Kamesen: I hate to say it, but I agree 100% with Jack Thompson. If what he claims is true..."
Then Jesus wants to give him a back-rub.
Unfortunately (for Jack, if not the rest of us), judging by his record and his love of stating shaky hypotheses as if they were proven facts, what he claims is most likely not true.
"If what he claims is true..."
Then the world is a dark, scary dogma-ridden place.
73mike
This is what happens when you snort crushed Oxycontin off of Rush Limbaugh's ass.
Maxxofor
@Dual45s: I don't know if I dreamed it, or if one can buy such a thing online, but aren't there T-shirts with a picture our favourite apoplectic lawyer and the slogan "You Don't Know Jack!"?
If not ,there should be.
73mike
10 years without Jacky-T? I'm going to miss the ignorant Christian Right twinkle in his eye and his lovely jerky knees.
Who's going to be our lovable hate figure now?
Spadgy
!0 years without Jacky-T? I'm gonna miss him - who's going to be our misguided Christian Right hate figure now?
Spadgy
"There is a reason my e-mail address is amendmentone@comcast.net." I gots to have my PowerBoost!
DeeBG
You know, I imagine Dava Tunis' parents gave her that name because they knew the first three letters could be transposed with those in her surname to form Tuna Davis.
tokeytorey
lol, I didn't even know there was such a thing as ENHANCED disbarment. That's like saying you lost at life, which he most defiantly has.
The only thing better would be deporting him + a permanent gag order to talk to any press outlet. I'll take this for now.
DeeBG
at this point I don't even care if he IS a Jack Thompson, that behavior is unacceptable in ANY regard
EvilJester
For those of you with a life, here's the TL;DR version of Jack Thompson's letter:
I'm a huge faggot please rape my face.
thefremen
Enhanced disbarment? I vote for vocal chords ablation!
Guizzy
I cannot believe I read all that.
I now have the urge to go outside and start yelling about how GTA kills people.
Terance!
What a douche.
G.Wicks
@megaStryke: in fact, forget the law practice!
Waka in Japan
He reminds me of Dr. Breen.
Combinator
Did you hear that the Post Office had to recall its series of stamps depicting famous lawyers? People were confused about which side to spit on..
GOLD5
So what I'm getting from this is Jack Thompson is better than Jews because his trail is like the Holocaust, better than blacks because his trial is like a public lynching and is the new Jesus because people don't like him.
Honestly I don't see how he is going to come out of this one with some sort of slander charge or hate crime associated with him now.
Well played Jack...
Well played.
Pro-Marshmallo
oops! Jack you mentioned Nazi Germany in your argument! Your statements are invalid and the discussion is over, you lost lol.
Jashin
@megaStryke: you know what FORGET the law practice!!!
_Ted_
J.T. is like a five year old misbehaving in school.
Teacher: Sit down and be quiet
J.T. : You're not my mommy!
... He storms out of the room.
LegoJediKnights
@Fnor: I don't think there's anything wrong with people being pleased to see JT being made to answer for his legal transgressions. Perhaps people are blowing this event's significance out of proportion, but I'm certainly not.
It was grating for you to presume that "gamers" (i.e., gamers who aren't you) don't understand the degree to which JT's disbarment is or isn't significant. So, yeah, pot and kettle. I don't care whether the cute literary references you use are obscure, but you undermine your argument with them.
patheticnerd
Wow, this is really unfortunate. Now I feel bad for the guy.
MikeTheSpike
@Ashkihyena: Umm.....are you out of your damn mind? Wow, you're either really misinformed, or a serious troll. Either way, here's Obama's take on violent video game legislation:
"We need to give parents the tools and information they need to make choices about what programs their children are watching or what video games they are playing. As we move towards a digital environment, there is a golden opportunity for the industry to do this on their own-to use the latest in technology to give parents more information and more choice. For example, this technology could make it possible for parents to create their own family tier just by programming their television to block certain channels, block certain genres of programming like dramas, or block television at certain times of the day. The same can be said of video games, especially as we're moving into an era when they can be downloaded as easily as today's movies and television shows.
I would call upon the video game industry to give parents better information about programs and video games by improving the voluntary rating system we currently have. Broadcasters and video game producers should take it upon themselves to improve this system to include easier to find and easier to understand descriptions of exactly what kind of content is included. But if the industry fails to act, then my administration would.
And even if the industry does do some responsible self-policing, there's still a role for the federal government to play. We need to understand the impact of these new media better. That's why I supported federal funding to study the impact of video games on children's cognitive development."
