Posted on 01/26/2007 10:26:51 PM PST by Libloather
2 more football players facing charges in racially tinged fight
Associated Press
Jan. 26, 2007, 10:35AM
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The parents of three Guilford College football players charged with ethnic intimidation defended their sons today, nearly a week after an on-campus fight between the players and three Palestinian students.
The parents of Michael Bates, Michael Robert Six and Christopher Barnette issued a statement today, asking the public to withhold judgment until an investigation was completed. The statement said Six was attacked with a belt by one of the accusers but didn't offer further details.
"Under our system of government, our sons are presumed innocent of these charges and we hope that the community and the media will let the system run its course in determining their innocence or guilt," the statement said.
Five players face charges of assault and ethnic intimidation in connection with a fight Saturday. The charges do not reflect results of a police investigation.
The charges were approved by a magistrate judge after a complaint was filed by the accusers — Guilford College students Faris Khader and Osama Sabbah and North Carolina State student Omar Awartani, who was visiting Greensboro from Raleigh.
The Palestinian men said they were taunted with racial slurs and called "terrorists" as they were beaten and kicked, according to court documents.
Lawyer Seth Cohen said his clients didn't do anything wrong and didn't provoke the attack.
"They were minding their own business," Cohen said.
The FBI is investigating to determine whether a hate crime was committed, FBI spokesman Tim Stutheit said.
Bates, Six and Barnette were arrested Monday on misdemeanor charges. Two other players, Jonathan Underwood and Jazz Favors, were charged Thursday. Underwood also faces one count of communicating threats.
Guilford football coach Kevin Kiesel asked that students and faculty refrain from premature judgments.
"I have a lot of confidence in the judicial process at Guilford," Kiesel said.
All day yesterday, Aaron Fetrow, the dean of campus life at Guilford College, took calls from media outlets big and small, drawn to cover a fight among students.
What brought calls from CNN, The New York Times and local media are the seemingly explosive allegations of racial epithets that were said to have been used by football players in a fight with three Palestinian students.
But those allegations, like nearly everything about the incident last weekend, is hotly disputed.
The parents of some of the football players say that their sons were not the aggressors and that they are being tried in the media by people who don't know the facts. Greensboro police and the FBI have yet to even interview three Palestinian students who said they were attacked.
In short, what might be best known about the fight is that there are many unknowns.
The result is a campus on which some students are in an uproar, walking out of class and demanding that the situation be labeled a hate crime. Others are simply confused.
"I feel like it's complicated, and I really don't know how to respond to it," Jesse Freedman, a freshman, said yesterday.
"No. 1, there's 16,000 different stories about what happened," said James Cliff, a senior.
Cliff said that the reactions of some students were a bit extreme.
"Everybody just kind of freaked out," Cliff said.
After compiling statements from about 25 people who were witnesses or were involved in the fight, Guilford College officials have given a brief account of what happened:
About 12:30 a.m. Saturday, a fight broke out in the courtyard of Bryan Hall. The college said that it lasted less than five minutes and involved possible "hate speech during and after the incident."
The participants knew each other and were residence-hall neighbors, and at least a few of them had been drinking, the school said. Everyone involved declined medical treatment after the fight, but then some saw doctors later in the day.
"Almost everyone who is characterizing the event was not there and is merely repeating, and may be distorting, what others have told them," the school said.
Greensboro police said yesterday that the first step for investigators in such a case is to talk to the possible victims, but the Palestinian students have rescheduled two appointments with investigators.
WGHP/FOX8 reported that the students' attorney, Seth Cohen, said at a news conference yesterday that that wasn't the case. The students will meet with both the FBI and Greensboro police next week, he said.
On Sunday, a magistrate issued charges of ethnic intimidation and assault and battery, based on the testimony of the Palestinian students.
Police have arrested Michael Six of Clemmons; Michael Bates of Reidsville; Christopher Barnette of Semora; Jonathan Blake Underwood of Clinton, S.C.; and Jazz Favors of Alpharetta, Ga.
All five are out on bond.
Reached yesterday afternoon, Underwood said that he was on his way to meet with his attorney and would not comment. The other four players also would not comment or did not return phone messages.
The Palestinian students referred questions to Cohen.
According to WGHP/FOX8, Cohen said that the fight left his clients with concussions, bruises and scratches.
Fetrow, the dean of campus life, said his office was working to sort out about 25 eyewitness accounts of that night and to see if anyone at the college could reach a conclusion about what really happened.
"Finally, we couldn't," he said. "Because if we took a stance, or if we said something one way or the other, it could possibly indict in the court of public opinion. And we can't have a process like that."
