Kidnapping for kicks in New York

[mjf]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2163666.stm

Kidnapping for kicks in New York
The latest thrill for wealthy New Yorkers is kidnapping by design
New Yorkers can enjoy tailor-made kidnapping 'ordeals'



A bizarre new service offering 'designer kidnapping' for thrill-seeking New Yorkers is dividing opinion across the city.

Brock Enright, a 25-year-old artist, has created a business where people pay him thousands of dollars a time to be violently abducted.

Around 30 people have used the service so far, and dozens of other personalised 'kidnap plans' are in preparation.

Each kidnap is different, to cater for the particular tastes of the individual.

Clients are mostly bound and gagged and taken away for a period of incarceration that lasts for hours, or even days.

"It's about stepping outside of yourself. I wanted to see what I could do," said Jason, a carpenter, in his mid-20s, who has gone through the kidnap experience three times already.

"I just wanted to see if it was possible for me to be in a situation like that."

Thrill of the unknown

Many clients are abducted in the street, day or night.

Some wake up at home to find Mr Enright's operatives - or "birds" as he calls them - looming over them.

"One of my favourite ones is the guy who loves small places. When I abduct him he's always under his bed, says Mr Enright.

"He wants to be taken out of his home always."

Psychotherapist Sheena Hankin believes there could be therapeutic value in kidnapping for fun - and would even try it herself.

"We're built for it. It gives us a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

"Having had enough courage to go through something, when you get off the rollercoaster you feel really good about yourself.

"When you come out of this kidnapping - you've survived it," she said.

Kidnap "victims" agree a time-frame for their abduction, but the thrill comes in not quite knowing when the "birds" will strike.

Booming business

Brock Enright says that the profile of his average client is changing. More men are coming to him keen on trying to evade their kidnappers.

The danger may lie in not knowing when the hunted will cross the line and start fighting back.

There's nothing illegal about the business, but the New York Police Department is not happy about it.

"It's not something we condone," said a police spokesman.

"Something like this tends to desensitise people - especially if you find yourself in a real-life negative situation down the road."

The director of New York's Institute Against Violence, Professor Gerald Landsberg, agrees:

"It can cause psychological damage, because it gives the impression to the person who participates that they can do anything.

"They're 'super-people' which can lead to other kinds of activities that are probably not in their best interests, or people that they know."

'Destructive activity'

Other care organisations are also angry.

The New York social workers' association says it's a destructive activity to be "enjoying" at a time when children continue to be regularly abducted from the street with tragic consequences.

Surprisingly however, there have not been any cases so far of outraged New Yorkers intervening in a kidnap scenario on Manhattan, despite the fact that many are carried out on city streets during the day.

As the whole business began initially as a piece of video installation art, before he realised its commercial potential, Brock Enright is well aware of the reason.

"People don't seem to bother us because they see a video camera - maybe two or three cameras going. Then they say - oh, it's a movie."

However Mr Enright admits to concerns that the service is beginning get out of hand and is becoming too violent.

"Right now I am worrying. I'm thinking about it a lot."

This is interesting... What would happen if this guy did this in PA and someone defended someone else from being "kidnapped?"

[US Militiaman]

I do believe that it is your choice to decide to intervene, but if you do decide to intervene your actions are covered under the law. It is the same law that allows you to intervene in rape situations where you are not the victim.

I believe that the criteria is defined as 'preventing a felony' act, but I don't have time now to cite the exact law (at work). I tend to think many people would support you in that decision if it was in PA, because it looks everything like a kidnapping.

[Adam-12]

Psychotherapist Sheena Hankin believes there could be therapeutic value in kidnapping for fun - and would even try it herself. "We're built for it. It gives us a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment..."

Talk about sick. The only thing more satisfying than getting kidnapped, I suppose, is getting beaten or raped?

[mjf]

I do believe that it is your choice to decide to intervene, but if you do decide to intervene your actions are covered under the law. It is the same law that allows you to intervene in rape situations where you are not the victim.

I believe that the criteria is defined as 'preventing a felony' act, but I don't have time now to cite the exact law (at work). I tend to think many people would support you in that decision if it was in PA, because it looks everything like a kidnapping.

Well, I'm sure you'd be found innocent, if you stopped the kidnapping by use of deadly force, depending on how the force was applied. But, this sort of thing creates that situation where one of the 'birds' could very well be killed, by someone acting in good faith.

[mjf]

Psychotherapist Sheena Hankin believes there could be therapeutic value in kidnapping for fun - and would even try it herself. "We're built for it. It gives us a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment..."

Talk about sick. The only thing more satisfying than getting kidnapped, I suppose, is getting beaten or raped?

Accomplishment? What does being kidnapped accomplish? I suppose that could be used by motivational speakers, or something... "Kids, if you really want to accomplish something with your life, get kidnapped!"

[US Militiaman]

Accomplishment? What does being kidnapped accomplish? I suppose that could be used by motivational speakers, or something... "Kids, if you really want to accomplish something with your life, get kidnapped!"

You accomplished "surviving to live another day"...hooray

You have now accomplished something that many other people have done today as well, but they payed much less for it...

The whole concept is ridiculous, and it opens the company up to many types of liability, not the least being wrongful death suits on behalf of their "birds" or giving a 'client' a heart attack or something. Unfortunately, it also opens up the common citizen that may try and help up to liability and leads to the point where noone may step in for any situation assuming it is a joke/purchased service

[tlgpa]

Talk about sick. The only thing more satisfying than getting kidnapped, I suppose, is getting beaten or raped?

I wonder if I start a business where guys pay women to "rape" them would be legal? Or would that be prostitution?


Playing a kidnap game in public sure sounds like a dumb idea. Somone's eventually going to step in and try to stop it. I forsee bad things happening.

This sounds a lot like the movie "The Game" with Michael Douglas. His brother hires a company to play a similar game.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119174/plotsummary

[spabula]

Freaks....

[dc dalton]

Honestly I don't see this as anything more than an extension of BDSM and while I never quite 'got' the whole BDSM 'scene' I know people that are in to it and to me it's just another 'whatever makes your boat float'. As long as no one is getting hurt, they aren't involving kids or animals then let them do what they want to do.

[mjf]

Honestly I don't see this as anything more than an extension of BDSM and while I never quite 'got' the whole BDSM 'scene' I know people that are in to it and to me it's just another 'whatever makes your boat float'. As long as no one is getting hurt, they aren't involving kids or animals then let them do what they want to do.

The problem is that the kidnapping can take place in public and in daylight... People just trust the kidnappers because someone there has a video camera...