Well, sounds likes Rockstar Games is really screwed if this Orwellian ban-happy fascist gets elected!
Seriously? You wouldn't support someone because a douche like Thompson drops his name and misrepresents his views?
Whatever, you'll probably just say TL:DR and go back to trollin'.
gaijira
If by "enhanced" disbarment you mean strapping him to a chair, sealing his eyes open ala Clockwork Orange and forcing him to play GTAIV 24/7 for the rest of eternity, then yes, I agree with the Florida Bar's decision.
cybereality
All that I can say is thank God.
Lone-Gun
*Plays world's tiniest violin*
echelon11
If Jack supports Obama, thats another reason for me not to, Heaven help Rockstar games if he gets elected, especally with Hillary as VP.
Ashkihyena
I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed this, but in the entire "little" letter of Mr. Thompson, did he mention how he was being disciplined for disrespect, contempt, and a few other things, not being discipline for trying to blame a video game for problems, that happens all the time. Yet he was pointing all the problems at a judge that was simply in charge of his hearing. If he wanted to even TRY to make himself look good, he could have TRIED to justify his rather brash and inexcusable actions he did in the courtroom time and time again.
Was it not too long ago, that Jack Thompson attempted to use gay hardcore pornography as evidence without first using proper filing procedures?
Did he also once say that all video games with violence makes people violent, and NOT just Grand Theft Auto?
Did he also not slander and harass the makers of the famous comic, Penny Arcade?
Did he ALSO not give out a challenge, for a game company to make a video game that was purely about killing the company owners of video games, along with a PROMISE that if someone made this game, he would donate $20,000 (I think thats the amount) to charity? Someone made the game, and guess what happened? He tried to sue the maker of the game.
Even more importantly, and the most obvious question of all, is... has Jack Thompson even PLAYED Grand Theft Auto? Or was he going by speculation and what other people say alone?
I am quite honestly going to be relieved, and disappointed when this is all over. Relieved for obvious reason, disappointed because this means that no one can make those amusing jokes in web comics anymore (shallow, ain't it?)
Lichruler
Trolls are trolls even when they are being called trolls, and continue to be trolls up until the b& hammer strikes.
talisein
@kRaSh32: Lots of people have legitimate arguments regarding one viewpoint or another. People like Jacky the Jokeman use every means available to drive their viewpoints home, all evidence and arguments to the contrary be damned.
Another example I refer to is the case of former comic book writer Micah Ian Wright, who put out some harsh "propaganda manipulations" critical of the U.S. Gov't, et al. (Look up "You Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want" as reference). His work and claims he was a former Army Ranger rang so loud the Washington Post did an extensive profile story on the guy. Thing is: He was never a Ranger, and former rangers called him out on it. The Post did a follow-up saying they were duped and had the docs (via FIA) to prove it. Unlike Jacky, Wright eventually copped to fabricating his delusional supersoldier background, but the damage was done, all later editions of his book had some very unsightly addenda tacked on and the industry effectively showed him the door.
Why do I bring this up? I think Wright has some valid points and criticisms, but refuse to refer to him as a valid source when discussing my distaste for government policy. We may all agree on M-rated games being inappropriate for young children, but I sure as hell will not refer to any of Jacky's invectives and outright lies to support my case. And neither should the public.
schwarzsturm
@kRaSh32: He wasn't disbarred for his argument, he was disbarred for the abuse of his legal certification. Threatening phone calls, publicity pranks, scare tactics and frivolous law suits are not the way to go about making that argument and certainly not the way to go about keeping your license.
ConstantCupcake
You know I feel sorry for him. He really seems like a sad, scared man who desperately needs something to blame for the evil in the world. It's like giving a toddler a law degree, of course he'll use it to try to make himself feel safer.
ConstantCupcake
Wow...this guy has BALLS. I'm sure he's really going to sit there and tell the JUDGE how inadequate she is. Disbarment at LEAST...psych ward at best...
ThisCharmingMan
10 years without Jack? Good enough for me.
KM91
The man has a legitimate argument that should be recognized. I am not for abolishing the game industry, however any laws backing up in-place retail policy of the ESRB should have no effect on the market. GTA is a game rated M, 17+. If you purchased a game by presenting to the cashier that you were in fact older than you were, that's already a crime. Now it's a crime for both parties involved. Big deal. L2Not lie about your age.
kRaSh32
@TiKiMaN1: TiKiMaN1, if Jack himself didn't write that long winded blurb about why Jack Thompson is the greatest person in the world because he said so, I'd be shocked.
mitch079
I can't believe I feel the urge to download some Kool and the Gang. 'Celebrate good times, come on'.
