New York's Mayor Against GTA IV

Michael Bloomberg, the current mayor of New York, has voiced his disapproval of the GTA series returning to the streets of "New York" once again.

Some say violent games stir up criminal tendencies in minors. Knowing that, it's hardly surprising that a public figure who rejects violence out of hand didn't exactly welcome with open arms the news that the new-old setting of the violent series will be New York (or rather, Liberty) City.

Bloomberg's spokesman commented on the events as follows, and anyone can tell from his statement that he doesn't know much about games, let alone GTA:

The mayor in no way supports video games in which you score points by killing police officers, and he would like people not to see that kind of thing happening on the streets of New York even in a game.

Quite a few other public officials have spoken out on the issue too, for example New York's police commissioner, Raymond Kelly:

It is despicable for a video game to glorify violence so openly.

The following words came from the mouth of Peter Vallone, the head of the Homeland Security committee:

If Grand Theft Auto were set in the safest big city in America, it would be like Halo being set in Disneyland.

I can't decide whether that turn of phrase is funny or rather pathetic… Anyway, there are quite a few statistics backing up that NYC really is a safe city: over the past year, car thefts dropped by 58 percent and homicides by 28 percent.