Teen fight club shocks Warren council to action: Videos prompt city ordinance.

Byline: Dan Cortez

Sep. 22--Justin James said he never heard of the movie "Fight Club" -- he and a friend were simply looking for something to do over the summer. "We were just messing around with boxing gloves," said Justin, 16, of Center Line, a junior at Lincoln High School in Warren. "Then we thought we would videotape it and throw it on MySpace. We're not doing it to hurt each other. Nobody has gotten hurt." But they were found out. Ten clips of the brawls and announced gatherings for his fight club -- a group of Warren-area teens -- were posted on his MySpace page where anyone could see them. In the 1999 movie, the first rule of Fight Club is "Don't talk about Fight Club." Besides violating the rule's spirit, the page highlighted a modern twist on the backyard brawl and prompted swift action by the Warren City Council.

"I think it really has to do with power," Glenn Stutzky, a clinical instructor at Michigan State University's School of Social Work who has studied bullying extensively, said of fight clubs like the one James and his friends started. "It's similar to bullying and that idea of establishing who is the toughest and who is the strongest. It has to do with size, strength and the ability to use that to beat down another person." The South Warren Knockouts -- mostly Lincoln High School football players and some Cousino High students -- was discovered three weeks ago after other students at Lincoln told a school liaison officer about the club and the videos. While the encounters are far from the blood-soaked brawls in bar basements and darkened alleys made legendary in the movie, Stutzky said reports of fight clubs are increasing. And, he said, they're using MySpace and text messaging to alert others to upcoming fights and show off for bigger audiences.

"It's interesting that some of this modern technology plays into it," Stutzky said. "These things have been popping up all over ...