Editorial: ‘Bumfights’ arrests are good news

Friday, Sept. 27, 2002 | 9:16 a.m.

Four Las Vegas men allegedly behind the "Bumfights" video are now facing felony charges in San Diego County. Police in La Mesa, Calif., spent three months investigating the filmmakers after learning that a homeless man there had made repeated trips to a hospital with injuries he had sustained during production of an apparent sequel. The first Bumfights video, filmed in Las Vegas and featuring local homeless men, made news around the country this spring as it was being promoted on a website. Because the film had already been shot and had progressed to the sales stage, Metro Police and the Clark County district attorney's office say they were unable to find any witnesses or any evidence of criminal activity.

In La Mesa, however, police were able to talk with witnesses during the production of a subsequent video and were able to substantiate accounts of injuries. The four men are charged with paying people to commit felony assaults and one is charged with offering a bribe to participants in the film to prevent them from talking to authorities. "Bumfights" features homeless men engaging in a variety of activities, including street fighting and racing downhill in shopping carts, that are potentially injurious to themselves and others. The charges were brought on the information that the filmmakers had paid the participants to perform the stunts, many of which the California authorities interpret as felony assaults with deadly weapons.

Charges are not the same as convictions, however, and only time will tell if the laws on the books now are specific enough to cover this type of vile exploitation of vulnerable homeless people. We appreciate the investigation by the La Mesa police and we hope the arrests put a stop to this type of filmmaking.