Posted on 11/22/2006 3:20:46 PM PST by Kitten Festival
Los Angeles County prosecutors today filed hate crimes charges against eight black teenagers accused of beating up three white women on Halloween night in a case that has startled and divided Long Beach.
Authorities said they took the action after concluding that the teens attacked and beat the women in the upscale Bixby Knolls area because they were white.
The case has been the subject of a wrenching public dialogue over the last few weeks in the racially diverse city of 460,000, with civil rights groups like the NAACP condemning the teenagers' alleged actions and the city holding a public forum meant to ease tensions. The attack occurred on a block known for fancy Halloween decorations.
According to police, a mob of mostly girls, ages 12 to 17, allegedly hurled racial insults at the women, threw small pumpkins and lemons at them, and then knocked them to the ground with kicks, punches and swings of a skateboard.
The attack left the women, two 19-year-olds and a 21-year-old bloodied and with broken bones, internal bruises and cuts, before a black passerby stopped his car and pulled their assailants away.
"What could have possibly gone through their mind to make them think this kind of behavior was OK?" asked Long Beach Police Officer Jackie Bezart. The girls, who face felony assault charges, appeared in court today.
Their attorneys said the girls are good students and have no history of violence or criminal behavior. One of the girls won a full athletic scholarship to USC and had represented the United States in a track meet in China, her attorney told the court. He urged the judge to allow the girl out of Juvenile Hall so she could take the SATs.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Hate crimes are Orwellian and scary, I will respect the hell out the first politicial to call for their removal.
Yeah. I just deleted a post because I didn't know how it would go over right now but this would be a perfect opportunity for these girls to ask that the "hate" be removed and that their attackers be charged for the actual crimes committed.
Whether one agrees or not with having crimes prosecuted as "hate," if they are going to be prosecuted at all it should be done evenhandedly.
Exactly. Charge someone with assualt, or assault and battery, or attempted murder, etc.
These girls should be charged with the first two I would suspect.
But forget about "Hate Crimes"--we shouldn't charge anyone anything for what they were thinking--just what they did.
Regardless of the hell-freezes-over situation here, hate crimes are still stupid. The perps are already being charged. What more does assigning crimes hate crimes do other than let politicians and prosecutors beat their chests.
It pits people against each other. Instead of accepting that there are good and bad people in all races it encourages taking sides IMO.
I thought it already was a crime to beat up women or even men. It's called assault or aggravated assault.
Couldn't it be argued that "hate crimes" violate the equal protection clauses of the US and state constitutions? They create super classes of people who have more protections than others, hence they create less priveleged classes that enjoy less protection.
Where's the division? Sounds like the girls' actions have been roundly condemned.
And why did the LAT feel the need to ID the race of the Good Samaritan who stopped to help? Because they think anyone reading the article might assume from the girls' action that all blacks are violent? Isn't that racist thinking?
Victims of attack share their story (Long Beach Halloween attack, charged as hate crime)
"What could have possibly gone through their mind to make them think this kind of behavior was OK?" asked Long Beach Police Officer Jackie Bezart.
__________________________________
Gee I dunno, if you got out more Jackie you might find out that black people can be just as racist as white people. Yup, we're all the same under the skin there Jackie.
What planet is this cop from?
Yes, you're right, I don't agree that killing a cop should be considered more grievous than killing me.
The problem is we generally aren't tough enough on any crime.
...and they each made personal choices to NOT keep their own violence and criminal histories clean.
I like the hate crimes laws and I would expand them to include random crime. It is one thing to have some guy beat you up for some reason like a robbery. Beating up someone because they are simply existing is worse and so is random crime which is basically terrorism.
We already have something similar where we distinguish between premeditated 1st degree murder and 2nd degree.
***And why did the LAT feel the need to ID the race of the Good Samaritan who stopped to help? Because they think anyone reading the article might assume from the girls' action that all blacks are violent? Isn't that racist thinking?***
Mewzilla, it said on the original article here on FR that it was thought that it was only because he was black, and 6'2", that he was able to stop them. If it had been a white man, they might just have turned on him, also.
Did one of them continue to try to hit the unconscious girl in the head with a skate board? If so that is more than assault IMO.
You're right on the identication of the Good Samaritan. They never identify races of those who commit crimes, especially when those names give away the racial identity of the criminal.
I'm glad he was black.
Really? Are they criticizing the black attackers, or the white girls who were attacked and mutilated?
If it is the former, there is a snowstorm in Hell.
""What could have possibly gone through their mind to make them think this kind of behavior was OK?" asked Long Beach Police Officer Jackie Bezart. The girls, who face felony assault charges, appeared in court today."
What does the LA Times expect?
For the past two decades the media in every form from print to movie has promulgated the constant drumbeat that Whites are the epitomy of evil.
