A disturbing trend seems to have developed lately: groups of teens and women brawling against a lone victim in public usually at a restaurant – including a fight on Wednesday near Charleston.
More and more of these fights are being caught on video – such as the case in the Charleston fight, one in Augusta and a wild attack by girls during a melee in a New York McDonald’s.
Most of the brawls include slapping, hair-pulling, punching, scratching, kicking and, in some cases, stomping on the head of a victim — and recently a gun being held to a girl’s head by a teen’s mom during the height of the fight.
In some of the fights, girl victims are made defenseless because the attacker pulls their clothing off and the victim has to shield her nudity from the video instead of fighting back.
It seems to be happening all over the county… Ohio last week, Texas 2 weeks ago, North Charleston on Wednesday, Augusta 2 weeks ago and Brooklyn on Wednesday.
All of the graphic, vicious fights among the women seem to have something in common: social media. Seemingly all of the arguments first began on social media and the fight video – captured of nearly all — becomes very popular on social media afterwards.
Most of the videos go on to become social media sensations, with many likes, recommends and shares. Yet, for all the video, in many of the vicious fights, no one is ever prosecuted for the fight itself, sometimes because the victim — humiliated on social media video — never comes forward.
The most recent fight in South Carolina happened Wednesday when about 15 young women were caught on video outside an IHOP in various fights that intensified with several in one group eventually beating and kicking a lone woman.
During that attack in North Charleston, the victim was knocked down on the pavement of the parking lot – and kicked several times by women, one of whom stomped on the victim’s head twice. Eventually, the fight broke up while at least 2 different people used cell phones to video the event.
One SC woman in the IHOP melee was arrested, on a charge of simple possession of marijuana, not for her possible involvement in the attack. Police said that shots were fired during the event.
A so-called girl fight in Houston just 2 weeks ago spiraled out of control at a school — with a possibly deadly element involved.
A 14-year-old girl knew she was going to fight a foe, but her enemy brought a group of friends to the fight, which turned into a one-sided attack.
Seen in video, the teen girl victim’s mom, Viridiana Alvarez, pulled out a gun and held it directly at the head of a girl in the fight on school grounds, Houston police said.
Alvarez, age 33, told a judge she only planned to “scare her,” according to Click2Houston. In one photo of the scene, 5 different girls are seen with their cell phones recording images or video of the fight.
Then, in Augusta about 2 weeks ago, a young woman in Augusta was caught on video with other women in a fight inside a Waffle House in the Southgate Shopping Center on Gordon Highway.
Like most of the fights, the chaos was all caught on camera and one of the women involved was seen using what looks like a butter knife to stab someone, WJBF-TV reported.
In the video, you can see fists flying from several young women. The fight moves into two separate areas of the restaurant and into a booth before it intensifies.
A woman wearing gold pants runs from one fight to the other, hitting one woman 3 times before she jumps up on the table with what appeared to be a butter knife.
Someone else then threw a plate into the wild scene of women attacking each other. Cries for the fight to stop came only after it grew out of control.
The woman in the gold pants later told WJBF that she was “embarrassed” after the video became a huge sensation on social media.
Matina Adolphe was in the fight and said that she was only holding a key in her hand – not any kind of knife. The fight was sparked she said when she and her sisters were just trying to order food when things got out of hand with another woman.
“She’s just been harassing me for so long, everything just exploded,” said Adolphe, who has since been charged in the incident.
Adolphe says she and the other woman were arguing on Facebook for several months — and that night was the final straw. Adolphe now says she’s ashamed.
“I haven’t even been back in there since …. because I’m embarrassed. Who wants to be known for fighting in a Waffle House? That’s so ratchet. That’s not me,” said Adolphe.
In Ohio, one girl was cornered a school bathroom and beaten while she was on the floor – and the whole thing was caught on cell phone video.
Four girls were suspended after the freshman girl was attacked by another girl during lunchtime last Wednesday at school in Fairborn.
The freshman was knocked unconscious, taken to a hospital for a CT scan and was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome, WHIO-TV reported.
In that case, a rare thing happened: the bystander who caught video of the fight was also suspended from school.
And the most recent so-called girl fight to make headlines was Wednesday in a McDonald’s in Brooklyn.
In that case – also caught on video – one girl is singled-out and pummeled by the others. The fight involved about 8 girls, including the victim, who tried to fight back but wasn’t able.
This fight, like most others involved the aggressor managing to pull and hold the victim’s hair as other girl attacked the victim.
The wild scene in McDonald’s moved throughout the dining area as girl punched and hit the victim in the head, according to video. The victim, in a bright blue sweater, is eventually knocked the floor and kicked.
The victim is left cowering under a table, and is carried by fellow teens and placed on a bench. A teen girl was arrested a day after the fight.
A large crowd of onlookers watched the beating, but no one tried to stop it.
“They are cowards for not speaking up. I think they are real cowards.” Said Donia Ainsley, who lives nearby the McDonalds.
— Info from CNN, WCBD-TV and WJBF-TV