
September 24, 2005
Lynch blasts cop video game
Outraged by portrayal of Finest as fanatics
By JONATHAN LEMIRE and ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
| |
 |
| |
Shooter fires a pair of weapons in controversial new video
game 'True Crime: New York City.' |
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and the city's largest police
union called for a boycott yesterday of a new video game that depicts
New York cops as law-breaking vigilantes.
"It's an outrage," Kelly said of the blood-filled video
game "True Crime: New York City."
"I think it disrespects all police officers and it's done
in extremely poor taste as well."
Cops in the star-studded video game work for the mythical "PDNY"
and think nothing of roughing up suspects or breaking into apartments
without search warrants.
"It's totally inappropriate. It's a tough job, a dangerous
job, and this undermines what police officers try to do," Kelly
said. "I'm saddened that even some former members of the department
are linked to that video game."
Retired NYPD Detective Bill Clark, who gained fame as a technical
adviser for the hit television show "NYPD Blue," helped
create the controversial game with Activision.
Clark gave Activision advice on everything from how the squad cars
should look to what he says cops really want - a world without Miranda
rights for suspects and internal affairs investigations.
"Wield the ultimate power as a rogue street cop in New York
City. You are Marcus Reed, a former criminal turned cop, using and
abusing your authority to hunt down the murderer of your mentor
while cleaning up the 'hoods of New York City, from Harlem to Chinatown,"
the games producers tout.
Clark said critics of "True Crime: New York City," which
will be released in November, need to come to grips with the fact
that it's based in fantasy.
"It's a game, not a training video for the NYPD," he
said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Clark said police union officials should spend less time worrying
about games and more time working on "getting cops more than
a $25,000 starting salary."
Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch rejected
Clark's words.
"The cop who worked on this video should look in the mirror,"
Lynch said. "He made it harder for everyone working the job."
Lynch called for a boycott of the game and urged actors who provided
the voices for the game's characters to give back their profits.
Christopher Walken plays an FBI agent, Laurence Fishburne gives
voice to a crime lord, called The King, and Mickey Rourke is a detective.
None of them returned calls yesterday.

|