Network News: Games Workshop and a Rapist?

So, you may ask yourself, what do rapists and Games Workshop have to do with each other, besides the occasional Dark Eldar raiding parties?

Well interesting you should ask.

I have been following (what started out as) a particular amusing thread over on DakkaDakka about a now deleted GW Facebook thread.

In the Facebook comment thread people were complaining about Games Workshop customer service and the one man-store policy. What made the thread so interesting was Games Workshop North America’s Director of Growth Mark Bolger commented, and illustrated what many in the Wargaming community sense from GW.

“This is the biggest den of GODDAMN whiners ever! Waaaaaah…get out of the hobby if you don’t like it. I especially like the 1 man store complaints! Ridiculous! You fat nasty gamers need to get a clue, it’s a great concept! Idiots!”

On DakkaDakka the discussion devolved into, “is Mark Bolger real or troll”, “should a GW employee talk like this”, “or does Mark Bolger reveal what we already thought”.

As it turns out we are not sure if Mark Bolger works for GW anymore, but according to his Facebook and numerous online sites, he certainly did at some point. It isn’t any wonder that someone who has drunk the Kool-Aid and had a job which rolled out the one man store concept wouldn’t defend it.

How can you really blame Mark Bolger?

If you are director at a company like GW, with a huge dedicated fan base, and you had to hear all the bitching, all the time, wouldn’t you snap at some point? Reason more for GW not to engage with the online community and if you really looked at the numbers, represents a minor faction of their customer base.

Still, Mark shouldn’t have said anything. You never attack the customers no matter how wrong-headed you feel they might be. Unless they’re trying to steal from you, you should just look the other way. Only the occasional CEO or Founder flies off the handle and attacks their customers in this childish and trite manner. Worse, they’re caught on video…paging Mitt Romney.

So again what does this have to do with rape?

Well… as it turns out Mark Bolger has officially lost all creditably because guess what…

Mark Bolger, originally charged with sodomy, agrees to lesser charge
BY PAIGE AKIN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Friday, January 16, 2004

Mark Bolger had been a Richmond police officer for six years. He
resigned Wednesday.

Richmond police officer Mark Bolger has resigned from the department
and pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman while on duty.

He pleaded yesterday to simple assault, a misdemeanor, which had been
downgraded from the original charge of forcible sodomy, which is a felony.

Prosecutors offered Bolger the lesser charge “to save the victim the
embarrassment and trauma of having to testify,” said Richmond Deputy
Commonwealth’s Attorney Diane Abato, who supervises the commonwealth’s
attorney’s sex crimes unit. “I think it’s very helpful to the city,
the police department and the victim to have him acknowledge guilt.”
Bolger and the victim appeared in Richmond General District Court
yesterday morning but did not speak to one another. He did not offer
an apology.

Bolger, 33, had been on paid leave from the police department since he
was charged in September. He had been a city officer for six years. He
resigned Wednesday.

The sodomy charge was based on allegations that he forced the woman to
perform oral sex on him in return for not arresting her on a possible
warrant. The alleged incident occurred in August in Fairfield Court
while Bolger was on duty.

Samples taken from the floor of the woman’s apartment showed her DNA
mixed with Bolger’s semen, sources told The Times-Dispatch.

In an interview with investigators, Bolger reportedly denied having
sexual contact with the woman, sources said.

But after a monthlong investigation by Richmond police, state police
and the city commonwealth’s attorney’s office, he was charged.

The simple assault charge to which Bolger pleaded guilty is “basically
an offense of touching,” Abato said. He does not face jail time or a
fine, but his guilty plea is admissiblein future civil proceedings.

Attorney Murray J. Janus represented Bolger and called yesterday’s
plea agreement a compromise.

“Mr. Bolger denies that there was any sexual contact with the victim,
but he was looking at five years to life [in prison], and this is
something he did on the advice of his attorney.”

Police Chief Andre Parker said in September that the allegations of
sexual assault against Bolger are “an embarrassment to the police
department,” adding that “No one is above scrutiny.”

Yesterday, Parker issued the following statement: “Any type of action
such as this embarrasses the police department and the officers who
are doing outstanding work each and every day. But the actions of this
one officer are not indicative of the department in its entirety. The
community should continue to have the utmost confidence and trust in
their police department. We don’t tolerate misconduct on the part of
our officers.”

Contact Paige Akin at (804) 649-6671 or pa…@timesdispatch.com

This story can be found at:
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031773131545&path=%21news&s=1045855934842

Yeah you guessed it, he is a convicted sex…err touch offender and it gets better, because you might wonder why he “got off” so lightly? Well, Mark Bolger had some family connections that got him off lightly, now that is a whole Law & Order episode waiting to happen.

So, I find it interesting that Games Workshop would hire such a character.

Do they not run background checks?

Or maybe GW figures all there customers are male, so their shouldn’t be any problem anyway. If Mark Bolger still works for GW he should be fired, no questions asked, for being a rapist and for brain-dead public relations.

If you want to see screen shots and a whole host of hilarity, check out the DakkaDakka thread that is still going!

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/500572.page

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