Whoa! Anyone hear about this non-hate crime?

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Flying FuManchu

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Used to live in Chambana. For now the Mid-South.
Clearly a fucked up situation... Anyone agree that this is a not a hate crime?


link to article


Non-Bias Attack

April 11, 2005
By Marianna Hernandez

Invoking the name “Martin Luther King” and screaming “Black Power!” a gang of up to 30 black teens attacked four white girls in Marine Park in what police are saying is not a bias crime.

The March 30 attack was a hot topic at state Senator Marty Golden’s recent public safety forum.

According to witnesses and parents of the victims, four young girls from St. Edmund’s had the day off from school due to Easter recess. They were playing basketball during dismissal from nearby Marine Park Junior High School, when several Marine Park students demanded to use the court.

After adults intervened and asked them to wait their turn, the teens left - but returned in a pack of up to 30, both boys and girls, and stormed into the park.

Witnesses say the attackers were all black and called their victims “white crackers” during the bloody melee, which raged for almost 20 minutes.

“This is not being looked at as a bias crime,” NYPD Deputy Inspector Kevin McGinn said at the meeting.

“When I pulled my car up to the park, I witnessed a pandemonium I’ve never seen in my life,” said Debbie, a mother of one victim who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons.

Her daughter ran to the car, screaming, “They’re going to kill us,” Debbie recalled. My daughter was so scared and kids were running around like crazy.

Pursued by dozens of teens, some of the girls were “literally running into traffic to save their lives,” she said.

One girl made it as far as a nearby house, but was dragged by her hair back into the playground by a “wolf pack of children,” Debbie said.

The St. Edmund girls were bleeding and beaten to the point where they had cuts, scrapes, footprints and dirt all over them - and the attackers surrounded her car and started pounding on the windows as Debbie tried to herd the terrified children into her vehicle.

Two girls were hospitalized - one with a broken nose and one with a head injury, according to Edith, the mother of another girl.

According to Lt. Mark Molinari, from the 63rd Precinct, five of the assailants, who attend Marine Park Junior High School, were arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault. But since the attackers are all under the age of 16, they are facing charges in Family Court, and were arraigned last Friday.

“I always felt safe in the area and after hearing about such an incident, you start thinking what else could happen. These situations should not be happening, not in Marine Park, or anywhere else, and the safety of our kids should be of most importance,” said Denise Williams, a parent from Gerritsen Beach.

“It’s getting progressively worse in the community - these types of gangs are not only taking away our parks, they‚re ruining our neighborhoods,” said parent Cathy Miller.

“Nobody expects their child to go to a park and get beaten, with footprints on her head and arm, everyone just wants their child to be safe,” said Edith. “Everyone should have the right to be safe from teens, to small kids, to seniors, to mothers with strollers, no one should fear of being beaten while enjoying a day in the park.”
 
sounds pretty hateful to me...:|

although would someone enlighten me as to why someone who murders another person because of, say, their race has committed a worse crime than someone who murders another person cos they thought it'd be fun? either way the person's dead. I get the point of "hate crimes" but it seems like any assault is hateful, and you can't technically convict someone of being a skinhead racist bigot.
 
Flying FuManchu


thanks for keeping us informed

I will work on getting my concealed weapon permit in case i see a group of "those people" approahing
 
VertigoGal said:
sounds pretty hateful to me...:|

*Nods* Same here.

That's a really disturbing story. I especially get a real kick out of the fact that those people mentioned Martin Luther King's name-yeah, 'cause I'm so sure that he'd have approved of that, right?

I hope that those teens get the punishment they deserve for that. I don't care what race you are, there's no excuse for treating someone that way.

Angela
 
Moonlit_Angel said:


*Nods* Same here.

That's a really disturbing story. I especially get a real kick out of the fact that those people mentioned Martin Luther King's name-yeah, 'cause I'm so sure that he'd have approved of that, right?

Angela

really...they could've at least gone for Malcolm X or something. but Martin Luther King? he's probably turning over in his grave.
 
Moonlit_Angel said:
That's a really disturbing story. I especially get a real kick out of the fact that those people mentioned Martin Luther King's name-yeah, 'cause I'm so sure that he'd have approved of that, right?

I hope that those teens get the punishment they deserve for that. I don't care what race you are, there's no excuse for treating someone that way.

:yes: Totally agreed.

I'm probably treading thin ice here, but the fact that they were using racial references makes this look an awful lot like a hate crime. Just because the perps were black and the victims were white does not make it any less of one.

Even if it isn't, it's still aggrivated assault and every single one of the perps deserves punishment. :mad:
 
Exactly, VertigoGal.

Sue DeNym said:
I'm probably treading thin ice here, but the fact that they were using racial references makes this look an awful lot like a hate crime. Just because the perps were black and the victims were white does not make it any less of one.

I agree with you on this, too. Racism is racism, regardless of which race is being targeted. Especially considering that the worlds the assailants were using are considered racial slurs towards white people-wouldn't that therefore make this a hate crime?

Originally posted by Sue DeNym
Even if it isn't, it's still aggrivated assault and every single one of the perps deserves punishment. :mad:

Yep.

Angela
 
Moonlit_Angel said:
That's a really disturbing story. I especially get a real kick out of the fact that those people mentioned Martin Luther King's name-yeah, 'cause I'm so sure that he'd have approved of that, right?
"A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard."

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."

"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it."

"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

"If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolute night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos."

"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."

"Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.


I could go on, but I'm sure I've made my point.
 
Macfistowannabe said:
"I could go on, but I'm sure I've made my point.

Indeed you have. I particularly like this quote:

Macfistowannabe said:
"If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolute night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

That's a good one. Very true :up:.

But all of them are great-thanks for sharing those.

Angela
 
Well, according to the article in the first post, the police are saying that this is not being treated as a hate crime.

Legal experts can correct me if I am wrong, but I think the district attorney has the final say on what the attackers are charged with. So who knows, you just might see hate crimes charges when all is said and done.
 
EVERY crime is a 'hate crime'- you don't generally do bad things to people you like! What I dislike about hate crime legislation is that it puts someone's life up as more valuable than another's just because their demographic group was different from their attacker's. If a white guy kills his wife, that's just a crime. But if he kills the black guy next door, it's a hate crime and he gets more time? Come on. ALL crimes are hate crimes, whether you kill someone because you don't like what they are, or what they did, it's all the same- bad!
 
Violence against people is violence against people - period.

Adding a "thought crime" element is inherently dangerous - but was politically expedient.

We should have to go through these evaluations.
 
WOW !! :shocked:

I lived the first 25 years of my life a few blocks away from Marine Park - I didn't hear about this....

For the most part, it is a very safe and quaint area. I've been in that park a zillion times. A$$holes.:mad:
 
U2Kitten said:
EVERY crime is a 'hate crime'- you don't generally do bad things to people you like! What I dislike about hate crime legislation is that it puts someone's life up as more valuable than another's just because their demographic group was different from their attacker's. If a white guy kills his wife, that's just a crime. But if he kills the black guy next door, it's a hate crime and he gets more time? Come on. ALL crimes are hate crimes, whether you kill someone because you don't like what they are, or what they did, it's all the same- bad!

A white guy killing a black guy is not automatically a hate crime. If it can be proven that the white man killed the black man because he was black, then it is a hate crime. I agree that the definition of 'hate crime' can be subjective and that can be dangerous, but I think of it like Affirmative Action: not the best idea but something that is needed for the moment.

-Migdilio
 
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