Free Republic

A 14-year-old boy was fatally shot in Newark Wednesday evening, making him the city's 10th homicide victim in the last 10 days. The incident happened at the Riverview Terrace Housing Complex on Riverview Court, where the boy lived. Police identified the victim as Ali Rajohn Eric Henderson, who was gunned down in the courtyard area. Friends and family members of the victim have been gathering and lighting candles at the scene. No motive has been identified in the shooting, although sources have told Eyewitness News that a large amount of heroin and weapons were found inside the 14 year old...

Marten, who is black and allegedly yelled 'I’m going to punch the first white man I see!' before hitting the white Babbitt, says from jail 'I’ve punched white people. I’ve punched brown people. I’ve punched Hispanic people.' Lashawn Marten in Manhattan Criminal Court on Sept. 10, 2013. Marten was charged with assault in attack on Jeffrey Babbitt, 62, of Brooklyn, who later died from his injuries. The ex-con accused of targeting a white man for a fatal punch because the man was Caucasian claimed Thursday that he’s an equal opportunity aggressor.

Police departments in several cities around the country are investigating what appear to be incidents of "flash mob"-generated violence, in which packs of dozens or even hundreds of youths appear seemingly out of nowhere to commit assaults, robberies and other crimes against innocent bystanders. The motive and circumstances surrounding the attacks that have resulted in numerous arrests around the country are being investigated -- and law enforcement officials in at least one city are looking into a possible racial component to the crimes. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who recently imposed a stricter curfew in response to the city's latest attack,...

Strain says he's just trying to find suspects : St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain's statements about the suspects in a recent quadruple murder near Slidell amount to racial profiling that broadly paints Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans as "thugs" and "trash," the American Civil Liberties Union said in an open letter to the sheriff. Strain countered that the ACLU is distorting his comments, which he said were intended to warn St. Tammany residents about early signs of post-Katrina "spillover crime" from New Orleans. The dispute centers on a TV interview Strain gave after four people were shot June...

BATON ROUGE, La., Sept. 1 -- It seemed a desperate echo of a bygone era, a mass of desperate-looking black folk on the run in the Deep South. Some without shoes. It was high noon Thursday at a rest stop on the edge of Baton Rouge when several buses pulled in, fresh from the calamity of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Hundreds piled out, dragging themselves as if floating through some kind of thick liquid. They were exhausted, some crying. "It was like going to hell and back," said Bernadette Washington, 38, a black homemaker from Orleans Parish who had...