Hey, it’s mid-April already and we haven’t yet blamed pro wrestling for someone else’s neglect. Well, all is right with the world, as friends and family say a 9-year-old boy was just trying to imitate his favorite WWE wrestler when he jumped off the roof of his 13-story apartment building.
Damori Miles, a special education student in Brooklyn, N.Y., never showed up for a playdate Tuesday evening, but was found on the ground outside their public housing project with a string and plastic bag attached to him as a makeshift parachute. So naturally the first person to blame is WWE wrestler Jeff Hardy, because Miles was a big fan.
Shakar [Murrel], Damori’s best friend, said his pal was imitating his favorite PlayStation2 game, “WWE SmackDown vs Raw.”
“He tried to do a swan dive like (Jeff Hardy) does in ‘SmackDown.’ That was his favorite game. He played it all the time,” Shakar said.
First of all, let’s give kids a little bit of credit. A nine year old knows that Jeff Hardy does his finishing maneuver from the top rope, not the top floor of an apartment tower. Even a pre-teen understands gravity.
“It’s terrible. The kids try to imitate what they see and they think they can fly,” said family friend Sumore Murrel, 29. “I need to keep a better eye on what they are playing or watching. Kids are so impressionable.”
Since Damori was a special education student, then maybe the blame lies with whoever should have been looking after him? The door to the building’s roof was open, and the alarm broken, so blame the city. Clearly no one was watching him, so blame the parent. But don’t blame a video game or wrestling.
Robert Zimmerman, a spokesman for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), said the video was designed for ages 13 and up and none of the characters use parachutes or jump off buildings.
“The death of Damori Miles is a tragedy and our condolences go out to his family,” he said. “We should allow the authorities to conduct a full investigation… including insecure roof access, before conclusions are made about this unfortunate incident.”
12:26 pm on April 18th, 2009
Let's get serious here. The blame has to lie with the parents. You either shield your kids from that crap (see: professional wrestling), or you make sure they realize it's all bullsh!t. Definitely the fault of the parents, not the video game.
12:44 pm on April 18th, 2009
Another excuse for bad parenting. Hey, what's going to happen WHEN someone beats up their wife and claims they were imitating UFC fighters or Chris Brown?
Or have a lousy week at work and say they were imitatiing The Detroit Lions?
Come on people, and this kid needed to be under 24/7 supervision! Here comes stricter video game laws. Sorry, normal 15 year old, we can't let you play Grand Theft Auto anymore because some 9 year old with a learning disability played a wrestling game then jumped off a building trying to execute a wrestling move. Really, he did, and don't tell us different.
BTW, it's called the "Swanton Bomb" for the record.
http://www.wrestlingbeltworld.com
9:38 pm on April 18th, 2009
Since it is NYC, I'm sure they will pass a law outlawing something regarding this. NYC is the nation's capital for lack of personal responsibility. Don't blame the game or the WWE, blame the parents who were either spending more time with their Blackberry or posting on Facebook instead of watching their kid.
11:50 am on April 19th, 2009
How do the parents of any kid, much less a special ed kid, let him wander up to the roof of an apartment building with a plastic bag? What did they think he was doing up there?
4:32 pm on April 21st, 2009
If your dumb enough to jump off a building because you see Jeff Hardy doing it off the top rope, you're probably not going anywhere in life to begin with. That's Darwinism - only the strong survive.
Great quote from the article:
Robert Zimmerman, a spokesman for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), said the video was designed for ages 13 and up and none of the characters use parachutes or jump off buildings.