@blankfist, if we're talking about who would get arrested if there was a cop there maybe you're right and the black guy would get arrested for "hitting" first. But I don't even know about that - the black guy pretty much just slapped the guy on the arm. EBM on the other hand smashed his face against the edge of a bench after he'd already been incapacitated by a couple punches. They're both probably going to jail. In the end all I'm saying is that EBM is no hero and the black guy wasn't picking a fight with a somebody minding his own business.

@alizarin, whether EBM was being racist or not is incidental. Racism is not a windfall to prove guilt. All we know from the video is that the two of them were giving it to each other pretty evenly, and at least the EBM tried to take a seat in the front away the other guy.

Sure, EBM continued to run his mouth, but it wasn't like he kept going to the back of the bus to thump his chest and threaten the guy. He remained seated. It was the other guy who kept going to the front of the bus threatening to stick a foot up his ass.

After that, he took a swing at EBM. It's pretty clear cut.

If EBM was sincerely trying to get his shoes shined then I'd agree with you and call him the victim.
But come on man... you really think anyone outside stereotypical subserviant black men of the 1930s or street urchins from Dickens would solicit a shoe shining on a city bus?

I reread the transcript - EBM said stuff like "Sit your little black ass down"... " and "boy".

Can we agree at least that everyone involved was an idiot?

>> ^RadHazG:
If you read the transcript on ED you can see that it was simply a case of EBM either misinterpreting something the black dude said or the black dude said some shit and EBM thought he was seriously offering a service not being insulted. The transcript pretty much just says exactly how I saw it. EBM was very calm at the start, and seemed genuinely interested in trying to get his shoes shined. Unfortunate coincidence.


EBM wasn't trying to start a fight, he was trying to belittle and dominate the black man. Get on your knees and shine my shoes boy, and kiss my pinky finger while you're at it.... that kind of thing. But when the black man didn't back down he moved to the front of the bus because he knows his temper can get him arrested. But he kept barking stuff back and the black man the whole time. Maybe I'm wrong but I think that's vastly more likely than a simple misunderstanding by a man looking for a shoe shiner. Regardless... everyone involved were idiots.

>> ^rottenseed:
If the white guy was trying to start something, why would he move up front? Especially when he obviously wasn't scared. Dude was poppin' off at the mouth and trying to instigate. He wanted the fight...and he got the fight right in his face.>> >

There are a lot of assumptions floating around here. Here is my assumption of the activities leading up to the beginning of this video...

Black guy heads towards the back of the bus where old white guy(EBM, Epic Beard Man) has his feet sticking into the aisle. Seeing that EBM is not pulling his feet away as the black man approaches, the black man makes an off-hand sarcastic comment something to the effect of "You want me to spit shine those for you?", referring to his feet sticking into the aisle. Only half-listening, EBM assumes that the black man is being sincere, and he would genuinely like to take the black man up on his offer as he has an event on Friday. The black man already upset about the feet being in the aisle assumes EBM is instigating and thus the fight ensues. I honestly don't think the white man was being racist. He may use inappropriate terms like "chinaman", but I sense sincerity in his voice and facial expression when asking for the shoe-shine he assumed he was being offered.

Ok wait.. this is getting into stupid land.

Here's what happened, two people got into a fight. There was only some hints towards racism, and in this type of thing that's actually pretty good. It doesn't mean anyone actually was racist.. you can't just play that card. When you start mouthing off all kinds of things get said and thrown back and forth, verbal sparring as rottenseed put it. And what did we hear? The EBM said the other guy had brought up something about not having to spit shine a white man's shoes, so we don't know who started this mess. Hell I heard more racial slurs thrown at him.

The fact that guy actually moved to the front of the bus tells me he's not really the type to start trouble.. if that's the case he would have just stayed in the other guy's face the whole time. He sure as hell doesn't back down though.

Anyways, two people got into a fight, it happens. The old man stopped before he seriously injured the other guy. That's the kind of fight I like to see if a fight does break out. No weapons, no lasting injuries.. just one person's pride having to be swallowed.

