Regarding her, she just wanted them to act right and leave her alone and let bygones be bygones once they get scolded and corrected with any video being deleted. A lot of people are uncomfortable involving the police in situations like this, but you can contact the police if you’re comfortable with them! Cops themselves can pursue the assault charges. Typically, store managers will also threaten to report them for trespassing if the customer they’re protecting is comfortable with that. For my sister, no video was posted on the internet because the store’s staff was very good and proactive at forcing them to delete it and resolve it “amicably” without involving the law (my sister’s preference) , so beyond that she doesn’t care. She wanted to avoid the huge scene of involving cops or lawyers, especially since she was on vacation out of state at the time. Their hostile reaction to women, however, was very notable to me. It’s been about two years since the incident, so she’s satisfied with the conclusion of what happened. They were eventually removed from the store and other customers were safe that day because footage of them was part of the larger footage the store staff made them delete. However, we did, later on, find out the store in question did press charges against them for assaulting their employees on a different day, which is another demo these pranksters tend to target (employees because they can’t defend themselves).
In some US states, you can’t legally record people without consent, so if you live in a two party consent state, then that also helps your ability to pursue even more criminal charges. Some people just prefer the low key route of contacting a manager, which I myself would personally do if I was a victim of such a situation, because I’m not comfortable with cops. It’s easier to get them removed from the premises if you’re pranked in a store. Store employees are typically VERY safe to approach and to ask for help. I recommend that route personally, because I make decisions around trying to avoid as much sensory overload as possible. Sadly, some pranks are in public areas like sidewalks, because the smarter ones are aware stores are catching on to these “pranks”
I’m more bothered by the culture surrounding this issue and how it enables typically men to abuse or harass marginalized people on video for the clickbaits, but I do believe you can try reporting videos for harassment as well. I’m not sure how effective youtube and tiktok are about removing those types of videos though. There’s a lot of commentary YouTubers who do video essays about this very subculture (I was reminded about it due to one of my favorite commentary YouTuber’s, FunkyFrogBait, newest video)
Recently, one pranker got famous for intentionally targeting and pranking a deaf little kid. Another YouTube channel is famous for pretending to try to smack random women on their behinds and doing a fake out. A lot of these pranksters know how to avoid breaking the law, so I’m not sure how to deal with those types of public humiliation.
I sympathize with your anxieties and fears as a fellow autistic person. Hopefully, you never experience this and surround yourself with people who keep your physical and mental safety in priority. All of this subculture feels very human zoo-y to me. Hers is one of the milder more generic examples. The fake bank robbery at gunpoint prank is probably the most extreme one I’ve ever heard of. All of this advice is UScentric, so I don’t know what people in other countries can do about this.
Thank you for your kindness and care. She thankfully only had superficial wounds and she got very lucky compared to other situations. I hope you are always safe wherever you go, my spectrum twinsie 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