Blacks now feel entitled to perform any vengence for any perceived wrong.
My bro has to move from an area because his life is untenable now. But, he's white and he deserves it.
So goes our socialist media's drumbeat.
Ok, how about attempted capital murder? There's already a law against that, and it doesn't matter whether the races of the victim and perpetrator differ. Of courst that's not what the advocates of "hate crimes" legislation want. They consider most crimes to be justified or excused on the basis of "social justice". They only want crimes heavily punished if the wrong victims are chosen.
I do. It shows the girls (and anyone following this) that there are good and bad people in all races.
Maybe not for all of them but definately for the one with the skateboard.
You're right, but "hate crime" is on the books. As long as it's on the books, it needs to be fairly enforced -- enforced, that is, against suspects of all races, if there appears to be a real crime and real hate (both seem to be the case here).
I was attacked by a gang of blacks on the blue line metro in Boston several years ago. My wife and little sister with me and were also assaulted. They were waving knives around in people's faces inside the crowded train, and when it stopped at the Boston aquarium, two of them punched my sister in the face (she was 13 years old at the time) and stole her purse. I told the kid to give it back. He thew it at me, and then three more kids with knives came at me. My wife put her arms out in front of me and shouted "NO!"
We were at a standoff for about 15 seconds or so, but it seemed like 15 years. I was punched but not stabbed, and I was trying like hell to get my wife behind me and to stop standing in front of me. She is one brave woman. We were outnumbered at least 20 to three. All the other passengers ran like rabbits, and so did the MBTA employees (gee, thanks a lot).
One tall black kid wearing a red bandanna ran up next to my wife and also put his arms out in front of me. He did this just as two other big kids pulled out knives and were lunging toward me. The rest of the gang backed off. I was still stunned, when I heard my wife say "thank you" to the tall kid who came to my aid as people were running away. He walked in a different direction than the rest of the gang as they dispersed. I don't know who he was, or why he helped us. But, I never forgot his face.
What's to "dialogue"? These creatures are goons. Thugs. Animals. They belong in the primate house at the zoo, not stalking a civilized society.
Let them "dialogue" in a 6x10 suite at the Stoney Lonesome.
just reading their attorney's words, you would think that these girls had just had a "catfight". Broken bones, eye sockets, ribs, is not an innocent little girl thing. they deserve to serve time, plus restitution, and the little girl that has a scholarship to usc, if usc has any intestinal fortitued and sensibilites, they'll yank that scholarship from that "little girl"
"It pits people against each other. Instead of accepting that there are good and bad people in all races it encourages taking sides IMO."
Of course, that's exactly why these laws were passed in the first place. For lots of judges and elected officials, equal justice under the law is, itself, an injustice.
How scary.
USC might undo the offer. UCLA wouldn't, but USC might?
Their attorneys said the girls are good students ....
&&
Oh...well, their behavior is okay then?
She needs to be in jail, not turned loose on a college.
They do now.
-------------------------------------------------
In this case the protected, priveleged class is White girls. is that your point?
What more does assigning crimes hate crimes do other than let politicians and prosecutors beat their chests.
&&
I agree with you on a philosophical level. But on a practical level, I seem to recall that there is more involved.
I don't agree that killing a cop should be considered more grievous than killing me.
&&
There I have to disagree with you. I think cop killing should be held as more grevious simply because of the position of a policeman as representing the law.
I know about crowd mentality but even though they don't have a record , you can't tell me that the one's that started this were meek little girls that just snapped into hot heads.
Well, the first step to eliminating hate crimes is to convict a bunch of latinos, blacks, and gays of hate crimes when the situation is applicable, then you will blunt it as a tool of the left.
I understand and on some levels I see the logic, but I have to revert back to equal protection. My family member (and yours)is just as valuable as a policeman.
If we execute all killers, there is no such problem of distinction.
If we execute all killers, there is no such problem of distinction.
_______
That's pretty much my position.
I hope USC has the sense to pull that scholarship. I hope these little animals lives are completely ruined in every way possible.
Yes, of course, my life or yours is just as valuable as a policeman's; he is certainly not "better" than either of us. But I definitely think that because he represents our system of law that the punishment should be harsher for killing him. I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this one.
The scheme appears to have gone awry. Only caucasian males of the straight orientation were to be capable of crimes motivated by hate of "differentness."
In any case, assault and battery, or crimes against persons generally, should be prosecuted as such. Courts should not be in the business of assessing greater or lesser penalties on the subjective basis of motive.
...then you will blunt it as a tool of the left.
**
Agreed.
Dollars to donuts they won't. She'll get a free pass like she always gets a free pass. That's what made her think she could destroy another human being on the street and walk off consequence free. She'd been doing it for a long time.
Notice her lack of remorse.
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