Hoodie Needle Horror?

[JamesM]

The Daily Mirror, 8th August (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17525522&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=boy--8--stabbed-with-a-syringe--name_page.html)
YOUNGSTER Simon Davis faces an agonising three-month wait to find out if he has HIV after being stabbed with a syringe by hoodie thugs.
icSouthLondon, 17th August (http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200southlondonheadlines/tm_objectid=17566078&method=full&siteid=50100&headline=hypodermic-horror-as-hoodie-stabs-girl-name_page.html)
A HOODIE grabbed a girl of seven by the hand and stabbed one of her fingers with a hypodermic needle. Genuine? A new form for an old urban legend? If anyone else has seen anything like this in the local press lately, please bring it to my attention. Keep 'em peeled. Ta!

[tkingdoll]

The first story got a lot of coverage so I'm guessing is genuine, but the second could have just been a bandwagon story. I haven't seen any others though.

[chillzero]

The Daily Mirror, 8th August (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17525522&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=boy--8--stabbed-with-a-syringe--name_page.html)

icSouthLondon, 17th August (http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200southlondonheadlines/tm_objectid=17566078&method=full&siteid=50100&headline=hypodermic-horror-as-hoodie-stabs-girl-name_page.html)
Genuine? A new form for an old urban legend? If anyone else has seen anything like this in the local press lately, please bring it to my attention. Keep 'em peeled. Ta!


I don't understand why you would think this is an urban legend. Syringe attacks are unfortunately in the news as actual events.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4694376.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2665725.stm

http://archive.thenorthernecho.co.uk/2003/3/23/

[JamesM]

I don't understand why you would think this is an urban legend. Syringe attacks are unfortunately in the news as actual events.
(the last link should be this one (http://archive.thenorthernecho.co.uk/2003/3/23/98954.html), I think).

Certainly, people are attacked by syringes. However, it is also a common trope in urban legends (http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/pinprick.asp).

In particular, the story in the second link (an anonymous syringe stabbing in a night club) has a familiar ring to it. I recall a similar story did the rounds of my home town a few years ago. There was no follow up on that story. Unfortunately, there doesn't look like there was one in the Wales story, either.

Having read a lot of urban legends in my time, some news stories get my UL-sense a-twitchin'. This was one of them. One child being attacked in the manner according to the OP is feasible (unfortunately). However, a spate of children being attacked by syringe-wielding hoodies also has the air of UL about it, too, IMO.

[JamesM]

A needle scare in Goa (http://oheraldo.in/node/18192) - no hoodies in this one, though.

It's been brought to my attention that both the incidents in the OP apparently took place on the 5th (the Mirror story mentions 'Saturday').

[casebro]

True or not, the incidence of HIV transmission in needle sticks is about 1:5000. The incidence of HIV in the population? About 1:5,000. Doesn't it seem possible that nurses who claim they stuck themselves at work could be covering drug use or unprotected sex?

[Katana]

True or not, the incidence of HIV transmission in needle sticks is about 1:5000. The incidence of HIV in the population? About 1:5,000. Doesn't it seem possible that nurses who claim they stuck themselves at work could be covering drug use or unprotected sex?
You assume that the nurses only stuck themselves once. Unfortunately, it happens a lot more often that you might think.

[RenaissanceBiker]

Anyone who sticks me with a needle is going to get back much worse. At a nightclub in Charlotte the doorman was adamant about preventing me from taking my pocketknife inside, then the bartender was happy to give me a glass beer bottle. He may have felt better, but no one inside was really safer.

[chillzero]

(the last link should be this one (http://archive.thenorthernecho.co.uk/2003/3/23/98954.html), I think).

Certainly, people are attacked by syringes. However, it is also a common trope in urban legends (http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/pinprick.asp).

In particular, the story in the second link (an anonymous syringe stabbing in a night club) has a familiar ring to it. I recall a similar story did the rounds of my home town a few years ago. There was no follow up on that story. Unfortunately, there doesn't look like there was one in the Wales story, either.

Having read a lot of urban legends in my time, some news stories get my UL-sense a-twitchin'. This was one of them. One child being attacked in the manner according to the OP is feasible (unfortunately). However, a spate of children being attacked by syringe-wielding hoodies also has the air of UL about it, too, IMO.

I don't think that news reported stories about people being attacked by other people with syringes is quite the same thing as people sitting down on cinema seats and finding themselves pricked by a possibly aids soaked pin left deliberately by someone anonymous. The link you gave is clearly an urban legend, and if it was reported in the news I would be highly suspicious of that also. The initial links you gave are news stories, and I still don't understand why you feel they would be in the region of urban legends - it's not the normal format for an UL.

Two stories of children attacked in this manner does not make a spate. Also, in my opinion the mention of 'hoodies' is more to enhance the current panic about hooded youths than an honest assessment of motive, but that's heading off-topic, and is one of my current major rants.

[JamesM]

I don't think that news reported stories about people being attacked by other people with syringes is quite the same thing as people sitting down on cinema seats and finding themselves pricked by a possibly aids soaked pin left deliberately by someone anonymous.
It's not exactly the same. It's a hallmark of the UL that the exact details are malleable and can shift location. The Snopes page also details variations on the theme, including one involving a nightclub. The Goa story I linked to also doesn't involve a cinema. There are also elements of well-known panics like The Mad Gasser of Matoon and The Halifax Slasher.

The initial links you gave are news stories, and I still don't understand why you feel they would be in the region of urban legends - it's not the normal format for an UL. I'm not saying urban legends are presented in the form of news reports. I'm saying that urban legends are mistakenly passed on as real news by news agencies (including the BBC).

Two stories of children attacked in this manner does not make a spate. That's why I'm asking if anyone has spotted any others. It's quite possible you are right, these are both genuine (deeply unpleasant) events.

Also, in my opinion the mention of 'hoodies' is more to enhance the current panic about hooded youths than an honest assessment of motive That's not off topic at all - that's a prime ingredient of an urban legend! It's one of the reasons this story caught my eye.

[gnome]

Two stories of children attacked in this manner does not make a spate. Also, in my opinion the mention of 'hoodies' is more to enhance the current panic about hooded youths than an honest assessment of motive, but that's heading off-topic, and is one of my current major rants.

I have a different take on it... though it does enhance panic about hooded youths, I believe it comes about to reinforce the comforting belief that evildoers are easy to spot.

[Big Les]

^yes, and this lends credence to JamesM's theory/idea. The intention is I think a mix between instilling fear in the reader, and focussing it upon a certain demographic - exactly what the typical Urban Legend is intended to achieve. I think there's an outside chance one of more of the reports is false. Journos are just as susceptible to BS as the rest of the population, but I would hope that they'd either got those reports from the Police, or have check them with them. You don't usually get to see the retractions or corrections that lessen the fear effect, because they're buried somewhere inside, whereas the original report will have been on page 1 or 2.

Either way, the UL *sentiment* here is clear to me; even if the reports are real (which I think they probably are) the fact that the press is reporting them couched in terms of sinister "hoodies" elevates it to pseudo-Urban Legend status in my eyes. In other words, they are implying that the average person stands an increased risk of being randomly targeted by a hooded figure with an HIV-infected needle. Which of course is not the case statistically.

The beauty of debunking a UL is that you can prove the information it is based on is nonsense, thereby rendering the legend powerless. In this form of folklore building by the media (or anyone else) that uses real news stories (albeit "spun" for maximum effect), it is far harder to get across to people hearing it that it really doesn't affect their lives very much at all - they are no more likely to be hurt than they were before they heard it.