New Zealand Police Win The Internet And Kill The ‘Running Man Challenge’ [Video]


A short 37-second clip of New Zealand cops dancing to Ghost Town DJ’s 1996 smash hit My Boo and taking part in the running man challenge has won the internet.

The clip of the cops doing the running man was posted on their NZ Police Recruitment Facebook page last night and has already been viewed 4,283,719 times in less than 24 hours. The clip has also received 24,000 comments, 51,000 shares,and had 115,000 people react to it, giving it viral status.

https://www.facebook.com/NZPoliceRecruitment/videos/1047084998674372/

The group of eight New Zealand policemen and women can be seen shaking their hips and busting out Janet Jackson moves in a car park in front of a police car with flashing lights. The cheeky police then went on to challenge cops all over the world to take part in the dance. Under the running man video, they posted the following.

“We catch people on the run every day, this was a new #runningmanchallenge for our team.”

“Are you up for it Victoria Police, NSW Police Force, Western Australia Police, Queensland Police Service, South Australia Police, ACT Policing, Tasmania Police, LAPD Headquarters, Isles of Scilly Police and NYPD?”

Each of the police forces from around the globe was tagged in the post, but it is yet to be seen if they will take on the running man craze that has hit the internet.

The running man challenge was started by two University of Maryland basketball players, Jaylen Brantley and Jared Nickens, and is simple enough to take part in. Participants simply have to do the running man dance move to the old 90’s hit song called My Boo by Ghost Town DJ’s; bonus points for uploading it to social media.

The original running man video was posted just four weeks ago by the creators, but versions of people doing the running man challenge have spread across the world and people in the NFL, NBA, and, now, the police force are taking part.

The running man challenge has been likened to the wildly popular dance trend the Harlem Shake which took over the internet in 2013 and saw many celebrities, famous people, and even firemen taking part.

The running man challenge is growing in size and popularity with 70,153 people posting clips of themselves doing the dance on Instagram alone, but none of the clips have received as much attention as the New Zealand cops video has.

While most people are taking part in the running man challenge for laughs and likes, the New Zealand police saw it as a chance to ramp up their current recruitment drive, and this is their second clip in as many months to receive thousands of views on their Facebook page and cause a stir.

The first video the New Zealand police posted was a highly provocative social experiment. The clip shows several members of the public seemingly ignoring a child actor who is made to look homeless. The child, who looks no older than 12, is thin, disheveled, dirty, and wearing only a t-shirt despite it being cold. He is seen rummaging through a bin for food scraps as cameras capture peoples’ reactions.

Karen Jones, head of the police department’s public affairs team, said, “We have filmed a series of real-life social experiment scenarios exploring issues our officers deal with daily – involving the safety of the young and the vulnerable people in our communities. We wanted to see how many people would step up to help.”

The scene was recorded over 35 minutes, and in that time, 500 people saw the boy and only seven people stopped to speak to him.

“If you said you would have stopped, then you may be just the kind of person NZ police is looking for,” said Jones.

The “hungry boy” video is also part of a the police recruitment campaign by and poses the question “Do you care enough to be a cop?”

https://www.facebook.com/AucklandPolice/posts/710996649003343

[Photo by NZ Police Recruitment/Facebook]

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