Video Game Graduations

To a jail cell.

Yeah, I'm glad I bought books instead.

"Ohio teen gets 23 years in attack that killed mother" by ASSOCIATED PRESS | June 17, 2009

ELYRIA, Ohio - A northeast Ohio teen who shot and killed his mother and wounded his minister father was sentenced yesterday to 23 years in prison for crimes rooted in his obsession with violent video games.

Daniel Petric, 17, who could have received a life sentence without parole, shook his head slightly, sniffled, and held back tears but sat down without saying a word when given the chance by Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge.

Petric’s eyes were red from crying when his father, Mark, asked the judge to be lenient and said the teenager regrets killing his mother and expresses relief that his father survived.

“He still does not understand why he did something so terrible,’’ Mark Petric told the judge. He also said his son frequently says: “Dad, I miss Mom.’’

The prosecution disputed the idea that the youth has shown remorse for the crimes. Prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence.

Petric was convicted of shooting his parents in October 2007 after they took the game “Halo 3’’ away from him. The judge had said the teen was so obsessed with the pastime that he may have believed that, as for the characters in the game, death wasn’t real.

The defense had argued that his age and addiction to the game made him less responsible.

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"Man sentenced in PlayStation killing

FRESNO - A former criminal law student was sentenced to life in a California prison for killing a man and wounding two others in a dispute over a Sony PlayStation. Jonquel Brooks was sentenced Friday in Fresno County Superior Court. He asked for forgiveness from relatives of the man he killed. Brooks killed Brant Daniels, 19, and wounded his friends in May 2007. The victims had gone to Brooks’s apartment to look for their stolen PlayStation. Brooks was a freshman at California State University, Fresno, at the time. Brooks said he acted in self-defense because he feared they were going to attack him (AP)."

Of course, NOT ALL VIDEO MURDERERS go to JAIL!

Some get PROMOTIONS!

"US hones training of pilots who fly drone aircraft" By Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times | June 11, 2009

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is preparing to graduate its first unmanned drone pilots from the elite US Air Force Weapons School, a version of the Navy's Top Gun program, in a bid to elevate the skills and status of the officers who fly Predators, one of the military's fastest-growing aircraft programs.

Fly them from a console in Nevada?

See: Armchair Quarterbacks in Afghanistan

Over the course of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the MQ-1 Predator and more heavily armed MQ-9 Reaper craft have become, to many people in the Pentagon, the most important aircraft the United States has deployed.

In 2006, the Air Force was able to fly only 12 drones at a time. Today, the service flies 34 constant combat air patrols. As the program has expanded, the job of keeping the best pilots flying drones has proved to be a challenge.

Until recently, pilots would work on Predators and Reapers, then return to their assigned aircraft. But the Air Force would like them to make a career of flying unmanned craft and become expert at operating drones....

So the WARS are NEVER ENDING, aren't they?

Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Turner, who leads the Predator and Reaper training at the weapons school: "We see where the Air Force is going."

Giving top drone pilots a shot at the best training the military offers is one way to ensure the most talented officers stay with the program and do not return to manned aircraft.....

"I would love and go back and fly," said Major Geoff Fukumoto, an F-15 pilot who was one of the first to go through the Air Force Weapons School for the Predator and Reapers. "But I think I have found the place the Air Force needs me."

Fukumoto spent the last four years operating Predators and Reapers in Iraq and Afghanistan....

So how many innocents has he killed?

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