Girls Record Brutal Attack On Teen To Allegedly Post On YouTube
Monday, April 7, 2008 – updated: 7:43 am EDT April 8, 2008
POLK COUNTY, Fla. -- Video was released late Monday afternoon showing a brutal beating at the hands of a gang of teenage girls. Their motivation for the attack was allegedly so they could post the video on YouTube and MySpace.
The sheriff calls it shocking, saying he's never seen anything like it. It was a vicious attack all captured on home video inside a Polk County home.
When 16-year-old Victoria Lindsay arrived at her friend's house where she had been staying, six girls were waiting. Immediately, they started yelling and one girl began pummeling the victim.
On the video, the girls can be heard encouraging the fight in the background, even taunting Lindsay to fight back, all while one of them held the camera. The victim's family has said it was an elaborate plot to injure and embarrass Victoria Lindsay. Lindsay's parents couldn't believe their daughter had to endure the attack.
The 16-year-old suffered a concussion, eye injuries and several bruises. During the attack, two others were outside keeping watch according to the sheriff's office.
In fact, the sheriff said, Lindsay was lured into the home for the sole purpose of capturing and posting the video on the Internet. According to the sheriff's office arrest affidavit, Lindsay told deputies they "were going to post the beating on MySpace and YouTube."
Instead, it's the sheriff's office that ended up releasing it to the media and now all eight suspects accused of making it happen are charged with very serious crimes. All suspects face charges for false imprisonment and battery. Three of them were charged with kidnapping because, the sheriff's office said, they forced Lindsay into a car and drove her to another location after the beating.
The suspects were identified as 17-year-old Mercades Nichols, 17-year-old Brittini Hardcastle, 14-year-old April Cooper, 16-year-old Cara Murphy, 17-year-old Britney Mayes and 15-year-old Kayla Hassell. Zachary Ashley, 17, and Stephen Schumaker, 18, were identified by deputies as the lookouts
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I am not sure if you remember this news clip. I remember watching this clip on youtube before it made it to the news when my boyfriend found it on the "Most watched clip (of the day)." The video can be found at, but I must warn that it's really vicious and disturbing. http://www.salon.com/ent/video_dog/misc/2008/04/08/myspace_fight/index.html?source=video&aim=/ent/video_dog/misc. It has been taken off of youtube, so this is from another website.
It's strange to think that all of this is over an offensive comment that the victim posted on MySpace. I am sure that all of us has heard of stories of hazing within sororities, frats or sports teams. Obviously, this is a severe case, but how has hazing been "inherited" from generations of classmates, teammates and sisters/brothers? I would imagine that this is a type of violence that is prevalent across the US that is not gun/drug-related. Not only is it physically harmful, it is psychologically damaging as young adults are reduced to nothing just to be popular on a team or to pass initiation to join a frat?
How do you think the girls justified the kidnapping and web-posting of their video to acheive E-famy? They did got national media attention, but at the cost of their futures. Why do you think it is considered okay to haze on sports teams and initiation nights?
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This is a follow-up news article on the indictment of the perpetrators. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6120825.html
Wow... that's terrible, but sadly, I'm not surprised. There used to be rumors of hazing in some of my high school's teams, too. Teenagers can be really vicious in their quest to feel validated and admired... I think it's all about the power dynamic and a sense of "paying one's dues" to get where you want to go. Sometimes that attitude continues (less violently) into adult institutions... for example, the "we had to go through this when we were students/residents, so shut up and deal" mentality has been notorious among some old-school residents/attendings who go out of their way to make newcomers to the medical profession miserable. (Fortunately, they're becoming fewer and farther in between.) Regardless of their age, people seem to feel like hazing is somehow linked to a sense of earned entitlement.
ReplyDeleteI remember when this video came out. Last week we were talking about how the victim's name is often omitted when she is raped or involved in a domestic violence case, but this poor girl had her face plastered over the internet.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the psychological damage...that girl most likely fully recovered from her physical injures, but she probably struggle for many years to overcome the incident.
This is just one of the many reasons I dislike YouTube and MySpace so much. I understand that these are tools that can be used to unite people across the globe, but I feel that more often than not, they are being used to degrade and embarass others.
Unfortunately, I think these types of incidents have always occured -- but with the advent of the internet -- these things take on a life of their own. One has to wonder about the psychological consequences not only of the damage cause by the violent act, but the fact that her name (and those of her attackers) will be associated with the event for ?? years to come. How can you begin to move past something when a reminder of what happened is always a keystroke away?
ReplyDeleteI think that children are becoming obsessed with being famous and that is what is driving this cruelty. It's hard to understand why they don't realize the consequences of broadcasting their crimes could lead to serious consequences.
ReplyDeleteIm not sure if I would call this kind of behavior "hazing". When I think of that word, I envision someone willing submitting to abuse in order to gain acceptance. This girl didn't sign up for any of that.
I realize that everyone wants to be accepted in high school, but not at any cost. This is absolutely heinous. I can't believe the audacity of these girls...to think that they wouldn't be caught?!
ReplyDeleteAs cynical as it may sound, this just seems to follow the natural order of female adolescent thought. Girls put each other down to raise social status -- see what has worked before, what's 'in' now (i.e. lots of news stories came out about girls posting these types of videos to youtube before this happened) -- they try to 'out-do' what's already been done -- and the cycle repeats. Sad, but true.
It's unfortunate, but this reminds me of those movies like "Mean Girls"..or the Fab Five (oh yes..another great thing Texas is known for..). I think the media plays a huge role in this. It's become "cool" to outcast people..kids are cruel these days, and will do almost anything to get attention. WHY? Well, it's because the media has glorified "being bad" -
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