Ex-soldier puts his girlfriends 8 year old kid into coma for accidently deleting his GTA save file.

[loc978]

Pretty unfair to blame the soldier, you should be blaming the government/healthcare system for not dealing with post traumatic stress disorder and such that's the cause for all these problems.

Wrong. We have a VA health system that is fully capable of treating PTSD and free for soldiers.

...and has a longer waiting list than most Canadian healthcare institutions...

I once got an appointment at a VA hospital. Took nine months.

Alright I'll qualify it a little. If you were stationed in Hawaii for a year and want treatment for your hemorrhoids 20 years later, and have a good job, you'll have a significant co-pay. But if you need emergency services, and the ailment has anything to do with combat, you'll be seen quickly. I cannot speak for how things are in Oklahoma, but I can say from what I have seen, those who need urgent PTSD treatment would be set up in less than a month. One just has to be motivated to accept what services are offered.

It's very hard to qualify "urgent PTSD treatment" when you weren't diagnosed on active duty. Admittedly that really only happens when a soldier lies on paper about feelings of depression... but... most soldiers do lie on paperwork, if only to avoid more paperwork.
I'm not saying the guy doesn't deserve his 75 year sentence, he most certainly does. But this probably could have been prevented by a system not designed as a nigh-impenetrable bureaucracy that assumes everyone is malingering until they prove otherwise.

 

[CoL0sS]

Kid deleting his savegame was probably just a trigger. Stressful and traumatizing life of a soldier is likely to blame. High sentence is appropriate, bastard should rot. After all it's just a game.

I have a younger brother so shit like this happened all the time. Savegames, installations, games, external hard drives, guitar......he broke a lot of stuff. Yeah it drove me crazy but not enough to beat him senseless.

 

[Amy Sorel]

I know it's horrible and all, but I'm just wondering.

He now faces 75 years in jail.

Don't murderers get less time than that?

He was in the army. When a trained soldier breaks the law, they get much more punishment.

* This information was given to Amy by the film with Nicholas Cage wich she can't remember the name of right now.

 

[Fearzone]

It's very hard to qualify "urgent PTSD treatment" when you weren't diagnosed on active duty. Admittedly that really only happens when a soldier lies on paper about feelings of depression... but... most soldiers do lie on paperwork, if only to avoid more paperwork.
I'm not saying the guy doesn't deserve his 75 year sentence, he most certainly does. But this probably could have been prevented by a system not designed as a nigh-impenetrable bureaucracy that assumes everyone is malingering until they prove otherwise.

"Urgent PTSD treatment" = active symptoms, nightmares, flashbacks, mood instability, etc. Okay, fair enough about the malingering remark, but mainly that's around VA disability pensions, not so much treatment.

 

[loc978]

I know it's horrible and all, but I'm just wondering.

He now faces 75 years in jail.

Don't murderers get less time than that?

He was in the army. When a trained soldier breaks the law, they get much more punishment.

Indeed. He was probably still in the Inactive Ready Reserve, and thus was chargeable with an article 128 under the UCMJ.

 

[loc978]

It's very hard to qualify "urgent PTSD treatment" when you weren't diagnosed on active duty. Admittedly that really only happens when a soldier lies on paper about feelings of depression... but... most soldiers do lie on paperwork, if only to avoid more paperwork.
I'm not saying the guy doesn't deserve his 75 year sentence, he most certainly does. But this probably could have been prevented by a system not designed as a nigh-impenetrable bureaucracy that assumes everyone is malingering until they prove otherwise.

"Urgent PTSD treatment" = active symptoms, nightmares, flashbacks, mood instability, etc. Okay, fair enough about the malingering remark, but mainly that's around VA disability pensions, not so much treatment.

I'll have to bow out to you on this one, I really haven't come in for urgent treatment.

...I could go on about the "warrior culture" that views PTSD as a weakling's excuse... but the army is trying like hell to change that, so I can't really fault 'em there.

 

[fundayz]

EDIT: alright well I read the story. Sounds like justice was served, hopefully the guy dies in jail. No more GTA there, eh? Thank goodness the boy survived to report what really happened. Hopefully ongoing medical treatment can restore him to some semblance of normality.

And this is why the ignorant religious people should not be listened to when it comes to scientific research.
We are already using stem cells to recreate bladders and other organs; if it wasn't for the uninformed religious lobbying the government, we could be years ahead of the technology we have now. Hopefully, we'll start growing new intestines as well in the near future.

 

[Defense]

I know it's horrible and all, but I'm just wondering.

He now faces 75 years in jail.

Don't murderers get less time than that?

He was in the army. When a trained soldier breaks the law, they get much more punishment.

* This information was given to Amy by the film with Nicholas Cage wich she can't remember the name of right now.

Ah, alright. I was just wondering because it didn't sound like a regular sentencing to me.

 

[JezebelinHell]

You know what I find ironic about this story? All of you will throw a fit when the story focuses on video games as an excuse for behavior yet I see a majority of responses in this thread happily jumping on the article band wagon of blaming this behavior on the fact that he was a soldier. I see no validation for either argument in the facts of the case.
Why can't you be just as appalled when they use one scapegoat vs another scapegoat? Seriously, we have wonderful people in the military past and present and even on this site. Why should the stigma of this be pinned on them any more than the video game? Yet you would allow yourselves to put this blame on them much as the media puts the blame on video games.
The man obviously has issues, he was judged to be guilty, why not place the blame on the person?

