Young brothers charged over YouTube video of prank terrorist attack
UPDATE: Feb. 25, 2016, 4:24 p.m. AEDT Victoria Police confirm via a statement that the trio have been charged for various offences.
A Melbourne trio called the Jalals has caused outrage with a mock drive-by shooting, leading to an investigation by Australian police.
Brothers Max Jalal, 20, Rebeen Jalal, 16 and Arman Jalal, 18, have rapidly gained a reputation for edgy pranks including bomb threats and kidnappings posted on YouTube and Facebook in the past few months. These pranks are usually conducted in a thawb, a traditional ankle length garb commonplace in Arab countries.
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The Jalals have said their dress is intended to challenge negative attitudes towards Arabic people. "It's not encouraging a fearful image, it’s doing the opposite," Max Jalal told news.com.au. "It's getting people together and laughing at the situation. It’s what Australia needs; everyone’s too tense."
It's their latest video, however, that's ruffled the feathers of the public and the Australian media.
The drive-by shooting prank
On Feb. 22, the Jalals posted this prank on their Facebook and YouTube pages, which shows them staging a fake drive-by shooting with fake AK-47's pointed out of their car. It also involved a little girl, who clutched onto her father as gunfire sound effects rang out from the car's stereo.
The initial reaction
Although there were a number of users who loved the video, which has since amassed more than 91,000 likes on Facebook, many commented about the possibility of being shot back and the potential illegality of their prank.
Image: facebook/Jalals
Image: Facebook/Jalals
Even those who enjoyed the prank, questioned the decision to include the girl in the video. The Jalals posted on Facebook late on Tuesday a photo with the girl, saying they gave her a teddy bear and claimed "she had accidentally walked into their video."
Image: Facebook/jalals
The prank gets slammed
The video quickly made the rounds in the media, culminating in an intense condemnation by The Project's Waleed Aly and guest host Stan Grant on Wednesday night. Aly led by asking the brothers if the videos were indeed real, unconvinced by the reactions of participants in their pranks.
Grant, a former war journalist, drew from his experiences of bloodshed. "I spent ten years covering war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, right through the Middle East. I stood in the blood of the terrorist bombings. The people that get killed are Muslims themselves," he said.
"There is nothing funny about this, or real about what you're doing, it is abhorrent. Do you stop and think about the message you're sending?"
The Jalals did eventually admit that the drive-by shooting prank was "pretty irresponsible," after Aly expressed that many people are living in the fear of a terrorist attack, similar to the Paris shootings, in which the prank seeks to replicate.
The brothers also appeared on breakfast TV show Today speaking to Karl Stefanovic, who admitted there was an element of "satirical genius"in their other videos, but pushed the point that terrorism wasn't something to joke about. Max Jalal instead drew comparisons between their videos and those of TV shows such as Scare Tactics and Punk'd.
The trio eventually apologised on air for their actions. "We apologise if we offended anyone through that prank," Max said.
Police get involved
It was too little, too late for authorities.
Graham Ashton, Victoria Police's chief commissioner, confirmed on radio station 3AW on Thursday morning they are investigating the videos and police had the three brothers in custody to interview.
"Certainly my view on that is we will charge them on whatever they can be charged with," Ashton told 3AW host Neil Mitchell. "Because this behaviour is just a ridiculous display, we don't want to encourage it in any way, shape or form because of the obvious dangers involved."
He said the result of such pranks could be fatal."People could respond very violently to being a victim as a result of this prank. What if there was a police officer there, it could turn into a deadly situation very quickly," he said.
The commissioner said the brothers could be up for criminal offences including assault, imitation firearms, and potentially proceeds of crime, from any money they've collected for their videos.
On Thursday afternoon, Victoria Police confirmed in a statement the trio had been charged with public nuisance, possessing a prohibited weapon and behaving in offensive manner in a public place, with relation to material uploaded to social media.
Victoria Police wouldn't comment any further on the case when approached by Mashable Australia.
