YOUTUBE VIDEO CAUSES CONTROVERSY

A YOUTUBE video made by a group of young Hackney residents has sparked controversy between those who love and loathe the borough, writes Sarah Bloch.

The PatCorp Films video, entitled ‘The Hackney OC’, was posted on the website last year. It has attracted over 5,600 views, along with dozens of impassioned comments.

The two-minute film, set to the theme tune of the popular American TV teen drama ‘The OC’, depicts three young men hanging out in Hackney, starting at Homerton railway station.

They then ride through Hackney in cars and on buses while the camera lingers on shots of tower blocks and council estates. At one point in the video, the men stand outside a newsagent, miming a vicious attack as they laugh at a newspaper headline announcing ‘OAP battered in street attack’.

More shots of boarded-up shops and litter in the streets are followed by footage of a punch-up in the park in a bleak view of the borough’s attractions.

The video has received a mixed response from viewers: “I live in Hackney too (down the road from where this was filmed) and I don’t think it’s a sh*t hole. Ok some parts are a disgrace but they’re building it up now and it’s starting to look half decent.” One visitor to the site responds in colloquial text speak: “ive lived in hackney all my life an it aint as bad as every1 makes out it definatly dnt deserve 2 be worse area in london!!!!”

Another comments: “The faults that are present in Hackney are not present everywhere. Hackney is a hotspot for gun crime and street violence. Many other places suffer from it, Hackney just happens to be particularly afflicted.”

Viewers go on to complain about Hackney’s poor transport links with central London and high levels of violent crime, as well as the council tenant “vermin that have spoilt what I'm sure was a lovely area.”

The video has prompted comparisons between Hackney and other areas, with one viewer commenting that: “Hackney ain't so bad, go to Tower Hamlets... the entire Borough is one big council estate. Newham's just as bad. Hackney is peachy mate, lived there all me life and never had no problems.”

A comment that sparked a response of: “The town I lived in before I moved to London had virtually no serious crime, literally NO gun crime whatsoever and was a clean, safe place to live. Hackney is a particularly unpleasant place in many ways. I've not been beaten up or mugged there, just had to travel there to see a friend and gradually hated the place more each time I go.”

PatCorp Films are the producers of 15 short humorous videos, and insist that the video, subtitled ‘Think beautiful people. Think glorious locations. Think Hackney’ is an ironic look at the borough.

They said: “Most people have taken to it well. Some didn't quite get the irony. We all know the many charms of Hackney. And the God-forsaken parts like the expansive views from Homerton station.”

YouTube, a US based site, allows people to share video clips over the Internet and has over 100 million users.