Horn, Hilux and mob mentality on the Avenue


There is a local video making the rounds that has me quite disturbed. The video appears to have been shot on Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook in the wee hours of morning on Sunday March 29. (Click HERE to view video).

It starts with an irate female violently venting her frustrations on the bonnet and headlights of a black Toyota HiLux pick-up truck, in full view of onlookers on either side of the roadway. I must warn you, up front, that the video does contain some coarse language.

Based on the running commentary provided by onlookers, it appears that the young lady had just caught her boyfriend in flagrante delicto with the outside woman, made a public ruckus and was preventing him and the outside woman from fleeing the scene in his vehicle.

Photo: I only want to talk...
Photo: I only want to talk…

As you can see, the jilted lover went to town on the vehicle. She ripped off the windshield wiper and then the front number plate and used them to scrape, scratch and smash the van before it could be driven away.

Further on in, you see that the attack on the vehicle escalated as the woman used bottles to smash against and throw at the van.

A deserved outcome for a ‘horn’, right? Guy got caught and received his immediate comeuppance, right?

My concern is with how that situation escalated during the course of the video. I saw one brave soul actively tried to stop the destruction (0:57) and calm the scene down. Unfortunately, the peacemaker was physically discouraged by another onlooker—who appeared to be a friend of the assailant—from intervening. Throughout the saga, the majority of the crowd goaded the woman into continuing her attack—or ‘chained her up’ as we say—and verbally fuelling her rage.

And of course, a plethora of smartphones were seen held aloft recording the incident.

What I cannot fathom is why some of the crowd members deliberately inserted themselves into the story. After the woman derived maximum use from the number plate, which she transformed to a club, a nearby female videographer offered her an empty beer bottle to use as a weapon (3:11).

Gleefully accepted, she chucked the bottle at the windscreen. More bottles, willingly volunteered by other crowd members, soon followed. Some just struck the vehicle while others smashed on impact.

The hapless driver’s escape bid continued to be hindered as the woman refused to remove herself from the vehicle’s path.

While infidelity is an everyday phenomenon, scenes such as these are, thankfully, not as commonplace. And it is frightening that, in addition to urging the woman to “mash it up”, the crowd—which had no stake in the dispute save for the raw entertainment value—offered her missiles to hurl at the van. This is the development that disturbs me most; the manifestation of mob mentality.

Photo: Don't take that girl!
Photo: Don’t take that girl!

The woman did not seek out bottles to  further her onslaught; the crowd spontaneously provided them to her. I shudder to think what would have happened if she had somehow managed to completely smash through the windshield, exposing the driver and the alleged outside woman.

Would the supply of bottles have ceased then?

That for me is the true tragedy of this situation. The public and open display of violence, as eye-catching and  entertaining as it was, embarrassed all three main players in the scenario—the woman, the man and the purported outside fling.

However, the crowd’s unbidden eagerness to ensure that the scene perpetuated and intensified through their active participation brought shame directly to themselves as well.

 

Editor’s note: Click HERE to read more blogs from Damian Scott. Or HERE to see the Ariapita incident.

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About Scotty Ranking

Damian R. Scott is an ICT professional and a lifelong student (and part-time teacher) of language and communication. As Scotty Ranking, he frequently comments on topical issues of the day, dispensing knowledge to all and sundry.

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199 comments

  1. Some people are really fake yes. There is an individual whose posts here is clearly not a reflection of her life. What happened to the nasty text messages and stalking me and my friends. But then talking about the moon and stars and love.

  2. It’s not blaming the Police but part of their job is to handle situations like this, were they called ,this street at that time can be a problem so they should be around.

  3. Funny that everyone wants to blame the police . Shouldn’t we be more responsible as a people to assist this young woman, instead of encourage her. Sad really

  4. mad woman……she must pay the price for ignorance.

