Alleged 'Bumfights' Video Makers Arrested in Calif.

Reuters ^ | September 25, 2002 | Reuters

[Tancred]

300,000 x $19.99 = $5,997,000

After they pay the lawyers, they may have some left and will be sadder but wiser.

[GirlShortstop]

I'm wondering how these dorks are different from Tyson promoters (bank account figures aside).

[Huck]

Brilliant.

[Illbay]

...followed a three-month probe...

Yeah, this is pretty reprehensible, but is it really worth THREE MONTHS with detectives tied up on this case, when it really comes down to someone being paid to volunteer?

If this were, like, a week's worth of sniffing around, that'd be one thing, but THREE MONTHS?

[Illbay]

Good point.

[isthisnickcool]

WBFF = World Bum Fighting Federation.

Almost 6 million? Capitalism at work....

[IowaHawk]

Their next big film project is a porno epic: "White Boys Go To County Lockup".

[freedomson]

Where can I purchase one of these fine productions?

[MichaelP]

Order now!

Bumfights.com

Mike

[ikka]

Apparently the police originally thought it was gay porn. The investigation took 3 months because the first 2.5 months were spent in San Francisco.

[weikel]

Careful that kinda logic leads people to oppose the WOD Illbay lol.

[Billthedrill]

Wait a minute, I see a business opportunity here...we pay a bunch of seedy, drunken degenerates to fistfight in a pile of garbage and the winner gets to be a U.S. presidential candidate! We're gonna be rich...

What? What do you mean it's already being done?!?

[Illbay]

Well, except drugs hurt all sorts of people directly and indirectly, and they ruin lives.

Someone else mentioned the fact that there's not much difference between this, and organized boxing. That's a better analogy.

[ex-Texan]

I'll bet these boys have signed and notarized releases from all of these bums. The court case may fall apart.

[BlessingInDisguise]

Haha, NOOOO!! U.S.S.A. cops arrest bumfights producers. Bumfights is HILARIOUS!!!!! Download it with Edonkey2000 for free!

[Illbay]

Well, to be sure I think what they did was illegal. And having put them under arrest, I wouldn't be surprised if they were convicted. After all, you can't pay for people to assault one another--unless you're Don King, that is.

My problem isn't with prosecuting these guys. My problem is with taking up three months of a detective team's time with this. If the local police here had been diligent in locating my daughter's stolen bicycle, I'd be a little less prone to grumble.

[Cultural Jihad]

Filmmakers charged with staging "Bumfights" between homeless men

By SETH HETTENA Associated Press Writer
Published 2:10 p.m. PDT Wednesday, September 25, 2002

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Prosecutors have filed felony charges against four filmmakers who allegedly offered food, shelter, liquor and money to homeless men who beat each other and hurt themselves for a videotape sold over the Internet.

On the tape "Bumfights: A Cause for Concern," a homeless man is seen ripping out his front tooth with pliers, another rams his head into a steel door and others stomp and pummel each other bloody. Defense attorneys for two of the four defendants said much of the action was staged.

Prosecutors said Wednesday they have charged Ryan E. McPherson, 19; Zachary Bubeck, 24; Daniel J. Tanner, 21; and Michael J. Slyman, 21; with soliciting homeless men to commit the crime of assault with deadly force. The charge carries a maximum of three years in prison.

McPherson also was accused of offering $25,000 each to two local homeless men, Rufus Hannah (dubbed "Rufus the Stuntbum") and Donald Brennan, if they did not cooperate with authorities investigating a Feb. 6 fight on the videotape, said prosecutor Curtis Ross. One of the men broke his ankle during the fight and paramedics were called.

The investigation was continuing and additional charges are anticipated, Ross said.

McPherson of San Diego and Bubeck of Las Vegas have pleaded innocent and were freed on bonds of $20,000 and $5,000, respectively. Police in the San Diego suburb of La Mesa were seeking Slyman and Tanner, both of Las Vegas.

"Bumfights" has been widely denounced by homeless advocates, who organized a petition calling for an investigation into the filmmakers. On the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives this summer, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said the film "sets a new standard for the cruel exploitation of damaged human beings."

At least 300,000 copies of the "Bumfights" videocassette were sold at $20 each, said Lt. Raul Garcia of the La Mesa Police Department, which led a three-month investigation of the operation.

"These profits came on the backs of the homeless," Garcia said Wednesday. "These homeless people today don't have any money and are still homeless."

Bubeck's attorney, Michael Pancer, said the figure was "wildly overinflated" but declined to say how much money his clients have received from sales of the tape.

McPherson did not return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday.

La Mesa police began an investigation in June when a nurse at a local hospital emergency room reported that a homeless man who sought treatment for injuries claimed he was being paid to fight, Garcia said.

Attorneys for McPherson and Bubeck said their clients, whom they described as talented young filmmakers, never encouraged any violence and said much of the action was rehearsed.

"It was all an act," said Jan Ronis, McPherson's defense attorney. "This was all in the interests of let's call it art."

Ronis said some of the homeless men who appear in the videotape were compensated, but denied the charges that the payments were hush money. He also said the broken ankle was "clearly an accident and is regretted."

Asked how he replied to homeless advocates who said the tape exploited the weakest and most vulnerable members of society, Ronis replied, "I'm not a film critic. I'm just a criminal defense attorney."

A Las Vegas man who declined to give his name out of concern for his privacy said he worked for the firm that designed the Bumfights Internet Web site. He described his clients as "always very elusive" and said he stopped working for them due to bad press and hate e-mail.

---

On the Net:

Bumfights, www.bumfights.com

San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless, http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/rtfh/home.html

---

Source: http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/4541014p-5560427c.html

[Cultural Jihad]

Knee-slapping, non-judgmental, consensual, and laissez-faire fun, eh?

[BlessingInDisguise]

I didn't know there were murders committed during the filming of bumfights. Perhaps you know something I don't?

[paul544]

Be sure to check out the free, gratuitous T&A. For research purposes only of course.