Homeless Beatings Widespread on YouTube

[Darth Sushi]

Homeless Beatings Widespread on YouTube
By Kevin Parrish, published on August 26, 2009 at 8:50 PM

" There are 86,000 videos available on YouTube depicting brutal beatings of homeless people.

Videos of homeless people, subject to brutal beatings and forced into humiliating acts, are apparently becoming more popular online according to a report released by the AFP. The videos are so horrible that US lawmakers are now taking action against the filmmakers, seeking harsher penalties for hate crimes against those poor and hungry souls living off the streets.

The National Coalition for the Homeless is disgusted over the videos, calling the homeless population "the new minority group." The NCH points to YouTube where 86,000 "degrading" videos of homeless people resided during July, 15,000 more than last year's count. 5,700 of those videos depict "burn fights" where homeless were convinced to battle each other for a pack of beers or a few bucks.

The AFP also reports that the homeless video trend originated in 2001, depicting fights among homeless people or urging them to jump into trash bins from large heights. These videos have found their way onto DVD, with more than 6.8 million sold over the last eight years.

"This is exploiting people when they are at their lowest point," said Andrew Davis, who used to live on the streets of Washington D.C. "Right now, the homeless have no voice. We need to prevent these things and the community has to be vigilant." "

Source: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Homeless...news-4510.html

[Hairbautt]

That's really sick.

[Dean141]

Oh oh but its ok aslong as the homeless arnt naked or dont have a copy writed song on the video its fine, you can beat the hell out of them *pats youtubes head*

[megabyteme]

My first reaction to this: THAT'S HORRIBLE!!! HOW CAN ANYONE EXPLOIT PEOPLE LIKE THAT?!!!

Then I thought about it a bit..

It's still despicable and offensive and I am ashamed that people are getting laughs/entertainment out of it, but there is A LOT of sick stuff on the internet. A LOT.

Is is right that women are exploited and/or humiliated (to ALL sorts of degrees) on porn sites? Certainly, the VAST majority of us are disgusted with child pron. Perhaps this is somewhere in between...

I don't have an answer, but the issue raises some questions about what "we" find acceptable on a "free" internet, yet alone a common public site. I think it is a good start that youtube has made the decision to remove the material. Their doing so will probably set a good example for other media sites to follow. This is not censorship, but merely good judgment. While ANYTHING may be found online, certain disgusting acts should at least require individuals who are interested to look in the "dark alleyways" and "filth infested back streets" of the internet to find it. It certainly should not be stumbled upon by 12 year old children and 70 year old women looking for youtube videos.

[Onion]

86,000 homeless beatings on youtube? really? I would never have thought there would be so many. I am assuming the majority of them are multiple clips from "bum fights"

Time to go watch some......just kidding.....I think....

[nnnnnn]

The people who bought DVDs like that are sick. Just fucking sick bastards

[oswald63]

I assume most if not all of this is from my country the USA, where the millions of homeless Americans are never a topic of political discussion as they do not exist in the news media.

Shockingly foreign media never seem to notice this social atrocity either.

[TheAllusionist]

I despise it when Americans claim that they "take care of their own". In what capacity? The rich help the rich? Especially when so many people are against social programs to help those who are worse off. Maybe they don't understand that most homeless people don't pick that for their career choice...

For good measure, we could use them for entertainment, and wait... profit?

[Rart]

Oh oh but its ok aslong as the homeless arnt naked or dont have a copy writed song on the video its fine, you can beat the hell out of them *pats youtubes head*

I love it when all my favorite videos get deleted cause it has a copyrighted song in it. Not to mention when a song is really good, people tend to ask what song it is in the comments so they can buy it.

And even if they don't, losing a couple cents is worse than beating homeless people, amirite?