Gang members pushing victims on train tracks in gang initiation? Fact Check

A video spreading online claims that the British Transport Police are warning of a new type of gang initiation where gang members have to push innocent commuters onto the train tracks.

FALSE

A video is spreading online that purports to show two instances where London Underground commuters were pushed onto the tracks by gang members in what is described as a new type of “gang initiation”. The video claims the British Transport Police are currently warning against this type of initiation.

Important Message from the British transport police
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An initiation for gang members is to push anyone onto train tracks
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Be aware!!! Share with all your contacts

However the claims are false. The British Transport Police are not warning about “gang initiations” that involve victims being pushed onto train tracks.

The video that is spreading does indeed show two genuine attacks against two commuters in the London Underground. Both attacks were committed by the same person – a man identified as Paul Crossley – and occurred within minutes of each other in April 2018. However the attacks were not gang motivated, and Crossley’s defence claimed he was a “paranoid schizophrenic” who had taken crack cocaine earlier in the day that significantly worsened his condition. Both of Crossley’s victims – which included a 91 year old pensioner – recovered after their respective ordeals. Crossley was convicted in June 2019 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

While we did find other isolated cases of UK Underground and Overground commuters being pushed onto the train tracks, these are thankfully relatively rare occurences, and we found no recent incidents that were attributed to gang activity or “initiations”. One of the most recent cases at the time of writing occurred in September 2019 at a tube station in Stockwell, but this again was not attributed to gang activity.

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We were also unable to locate any warning from the British Transport Police about “gang initiations”, and there is nothing to indicate that this type of crime is surging.

Of course it is sound advice to always be vigilant of your surroundings when using the London Underground; after all, certain types of crimes, especially assaults and theft, do regularly happen in such places. But spreading alarmist and inaccurate information like this serves little purpose other than to needlessly alarm people.

Gang initiation “scarelore” is relatively common online. Many other hoaxes have previously spread under the guise of warnings about the “latest gang initiations”. This includes the baby car seat hoax, the crying child at the side of the road legend and the back seat passenger legend.

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