  5. If that was. Me the video would. Have been about. A woman running. Down. The avenue for her life Lol

  6. Not sure if the longer version of the video is posted. But eventually people who had no involvement stopped giving bottles and began throwing them at the van themselves. This country is becoming such a shameful place. Not only the politicians and police but the people as well. We should be sooooooo ashamed of what we have allowed ourselves to become.

  7. Question? All those people and friends who was egging her on will their dip into their pockets an help her pay cost

  8. And NOT ONE Police Officer in sight!!!!

  9. Soooo shameful all are guilty by association there was a time when someone with dignity and class could intervene and discourage the behavior … A very sad reflection on us as a people !!!!!! She should be arrested for this childish tantrum crazy!!!!

  10. Ex girlfriend, behaving like that? hhhmm. But Jewel, I would’ve thought with a large crowd you would have a police presence, if only patrolling

  11. Yes because of the high amount of limers due to the weekend crowd in the area from Friday night

  12. Is it normal to not have a significant police presence in the area on a Saturday night?

  13. The Aggressor heard the victim was at the location with his current Girlfriend an went to the area however same was resolved personally between the victim and the aggressor who is the ex girlfriend of the victim who requested no further Police involvement Ravi….

  14. Damn. That was worse than I could imagine. Other people actually started pelting bottles too. You could hear what was being said and it was really unsettling… And it’s true that her friend disappeared at some point.
    Sad.

  15. Protest maybe? Jewel shed some light on this if u can please

  16. Yes Vernal! 8+ minutes of video action and no police turned up to unblock the road

  17. That was already an illegal gathering going on there.

    Ariapita avenue looked more like Western Main Road on carnival Sunday night.

  18. And if Horner-gyul get run over, there would have been a riot!!!

  19. Had the driver lost his temper and run Sabrina over those same eager and laughing onlookers would have been feigning concern for her health and compassion for her predicament.

  20. The onlookers were rabid……bloodthirsty.

  21. I saw it 2 days ago and refused to share it –as itself was very distasteful especially the woman who videoing it and laughing like a hyena

  22. I cannot for the love of God understand what the onlookers find funny

  23. All yuh just hold strain.
    Stop giving the I a hard time!

  24. The person who was filming and all the woman that was laughing and encouraging the woman to jump on the van is sickening and nasty to me made me look at my countries with shame help each other change the world

  25. You was the one watching the video and is Lasana slack??

  26. Yuh know yuh rel slack? LOL
    Let me see if I can do it from my phone! Hahaha

  27. So you not sharing the clip for us to observe the final scene vernal? We already invested in this story now. 🙂

  28. Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned…

  29. I just saw another video of the incident, in this one the person recording knew the woman by name (Sabrina). The “friend” recording not only failed to act in Sabrina’s interest, she actually encouraged and did her best to fuel Sabrina’s rage. In the end Sabrina wound up laying on the street apparently injured and only a fraction of the onlookers once jubilant at the altercation came to check on her.

    Again I have to ask, have we no concept of civic responsibility?

  30. Maybe not half of them, Vernal, but I won’t quibble percentages with you, indeed ungoverned emotion is a plague on our society, and from all accounts, some other societies as well, or maybe we took a page from their book in learning how to misbehave and think nothing of it…..

  31. I wonder if the situation had escalated and someone was physically harm or gotten killed how these people would have viewed their actions! Too much ppl was there for nobody for the exception of one not to try and stop it. TnT we need to do better

  32. Sorry , I Liked watching it and would have handed the woman a bat if i had one. If ppl want to show their true colors in public, who am I to discourage. ENTERTAIN ME!!!!

  33. This goes to show the extent of power this anger energy could cause. It affected the crowd that is not strong in faith. It’s so important to take your anger home and use it to create a positive action instead of destruction that you feel sorry for after

  34. The police were liming or sleeping some where…

  35. Regardless of the emotions involved or the history before, the law protects owners of property. That woman can very well face her day in court unless she adamantly denies that it was her. That man did the right thing by staying in that car. He demonstrated tremendous restraint and saved himself a beating from that woman and the mob that was with her.

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