News that makes Traveller Warm and Fuzzy

[Traveller]

God this is good. Phage why didn't you alert us to this item? Apologies if it's long, but I figure if Will and Boston Guy et al can give 5000 word essays, I can reprint this breaking news.

Enjoy.

 

Later.

 

PS. Lucky, weren't these the tapes you PMed me that you just bought?

_______________________________________________

Filmmakers charged with staging `Bumfights' among homeless men, selling videos on Internet

 

By Seth Hettena, Associated Press, 9/26/2002 07:37

 

SAN DIEGO (AP) In one videotape, a homeless man is seen ripping out his front tooth with pliers. Another rams his head into a steel door, and others stomp and pummel each other until they are bloody.

 

Authorities say the makers of the tapes offered homeless men food, shelter, liquor and money to hurt each other, then sold thousands of the videos, titled ''Bumfights,'' over the Internet. Four men accused of making or selling the tapes have been charged, prosecutors said Wednesday.

 

One, Ryan E. McPherson, 19, is also accused of offering $25,000 each to two San Diego-area homeless men, Rufus Hannah and Donald Brennan, in exchange for their refusal to cooperate with authorities investigating a Feb. 6 fight on one of the videotapes, said prosecutor Curtis Ross.

 

One of the men broke his ankle during the fight and paramedics were called.

 

Hannah, dubbed ''Rufus the Stuntbum,'' said the filmmakers gave him $5 and $10 bills to perform. He and his friends still bear tattoos bought by the filmmakers that read ''Bum Life'' and ''Bumfights'' on their hands, bellies and foreheads.

 

''We never were forced into doing anything,'' Hannah told KFMB-TV in San Diego. ''We were enticed.''

 

Defense attorneys for two of the four defendants said much of the action wasn't real but was staged.

 

Zachary Bubeck, 24; Daniel J. Tanner, 21; and Michael J. Slyman, 21; were charged Monday with conspiracy to solicit an assault with deadly force. The charge carries a maximum of three years in prison.

 

McPherson was charged earlier in the month with conspiracy and an obstruction of justice charge.

 

McPherson, of San Diego, and Bubeck, of Las Vegas, have pleaded innocent and were freed on bonds of $20,000 and $5,000, respectively. Police in the San Diego suburb of La Mesa were seeking Slyman and Tanner, both of Las Vegas.

 

The investigation is continuing and additional charges are anticipated, Ross said.

 

''Bumfights'' has been denounced by homeless advocates, who organized a petition calling for an investigation into the filmmakers. On the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives this summer, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said the film ''sets a new standard for the cruel exploitation of damaged human beings.''

 

At least 300,000 copies of the videotapes were sold at $20 each, said Lt. Raul Garcia of the La Mesa Police Department.

 

Bubeck's attorney, Michael Pancer, said the figure was ''wildly overinflated'' but declined to say how much money his clients have received from sales.

 

Attorneys for McPherson and Bubeck said their clients never encouraged violence and that much of the action was rehearsed. They denied that homeless men were offered hush money.

 

''It was all an act,'' said Jan Ronis, McPherson's defense attorney. ''This was all in the interests of let's call it art.''

 

Asked how he replied to homeless advocates who said the tape exploited the weakest and most vulnerable members of society, Ronis replied, ''I'm not a film critic. I'm just a criminal defense attorney.''

[Rod Hagen]

I heard about it several months ago on Howard Stern. Went to the website, watched the clips, tried not to laugh. Failed.

[+ Lucky]

No, my tapes were of guys ripping the innards out of other guys, with lots of blood, and, of course, guts!;-)

[bluenix]

The Web site is still up:

 

http://63.164.32.155/indecline/

[Guest 7Zach]

What's with the conspiracy to solicit an assault? How is the act of paying someone to fight someone who is paid also a crime. I get the part about obstruction, suborning perjury, etc., but why the initial charge?

Too funny. Traveller, please order and review.

[ddarko]

The fact that the homeless guys agreed to be beat up doesn't mean that it's not assault under the law. Consent excuses physical force up to a certain threshold. To take an extreme example, I can't consent to my own murder; the person who killed me would still be a murderer even if I agreed with my killing. I assume the prosecutors believe that the violence that the videomakers solicited from the homeless men was intense enough to invalidate the consent. As a legal matter, the solicitation charge is pretty mundane.

[Guest 7Zach]

I understand your reasoning, and hadn't thought of that. However, how could you have a professional boxing match, albeit, I am sure there are waivers there, but that shouldn't change the ability of revoking consent. BTW, I think that they took advantage of the homeless (duh!), but I just didn't think it was criminal (other than the obstruction, etc.)

