Update: The brawl occurred on Friday, April 15, according to CMSD. The school is aware that the video is online and is reviewing the footage in an attempt to identify students. “It’s a matter of student discipline and the Safety and Security Division is investigating,” said CMSD spokesperson Roseann Canfora. (Fox 8)
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Searching for something else on YouTube this morning, we came across this video of a pretty well-attended brawl outside MLK High School on Lexington. One girl’s getting her head stomped, people are thrown over cars and punched, groups of three or four swing at solitary victims.
The video seems to hint that the “bangout,” as the video calls it, happened last week, but we can’t find a concrete date. The Fourth District wasn’t immediately familiar with the incident and suggested we search police reports to find more specifics. They also didn’t seem too interested that video of the fight was on YouTube. Know anything? Send along the info.
Video after the jump.
This article appears in Apr 20-26, 2011.
Man…That music bed SUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKED…..
and this is why they belong in a zoo.
This is Cleveland’s future generation!!?? Good luck with that Cleveland…better start saving up to support all these fools.
This is why everyone in the world looks down upon our city. These kids should be ashamed and embarrassed to be alive after acting like this. Damn fools. This is GHETTO of all GHETTO. These kids are a waste of time, space, and effort. Our schools are closing and teachers are getting fired, but THIS is what they have to deal with. They should be given a trophy and a PAID summer vacation to a tropical resort. LOOK AT WHAT THEY HAVE TO DEAL WITH. Ghetto TRASH.
We want jobs, good things for our families, our friends and family to be safe, healthy? ..and yet too many act like this…
There is some good basic video editing skills here, too bad they are going to waste filming dumb kids punching each other for no reason other than their own damn egos. Very sad. Such a waste…
Kind of like watching a pack of animals, isn’t it?
@jamielynn THESE ARE CHILDREN. Do not adultify them and then proceed to judge and crucify them because of your prejudices. That’s exactly what the education system in intercity schools has done: it adultifies and treats these children as criminals. Now how do you think that affects the growth and development of a child? It causes them to play the part.
“These kids are a waste of time, space, and effort.”
You are not alone in your sentiments. How many of their teachers do you think have voiced the same sentiments, if not directly then indirectly? The problem is not with the kids, it’s with the system. It’s not like these kids are afforded the same privileges that predominantly white suburban private AND public schools are allowed. So before you pass judgement on a group of black children acting out, take a look at the circumstances they’ve been made to weather and the prejudices they are made so very conscious of at such a young age.
@mariesa yes not all the kids are hopeless. but why are some kids coming out good and so many more coming out so bad? their mothers had children when they had no child raising skills and the fathers left bleach burnouts getting away from the babymamas. they need to be put on birth control and keep from having kids when they are still kids themselves. is that part of the privilege you mean? because as far as i know they have the same sex ed classes as the white kids and there are clinics that provide bc. there’s a start. that and please parents, teach your kids to speak well enough to get a respectable job, and pull your damn pants up.
Tribal instincts, 10 on 1 to bring down, kill and eat the prey.
@carolefun That is not the privilege I am referring to in the previous post. The privilege I am referring to is the privilege of being a white person living in America.
If you want the longer version, check out Cheryl Harris’ “Whiteness as Property”
Mariesa as I do agree that not all of these kids are hopeless you need to look at the real situation. It is alot easier to place the blame on anything other than the real cause. A teacher is not a parent, this is where the problem lies. We attend school or education, and we have parents that are supposed to teach us wrong and right. Sure there will be some teachers who have given up and beaten down over years of abuse and neglect, but how many of these parents are going to do anything for these children. All in all Excuses are like A**holes everyones got one. A parent is more than the one who gave birth, so quit making excuses and start disciplining your kids.
@mariesa this is 2011 there are no privileges that you are trying to falsely claim. In fact there are many advantages of being a minority. I am from a mixed family with white black and Hispanic cultures in it. My aunt gets welfare and she is white. My wifes cousin is a CEO of a small company and she is Black so how is that white privilege. Even here recently they had a big debate because someone wanted to give a white man a $500 college scholarship. With all the ethnic based scholarships, people were outraged that someone actually wanted to help a white male. You know what makes a good school system? The community that surrounds it. So instead of crying about the teachers and other educators maybe you should go preach the the crack dealer standing on the corner.
@mariesa: The education system is not the problem. The problem is the parents. If you don’t want to be a parent, don’t have children. Children require raising, they’re not just a welfare check. If you need money, get a job, not pregnant.
@Mariesa I have no prejudices. I am only judging based on their actions in this video and in this video, they are acting like fools.
These “children” are old enough to know what they are doing is wrong and bad. They are or have be taught to enjoy it, look at them. No one is stopping it. They are WATCHING and CHEERING. Their biggest concern is to TAPE it and put it on YOUTUBE. Really!?!?
