As anyone who has seen the movie knows: The first rule about “Fight Club” is that you don’t talk about “Fight Club.”
But Long Island investigators are talking about it after breaking one up, because gunfire broke out when someone brought more than just their fists to one of the brawls.
The unauthorized so-called fight club was staged Sunday in the back portion of a Brookhaven town park, according to Suffolk County police. Video from the event was posted on a social media page belonging to one of the organizers.
“We were promoting guns down, gloves up. It’s not a fight club,” said Malachi Leftenant.
The 19-year-old said he used flyers to promote the event online. And even though he was among the 13 arrested Sunday, Leftenant said the event’s aim was very different from what police describe.
“To stop street violence and bring the youth together and bring the community together,” he said.
But Suffolk County Police Chief William Doherty said there’s always risk when big groups come together, and that’s what happened Sunday.
“Anytime you get a large gathering of people, things can go wrong,” he said.
During the boxing event, a fight outside of the makeshift ring erupted. One person fired a gun with blanks, and two teens were injured.
“It was just a tragic event, a tragic event that happened. That should have never happened because we don’t promote any of that,” said Leftenant.
Police are now investigating to see if the organizers’ real intent was to stage the fighting for content that could be used to make money on social media.
“People are tired of this stupidity,” said Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico, who believes the incident demonstrates how the push to create social media content can harm people — and needs to stop.
“People need to steer away from this criminal nonsense because if no one watched it, they wouldn’t make any money,” Panico said.
But Letenant contends that not what the event was about.
“That’s not what I was here for. I wasn’t here to promote gang violence. I was here to promote the peace,” the teen said.
