NYC Enraged Over Grand Theft Auto IV

New York City officials are upset about the new version of the popular video game series Grand Theft Auto after the trailer of the new GTA IV was released.

"The mayor does not support any video game where you earn points for injuring or killing police officers," said Jason Post, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto franchise is already known for controversy, and it got a boost when its new trailer showed various New York landmarks despite the fact that GTA IV is technically set in the fictional Liberty City.

In previous versions of the Grand Theft Auto series, gamers would kill both police officers and prostitutes. They also could sell pornography to children.

"Setting Grand Theft Auto in the safest big city in America would be like setting Halo in Disneyland," NYC councilman and public safety committee chairman Peter Vallone said.

The trailer released for the new Grand Theft Auto game was released on the internet Thursday.

The trailer shoes the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Coney Island Cyclone. This is all as a voice is saying, "Life is complicated. I killed people, smuggled people, sold people. Perhaps here, things will be different."

This is not the first time that a Grand Theft Auto game was based off of a real-life location. Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories also took inspiration from New York City. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories drew inspiration from Miami, while Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas featured fictional versions of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Francisco. The original GTA had an expansion pack that placed gamers in 1969 London.

New York political leaders said that New York City and Grand Theft Auto IV have nothing in common other than the visuals.

According to crime statistics, New York is America's safest big city. Statistics show that there has been a 58 percent drop in autho thefts since Bloomberg took office as mayor in 2002. NYC's murder rate is also down by 28 percent so far this year when compared to last year's data.