Man shot three times in street by racist gunman - for wearing Barack Obama T-shirt(London)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Daily Mail

A man told today how he was shot three times in a London street for wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt.
Dube Egwuatu was buying a mobile telephone top-up card in an off-licence when the gunman confronted him and glared at the top, which carries an image of the Democrat US presidential candidate underneath the legend 'Believe'.

The man then launched into a tirade of racist slurs, shouting 'I f***ing

The man then left the shop but when Mr Egwuatu re-emerged, the attacker was waiting for him in broad daylight with a threatening-looking dog and holding a gun behind his back.

-----

After pleading with the man to leave him alone, the married former street warden put the keys in the ignition and turned the engine on.

The attacker then fired the gas-powered ball-bearing pistol three times, hitting the civil servant in the face, hand and shoulder.

Fearing for his life and bleeding heavily, Mr Egwuatu


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1070975/Man-shot-times-street-racist-gunman--wearing-Barack-Obama-T-shirt.html

[Beregond2]

1. And what was someone saying here the other day,

about how racist America is compared to other countries? B.S. When was the last time you saw a minority candidate for high office in Europe?

[harmonicon]

12. have you been to Europe?

Even the multi-ethnic countries like Holland and France are a hell of a lot whiter than the US. I see no reason to start blaming demographics for being racist.

[entanglement]

18. They're a hell of a lot whiter, but that doesn't stop Europeans from complaining about being

overrun by dark-skinned peoples, does it? Austria, for instance, has the toughest immigration rules in all of Europe. Most of their immigrants are (other) white Europeans. That didn't stop their two far-right wing parties from garnering about 30% of the vote by whipping up racialist hysteria.

Edited to add: Of course there are many progressive Europeans, but DUers tend to have have an excessively rosy view about Europe.

[XemaSab]

34. As far as the excessively rosy view of Europe goes

It's true for the environment too.

[Beregond2]

42. Absolutely.

Everytime I get a face full of diesel fumes, it takes me back to my summer in Europe.

[harmonicon]

43. racism is alive and well in Europe

I see it all the time here in the UK, and I've seen plenty of it, first hand in other parts of Europe. I was just trying to point out that the reason we have yet to see many non-white high profile politicians in Europe is largely because of demographics, not racist sentiments. The fact that the Republican party relies on a racist base for support seems to almost always go unsaid, at least in the national media. The media doesn't seem to have the same problem acknowledging the equally important part that racism plays in European politics.

[fascisthunter]

2. Once again: The Difference Between the Right and Left

you see it everywhere....

[slackmaster]

8. Lefty victims never shoot back

Or something like that.

[RamboLiberal]

11. In the U.S. I'm one that will

which is one very good reason for me to avoid political arguments and not let things escalate. Got in to one a couple of weeks ago with a fundy over Palin in the grocery store. I decided better part of valor was to walk away since there is no chance of changing these one-issue idiots minds.

Not that I would ever use a weapon first.

[John Kerry VonErich]

35. Pride can be swallowed

There are crazy left as there are crazy right. Just that the right has the greater numbers in their asylum.

[PearliePoo2]

3. This scares the crap out of me

Racist, hate-filled imbeciles are out there.
Right now, they are flocking like lemmings to get lathered-up at McWolfKiller's "rallys".
:scared:

[lostnotforgotten]

6. Just Imagine If we Enter The Next Civil War / Revolution What Things Could Be like

If that happens, it won't be pretty as all the hate inspired rhetoric, promoted by the right wing, will manifest itself as a bloodbath of carnage that would rock this country to its core.

[Taverner]

21. Death Caravans, Para-Military Organizations, ethnic cleansing...

This is what the RW has practiced in other countries over the years - don't expect it to change when they go postal here.

[tom_paine]

40. Maybe they can put Negroponte in charge of the RW Domestic Terror Squads.

He's got experience,and he just set up Iraq's RW Death Squads a couple years ago, so his resume has fresh, relevant experience.

