28 April 2005 Blog Home : April 2005 : Permalink
In one video clip, labelled Bitch Slap, a youth approaches a woman at a bus stop and punches her in the face. In another, Knockout Punch, a group of boys wearing uniforms are shown leading another boy across an unidentified school playground before flooring him with a single blow to the head.
In a third, Bank Job, a teenager is seen assaulting a hole-in-the-wall customer while another youth grabs the money he has just withdrawn from the cash machine.
Welcome to the disturbing world of the "happy slappers" - a youth craze in which groups of teenagers armed with camera phones slap or mug unsuspecting children or passersby while capturing the attacks on 3g technology.
According to police and anti-bullying organisations, the fad, which began as a craze on the UK garage music scene before catching on in school playgrounds across the capital last autumn, is now a nationwide phenomenon.
Meanwhile across the pond in Florida, Reuters reports thatGov. Jeb Bush signed a new anti-crime law on Tuesday that allows people to kill in self-defense without first trying to flee.
Supporters say the law is a logical extension of common law that allows homeowners who fear for their lives to use deadly force to defend themselves from an intruder in their homes.
The new law expands that doctrine to include people in public places who feel threatened and could be subject to death or great bodily harm.
Reuters has lots of quotes about how dangerous this is and concluides with this beautiful quote:"All this bill will do is sell more guns and possibly turn Florida into the OK Corral," Rep. Irv Slosberg, a Democrat, said during recent debate on the bill.
Although they don't seem to have commented on the signing - if they did their search engines don't report it - both the Grauniad and Auntie were equally scathing in coverage of the bill earlier this month. However it occurs to me that the chances of somone "Happy Slapping" a random stranger in Florida is a lot lower than it is in London and, just possibly, the fact that in the UK the chance that your victim is armed is vanishingly small wheras in Florida it is rather high could be the reason for this.