Gta Vice City F Word
Charise Scrivner
Earlier this week, Rockstar Games caved in to pressure from minority groups in the US and decided to censor the multi-million unit selling Grand Theft Auto: Vice City by removing an instruction to "kill the Haitians", issued by one of the city's rival drug lords.
However in the words of Ringo Cayard of the Haitian American Foundation, "It's too little, too late." The Delray Beach-based Haitian American Community Council still plans to protest against the game this weekend outside a Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Boynton Beach, apparently incensed that the game - which also includes a mission with a similarly troublesome "kill the Cubans" line - has made so much money.
In a further development this week, the Palm Beach Post reports that the Florida Attorney General's Office and the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office have now been asked to investigate whether Vice City's "kill the Haitians" line violates state law.
Although nobody connected with Florida's Attorney General Charlie Crist knew who had filed the complaint, Delray Beach City Commissioner Jon Levinson apparently forwarded information about the game to a friend who works for State Attorney Barry Krischer. In Levinson's words, "it sounds like this has got to be against the law. To tell people to kill a particular group of people? That has to violate the law." Although the State Attorney is unlikely to take it any further as it falls outside his jurisdiction, the investigation could lead to damaging charges being brought against Rockstar.
It's enough to get some people very hot and bothered. Civil libertarians believe the dialogue is protected under the US Constitution. "Speech alone, unaccompanied by any action, is protected by the First Amendment," said Jim Green, a West Palm Beach lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union. However ordinary Haitians, many of whom will not have played the game, are understandably upset by what they're hearing in the news - that a successful piece of home entertainment encourages its fans to slaughter them by whatever means possible - and aren't prepared to accept that.
But of course the crucial fact of the matter, and one that seems to have completely bypassed just about everybody connected to either side of the action, is the actual context of the statement, which forms a vital part of the narrative. Of the literally hundreds of articles debating the issue, both online and off, I've been unable to find a single piece that quotes the game beyond "kill the Haitians" or elaborates on the circumstances in which Cuban drug lord Cortez issues the offending instruction. The instruction is to kill members of a rival drug gang - criminals who shoot you, knife you, swear at you, run you over and generally couldn't care less about the fate of innocent bystanders.
To players of the game, the instruction is little more than another objective in a game full of criminal caricatures, people, places and activities that are completely disconnected from real life. A game, by the way, which is rife with knowing references to violent films full of even more violent and bigoted characters, whose activities are borne out in graphic and sometimes chilling detail - and not just a few splashes of red cartoon blood. And yet somehow the picket signs all focus on this allegedly racist sentiment, buried so deep within a game that it took proponents of this current wave of protests well over a year to pick up on it at all?
The issue has already stirred up a lot of unpleasantness, and it sounds like it's going to drag on for a considerable length of time, but for this commentator it merely serves to underline the sad truth that games still aren't being taken seriously, or considered on their artistic merits, or even considered as a whole. Ask yourself this: how likely is it that the people spearheading this assault on Rockstar Games have actually played Vice City? Played it to the point that Cortez gives Tommy Vercetti this now infamous instruction? Played it to the point of completion?
Sitting on the couch last night playing - what else - Vice City, I found myself thinking about a film I watched recently. An excellent film called Ghost World. For those who haven't seen it, it includes a very interesting section in which Enid (Thora Birch) presents an overtly racist piece of advertising dating back over half a century to her summer art class. It's a fascinating item, and courts plenty of controversy. Taken apart, you can understand why people would find it offensive in this day and age - as many people in the film clearly do. Held up on its own with no context or qualification, it is a vile image. And yet I don't remember hearing anything about it on the film's release. I wasn't harangued by enraged protesters when I bought the DVD. I wasn't slammed for encouraging racial stereotypes when I commented on the film at IMDB. But then, it appeared in a film, not a videogame. It's the sort of contrast in attitudes that upsets, frustrates, and actually frightens me.
