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Judi Lynn

(160,217 posts)
Fri Feb 14, 2020, 07:49 PM Feb 2020

Black Mormon missionary attacked in possible hate crime

Source: Associated Press

Brady Mccombs, Associated Press
Updated 5:12 pm CST, Friday, February 14, 2020



SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah authorities are investigating an attack on a black missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a possible hate crime.

Two men were arrested Thursday on suspicion of assault, and charging documents show hate crime is under consideration. The NAACP expressed outrage about what allegedly happened and church officials said they are concerned about the incident.

The victim and his missionary companion were preparing to go to a house of people they were going to teach Jan. 28 in the central Utah city of Payson when they encountered six people wearing dark hoodies, charging documents show.

The assailants shouted a racial slur at the victim, who is Panamian, and told him to get out of their “hood,” he told police. They threw his cellphone on the ground, threatened his mother and called him a “church boy” before punching him in the head and face and kicking him, the document shows.


Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Black-Mormon-missionary-attacked-in-possible-hate-15057402.php





Sebastian West, kid brother.
10 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Black Mormon missionary attacked in possible hate crime (Original Post) Judi Lynn Feb 2020 OP
Folks,welcome to Payson Utah were Wellstone ruled Feb 2020 #1
All my life I've felt uncomfortable driving through Utah. Now I know why. abqtommy Feb 2020 #2
The south is really scary Arthur_Frain Feb 2020 #10
Police will request hate crime charges in attack dalton99a Feb 2020 #3
Lock them up for years. Those kind of people are trump supporters rockfordfile Feb 2020 #4
I'm confused. Where was this fellow doing missionary work? In Utah? Nitram Feb 2020 #5
Yes. It was in Utah rpannier Feb 2020 #6
38 percent of Utah's population are not Mormons and still need to be converted dalton99a Feb 2020 #9
May he heal in body and heart. mahina Feb 2020 #7
Wonder if the two West boys are Mormons? keithbvadu2 Feb 2020 #8
 

Wellstone ruled

(34,661 posts)
1. Folks,welcome to Payson Utah were
Fri Feb 14, 2020, 08:03 PM
Feb 2020

the White folks rule. Nothing changes in Utah,the bigots carry the day.

Arthur_Frain

(1,783 posts)
10. The south is really scary
Sat Feb 15, 2020, 03:02 PM
Feb 2020

Payson, pariah, (great name “where do you live?” “Pariah”!), Enterprise....

It’s the epitome of the Bible/gun clutching stereotype.

If you were to show up at a barbecue and not know it, they would seem to be the nicest, most helpful and charming people that you would ever want to know. Right up to the point where you say something (anything, anything at all) that is counter to church doctrine.

And if you were to try to bring up any serious issues, abortion, LGBTQ, resource management (meaning conservation, not leasing to corporations), you would find yourself ostracized.

Or worse. In the name of their god.

dalton99a

(81,066 posts)
3. Police will request hate crime charges in attack
Fri Feb 14, 2020, 10:12 PM
Feb 2020
PAYSON — Payson police on Friday said they will request that the recent attack of a black Latter-day Saint missionary be prosecuted as a hate crime.

On Thursday, brothers Sebastian Francis West, 19, and Malachi Bay West, 20, both of Payson, were arrested for investigation of assault and criminal mischief.

Police said they were looking Friday for two to three more people to question in connection with the Jan. 28 incident that happened near 300 North and 100 East in Payson.

On that day, a missionary who identified himself to police as a “black Panamanian” was with his companion to teach a family in the area. The missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were wearing nametags clearly identifying themselves as missionaries, according to police.

A police affidavit says the group “‘intimidated’ and ‘terrorized’ the victim by surrounding him, calling him racial slurs and telling him to get out of their ‘hood’ and to go back to where he came from,” which fits the definition of a hate crime.

The group eventually moved in, the affidavit states, and attacked the missionary, “punching him in the head and face, kicking him in the torso, and shoving him to the ground.”

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/2/14/21138065/mormon-missionary-attack-payson-police-hate-crime-lds-assault-race-black-religion-latter-day-saint

mahina

(17,505 posts)
7. May he heal in body and heart.
Sat Feb 15, 2020, 03:08 AM
Feb 2020

These two on the other hand...

Anyway they remind me that the whole “white peoples are superior” mental illness is borne of fear and insecurity. In this case, deserved.

keithbvadu2

(36,362 posts)
8. Wonder if the two West boys are Mormons?
Sat Feb 15, 2020, 05:48 AM
Feb 2020

Wonder if the two West boys are Mormons?

Their names seem to imply a religious connection.

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