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The violence virus
The violence virus
Jan 17, 2026 11:28 AM

News from Los Angeles:

Two homeless men were attacked with baseball bats and one of them critically injured, allegedly by teens inspired by videos of homeless people brawling that have sold hundreds of thousands of copies over the Internet.

The alleged attackers told officers they had recently seen the DVD “Bumfights” and wanted to do some “bum bashing” of their own, police Officer Jason Lee said.

I examine the intersection between the market, technology, and violence in this mentary. In an earlier draft of the piece, I named in particular as one of the sites that “profit from setting up taped fights between homeless people or other vulnerable populations.”

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