No, I don't like violence, but this was hardly a horrid attack. Fights happen. What I CAN see is EBM did not throw the first punch.

EBM moved up front because he looked around and saw the back of the bus was filled with, ahem, people from the other team.

If you read the transcript on ED you can see that it was simply a case of EBM either misinterpreting something the black dude said or the black dude said some shit and EBM thought he was seriously offering a service not being insulted. The transcript pretty much just says exactly how I saw it. EBM was very calm at the start, and seemed genuinely interested in trying to get his shoes shined. Unfortunate coincidence.

>> ^alizarin:
I took the situation totally different -
The old white guy was telling the young black guy something to the effect of "you should shine my shoes black boy"... "I'm not prejudice a chinaman can do it" (meaning he thinks everybody who's not white should do subservient work for white guys). I've been around allot of old white guys here in the south like that and that's just how they talk when they're trying to race bait somebody.
So the young black guy has his buttons pushed once too many and he slaps the old white guy on the arm and backs up a bit. Then the old white guy goes nuts and punches him in the face and smashes his teeth into the corner of the bench a'la "American History X".
Sure he should've walked away from the old white guy but am I taking crazy pills or was the young black man the good guy here?


As for the chinaman bit, I hardly think that comment alone is worth condemning him as some racial crap. Odds are that in that situation he was just trying to make the case quite literally that he didn't care who the guy was he was just looking to get some shoes shined for the funeral he was going to. Just because he said chinaman instead of "a white guy" or "anyone" doesn't mean he's racist, it means he was in an escalating situation and was just trying to explain shit with his testosterone starting to pump up. Not exactly a situation for eloquent well thought out speech patterns (as the rest of the video attests).

http://wiki.thomasbruso.com/Operation-I-AM-A-MOTHERFUCKER.ashx

They stole his bag too, and now he is on the wrong end of a lot of bullshit.

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Epic_Beard_Man

Anon found it... and they aren't very happy.

I would not want to be the Detective who has to deal with this. What a fucking mess.


She just apologized... for not stealing EBM's bag.

I commented on her page, and you can see it. I have the same user name on you tube that I do on videosift.


IMPORTANT NOTE: There is speculation that EBM is suffering from mental disorders. Any one have proof? There is also speculation that the man's name is Thomas Bruso

I put a lot of time in that comment, only to see it buried by the angry Internets

What you said in that video at 2:16 - 2:30 was deplorable and despicable. Apology aside, it was not for you to take the man's bag. That is for the Police to do, and the simple act of taking the bag was theft. Because you deprived the man of his belongings; California PENAL CODE SECTION 484-502.9

"Go through that shit, ha."
"BEAT HIS WHITE ASS" & "SAY IT AGAIN PINKY".

The words, allegedly spoken by you, can be interpreted as hate; proving your dislike for the man. This video apology does not free you of guilt, and your actions were immoral at best. I think the internet has spoken, Apology not accepted.

Well - nothing personal, I don't generally upvote fight vids due to lack of context and general sad pummeling of one idiot by another - there seems to be a lot of information on this one since 4chan has turned its anonymous Eye of Sauron towards San Francisco. Check out this comment from digg (not my words below the break):

--------------------------------

EPIC BEARD MAN Update:

Looks like he was in Oakland and being threatened so he flipped *****. (smart move, imho) Unfortunately, he also happens to be completely insane (poor guy's seen combat). See docs: http://ebm.pastebin.com/m5d4e0b2d

Here's video of him getting tazed, bro (some of the crowd's on his side so maybe he's not all that crazy, after all): http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/loca ...

Video Part 2 (he's a Nam Vet, "*****"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5fnjFVPCek

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Industrial, Avantgarde, Classical, EBM, Hardcore, Goth, Darkwave, Shortfilm' to 'Bandustrial, Bantgarde, Classiban, EBM, Bancore, Goth, Banwave, Banfilm, ban' - edited by MarineGunrock