Cold and alone on the streets, a homeless man is suddenly approached by a man wearing khaki pants and a friend carrying a camera. All of a sudden, the homeless man is bound up with duct tape and drawn on with a marker.
The man in khaki talks into the camera in a horrible Australian accent while the homeless man wriggles around scared and confused as to what is happening to him.
This is “Bumfights,” a horrible reality video in which homeless people are mistreated by actors or by other homeless people paid in liquor or sex.
So far 30,000 copies of the video have been sold on the Internet.
The antics of crackheads and the mentally disabled being paraded around like this on DVD is hindering the efforts of homeless rights advocates around the world.
One of the creators of the video, Ray Laticia, defends it by saying that the filmmakers don’t force the people to fight and when they do, they get compensation, according to a May 5 Las Vegas Review-Journal story.
While the creators of the video see nothing wrong with it, producers of the video Ryan McPherson, 19; Zachary Bubeck, 25; Michael Slyman, 21; and Daniel Tanner, 21, were charged with soliciting a felony and conspiracy and battery according to a Nov. 20 Copley News Service report.
Besides breaking the law to make the movie, the video creates a distorted view of the homeless problem in America.
Even some of the homeless people shown fighting in the film are now suing the producers, saying that they were promised $25,000, according to a Sept 26 article in The San Diego Union-Tribune.
When promises of big money come in contact with hobos and junkies, there’s bound to be a negative reaction.
There may be no immediate answer to solving America’s homeless problem.
However, one thing is clear, with videos like “Bumfights” around, the answer won’t be coming any sooner.