Hate Crime In Detroit?

[whell]

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/04/...-a-hate-crime/

Summary - pick up truck driver accidentally hits kid who walks into street without looking both ways. Pick up truck driver - white male, mid 50's - stops and walks back to the scene of the accident to render assistance. "A large group of men" - the family of the boy denies that they know who the men are - descend on the driver and beat him severely then flee from the scene. The boy was treated at a local hospital, kept overnight for observation, then released with - thankfully - minimal injuries. The pick up truck driver is now in intensive care in a local hospital and it is not yet known if he will survive.

The authorities have made statements that they will make every effort to find the assailants and that "vigilante justice" is not tolerated in the city. A local pastor has set up a fund for the driver and his family. Police have concluded that the driver of the pick up was not at fault, and that they boy apparently stepped out in front of the moving pick up. Police have also determined that the driver was apparently robbed during the beating - his money and some of his possessions were taken.

The police now have witness statements where they have taken descriptions and authorities have asked for the assistance of the local community in finding the attackers. However, as yet, the police have not yet released any descriptions of the attackers. In fact, in the local and national media, one must work fairly hard to find any reference to the race of the attackers. However, witness reports state that the attackers were African American men.

In the Trayvon Martin case, it was all about race, and it was about race from the moment of the very first report. The media kept feeding the race angle throughout - from the night of the incident right through and after the trial.

Its taken the local media a couple of days to get around to suggesting that race may have played a role in the attack in this case. I've not yet found any significant reference to race as a factor in this case. One has to wonder why the two stories have such disparate treatment in this press.

[BlueStreak]

I have no idea, I wasn't there. But, if I were to venture a guess, I might say race could have been a motivating factor, much as the beating of Reginald Denny was racially motivated. However; Bear in mind that while it was black men that attacked these men, it was also black folks that came to the rescue of both men. Both good and evil are found in any race.

As for the press? My theory? Racial attacks against white folks aren't as sensational, because unfortunately, we are still viewed as the oppressor race. A white man beating a black man gets airtime because it's "proof" that racial hatred still exists. But a black man beating a white man gets little mention or attention because the black guy is supposedly "reacting" to the oppression foisted upon him. There may have been some truth in it up to some point in the past. In the context of modern times, not so much. As an aspect of our culture, it's absurd and patently wrong. But, I'm afraid this is how our society has come to react.

Will it ever change? I certainly hope so, but I have my doubts.

Dave

[merrylander]

Vigilante based or race based, such behaviour is unacceptable.

[Boreas]

So, now that you have evidence of a possible black-on-white hate crime, would you support hate crime legislation?

Really, Whell, what's your fucking point here? All I see is a little cracker-style race baiting.

John

[Pio1980]

Looks basically like a mass-mugging of opportunity passing as vigilante "justice" more than a "reverse-lynching" scenario, rather a "wrong-place/ wrong time" scenario more comparable to the the Denny outrage than the Martin case. The Martin tragedy was a somewhat-shared responsibility of failure of both parties to proffer common courtesy and respect to one another that cascaded, and where the adult ultimately failed to behave as such and therefore had ultimate culpability for the fatal result regardless of the verdict.
As far as the media attention goes, the Martin case reportage was poorly handled by nearly everyone and the facts are still not generally apparent, anyone that has a prejudice to feed or agenda to promote is suspect in situations like this.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by Pio1980

The Martin tragedy was a somewhat-shared responsibility of failure of both parties to proffer common courtesy and respect to one another that cascaded

Wow, Pio! How do we know this? The only thing we know about Trayvon Martin's culpability is simply that he was there, in a place and at a time that Zimmerman regarded as suspicious. We have no evidence regarding Trayvon's actual behavior other than Zimmerman's testimony and I regard any statement of his to be self-serving at the very least.

All we really know is that Trayvon was walking, unarmed, to his father's house and Zimmerman, armed, confronted and killed him.

John

[Pio1980]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Wow, Pio! How do we know this? The only thing we know about Trayvon Martin's culpability is simply that he was there, in a place and at a time that Zimmerman regarded as suspicious. We have no evidence regarding Trayvon's actual behavior other than Zimmerman's testimony and I regard any statement of his to be self-serving at the very least.

All we really know is that Trayvon was walking, unarmed, to his father's house and Zimmerman, armed, confronted and killed him.

John

I'm looking at probabilities and motivations, lacking other hard evidence other than the survivor's testimony and their physical cdx after the fact of the encounter. This conclusion fits and gives both parties their due (hopefully) without feeding prejudices. It's quite possible that TM got 'into his face" about being followed after being approached and things went physical after that.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by Pio1980

It's quite possible that TM got 'into his face" about being followed after being approached and things went physical after that.

It's also quite possible that Zimmerman approached Trayvon with his gun already drawn and demanded an "explanation" for his presence there. When Zimmerman didn't like the answer, mayhem ensued.

What we know about these two people, Zimmerman's violent behavior (both before and after he killed Trayvon) and the total absence of such propensities in Trayvon's case, would be much more supportive of my scenario. That being said, we're both tale spinning (tail spinning?) There are only two people who know what happened and one of them is dead.

John

[Pio1980]

Originally Posted by Boreas

It's also quite possible that Zimmerman approached Trayvon with his gun already drawn and demanded an "explanation" for his presence there. When Zimmerman didn't like the answer, mayhem ensued.

What we know about these two people, Zimmerman's violent behavior (both before and after he killed Trayvon) and the total absence of such propensities in Trayvon's case would be much more supportive of my scenario. That being said, we're both tale spinning (tail spinning?) There are only two people who know what happened and one of them is dead.

John

Regardless, Zimmerman was the armed adult that had the most control over the arc of the occurrence and he failed to arrest it before the ultimate conclusion. Otherwise he had no probable reason to use TM for target practice without some provocation brought on by his ill-advised aggressive pursuit of TM.
Zimmerman's subsequent behavior after the trial discredits it's result and his credibility, we are left with speculation.
This case has bothered me a great deal and I've put a lot of thought into it.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by Pio1980

Regardless, Zimmerman was the armed adult that had the most control over the arc of the occurrence and he failed to arrest it before the ultimate conclusion. Otherwise he had no probable reason to use TM for target practice without some provocation brought on by his ill-advised aggressive pursuit of TM.
Zimmerman's subsequent behavior after the trial discredits it's result and his credibility, we are left with speculation.

So, this is great! Nobody's taking Whell's bait from the OP. Let's keep it up!

John