Miami,[b] officially the City of Miami, is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a population of 6.14 million, is the second-largest metropolitan area in the Southeast after Atlanta, and the ninth-largest in the United States.[9] With a population of 442,241 as of the 2020 census,[6] Miami is the second-most populous city in Florida after Jacksonville. Miami has the third-largest skyline in the U.S. with over 300 high-rises,[11] 61 of which exceed 491 ft (150 m).[12]
Miami is a major center and leader in finance, commerce, culture, arts, and international trade.[13][14] Miami's metropolitan area is by far the largest urban economy in Florida, with a gross domestic product of $344.9 billion as of 2017.[15] According to a 2018 UBS study of 77 world cities, Miami is the third-richest city in the U.S. and the third-richest globally in purchasing power.[16] Miami is a majority-minority city with a Hispanic and Latino population of 310,472, or 70.2 percent of the city's population, as of 2020.[17]
Downtown Miami has among the largest concentrations of international banks in the U.S. and is home to several large national and international companies.[18] The Health District is home to several major University of Miami-affiliated hospital and health facilities, including Jackson Memorial Hospital, the nation's largest hospital with 1,547 beds,[19] and the Miller School of Medicine, the University of Miami's academic medical center and teaching hospital, and others engaged in health-related care and research. PortMiami, the city's seaport, is the busiest cruise port in the world in both passenger traffic and cruise lines.[20]
The Miami metropolitan area is the second-most visited city or metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. after New York City, with over four million visitors as of 2022.[21] Miami has sometimes been called the "Gateway to Latin America" because of the magnitude of its commercial and cultural ties to Latin America.[22] In 2022, Miami ranked seventh in the U.S. in business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement.[23]
In 1566, admiral Pedro Menndez de Avils, Florida's first governor, claimed the area for Spain. A Spanish mission was constructed one year later. Spain (and briefly Britain) ruled Florida until it ceded it to the United States in 1821. In 1836, the U.S. built Fort Dallas on the banks of the Miami River as part of their development of the Florida Territory and their attempt to suppress and remove the Seminoles. As a result, the Miami area became a site of fighting in the Second Seminole War.
The collapse of the Florida land boom of the 1920s, the 1926 Miami Hurricane, and the Great Depression in the 1930s slowed development. When World War II began, Miami became a base for U.S. defense against German submarines due to its prime location on the southern coast of Florida. This brought an increase in Miami's population; 172,172 people lived in the city by 1940. The city's nickname, The Magic City, came from its rapid growth, which was noticed by winter visitors who remarked that the city grew so much from one year to the next that it was like magic.[34]
After Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba following the Revolution in 1959, many wealthy Cubans sought refuge in Miami, further increasing the city's population. The city's national profile expanded dramatically in the 1970s, particularly in 1972.[35] The region hosted both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in the 1972 Presidential election. The Miami Dolphins also made history with their undefeated "perfect" season. The area's educational and cultural institutions had also developed significantly in this period, positioning the city to service a larger and increasingly international population.[35] Miami also developed new businesses and cultural amenities as part of the New South in the 1980s and 1990s. At the same time, South Florida weathered social problems related to drug wars, immigration from Haiti and Latin America, and the widespread destruction of Hurricane Andrew.[36][34] Racial and cultural tensions sometimes sparked, but the city developed in the latter half of the 20th century as a major international, financial, and cultural center. It is the second-largest U.S. city with a Spanish-speaking majority (after El Paso, Texas), and the largest city with a Cuban-American plurality.[37][38]
Miami and its suburbs are located on a broad plain between the Everglades to the west and Biscayne Bay to the east, which extends from Lake Okeechobee southward to Florida Bay. The elevation of the area averages at around 6 ft (1.8 m)[39] above sea level in most neighborhoods, especially near the coast. The highest points are found along the Miami Rock Ridge, which lies under most of the eastern Miami metro. The main portion of the city is on the shores of Biscayne Bay, which contains several hundred natural and artificial barrier islands, the largest of which contains Miami Beach and South Beach. The Gulf Stream, a warm ocean current, runs northward just 15 miles (24 km) off the coast, allowing the city's climate to stay warm and mild all year.