By Jason Keyser and Michael Tarm
Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — It seems to defy the logic of committing crimes in a way to avoid getting caught: Ruffians intentionally recording themselves on video beating and robbing someone, then posting it on YouTube so anyone anywhere can see it, including police.
The latest example of this disturbing but increasingly common phenomenon comes from Chicago, where police last week arrested seven teens who allegedly did just that. Their video went viral and led to their arrest days after the Sunday attack.
Taping crimes is a modern twist on the age-old human penchant for boasting about exploits to impress the community at large and to warn perceived rivals that one group is more powerful than others.
“Medieval warriors putting the heads of their enemies on sticks, scalping and even schoolyard brawls in the ‘50s - they’re all ways of displaying that dominance in public,” said Pam Rutledge, a psychologist who heads the Media Psychology Research Center in Palo Alto, Calif. “These new tools - the Internet, YouTube - just let you spread the word much farther.”
Throughout video, the attackers - some with sweat shirt hoods over their heads and some wearing masks - are seen yelling at the visibly terrified victim, punching and kicking him in the face with apparent glee as he curled up on the snow-covered ground. Police think the girl involved lured the victim to the South Side alley.
Posting incriminating material online might also reveal a shaky grasp of how cyberspace works.
“These guys are bragging online without understanding they just provided irrefutable evidence of a crime,” she said. “It says something both about their naivete - and their stupidity.”
Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said videos of youth violence are ending up online more frequent everywhere.
“This is a national epidemic,” he said.
Police said the video helped them identify the teens who were charged in the beating and robbery of a 17-year-old high school student.
One teen was charged as an adult. The rest - a 15-year-old girl, two 16-year-old boys and three 15-year-old boys - were cited in juvenile delinquency petitions. All face one count each of robbery and aggravated battery, including the teen who recorded the video.
A striking aspect of the video is just how at ease the attackers seem about being filmed. One even pauses in kicking and punching the victim’s face to calmly instruct the teen taping the crime how to compose the shot. He then walks back and resumes pummeling the boy.
“There’s an impulse with youth today to put everything online, so the fact (this beating) was posted online doesn’t itself make it more exceptional,” said Tim Hwang, president of the National Youth Association.
Uploading the video to YouTube illustrated the teens’ immaturity and suggests they are deeply insecure, somehow calculating that the stunt would boost their social standing, Rutledge said, but they badly miscalculated.
“They are getting the opposite reinforcement that they intended,” she said, citing the arrests. “They put it up to show how cool and tough they were. Instead, it left people thinking, ‘You guys are complete idiots.’”
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