About
Transit Fight Videos are amateur footage of altercation or arguments that take place while on public transportation. The videos are typically disseminated through sites like YouTube, Liveleak and World Star Hip Hop.
Origin
Online videos of fights on public transit became increasingly common in the late 2000s with the rise of video-recording mobile phones and video-sharing sites. The earliest known viral videos of public bus brawls came from the Chinese-speaking web in May 2006 with a video titled “Hong Kong Bus Uncle”, which shows 51-year-old Roger Chan berating 23-year-old Elvis Ho on a bus in Hong Kong after being touched on the shoulder.
Spread
April 2008: Soulja Girl
On April 7th, 2008, 25-year-old Nafiza Zayid was video taped harassing a senior citizen while on a train in Atlanta, Georgia. On May 8th, 2008, YouTuber britneyslut uploaded the video of Zayid threatening the woman while singing a modified version of the song “Crank Dat” by Soulja Boy (shown below). After another passenger urges Zayid to calm down, she begins to accuse the man of raping her before screaming hysterically causing a passenger to remove her hat. Within four years, the video accumulated over 1.6 million views.
February 2010: Epic Beard Man
On February 16th, 2010, a video of a white man fighting a younger black man on a bus in Oakland, California was uploaded to YouTube by college student Iyanna Washington (shown below). The white man, who was dubbed “Epic Beard Man” on 4chan, was identified as Oakland resident Thomas Bruso, known for his reputation of belligerence. Within three years, the video accumulated over 5.9 million views.
October 2010: Bloody Loco
On October 25th, 2010, YouTuber nmboito uploaded a video titled “Guy on subway flipping out,” featuring a ponytail-wearing man calling himself “Bloody Loco” verbally abusing a passenger on a New York City subway train (shown below). In March of 2011, the book reading passenger identifying himself as Daniel was interviewed by Gawker, who revealed that Bloody Loco called him a “pussy” after accidentally bumping into his leg. After replying with “I am what I eat,” Loco began insulting him.
November 2011: My Tram Experience
On November 17th, 2011, YouTuber ladyk89 uploaded a video titled My Tram Experience featuring footage of an English woman making various racist statements and ordering other passengers to “go back where you came from” (shown below). The same day, the British newspapers reported that the woman in the video was placed under arrest by British law enforcement, sparking a debate about the fairness of prosecution for hate speech in the blogosphere and Twitter. In the following months, several other videos emerged of London train passengers ranting about foreigners in the United Kingdom.
October 2012: Cleveland Bus Driver’s Uppercut
On October 11th, 2012, a video began circulating on various websites showing a Cleveland bus driver delivering an uppercut punch to a disgruntled female passenger. On the following day, The Smoking Gun[1] published an article titled “Police Reports Detail Cleveland Bus Uppercut,” which reported that the bus driver was 59-year-old Artis Hughes, who claimed that the uppercut was in retaliation to being grabbed in the throat and spit on. The female passenger was identified as 25-year-old Shi’dea Lane.
Search Interest
External References
[1] The Smoking Gun – Police Reports Detail Cleveland Bus Uppercut