Five students, including the three Palestinian students, have been called before the college's judicial board for possible violations of the campus code of conduct. No date for a hearing has been set. Punishments could range from community service to dismissal from the school.
Some students have called on the school to change its contention that there was possible "hate speech" by the attackers and instead label the incident a hate crime.
That's a powerful term in public debates - one that needs to be used carefully, said Frederick Lawrence, the dean of George Washington University's law school in Washington and an expert on hate crimes.
Hate-crime laws exist in nearly all states and often can add to the length of a sentence if prosecutors can show that the crime was motivated by bias.
Hate crimes are chronically underreported, with definitions differing among law-enforcement agencies and a tendency by many victims to fear reporting them, Lawrence said. From the statistics that are available, imperfect as they are, recent years have seen an increase in reported hate crimes against people of Middle-Eastern descent, said Jack Levin, a professor at Northeastern University in Boston.
"There's no question about it: Sept. 11 made us very suspicious of one another," he said.
Greensboro police reported four incidents motivated by racial or ethnic bias to the FBI for 2005, the most recent year that the FBI has published statistics.
Winston-Salem police reported no hate-crime incidents in data sent to the FBI, even although police did file an ethnic- intimidation charge. The discrepancy may be because Winston-Salem police call it an incident only when they determine that it was wholly or substantially motivated by bias.
The idea of a hate crime is hotly disputed among some legal scholars, some of whom say that the laws are ineffective and wrong-headed. Critics often argue that hate crimes could lead to punishing people for their opinions, which, unpleasant though they may be, should be protected by the First Amendment.
"There was no problem in a lack of adequate sentencing that cried out for a solution," said James Jacobs, a professor at New York University's law school. "Instead of all progressive and right-thinking people condemning crime, we now turn crime into something we can fight about - about whether it is a hate crime or isn't a hate crime," Jacobs said.
http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192878504&path=rss
Given the Palestinian people's culture of peace and commitment to non-violence, I'm going to assume the football players are guilty.
Good one!
It is sad, though, that the FBI was dispatched to determine whether or not this was a 'hate' crime. I'm sure there is a thousand better ways to use such resources.
Ethnic intimidation! Hate Speech! More likely the football players kicked their ass and they played the race card.
According to the ROP, it's ok for the pallies to lie, if it's only infidels whom they're lying about. This should be thrown out, if that's all the evidence they have.
As far as the term "hate crime," it's obscene to prosecute someone for their opinions. Hello, thought police.
Also, did anyone notice that the pallies got a Jewish lawyer? Well, I'm sure it's just another victory for religious tolerance within the ROP./sarc
To these five football players I say: Stop beating up Palestinians and start beating up liberals.
The school officials are hedging. Given that this is a Quaker school, their failure to come right out with a strident statement of support for the aggrieved Palis is eloquent in its silence.
It is either a flying pig moment or they know something the rest of us don't.
They don't want to embarass themselves like Duke.
Another college, another sports team, more police charges filed, it must be North Carolina!!
It sounds to me like muslims are deliberately inciting actions and incidents and then hysterically get big bucks lawyers to fan the flames.
Guilford is a VERY liberal school. They sent my daughter a packet last year and offered to let her apply for free. I took a peek at their website and told her no way.
What exactly is ethnic intimidation?
I believe ethnic intimidation is a felony and carries a maximum penalty of four years in jail.
Hi all,
Since these palestinian scholars are in under some sort
of student visa, why shouldn't Immigration and Customs Enforcement start their own investigation. There must be any number of legal clauses requiring good behavior for visa holders that the palestinian students have violated, just for being involved in such a fracas. In other countries, these people could simply be declared "undeisred immigrants" and tossed out of the country.
Magooey
In all honestly, I would like to ask:
How do we seriously expect to WIN the worldwide struggle of The West vs. Islam - which by it's very nature is "an ethnic conflict" as well as a religious and cultural one - with laws like this in place?
I contend that for Western culture and our ethnicity to prevail, we MUST be willing to "intimidate" those here who would seek to replace our culture, religious beliefs, and moral/legal structure with their own.
Strictly my opinion, and I realize yours may be different....
- John
I say the school should expel the players, fire the coach, and cancel the football program at Guilford College. And start making up some "Wanted" posters.
Little doubt these "palestinian" student-terrorists are here on the American taxpayer's buck. Since the so called state of palistine is totally a welfare state. It's sole major export product is terrorism. Does anyone know of another MAJOR product it produces for export?
Seems to me it relies on the charity of the EU and the US to sustain itself. So yea, odds are these pali student future if not current terrorists are here on our dime, and that's why the fbi was called in to protect the govts "investment" in terrorism.
Has anyone checked to see if these Palis are enrolled in flight school? Give me a break...
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