New York state legislators are taking aim at YouTube beatdowns. On Tuesday, the Senate Republican majority introduced legislation that would create a new crime – unlawful violent recording – that would carry a one-and-a-half to four year penalty.
The proposed law is a reaction to the countless Internet videos featuring violent assaults. However, it would not just involve beatings recorded for the World Wide Web. Before unveiling their idea, the politicians showed a clip from the Dr. Phil show that featured a man bribing homeless people to injury each other so he could record the fight and later sell copies of it.
Dr. Phil had his own role in the debate about the beating that seemed to really bring this crime of assaulting someone and then further humiliating them by trying to post it on the net to international attention. A member of the former Oprah super guest’s staff apparently bailed out one of the attackers of Victoria Lindsay. Lindsay is the 16-year-old Florida girl who was allegedly kidnapped, beaten, knocked unconscious and then beaten again by a group of other teens. The beatdown was videotaped and her teenage attackers, who are now being tried as adults, threatened to post it on YouTube or MySpace. While the video reportedly wasn’t posted online by those who assaulted Lindsay, parts of it did appear on mainstream news broadcasts and made its ways online.
Would this proposed new law make a difference? It has the potential to as it could land the criminals behind bars for a longer period of time. If someone is committing an assault such as the one on Lindsay, are they really thinking about the consequences anyway? However, I feel that it is a step in the right direction. We are in a digital age and it is time to give law enforcement some tools to wage the battle on that front.
What do you think? Is this law a good idea?
Robin
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