[phage]

>God this is good. Phage why didn't you alert us to this

>item? Apologies if it's long, but I figure if Will and

>Boston Guy et al can give 5000 word essays, I can reprint

>this breaking news.

>Enjoy.

 

Traveller,

 

Many pardons for the dereliction of duty. I should have known that this would appeal to the black-hearts among us who can laugh at anything!

 

It really has been hilarious in a dark and twisted sort of way. Poor old toothless Rufus has been all over the local news explaining that he “really had a pretty good time once he got liquor’d up!”

 

I think ddarko has the gist of the prosecution. A.) You can’t consent to a felony act like causing great bodily harm, and B.) Homeless winos of questionable mental health are incapable of giving true consent. I don’t pretend to understand the legalities, but that’s what they are saying.

[Flower]

>What's with the conspiracy to solicit an assault? How is the

>act of paying someone to fight someone who is paid also a

>crime. I get the part about obstruction, suborning perjury,

>etc., but why the initial charge?

 

For the same philosophical reasons that dueling is illegal, despite it being consensual acts of otherwise seemingly adult people. There is also a crime of "attempted suicide," so if you try, better be successful or face jail.

 

I have read about these videos for some time and viewed many for "other than entertainment" reasons. To me this is the rankest and purest form of exploitation of the human condition and I'm really surprised and disappointed at who (as opposed to what) expressed some of the opinions here. It seems all of a sudden, since we aren't talking about cute, young, little bois, exploitation is fair game. :'(

 

Flower :*

[Rod Hagen]

It's more of an ironic, head-shaking, sad-state-of-the-world snort than laugh.

[Traveller]

>I have read about these videos for some time and viewed many

>for "other than entertainment" reasons. To me this is the

>rankest and purest form of exploitation of the human

>condition and I'm really surprised and disappointed at who

>(as opposed to what) expressed some of the opinions here.

>It seems all of a sudden, since we aren't talking about

>cute, young, little bois, exploitation is fair game. :'(

 

You'd just hate the latest go go dancers at the party downtown on Pearl Street (written up in last week's New York Magazine - certainly the death knell). Total street waifs. As my friend stated, they look like they dance for food. Mildly amusing to fondle every now and then between shots and bumps.

 

Later.

 

PS. And don't forget that the Tamils are still fighting desperately in their heroic struggle for independence on Sri Lanka.

 

PPS. Good news, however, on the front page on the Times today. At this point the Republicans are poised to retain control of the House.

[Flower]

:7 :7 :7

 

Flower :*

[chrismac]

I was wondering what these guys were doing all this time in front of my house!

 

Seriously - it's been rather big news here in San Diego (now that the Westerfield trial is over). Sad, and pitiful.

[ddarko]

Boxing isn't assault because the point of the match isn't to injure the other participant, it's to knock him out. If that sounds like a difference with no meaning, think of another sport that involves just as much - if not more - physical contact as boxing: football. The point of hitting the quarterback isn't to injure him, it's to sack him. On the other hand, if you've seen the movie "Fight Club," I think it's fair to say every U.S. state would ban those fights. A lot of states have banned extreme kickboxing, I think for the reason that their only purpose is violence, more gladiator fight than sport.

 

In this area, I think the law is practical. The tolerance has its limit; if every football game or boxing match ended with someone dead or seriously maimed, I'm sure they would be banned pretty quickly. Every once in a while, a hockey player is charged with assault for checking so out of the bounds that it becomes a criminal act.

[phage]

>It seems all of a sudden, since we aren't talking about

>cute, young, little bois, exploitation is fair game. :'(

 

It has nothing to do with them being cute and everything to do with them being young. I don’t think exploitation is ever “fair game” if you’re trying to lead a moral life, however my sympathy does have bounds. It tends to go down in direct proportion to someone’s age and experience.

 

I have a great deal of sympathy for homeless young people who are driven to the streets by screwed up parents or a failed support system. I also feel for the people who find themselves temporarily homeless because of some economic disaster.

 

I have far less sympathy for grown men who have made poor choices and allowed substance abuse to become a full-time occupation. I know that many of them have mental health issues, but even the mentally ill can’t have it both ways. They choose to live that way and my sympathy tends to end where someone else’s choices begin.

 

Of course the video is wrong, and the young entrepreneurs should probably be prosecuted, but that doesn’t negate the fact that it is pretty comical that this bum (habitat challenged individual?) has become a local celebrity.

[Guest 7Zach]

"Boxing isn't assault because the point of the match isn't to injure the other participant, it's to knock him out."

 

Say what?