On YouTube, everyone makes his own disaster video
More and more young people create vandalism videos. Police discovered and resolved dozens of cases of vandalism with evidence from sites like YouTube.
Young people on YouTube are often pushing boundaries. In Veenendaal a group of teenagers roams a shopping center which can hardly be seen by the poor quality of the material. Along the way they throw an inflatable Santa Claus and make obscene gestures. In another film clip you can see how a homemade bomb filled with three bottles of gasoline, is detonated in Veenendaal, creating a huge fireball that lites up the whole area.
War Zone by heavy fireworks
Fireworks vandalism is increasingly getting out of hand through heavy explosions. The Dutch Post organisation claims it costs them tons of money repairing and securing mailboxes, while municipalities have to check containers and trays do not parish in a sea of ??flames . “It’s just not safe on the streets” they say. Bus stops are blown up in the city of The Hague?, paper containers are burning, and windows crash as there is a dull thud of explosions in the distance accompanied by a pungent powder stench.
Inspired by YouTube videos with spectacular explosions, youngsters tamper with illegal fireworks and add gasoline or other chemicals. The consequences are obvious. Ten years ago it was quite an achievement to blow up cans and bottles with with firecrackers. Now it’s complete?bus shelters, scooters and cars are blown up in the air. On YouTube you can see how teens turn a basketball court into a warzone, because an improvised petrol bomb lits the whole field and making it?impassable. But another videoclip shows that illegal fireworks can also be destructive without any creative addition. Vandals have a scooter go up in flames as it explodes by pushing an avalanche rocket under the saddle. Shards of the vehicle are found tens of meters away. “The claims are heavier and there are more serious injuries” says Cees Meijer who is the coordinator of the Task Force Fireworks Bomb makers. According to Meijer the increased desire to blow things up in the worst possible ways in the Netherlands is fueled for a large part by social media sites like YouTube. Manuals for these bombs can be easily exchanged too. “In addition, it also encourages macho behavior among those guys. Who can cause the most severe explosion and is man enough to prove and share it? That is the core of the problem.” However, the irony is that social media is a “great opportunity” to provide easier ways to detect these vandals says Meijer. “They provide the evidence themselves.” Therefore the police, the public prosecution and Consumer Safety Organisation (SCV) united in the Taskforce Fireworks Bomb makers and are creating is this year for the first time new campaigns to prevent these events from happening. The SCV scans YouTube for fireworks vandalism and police and the justice departments try to figure out the people behind the accounts. This collaboration seems to work, because already vandals are found relatively quickly, according to Meijer. Eighty percent of the people have put their videos offline. “They are obviously still nervous when a letter of Justice gets in their mailbox.”
Take a look at the YouTube Channel of the Task Force for Fireworks Bomb makers (Dutch only):?http://www.youtube.com/user/TaskForceOVB
Police are looking for young vandals on YouTube
The Groningen police was early to use their YouTube video channel in detecting how four boys destroyed a bus shelter. A witness had the incident captured on camera and distributed it via YouTube. The police refer to the pictures and request people that have information to call it in.?”If we were to put cameras on every bus shelter, that would be something else,” says Kirsten Smith of the public prosecution service. “But this is just filmed by a citizen which we can simply use.” It also helps that this video was already distributed by the witness himself, so authorities don’t have to decide whether to do so themselves.
Police are looking for vandals with photos on Hyves
The Gelderland police puts images of vandals on Hyves. Four boys were suspected on Friday, June 3rd at Zandenplas in Gelderland Nunspeet to have thrown broken beer bottles and fired and having?wastebaskets put to fire.?Justice uses the social media method because other means, such as interviewing recreational present, yielded nothing. The boys are between 15 and 19 years old.
Cheer on Hyves about downtrodden roundabout art
The province of Utrecht does not know whether the roundabout artwork that was driven to pieces by a 22 -year-old Saturday night?will be repaired. The driver is likely to expect a claim. The cost of the artwork was 80,000 euro’s.?The province of Utrecht keeps a watchful eye on the special Hyves – page anti – gold Lopik‘ where messages might be posted. Thereyoung people from the area talk and cheer about destruction of the art. A mssaive amount of people expressed their?disapproval of the cost of the artwork. And covertly they called for vandalism with great disapproval on ‘this waste of public money’.
The province , as initiator and subsidizing party of art on roundabouts, they wait for the police report after the destruction. Immediately after its placement emerged earlier this year commotion about the price and the value of the artwork was expressed. It was defaced several times and once already transformed into a playful Teletubbie roundabout.
