Posted on 09/17/2004 11:10:37 AM PDT by WillieGillis
LANCASTER - An Aug. 31 attack that left three Lancaster siblings battered and bruised at Jane Reynolds Park was an act of "thuggishness" and will not be prosecuted as a hate crime, authorities said.
Prosecutors and detectives say a colorful plastic bracelet - not racial hatred - appears to have been the motivating force behind the incident in which a 15-year-old girl was kicked and choked into unconsciousness.
The girl was at the park about 4 p.m. Aug. 31 with her 9-year-old brother and 12-year-old sister waiting for a self-defense class to begin. She stepped in to defend her youngster siblings after they were threatened by a group of black juveniles.
At least one of the suspects in the case allegedly made racial slurs towards the white victims during the attack, Detective Dwayne Bednar said. But the Lancaster Sheriff's Station would not classify the attack as a hate crime because there is not enough evidence to prove the suspects accosted the victims based solely on their race.
Prosecutors agreed and decided not to file a hate-crime enhancement on top of assault charges against three youths who have been arrested, Deputy District Attorney John Evans said. "When a crime occurs we have to be able to specifically identify race, religion or sexual orientation as the reason it occurred in order to go for the hate crime enhancement," Evans said. "It has to be the clear motivating factor."
That motivation was not present in the Jane Reynolds Park attack, according to Bednar, who investigated the incident. He said the bracelet instigated the contact between the two groups.
"One of (the suspects) inquired about the bracelet worn by the 12-year-old victim. It basically escalated into, 'Give me that bracelet,' and then went downhill from there," he said.
He added there was no evidence the white victims of the violence used racial slurs towards the suspects during the attack.
Three suspects, ages 10, 14 and 17, were arrested and charged with felony assault in the days after the attack. One of them also has been charged with attempted robbery for allegedly trying to rip the bracelet from the girl's wrist, Evans said.
The three are scheduled to appear Sept. 24 in juvenile court for a pre-trial hearing. The suspects have a history of disruptive behavior in school, and at least one of them has a criminal record.
"Clearly their self-control is lacking, and they appear to have an impulse to be violent before they have an impulse to be peacemakers," Evans said. "But they were not acting out of antisocial racism, they were acting out of antisocial selfishness." Capt. Carl Deeley, commander of Lancaster Sheriff's Station, said the attack appeared to be generated out of overall "thuggishness" rather than racial hate.
The matter will be researched and discussed by the Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force at its meeting Monday.
Double standard; alive and well!
So they call it "thuggish" in order to put an acceptable face on anti-caucasian racism.
Gee, what a brave, tough 17 year old. He attacks children. Must be a Kerry thug.
Of course it was not a hate crime. Just like when women ended up raped and murdered and authorities say "the motive was robbery."
Meanwhile if the races had been reversed here it would be all over the national media.
Since this appears to have taken place in CA, I wonder if the PC thugs were some more immigrants "doing the work Americans won't do."
Ping
Or the early to mid 90's term "Black Rage"?
Speaks volumes!
People of color who say and do racist things cannot be called racist because... well, because... they are people of color.
That's really the only Politically Correct way of thinking about racism.
Ditto, on the Double standard alive and well.
It that wasn't racial, then what was it?
These PC nitwits had better be pressed to see that they do their jobs because it seems they are looking for any excuse to walk away from this "thugishness."
Hate crime can't apply to a white victim--it doesn't fit the left's lexicon. In fact, I believe I have read FBI crime statistics that show in cases of interracial crime involving whites and blacks (one race a perpetrator, the other a victim), in 90% of the cases a white is the victim. How often does this make it into the news? Though certainly not every such case would have been motivated by racial hatred (often merely "thuggishness" and criminal propensity), one would think that, given that statistic, there would be more black hate crime that white hate crime (despite the substantially larger numbers of whites in the population).
What? Another example of hate crime charges not being applied evenly again?
Silly article. Everybody knows only whites are capable of hate crimes. The other groups are merely reacting to years of racism and oppression.
< /barf >
Of course, they are ignoring the fact that the added punishment for "hate crimes is wrong, and abusive of our system to begin with.
And I still fail to understand why it matters. It is the antisocial ACTING that matters.
Either way, the victim is still beaten, kicked and choked unconscious. Adding insult to injury, literally, is still insult, whether racial or not. And it says they did that, too.
Only a (defense) lawyer or a Liberal gives a damn about 'why', as far as the crime's commission itself is concerned. Certainly the victim doesn't.
It should only be Hollywood that worries about, "What's the motivation?"
Now, if crime PREVENTION is being talked about, then motivation and causes obviously matter.
When material like this is published, and accepted - I begin to think I've lived too long.
I have a word: savagery. Just let the savages try to call that word racist, after what they did and how they did it.
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