Four charged over tramp fights film

The video is said to have sold 300,000 copies

Four men suspected of making a controversial reality TV-style video that features homeless people fighting each other have been charged by police in California.

Zachary Bubeck, 24; Daniel J Tanner, 21; and Michael J Slyman, also 21, have been charged with conspiracy to solicit and assault with deadly force after a three-month investigation into the Bumfights video.

If convicted, they could face three years in prison.

Participants fought in return for cash, food and alcohol, police said

Bumfights: A Cause For Concern shows tramps having fist-fights and running head-first into steel doors as well as footage of other street punch-ups.

'Shocking'

It was billed as "hilariously shocking" by its producers, but condemned as exploitative and cruel by homeless charities.

A fourth man, Ryan McPherson, has already been charged with conspiracy and an obstruction of justice.

He is accused of offering $25,000 each to two homeless men - Rufus Hannah and Donald Brennan - in exchange for their refusal to co-operate with authorities investigating a fight on the video, in which one of the men broke their ankle and paramedics were called.

Police in San Diego say more than 300,000 copies of Bumfights have been sold over the internet at $20 each. Its producers say the sum is "wildly overinflated" - but have declined to say how much money they have recieved from sales.

We were never forced into doing anything, we were enticed

'Stunt bum'
Rufus Hannah

Shot with a hand-held camera, the video shows clips including a man in a dark alley smacking himself in the head after realising his hair is on fire.

Others are filmed pulling their teeth out with pliers.

Rufus Hannah - nicknamed "Rufus the Stunt Bum" on the video - is seen repeatedly ramming his head into a wall, riding a shopping trolley down a steep incline and spray-painting the bedding of other homeless men.

'Cruel'

Mr Hannah said the film-makers paid him in $5 and $10 notes to perform. He and his friends bear tattoos reading "Bum Life" and "Bumfights" on their hands, stomachs and foreheads.

He told local TV station KFMB-TV: "We were never forced into doing anything. We were enticed."

The makers have claimed that the violence only depicts the true hardships the homeless face.

But Donald Whitehead, from the US National Coalition for the Homeless, said: "It's clearly exploitative. It's clearly cruel.

"People are being forced to do things under various conditions of substance abuse and mental illness."

"Rufus the Stunt Bum" is one of the stars of the show

The four film-makers' lawyers deny their clients enocuraged violence, and said much of the action was rehearsed. They also denied the homeless men were offered money to keep quiet.

Ryan McPherson's representative, Jan Ronis, said: "It was all an act. This was all in the interests of let's call it art."

But asked how he could defend the contents of the Bumfights video, he replied: "I'm not a film critic, I'm a criminal defence attorney."