 

[Alon Shechter]

I suffer from a major case of PTSD.
Mine is not war trauma.
It's a wonder he can control himself at all.
I barely can.
Obviously he's not sane, as one would expect from an ex-soldier acting not sane.

The hell is this?

 

[Fearzone]

I'll have to bow out to you on this one, I really haven't come in for urgent treatment.

...I could go on about the "warrior culture" that views PTSD as a weakling's excuse... but the army is trying like hell to change that, so I can't really fault 'em there.

No worries, bro, you have experience and knowledge of what you were talking about. Best of luck in getting the services you need through the VA.

 

[loc978]

You know what I find ironic about this story? All of you will throw a fit when the story focuses on video games as an excuse for behavior yet I see a majority of responses in this thread happily jumping on the article band wagon of blaming this behavior on the fact that he was a soldier. I see no validation for either argument in the facts of the case.
Why can't you be just as appalled when they use one scapegoat vs another scapegoat? Seriously, we have wonderful people in the military past and present and even on this site. Why should the stigma of this be pinned on them any more than the video game? Yet you would allow yourselves to put this blame on them much as the media puts the blame on video games.
The man obviously has issues, he was judged to be guilty, why not place the blame on the person?

Clearly the blame has been placed on the person... but no crime is entirely without a root cause. The sad fact is, most cases of PTSD among soldiers go untreated. It's not certain that this was the cause of his outburst, but it's common enough that it gets blamed first.
Also, considering his former platoon sergeant was pulling in his favor on the 'Donadio is Innocent' campaign, I'd say it's more than likely there are some other factors at play here that we aren't privy to.

The sad thing to me is that we all made snap judgements of the guy on one description of what allegedly happened from a news website. Myself included.

 

[LittleChone]

 

[MrGalactus]

Ok, either it's the soldier thing, although it mentioned nothing about any trauma so I have nothing to go on there, or it's our old friend addiction showing up again to fuck with some minds. I'm trying to be objective here, but i just can't understand why this doesn't happen every single time someone's save gets deleted if the game itself is to blame.

 

[JezebelinHell]

Clearly the blame has been placed on the person... but no crime is entirely without a root cause. The sad fact is, most cases of PTSD among soldiers go untreated. It's not certain that this was the cause of his outburst, but it's common enough that it gets blamed first.
Also, considering his former platoon sergeant was pulling in his favor on the 'Donadio is Innocent' campaign, I'd say it's more than likely there are some other factors at play here that we aren't privy to.

The sad thing to me is that we all made snap judgements of the guy on one description of what allegedly happened from a news website. Myself included.

The legal judgment has been placed on the person but the public judgment that is going on here is completely different.
If there was any proof of PTSD the media would have been all over it as a scapegoat for his behavior. I see no reason to jump on the media bandwagon just because they mention something in an article or report. For me it is the same with every article be it video games, military or bubble gum. They are full of shit and trying to place blame on anything but the person just being fucked up. Abusers are completely normal and placid to people that are on their level and above. They do not go around calling attention to themselves by abusing everyone. So yea, he would be normal to people he works with.
The innocent campaign is what? 5 posts from last year, less than 20 comments and some pictures? It seems to be that with the amount of people he came in contact with, there would be a lot more posting his innocence in this amount of time. His ex wife even says that they divorced because she couldn't get him to be involved with the kids. This makes me think that he "HAD" to share his game with his girlfriend's kid not that he "WANTED" to.
I just get really disappointed that a site that is so intolerant of having a game even mentioned in a crime would all jump to "oh he has PTSD" or "bad military" when there is no mention of it in any article I have browsed at this point or on the board proclaiming his innocence. It would have made some sort of defense for him and I am sure he would have gotten off with a lighter sentence if there was any proof to it at all.
Just think people, the news media isn't just manipulating the game articles, they are doing it with EVERYTHING. Read multiple sources, attempt to understand and then judge.

 

[lostzombies.com]

Immediately after seeing "Daily Mail" I'm a little sceptical.
But I'm a poncy Guardian reader, what do I know about this kind of thing?

Immediately after seeing "Daily Mail" I stopped reading.

 

[emeraldrafael]

This wont bode well for games or ex soldiers. Fox News will probaly blow this out of proportion, say this is what happens when you mix Vets with Video games and make a move to get rid of games and pull out of the middle east so tehy can reinvade and run that war the way they want.

But yeah, this is awful, and that man needs to stand punishment. Preferrably a fight with a few Green Berets or Army Rangers, since he seems to think that this is acceptable actions. Screw that 75 years, lets give this man a beating the way he gave the child a beating.

ANd no, I'm not one of tose bleeding hearts, its just embarrassing to the US military and military men in general to have something like this happen. My grandfather and Uncle are gonna be pissed when they see this. I'm never gonna hear the end of how this generation of soldiers are being trained.