Bergen County Officials Concerned About Twitter Account Featuring Teens Fighting

GARFIELD, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office is investigating a social media account that features fighting between what appears to be young high school students.

The Twitter handle @BCountyFIghts has been retweeting videos of juveniles assaulting each other from areas in Bergen County, including Garfield, Teaneck and Englewood, CBS2's Meg Baker reported.

Garfield police Capt. Darren Sucorowski said his department has investigated most of the fights on the site.

"It glorifies violence, and we don't encourage that," he said. "But the site we have used to our advantage also because the videos that are taken, we do take the opportunity to look through them and see what had occurred."

Garfield police said after viewing the Twitter feed they are now investigating a fight that happened near an Applebee's there, a situation they had not been aware of.

CBS2 reached out to the owner of the @BCountyFIghts account via Twitter messenger. He said he was from Atlanta.

Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said his investigators are onto him.

"When he retweets them, he is facilitating the broadcast of the commission of a crime," Molinelli said. "If he's watching this, I urge him to take the Twitter site down now."

The owner of the Twitter account did act Monday afternoon, tweeting that he would no longer post fights for the time being.

Dean Costas, a 19-year-old graduate of Garfield High School, said he's witnessed fights in person at his school and says now he's seeing them replayed via social media.

"It's really popular," he said. "It's always popping up on my Twitter feed. ... You see people you know. And you're like, 'Geez.' So yeah, it's really close, hit home."

Molinelli is worried that instead of breaking fights up, onlookers are filming them instead.

"People have an obligation to help others, and that's what's being lost here," he said.

Authorities urge people to report fights as they occur.

Garfield police said they've reached out to Twitter asking the company to take down the page entirely. It was still active as of Monday afternoon.