After the destruction of the province last weekend doubted whether she wanted to restore honor, especially since it was not clear whether to recover the costs from the offender.
But now a 22 -year-old man from Schoonhoven has stated that after a party Saturday night he fell asleep behind the wheel and hit the roundabout with the golden arrow. In anticipation of the official statement in the police report and the busy Hyves page, the province will decide later on whether or not the golden arrow will be repaired.
Demolition of bungalows trending on YouTube
Dutch holidays lately have to do with a new phenomenon: drunk youths ‘redecorate’ their bungalows and other places they stay and put the images of their vandalism proudly on the Internet.?Furniture is reduced to firewood and disappears into the fireplace. Fireworks lit in the living room and gasoline being thrown in fireplace lets the flames light from the chimney. These and other images are on the wildly popular video website YouTube. A bill that was presented to a destructive tenant was also put on the internet: 1,400 euros for a fallen door, flooring destroyed, damaged salon and suffered loss of rental income.
Residents also put pictures of vandalism on YouTube
With the release of some footage about vandalism in the neighborhood of Hooghuis searching for a “windowcarwiperboy” Eric Nagel hopes that residents recognize the perpetrator.?Nagel has its own surveillance system:?”For us, the wipers were only put up , but other residents had theirs bent and damaged. It is a striking modus operandus that he does so only with wipers on the rear windows of cars.”says Nagel.?He issued the images to the police “In addition, I have put the fragment of the windowcarwiperboy? on YouTube. You never know if people recognize him.”?Last weekend a number of car mirrors were broken. It is not known if the young man of the movie acts on his own, or if more people are involved in the destruction.
Vandalism
There is no shame in Rotterdams YouTube petty criminals that use the popular video website. Just search for terms like Code 010 (Rotterdam), 5314 (Rotterdam – South) or 3027 (Spangenberg) and take a staggering look at the ‘ street culture’. Kicked windows and burning garbage cans – even a car is in flames near boys smiling while watching.?Take for example, a videoclip of an account called dezeboyla. Four guys on a square somewhere in the south of Rotterdam are fumbling with a phonebooth. Then they run away and next there’s a huge explosion. In the background we hear laughter and cheers. The video has been viewed more than six thousand times , and the reactions are expressions of support for the action of the quartet.
Then there are the harassing videos. A sender called ‘the white fences boys’ shows how a group of Moroccan youths with loud screams upset a high blonde Rotterdam girl. And of course the happy slapping phenomenon: corner a defenseless victim and share the recordings. Tough behavior, they think themselves no doubt, but not always a smart move to put them online. because many offenders are clearly visible in the footage. Increasingly, they are also arrested. In recent weeks, seventeen boys were arrested in Arnhem , Deventer and Roermond, after they had placed videoclips of assaults, robberies and harassment.
Jur Verbeek, responsible for security in Spangenberg, is regularly looking at code names online such as 3027, the postal code of the area, and other search terms: “It gives a good insight into the youth” he says. It’s not only criminal behavior, though. Neighborhood boys also place a lot of music, such as rap songs about the neighborhood, or a tribute to a deceased friend. Also nice things too.”
The question is why these young people choose to videotape and share the footage themselves. Criminologist Henk Ferwerda, specializing in group behavior, calls it a combination of ‘bragging and inanity’. “They used to put a garbagecan on fire while five friends were watching. You could later brag to most others. Now you can show it.” All around the world, says Ferwerda, there are different degrees in this type of behaviour. “It is annoying when violent crimes or rapes are filmed. That is very degrading to the victims. New technology is now effortlessly used as a threat or intimidation.”?But the naivety will soon disappear, he says: “Some people have the idea that they are anonymous on the Internet. That they cannot be recognized. They will soon realize that the police are also watching you on YouTube.” So the criminologist draws a comparison with sites of football hooligans. So-called “trophy” sites, which show off vandalism and fights that are not as easy to be found as they used to. “These sites are often put forward as evidence in lawsuits. Now hooligans are often unrecognizable, or you need a key to visit the website.”
Sources: De Gelderlander (11 april 2007), Nederlands Dagblad (23 dec 2011), Dagblad van het Noorden (20 juli 2010), Parool (2007), AD/Groene Hart (24 april 2009), ANP (28 Juni 2011), Het Belang van Limburg (19 Mei 2007), BN/DeStem (14 juli 2011), Noordhollands Dagblad (2012)