Dcbronco
@mettleh3d: Nice guy? Are you kidding me? Did you not read what he did and said to and about people over the past few years that came to light in this hearing?
I have no sympathy or compassion for a man whose short sighted, arrogant, repulsive, and downright harrassing actions lead to his downfall. Pride, one of the seven deadly sins, and this is Jack Thompson. If he wants to claim to be a man of God, so be it, but this man is neither a prophet nor a savior, except in his own head. Maybe one day Jack, you will see the error of your ways and actions but I think that day is a long day off, if at all.
mitch079
"There is no wiggle room on this. You have wiggled, repeatedly, like a nightcrawler on a hook."
And then you teleport and kick me in the face.
Polite Society
*shakes her head* that man needs serious professional help.
EmeraldDragon
Forget 10 years disbarrment, wait till the Illuminati get their hands on him... he'll be thrown into a underground shelter and be quickly forgotten. Note to Jack as well: Gamers have been here for years, we aren't going away so you and any other fucking stiff politician who thinks they can fuck with gamers should either get with the program or expect a visit from the guys in the white suits.
FedeleDelphi
Thompson needs to lay off the LSD.
Eltigro
I have two words for you:
ABOUT FARKING TIME!!!
jojowasher
You know, I'm gonna miss Jackie-boy. He was a constant source of amusement, which came in handy during the summer gaming droughts.
RubyMars
My favorite part is the "English is the greatest of all languages" line. No wait, the part where he compares the court to Nazis. No no, where he compares HIMSELF to John the Baptist and Jesus! And then he said black women love him! Oh man there is just too much good stuff in there.
I'm surprised he wasn't sanctioned on top of his uber-disbarment. I didn't even realize you could get even MORE disbarred.
rockasocky
Jack seems to have gotten to the point of "Everyone but me is wrong" and apparently needs to stop being a narcissistic, moronic, 56 year old man. It's almost as if the 60s and 70s scared the hell out of him and then when the 80s and rap hit- oh no, that's not good!
He's stuck in his own little world, and there's one people you don't mess with: gamers. We've been here since the 80s and aren't going anywhere. It's nothing new, but we're growing to a big industry and now getting tons of people. And it scares people like Jack.
I will say though, he's not totally wrong- he's just forgetting the whole M-rated games are to tell parents about the violence, much like R-rated movies. We do have regulation, it's the few people that are 16 or just don't care working at stores that are giving us a "bad" name and selling these things to kids.
We all can agree, kids don't need these games. We all can't agree that they should legally be banned from kids- music isn't, movies aren't, I don't see why games have to be. And I would be glad to straight ask Jack: why are games any different? There's no proof games have any more influence than music or movies, and to ask what "violent" is can be subjective. Is jumping on a turtle to kill it more violent than sniping somebody? Is taking a chainsaw to someone in Gears of War more violent than doing that in Duke Nukem?
Truly, there is no argument that can be solved- so thus there is no argument. Thank God - yes, even your God Jack- that someone in Florida finally realized this...
JGab
@bluerondo: Ho ok ok there settle down...no need for histrionics. I did get that quote originally from G4, not exactly a reputable news source I grant you. I hereby offer to retract my statement, and humbly apologize to the greater Kotaku community for any and all contributions I may have made to furthering falsity and misinformation.
gaijira
Holy shit, this man is OUT OF CONTROL!
What is he, a video game player or something???
YUYU
Great late birthday present :)
noodle_976
Enhanced Disbarment: 60fps, 1080p, less Thompson and MORE JACK!
Jesus & Laywers, wow I didn't see that one coming.
Can't wait to see the Wikipedia updates on this one.
Brackynews
@gaijira: ""Grand Theft Auto 4 is a sin against God" -John McCain"
That alleged quote is from a website called "unconfirmedsources.com."
A PARODY WEBSITE.
The morons who picked up that story and propagated it were too stupid to realize they were parroting a PARODY.
You know what else you can learn on unconfirmedsources.com? Today's top story: "President George W. Bush endorsed Barack Obama on Wednesday "
Grow up and don't believe everything you read just because you saw it on t3h iNT3Rn3tZZlolSZ11!
bluerondo
Do we really want this jackass to have as much free-time as he will have if he is disbarred? Sure he won't have any credibility at all (unless Fox News gives him a job), but he will have nothing better to do than rant and rave without needing to fear any more consequences. Sure he could just fade away from public notice, but then again I have kind of enjoyed watching him repeatedly make an ass out of himself.
