If you have to play Pokémon GO, and yes, we get it, you have to — you may want to think about staying away from memorials honoring people killed on 9/11.
Designers of Pokémon GO, a game where you "catch" little weird virtual characters in real-life locations, designated the 9/11 Memorial pools as some of the many "Pokéstops" — places to get virtual supplies for the app and grab some Pokémon (the creatures) too.
The 9/11 Memorial #PokemonGO Pokespot. pic.twitter.com/M0fzWgizxt
— Erica H. (@bigratsgoboom) July 7, 2016
And a host of those little Pokémon are over the 9/11 Memorial Pools — where the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed on Sept. 11 are engraved, set along the footprints of the destroyed Twin Towers, Gothamist first reported.
America 🇺🇸 https://t.co/r6dZDk5PAY
— Jen Chung (@jenchung) July 11, 2016
Not surprisingly, some other people visiting the 9/11 Memorial — who are not glued to Pokémon GO — have said the fact that people are heading to the site to play is pretty terrible.
“To make this as a spot in a game, I think that’s wrong,” Mickey Kennedy, 61, a native New Yorker who visited the site Tuesday told Time. “A lot of people died here. It’s a place to reflect, not to play a game.”
► MAP: Where Are You Finding Pokémon in New York City?
But others say that the people posing for smiling selfies at the memorial are no different from the Pokémon GO gamers.
“We're minding ourselves, we're not being rowdy or anything. I don't think it's anymore of a nuisance than people stopping taking picture. I come to work every day and see people taking selfies smiling and laughing. To me that's much worse,” Bob Guerci, a 35-year-old who works for a video game company that's based in One World Trade Center, told the Daily News.
He added that he'd lost friends on 9/11 and the game playing experience made him finally comfortable at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza.
The 9/11 Memorial did not respond to request for comment.
Meanwhile, Pokémon is being played at a variety of inappropriate places all across the country. Officials at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. have asked people not to play there.
Holocaust Museum to visitors: Please stop catching Pokemon here https://t.co/rsONgXWq6M
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 12, 2016
There have also been Pokestops on gravesites, at "adult entertainment" stores and in creepy remote locations — probably not great places for pre-teen gamers.