They WANT this to happen. Why do people treat these kids like criminals, well …If you have an expectation to be treated a certain way, stand up for yourself in an inspiring, positive manner. Don’t throw your peer to the ground and start stomping on their head.
These “children” are beating up their peers. These are OUR CHILDREN, our brothers, our sisters, our cousins, our nieces and nephews!! Why? For the pure fact of putting fear in them and satisfying their own ego? Or securing their “status” in society? What the hell?
The school system in Cleveland leaves something to be desired, but so do the students attending them. Little or no parent involvement, terrible test scores, terrible attendance records, terrible graduation rates. These kids need to realize their actions will get them no where. THIS is our supporting generation. . . by the looks of things I am terrified on how they expect to support themselves, their economy, their families, and a lifestyle acting in such manners.
Finding ANY qualified employees to do any jobs that require any sort of skill other than stomping on heads and giving black eyes is little and far between.
Companies in Cleveland go out of their way to bring in employees outside the area. Why? Because it’s hard to find a truly qualified individual who has a work ethic made of gold. I see and experience this EVERYDAY. They see the low ranking test scores, the over-crowded classrooms, the over worked teachers, the lack of supplies and tools to create a good educational environment, the lack of interest from students and parents alike. Honesty, it leaves a lot to be desired.
If parents want better for their kids, they can speak up and do something. They do have a voice. They do have a RIGHT. They have more power than ANYONE in this situation. Does anyone? No. Why not? I don’t know.
Why are these kids so “mad”? Why are they fighting each other? What causes two or three TEENAGE girls to gang up on one and stomp on the head of another?!?!?! WHAT CAUSES THAT!!?!?
I hate when people start playing the blame game. Come on, someone stand up and take responsibility for your kids, for their actions, for YOUR actions. It’s time we hold someone responsible for these children acting out in such a manner.
Absolutely Unacceptable.
Please stop acting like this only happens with black kids. There are plenty of videos on youtube showing kids of all colors fighting. Thats what kids do, inner city and in the suburbs. You think because now you get to see a video of it in the youtube era, that kids are all of a sudden out of control. The only thing new is the technology capturing it. I graduated in 1990 in a suburb and I saw many fights just like this, but there was no camera to broadcast it worldwide.
I don’t think any of you actually understand what it is I’m trying to express.
After reading all of your comments, I am almost obligated to say that I agree with all of you to some extent. It is not only the system of education, but the parents who don’t care because their parents didn’t build meaningful connection with them; the actual fact that they are children and lots of children engage in violence as the answer as it is much more easier to do. We also need to consider the other factors:
1) Black role models are scarce and tend to be entertainers (rappers)—who promote violence.
2) White Privilege affects the opportunities presented true, but this is more of a class issue. There are no playgrounds or Recreation centers easily accessible(different gang territory) to the children. So that’s why violence is their fun. You get tired of racing and doing backflips for fun.
3) That there is an invested interest in keeping certain communities emotionally depressed. Our candy stores became liquor stores and have gotten our parents addicted. Crack cocaine (supplied by a higher power) and legal drugs are the vices that hold us down. There is less police rapport with the community because they would rather have the crime happen so that they keep their jobs (not individually, but the judicial system) etc.
4) The parents that care, are at work trying to build what white families have (privilege) to have better families for the future, which leaves their children to be subject to media cultivation. After seeing it promoted on TV and noticing it is socially expected around you as a child, you are almost prone to failure.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
I could go on forever. I graduated from that school Martin luther King in 2009 and I am now finishing my second year of college at Kent State headed into my junior year. I have experienced that neighborhood and those troubles and issues and it hurts to hear some people blame just the parents, or just the system. Its the collective. We cannot continue to avoid the real issue. (In my opinion)The real issue that breeds all the problems and shortcomings presented in the film and in all of your arguments is the way Capitalism operates.
I was involved in this fight ..and I graduated from this school I’m going to a 4 year university in the fall and I already have two jobs …so the people that are saying we have no time on our hands and we are a waste of space can just be quiet because half of the people that were in this video are doing something else in their lives…I will admit we were wrong for this but you weren’t there so you really don’t know the whole story you just see the video and think we have nothing else to do and automatically say we need to be in the ZOO. Come on now the video doesn’t have what happend before all this went down ..so for all you people that just judged us by looking at this video and “tried” to tell what we are doing to the future and just sit down and shut up …Because newsflash this world that WE ALL live in is not perfect….
And for you to say that we wanted it to be recorded is so stupid …I’m not callin you stupid just what you said was…we didn’t hold a gun up to the camera person head and say you better record this fight and put it on YouTube…and like i said in my last comments you weren’t there so you don’t know the whole story …you don’t even know half the story jus by watching this video ….