The most horrific scenes you will see in public, outside of war zones - and why it's so addictive.
America's street drug addicts on 24/7 livestream in Kensington, Philadelphia.
This livestreaming YouTube channel is called “OMG Live TV”, and it certainly lives up to it's name.
https://www.youtube.com/live/7qYzaEHsJsc?si=R7E-XbTfSp03YuGK
Many other people have written about (and condemned) this channel, which is one of approximately 100 covering the nightmare that is Kensington, Philadelphia’s street drugs market.
Most of these are purely voyeuristic, for clicks on YouTube or TikTok. Men on scooters and bikes ride around filming the addicts. Some pay them for interviews, and bring gifts of water or clothing. But the majority make no attempt to treat the tragedy of their lives as anything other than entertainment.
Despite the city council conducting a big clean up earlier this year, of the tent encampments which lined the main Kensington Avenue under the Elevated Railway, little has changed. Squads of police cadets are now employed to simply move the addicts around, from one corner to another, so that the pavements can be cleaned.
They have basically shunted them away from the main drags and into the side streets, so they are not quite so visible to people driving through. (Except when they are tottering across the road, or collapsing in the gutter).
City outreach workers patrol the streets dispensing healthcare, clothing, food, offers of rehab, calling for ambulances to help the worst cases of overdose or injury.
And so do many others, from charities and churches, with prayer as part of the package offered. They have been criticised, by local politicians, for enabling the addicts to continue to live on the streets.
And from watching the livestreams (which concentrate on a few hundred yards around Allegheny station), it does seem like they encourage these desperate people to keep returning to places where they know the freebies will be handed out.
When I took the above screenshot, nearly 800 people were watching the scenes of never-ending despair and degradation. Why do they watch? Who are they? Well, as I've recently been one of them, I will try to explain.
And just in case you think this is anything new in America's big cities, I'd like to refer you to Al Pacino’s first big movie role, way back in 1971 - 50 years ago:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Panic_in_Needle_Park
Back then the “recreational drug of choice” of street addicts was Heroin, now it's Fentanyl and “Tranq”.
I started watching (the regulars call it “lurking”) three weeks ago, after seeing respected vlogger Peter Santenello visiting the area, with a guide from The Rock Ministry. It has had nearly 5M views, with some of his audience saying it's the most important video he has ever made.
He's been visiting small towns around America and wherever he goes, he finds that Fentanyl/Tranq has ripped through the youth population.
Here it is. He says that he's been to over 80 countries and seen poverty and degradation in many of them, but nothing compares, in his view, with this.
The reason being, of course, that this shameful situation is allowed to continue in the richest country in the world.
And not just in Philadelphia - if you start watching the livestreams you will see “chatters" sharing “we-lived-in-a-bigger-hole-in-the-road” stories. They jump in with comments like “this is nothing, you should see X neighbourhood in Y city".
Santenello was as respectful as he could be in his video, stating that he avoided filming certain scenes - of the revolting injuries caused by Fentanyl/Tranq, of addicts shooting up, of the dealers who keep them enslaved. But the livestreams spare us nothing.
Bear in mind that by watching from the UK, I'm 5 hours ahead of Philadelphia so can see their night time, when the American chatters are asleep.
The addicts, however, rarely sleep. Their lives are short, squalid, restless, and pain-filled. Except for a very few, it appears a distant dream for them to accept support, make it to rehab, and find their families and some purpose again.
Apart from the constant jaw-dropping incredulity of seeing crowds of once healthy, often young, Americans wasting their lives and destroying their bodies sleeping on the streets, I've seen:
Dealers coming round at 2-3am on bicycles.
Addicts thieving from each other.
People injecting each other in the neck, because the veins in their limbs are wrecked.
Rats scurrying around and over people in Tranq comas. (And cats chasing the rats).
Awful injuries - bandaged arms and legs, amputees in wheelchairs, living on the streets. These injuries are caused by the drugs. Some are well known to the chatters, they've been out there for years. (As I write this, I can still hardly believe it).
Exploiters filming them - the worst I've seen was a guy in a mask, like a superhero, who threw dollar bills into the air to make the addicts scramble for them, presumably for TikTok. In broad daylight.
Gangs of youths filming and abusing the addicts.
Fights and sub-dealing amongst the addicts.
People living amongst drug litter, relieving themselves on the pavements, wearing the same clothes for weeks.
And the horrifying youth of some of them, especially the young women, who are obviously being pimped in order to pay for their habits.
But even more shocking than all this, is to see the ordinary people, local residents, families with children, hurrying past every day, to the train station and bus stop. They hold their children firmly by the hand and try to distract them, but the damage is done. The children of those streets are growing up seeing sights they should never see. As Buddy Osborn of The Rock told Santenello, they are trapped in their homes.
No local family could possibly let their children out to play, or to go to the park. And especially NOT to run to the corner shop for a pint of milk. Drugs are traded outside the local shops.
The cameras have excellent zooms, you can see the despair on their faces.
Children on their way home from school, past addicts near Allegheny Railway station.
So why do I, and often up to 1000 other people from all over the world, watch these scenes from Hell on the livecams?
Well, I want to stick up for “OMG Live TV”.
Some who log on are undoubtedly mentally stunted, and just watch for kicks. (It's been described as “Tranq Tourism”). But to the credit of the regular chatters, I do see those individuals kicked out.
I've seen members of local charities, parents looking for their children, outreach and police workers in the chat, sharing their experiences. For example, chatters cross reference information from Facebook groups where people search for lost family members.
It's also known that local police use the livestream for surveillance.
The audience of OMG Live has been criticised for the way they tend to adopt certain characters among the addicts - as if they're watching a soap opera. Because surely everyone out there is equally in need of help and compassion?
But actually, some of “our friends” (a term used by the outreach workers) DO stand out - maybe they're not quite so far gone, or they wear unique clothes, or maybe we see them helping others. Using their names (real or not) which the chatters give them, helps to humanize an otherwise desperately inhuman spectacle.
Now I'm not unaware that there are certain places in British cities where youtubers are filming street people and paying drug addicts for interviews. But it’s small potatoes compared to America’s drugs tragedy, there is nothing like it here - yet.
Glasgow is (controversially) planning a safe injection/ healthcare centre. Prostitution has always been exacerbated by addiction. And there are dire warnings that Fentanyl/Tranq is already here, and our famous Welfare State may not be able to stop people succumbing to it:
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/first-death-uk-associated-with-xylazine