JULY 6, 2015, 6:46 AM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JULY 6, 2015, 6:51 AM
BY STEPHANIE AKIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
The kids in the videos punch each other in the face. They pull each other’s hair. They roll on the ground while crowds egg them on. And it all allegedly happened in North Jersey, posted on a new Twitter feed that compiles apparent cellphone videos of young people fighting in New Jersey, with most of the altercations in Bergen and Passaic counties.
The fights shown on @BCountyFights take place in a high school chemistry laboratory, on a street lined with carefully manicured lawns, on the deck of a swimming pool. They are labeled by the location where the brawl allegedly occurred.
The feed’s reach – more than 2,000 followers – is expanding, with high school and middle school students saying they watch it in groups and talk about the latest video to post. And the catalog of fights is growing, with a collection of more than 75 videos posted since the feed went live on June 13.
“It’s like watching a boxing match, but with people you know,” said Brian Heredia, a 16-year-old rising junior at Hackensack High School.
Local school administrators and law enforcement officials, however, said the videos glorify violence and misrepresent their communities.
The feed doesn’t mention that in many cases the people involved faced criminal charges for their behavior. It also provides fodder for future prosecution: Several local police departments have assigned officers to monitor the feed. Although it is not illegal to film or post videos from public places, and Twitter doesn’t have any restrictions on content that viewers may find offensive, people in the videos can be liable for the actions documented in them.
