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11 Illinois teens charged with felonies after men lured and beaten using dating apps

www.nbcnews.com 11 Illinois teens charged with felonies after men lured and beaten using dating apps

The teens, all males 17 and 16, were charged with aggravated battery, criminal damage to property and mob action. Some allegedly took inspiration for the crimes from social media.

Summary

Eleven Illinois teens face felony charges after allegedly luring two men via dating apps and assaulting them last July.

Inspired by a viral social media trend, the teens attacked a 41-year-old and a 23-year-old in separate incidents, damaging vehicles and using slurs in one case, resulting in hate crime charges for one teen.

All suspects turned themselves in and were detained at a juvenile center.

Police urge parents to discuss the dangers of social media trends with their children to prevent such incidents.

28 comments

They refrain from mentioning what trend, what dating app, and what slurs these teens were using. But based off context my best guess is that these guys were convincing some gay men they were down to hook up only to just assault them instead. Why you would want to do this, I have no idea. I know kids do shitty things but I think these guys were just shitty people.

And what kind of fucking internet trend involves luring people just to assault them? If that's the kinda content you consume as an individual you're a fucking idiot.
- Yeah, social media trends aren't the problem here. Being a piece of shit is the problem.
  
  Social media is a factor. Unmoderated content encouraging violence results in events like these.
- The trend is of homophobes luring homosexual men to be attacked using the app Gr*****r. It's been gaining steam since Trump won the first time and has escalated again after the latest win. In many places it will not be prosecuted unless it gains media attention. And most gay men in those kinda of areas don't want to be out, so don't even report it. So it's becoming more common.
  
  And the solution is to make such hate crimes dangerous. Gay bashing used to be more common, but armed f*gs bash back, and that reduced it
- Why you would want to do this, I have no idea.
  
  For real? My guess would be bigotry and homophobia?
  
  Yeah, for sure that's the reason. But at the end of the day I still don't get it.
  
  ah back in my day we didn't need an app or to even be out to get the shit kicked out of us for being gay*
  
  funnily enough my bullies knew better I was gay* than I did
  
  *bi
- Ya if it was a group of 16 year olds luring a pedophile than all the power to them.
  
  If it was a group of 18 year olds just luring a gay man and assaulting him for his sexuality then hopefully they get tried as adults and put behind bars for a good number of years.
  
  It says right in the summary at the top that all the teens were 16 or 17.
GAY men

Fucking news sites trying to erase us This is why heterosexuals need to be [REDACTED]
- Outrage over the headline lacking the word gay and none for gay men trying to have sex with 16-17 year olds?
  
  Why do you assume these teens wouldn't lie about their ages in their evil act?
Police did not mention which slurs the teenager allegedly used. None of the teens were identified because they are minors, police confirmed.

Part of me wonders if this is because they were calling him a pedo and they lured him under the pretense of meeting minors

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