Boy Set On Fire: Missouri Police Search For Two Suspects In Possible Hate Crime

[RZM]

Two teenagers allegedly attacked a 13-year-old boy and set him on fire with gasoline in what police in Missouri are investigating as a possible hate crime.

The eighth grader was walking home from Kansas City's East High School around 3 p.m. last Tuesday when he noticed two older teens following him, KMBC reports.

"And they rushed him on the porch as he tried to get the door open," the boy's mother Melissa Coontold KCTV. "One of them poured the gasoline, then flicked the [lighter], and said, 'This is what you deserve. You get what you deserve, white boy'."

Police said that both suspects are black.

Very sad. Hope the kid recovers and they catch the culprits.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/teenagers-set-boy-on-fire_n_1320993.html

[Justice wanted]

1. Call me sick or crazy BUT something about this story IS NOT sitting right with me.

[Schema Thing]

2. yep.

I'll wait and see.


I suspect the reality is nothing like this story as told so far.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Warren Ballantine was discussing on his show today

Not really sitting right to me either as it's not the typical modis operandi (beating or shooting maybe but not this outside of what has been seen done in South Africa). We'll see... Silly season is here.

[SpartanDem]

4. I hope they get charged with hate crime

while black on white crime like this are more rare they're no less hateful.

[Ian David]

9. This is why hate crime legislation says, "on account of race," and not, "on account of being black."

It's intended to work in both directions.

Which is why I wonder why Conservatives are almost always opposed to anti hate crime legislation.

I point out to them that if they are going to try to use legislation to take away the legal rights of gay people, for example, it might actually PROTECT straight people from angry gangs of homosexuals retaliating against oppression.

But they don't buy that.

Because they know that 99.99% of the time hate crimes only go in one direction.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

5. I just learned of this today, on facebook

I got this link there:
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-03-04/news/31122324_1_white-boy-fire-tv-station?fb_ref=s=showShareBarUI:p=facebook-like&fb_source=home_oneline

Then came to DU to check for a posting. I found this thread in Breaking News, which got locked for being over 12 hrs. old: http://www.democraticunderground.com/101468228

And this post, which is 20 days old, but not much discussion. So many folks, myself included, have commented on Trayvon Martin, and I wonder if police did a check of this crime scene and tried to get DNA from the gas can.

A simple search turned up several reports:
http://www.ask.com/web?q=13+year+old+burned+by+gasoline%2C+Missouri&search=&qsrc=364&o=0&l=dir

that page showed this link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2856350/posts

and I even laughed, when I read this signature line: (The ONLY reason to support Mitt: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will appear at the WH each Christmas)

But really, I guess it may be that there isn't a 'murderer' that has been released without proper investigation.

At the FR site this link was posted, which is a long hard read. http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/was_boy_in_kc_fire_attack_a_victim_of_his_schools_racist_teaching.html (FR said there were 266 comments, but I didn't read them)

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

6. Appears he did it to get out of school

The guy who posted it on his facebook page has posted this now:
"A family member in Kansas City - my home town - let me know that this turned out to be a hoax. They think the kid wanted to be moved to another school. Suspicion arose from only first degree burns - witnesses say he looked like he had a bad sunburn - from gasoline. I thought that strange (or surreally fortunate) as well.

I may remove this post altogether."

Now I wish I had seen something to that effect yesterday, when I was reading about it.
But it still seems to have stirred up a lot of folks, along with the Nat. Org. for Marriage trying to cause trouble. See: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002476439

[RZM]

7. That's entirely possible

And as time passes with no suspects, becomes more and more likely. Although I would need to see more than reposts of second and third hand accounts from facebook to take it to the bank.

Very minor injuries could be construed as circumstantial evidence that it was a hoax. Though it happens, racial hoaxes are pretty unlikely to feature severe bodily harm (though like I said, that does occur sometimes). Most of the time their perpetrators have no wish to undergo extreme pain, so they don't usually put themselves at risk. Usually it's in the form of lying, or false graffiti/racial slurs etc. that won't cause bodily harm to the hoaxers.

If it is a hoax and was done for the reason mentioned, I wonder if racial bullying is why he did want to leave the district. That could be why he chose a racial angle, i.e. 'I've been telling people this whole time I'm getting bullied, but they don't care, so it's going to take something more drastic to get their attention.'

I do think that if he did do it to himself, he'll eventually end up admitting it.

[Steve Milledge]

8. Kid is just fine

Now I won't speculate on whether the kid's claim of the incident being perpetrated by two black youths is true, but I can unequivocally say that it's been misreported in the media. The NY Daily News and others reported him as being "doused in gasoline", which was never the case. Even the police report claims that it was just some spilled gas that was lit and made a "fireball" that singed his hair and eyebrows and reddened his face.

The kid is absolutely fine. His name is Allen Goin (son of Dale Goin and Melissa Coon). See his Facebook profile pic to see him 20 days after the incident (he's the older kid in the back): http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001009084884

The date of the picture can be confirmed by other pictures his Mom took. This from an Arena Football game (Jacksonville Sharks at Kansas City Command) on March 16th. She's got other pics of Allen, including one with a blurry shot of the scoreboard in the back and one of the tickets to the game. You have to Friend her on Facebook to see it, but she appears to accept all Friend requests.

Now I _will_ speculate that she knows the misperception that many have (many think her son was "doused in gasoline" and horribly burned), but she's enjoying the attention and rather than correct the misperception, she's tried to continue it.

I'm sick and tired of seeing conservatives try to draw some equivalence between the Martin case and this "horrible race crime that the media won't touch". Just google '"Melissa Coon" hate crime' ( http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=%22melissa+coon%22+hate+crime ) to see plenty of examples.

Does anyone know any outlets that would publish these pictures, that conclusively show that Allen is 100% unhurt?

If you want to see the other pics, Friend Melissa at: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000621325297
- Shot with (blurry) scoreboard: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=365169563513751&set=a.248211511876224.65394.100000621325297&type=3&theater
- Shot with ticket: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=365173013513406&set=a.248211511876224.65394.100000621325297&type=3&theater