Monday, May 24, 2010

Fallout from local YouTube fight video moves beyond Prince Rupert

The recent posting on YouTube of a collection of local youth fights has become of importance to more than the local RCMP detachment.

CTV BC, the British Columbia service for CTV News has posted a short item on its website outlining the concerns of local police over the recent video collection of youth fights staged in local parks, as well as the thoughts of a local Mixed Martial Arts instructor who was quick to protect the reputation of the local MMA community.

Kelly McMahon who operates a local MMA club, recognized some of the moves on display on the video, as well as one of the participants, but stressed that MMA was not to blame for the rash of local fight videos of late.

One of the participants apparently was a student briefly at McMahon's club, but as he explains never took the sport very seriously. McMahon went on to stress that his students were hard working and well behaved. As he explained to CTV;  "We're all pretty tight-knit. It's a small club and we're trying to teach kids something positive," he said. "My kids do not fight outside the club."

The YouTube video in question shows two participants engaged in martial arts type fighting, with one of the boys clearly enjoying a rather substantial advantage in the fight, the RCMP first became involved when one of the boys mother's inquired about the large number of bruises her son had suffered, from there the local detachment moved forward on the complaint.

The CTV coverage is not the first look at the local controversy which reportedly now has the RCMP planning to talk to the participants, audience and videographer in the incident, with the possibility of charges to follow from it.

Sahar Nassimdoost provided the first local report on the incident for TV 7 News on Wednesday, including this video report aired on TV 7s supper time newscast.

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