Surrey mayor calls youth brawling videos 'repugnant', Mounties investigating
Credit to Author: Tiffany Crawford| Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2019 21:58:57 +0000
Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum says another video has surfaced online showing a bunch of young men fighting with wooden rods and sticks, a mob violence trend he calls “repugnant.”
The video, posted Thursday on YouTube, also shows a group of five or six men, most wearing dark hoodies, vandalizing cars in a parking lot in the 7000-block of 128th Street in Surrey.
“I am deeply concerned that this kind of mob violence is happening with alarming frequency. In August, another large brawl in the Strawberry Hill area was caught on video. This behaviour is repugnant and puts the public at risk,” said McCallum in a statement Friday.
“It is imperative that RCMP take immediate and strong action to get a handle on this kind of mob violence that is occurring far too frequently in Surrey.”
Surrey Mounties confirmed Friday that they had seen the video, and that it was related to an ongoing investigation.
The investigation began in the early morning on Nov. 11, Surrey RCPM said, after police received reports of assault with a weapon and vandalism to property in the parking lot of a business near 70 Avenue and 128 Street in Newton.
That investigation has expanded since Mounties received a copy of the violent video, which surfaced Thursday on social media.
“While this incident and video is disturbing, having such a wide distribution could potentially help police further our investigation and identify those involved,” said Cpl. Elenore Sturko. “We share the community’s concerns about this act of public violence and urge anyone with information to come forward.”
Police are asking anyone who was involved in or witnessed this incident to come forward.
In August, Surrey RCMP were called in to investigate after a video was posted on Reddit showing a messy parking lot brawl in the Strawberry Hill neighbourhood.
The video was categorized under the local news tag and shared to the Vancouver subreddit, with the title “Just another day at strawberry hill theatre in Surrey.”
The 26-second video showed a group of people pushing, hitting, kicking and slapping one another in the driveway of a parking lot. The crowd is also seen breaking up into at least two smaller circles that appear to surround individuals.
— With files from Stephanie Ip, Harrison Mooney