Videos: Is This the Summer of the Street Fight Video?

We've noticed a recent uptick of YouTube street fight videos landing in the Gothamist tips inbox (tips@gothamist.com, y'all!), and after spotting yet another street fight video on NYC the Blog, we had to wonder: Are there more street fight videos surfacing this month than usual? Is the record-breaking heat making the natives more brawl-prone? Based on an a highly unscientific analysis of fights uploaded to YouTube since April, we must conclude in the affirmative.

After searching YouTube with the keywords "NYC Fight" and "NYC Street Fight," we found one confirmed fight in April (two out of the three that month are parts of the same fight, which seems staged), zero confirmed fights in May, and two fights in June. Which brings us to July, which has so far seen a total of eight fights posted to YouTube. If this trend continues, history will look back on the summer 2010 as the summer of the street fight video, Q.E.D. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the miserable disgusting heat may be a factor in this, but that's just speculation.

Thankfully, not all of these videos are depressing signifiers of civilization's asymptotic slide into voyeuristic barbarity! Here's a cute one of a doorman practicing Kung Fu on a subway platform:

Below, some more unsettling videos in the street fight genre.

Viddy this lengthy fistfight in tourist town, via NYC the Blog:

This one's called "A Guy Hits a Girl, Knocks Her Out Cold," or "People Suck":

Here's that ugly brawl at a Blockheads we posted over the weekend:

Can we interest you in a fight on St. Mark's Place today?:

And no street fight completist will want to miss the fight that recently spilled out of Max Fish on the Lower East Side. The video's been pulled from YouTube, but Guest of a Guest has a blow-by-blow.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on July 29, 2010 2:25 PM

Comments [rss]

Turkum Lan

1) Where are the cops? I thought they were supposed to be guarding the empire state building from the evil terrorists, the first fight happens right across from it

2) If we were allowed to carry guns we would never see anyone fighting, or a lot of shooting, either way, the hell with them all

3) the store front owner? I would have pulled the bastards in and beat the shit out of them inside the store, cheap bastards

whitecastlerock

Where are the cops? Great question. there are normally hordes of cops mugging for the tourist's cameras about a half a block from the 3 on 1 fight video. Disgraceful. Someone punching a woman with pieces of shit laughing needs to be incinerated with a fucking flamethrower. these people are scum....

Tower18

All of these fights are fucking weak. The one with the girl is the only one where anyone lands a good hit, and it's pretty fucked up how EVERYONE on the video celebrates how that "man" knocked out the woman. "That's that Flatbush shit." Nice. You feel like a man?

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

those people are fucking ignorance asses to celebrate a woman knocked out cold by a man. They look so fucking stupid and low -lives.

Guest

shit. i'm agreeing with you 100%.

and the sky is turning purple.

schadenfreudian mensch

nuff said. http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/ministry-of-silly-walks.jpg

Wza

#1 - I wonder if he was asking, "You talking to me?"

#2 - If I were outnumbered and no one wants to shoot the fair one, I would've grabbed a can or the bike or something. But, he handled it pretty good. He had those cornballs running.

#3 - Wow!

Guest

1) the winner

2) 3-on-1's suck. they just suck

3) punching a girl in the face is one of the least manly things a male human being can do.

4) the burrito fight? commented that already.

5) "y'argh... i'm drunk... let's fight... eh, ok. forget it -- let's go back inside and drink some more..."

adeez

"punching a girl in the face is one of the least manly things a male human being can do"

Yeah, provided the man is instigating. What if the woman is batshit crazy and is attacking the man? What if she's coming at the man with a weapon and the man's unarmed? What if she's attacking the man and is a huge pro fighter while the man's small and disabled?

There're exceptions to every rule, are there not?

Guest

There're exceptions to every rule, are there not?

yes. but didn't generalizing make my argument a little stronger, no?

Kelles

Hey! Did you forget the #1 rule about Fight Club??? Oh..and what about the NUMBER 2 rule about Fight Club??

Gotham Extremist

gothamist puts up a lot race bait and soon as someone post somthing not even close to what they are trying to instigate, they delete the post. LMFAO

hotstepper

i think the vids speak for themselves.

i learned that white people are amazing kung-fu fighters and those bitch-ass thugs better recognize cuz whitey is gonna bring the thunder!