RykinPoe
@Samos42:
Here's a look from awhile back at some of the candidates' views on games:
[www.commonsensemedia.org]
While Clinton did introduce her own Family Entertainment Protection Act, Obama's view seem remarkably reasonable. Parental responsibility, industry self-policing, and federal studies into effects.
I believe Thompson would have been far more honest in referencing John McCain in having similar views to his own.
"Grand Theft Auto 4 is a sin against God" -John McCain
gaijira
"Thompson's disciplinary hearing apparently ended in the attorney walking out of the courtroom after saying the judge did not have the authority to hear his case,"
Did any of you guys watch the Saddam trial? Saddam Hussein did the same thing.
JT = Saddam. Beautiful.
bluerondo
Violent video games are bad for you!
Just look at that Jack Thompson guy.
BossMonk
He fits more in as the typical fire-and-brimstone preacher than a lawyer.
Pinhead
I am happy that the legal system actually worked right and now he can't practice for 10 years. I am also a bit surprised and part of me is sad that I am surprised the legal system actually worked out right.
@Bernard McGraw: He'll become a Fox news "Expert" and continue spreading his opinions and they will ignore the fact that he was disbarred so most viewers will really believe he is an expert. Yeah I am feeling cynical but it is probably pretty close to what will really happen.
ion1626
I find it hard to get real upset at Jack. He's never posed any serious threat to anything I care about, and crusading apparently makes him happy. And he did once ask Janet Reno if she liked men or women, which cracks me up. I just hope he can continue living his life well and find healthy things to be passionate about. Sometimes we really forget that, video game opponent or not, Jack Thompson is a human being, too-- just because he behaves inappropriately does not mean we need to respond in kind. Whatever happened to being benevolent even to those who would wish you ill? Sometimes we really seem to embody all the worst of what our opponents suggest of us, which is very sad.
wild homes
Who need evidence when you have God on your side?
Oh right, lawyers .
@Stratovarius: Don't feel bad for people who face the just consequences for their actions, and don't pity those who stand behind religion to further their own vain agenda.
The real tragedy here is that a guy like Thompson has spent his entire career belaboring our legal system with frivolous lawsuits, championing a "cause" that serves to better the lives of few (other than himself) in a world so deeply rought with true evil that tens if not hundreds of thousands are left in desperate need for passionate civil prosecutors like Thompson. Feel bad that he's been too busy doing Fox "News" stints to try the case of those who have been truly victimized by real criminals.
As someone empowered by our legal system to make a difference as a prosecutor, his has been a lifetime wasted on pushing an evangelical agenda of petty, meaningless, and unconstitutional regulation of the entertainment business.
Think of all those billable hours he's racked up wasting people's time. His, ours, the media, videogame publishers, and most importantly: those permanently touched horrific acts of violence whom Thompson has used as instruments of a petty, self-serving crusade to draw as much attention to himself as possible.
Like child rapists in prison, there's a special kind of hell awaiting Jack Thompson. Disbarment is just a little vacation before the real punishment comes. Hey- it's his God, not mine. I don't make the rules. Just call a spade a spade, let his magic deity deal with the rest.
stranger
Have fun at Mickey D's, Jack.
FellTheDabus
@megaStryke: In fact, forget the law practice and the black jack!
redgopher
He's gone. And when the hell have Obama and Clinton addressed this? Obama mentioned it once but not in the way Thompson means. And Clinton seems to have actually been avoiding the issue throughout her campaign.
Samos42
this shit went down like 20 minutes from where i live. im sad i missed out.
TheIrishNinja
@Fnor: I think you have raised a very valid point about the general mood and level of discourse on this topic. People are viewing it as a victory for video games and clearly it is not.
However, I think the less vocal majority can look at this and see this is a victory for the battle of reason vs frivolity. Thompson has done many things wrong and continually attacked core ideaologies which should be aspired to by those who govern this country. He is only part of a larger push, and yes he is fringe, but as we can see the fringe has been in control for the past 25+ years.
Seeing someone get derailed for their agressive abuse of the legal system is almost as enjoyable as seeing someone derailed for aggresive abuse of executive authority.
But certainly this did not change much; other than show fanaticism is not welcome no matter which direction it is coming from. I am glad that Thompson can no longer undermine personal responsibility as a member of the legal system. I believe that regardless of the coorelation between media and behavior, people are still responsible for thier own actions. Now Thompson is learning that first hand, action, reaction, cause, effect; I suppose next he will be claiming that video games caused his outrageous behavior.
ankhenaten