Arrests pile up in YouTube assault video case
By Hart Van Denburg in Social Str@tegy
Thu., Nov. 19 2009 @ 6:12AM
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What kind of people allow their faces and names to be shared publicly on a YouTube video that documents them roaming the Twin Cities, laughing for the camera as they assault pedestrians, bike riders and children? Increasingly, it looks like they're the kind of people who get arrested -- and who are either ignorant or dismissive of the power of social media.
Mohamed Abdi, 19, of Oakdale, and a juvenile are now in custody in St. Paul. Three other juveniles have been arrested in Minneapolis.
We've been mirroring and embedding the video since the clip first surfaced Tuesday on YouTube. By Tuesday afternoon, someone had pulled the clip from the popular video sharing Web site -- but not before others had archived it elsewhere. City Pages re-posted the clip on its own YouTube channel late Tuesday, but YouTube pulled down that version as well, citing its violent content. The cat was out of the bag, however, and we've used other channels to get the clip in the pubic domain. You can see it below.Viewers of our site and others combed through the clip, identifying participants and landmarks -- including Central High School and Dunning Field in St. Paul -- posted their findings in online community forums, and began placing calls to Twin Cities authorities. Police say they have identified all eight people seen in the video.
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