Internet Justice: 7 Youths Charged in Brutal Assault
This story has been updated below…
Kids! Aren’t they adorable? Their cherubic little faces, their big dreams, their boundless energy — oh, and the way they gang up on helpless peers, kicking them in the face repeatedly while yelling racial slurs.
Such was the case in Bridgeport, a Chicago neighborhood, where six teens filmed themselves assaulting a 17-year-old Asian boy in an alley. The video shows them bashing the guy’s head with ice, dragging him around and choking and beating him relentlessly as he covers his face and protests. Finally, they take his shoes and his wallet, stealing $180.
They then uploaded the video to YouTube — brilliant, you guys! — then took it down, but it was re-posted (and removed) several times. Watch it below — or don’t (it’s pretty painful).
It doesn’t appear to be a racially motivated attack, police say.
According to the Chicago Tribune, police are still looking for the suspects involved. In the video, most of the goons are wearing black masks, but one bold assailant looks in the camera and grins.
Police questioned six youths on Tuesday.
Within an hour, Reddit commenters managed to dig up the names of the attackers. Several contacted Chicago police with this information, providing a phone number (312-747-8340) and urging others to do the same. The IDs were deleted from Reddit immediately. Amid complaints of censorship, one commenter was quick to point out the ethical difference between “Internet justice” — i.e., online harassment — and simply providing info.
“Multiple people have already linked to social profiles of people it might be,” said another. “And of course when I tell people to remove it I’m downvoted.”
Internal controversy aside, you’ve gotta admire the crime-solving capability of the tech-savvy anonymous. To quote The Wire, it’s just good police work. “If the police recruited its personnel off Reddit,” said another commenter, “the world would be a better place.”
Meanwhile, according to the Tribune, the victim “was treated for a laceration to his lip, bruises and abrasions, police said.” Not bad damage for what could have been.
UPDATE: Seven teens have been charged following Tuesday’s questioning. One of them, Raymond Palomino, who shows his face in the video, is 17 and will be charged as an adult — one count of robbery and one count of aggravated battery. The other teens, whose ages are 15 and 16 — including one girl, who YouTube commenters say is holding the camera — face juvenile delinquency petitions for robbery and battery.
After the video went viral yesterday, Police learned the names of the attackers from YouTube comments, says the Examiner, which also points out that the beating took place less than five miles from President Obama’s neighborhood in Hyde Park. Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke publicly about the incident, saying the video “does not represent the good people of Chicago.”
Curiously, Palomino’s MySpace is still functional and receiving (quickly deleted) comments. Several Facebook groups have popped up in response, most of them forums for death threats against Palomino and the other six, whose identities are the top comment on many YouTube response videos. As satisfying as it is to know that these kids may have some trouble finding jobs in a few years, this vigilante harassment, which may force the cops to take additional measures to protect the minors, is the “Internet justice” Redditors discouraged.
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