Hell, for all we know, he's quietly assembling the first teams already. How would we know? CNN? :rofl:

[John Kerry VonErich]

36. Not to be a conspiracy theorist...

But I don't think we might have to wait too long for that to happen. IMHO

[tom_paine]

41. There are no Conspiracy Theories in Totalitarian Nations like Amerika. Well fewer, anyway.

The reason being that, in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Pinochet's Chile and Marcos' Phillipines (to name a Bush-like few places or leaders), most "conspiracy theories" turn out to be actual criminal conspiracies.

From the Death Camps the Downing Street Memo, from the hideously brutal to the kinder and gentler, totalitarianism has but one object...total control of an unruly and ungrateful peasantry.

And no matter what pretty new snakeskin it puts on this time or next time, at it's bottom it is still totalitarianism.

If I had to synopsize this into an axiom, tom_paine's Axiom, it would be:

The percentage of "conspiracy theories" that turn out to be true in a given nation is inverseley proportion to the strength of it's system of checks and balances.

The fewer the checks and balances, the more conspiracy theories turn out to be real. In the extreme situation, which our grandchildren may yet experience (God Forbid), of Nazi Germany levels of ZERO checks and balances, not even any vestiges, then ALMOST ALL "crazy conspiracy theories" turn out to be true.

Amerika is still not there yet (soon,maybe) and so there may be SOME conspiracy theories about the Bushies that are crimes they didn't actually perform, that actually were just coincidences.

But I'll wager they are few, maybe VERY few.

[LisaM]

4. That's terrible. Why didn't the shop owner call the cops?

I heard this on Thom Hartmann this morning, and didn't understand why the store owner didn't call authorities.

That said, what difference does it make that the guy was married? ("the married former street warden put the keys in the ignition..")

[WriteDown]

5. Wait a second....

Shot in London? This story must be a hoax. Guns are illegal in Great Britain. :sarcasm:

[Posteritatis]

7. It was a BB gun

While I'm not about to trivialize the shootee's experience - I doubt I'd react well if anything resembling a gun was pointed, much less fired, at me - the Big Tough Badass Thug in the article was assaulting people with what's for all practical purposes a toy.

Kinda makes his actions all the more pathetic, though of course I still hope they find the guy and the judge who tries him has a surplus of large, heavy books.

[PearliePoo2]

9. Yes, but gas-powered BB guns can kill

if the BB enters a critical area.

[WriteDown]

10. We used to use pointed lead pellets...

to shoot through stop signs when I was a kid. All you needed was a pump bb gun or a CO2 cartridge.

[IsItJustMe]

50. You are damn right they can. Killed a few rats with them.

[Xithras]

13. CO2 powered. This isn't your childhood Daisy air rifle.

I own one of these, and they're quite capable of doing a LOT of damage.

[gatorboy]

38. My father was blinded by one of these 'toys'.

[tburnsten]

47. Did it penetrate his brain?

I'm sorry for his loss of eyesight, but there are literally billions of objects that can put out an eye, the fact that it just happened to be a BB gun doesn't make any different from a stick or a fork or a rake or anything else more rigid than a human eye.

My point is that it would be a stretch for a BB gun to kill someone, and since the BB gun in question was a pistol, it certainly does not have the gumption to push a light, small, round BB through a persons head and kill them. Scare the bejeezus out of you and cause surface wounds, like the victim in this article suffered, absolutely. As far as your father and his (I assume) friends go, there is a reason that every single BB gun comes packaged in lawyer's wrap warning the buyer of the dangers of the item, and how it should never be fired at people. A BB gun didn't blind him, someone being a reckless idiot with one blinded him.

[gatorboy]

52. Thanks for your concern.

You ooze compassion.

And I emphasize ooze. :eyes: :puke:

[DS1]

15. Reading the article, it gets you places

[14thColony]

14. Bet he was wearing a Burberry baseball cap

and gold sovereigns on each hand. The usual accompaniments to the fighting dog on a leash for the discriminating London chav.

[T_i_B]

16. Most Chavs are totally uninterested in politics

I'm not sure that we could even say it was a Chav. In my experience Chav's don't even have much idea of who our own leaders are, never mind Obama.

What we can say here is that there are evil idiots everywhere.

[Taverner]

22. Most Chav's are looking to get busy, get pissed, live off the dole

[14thColony]

24. True

I stand (or recline in this case) corrected.

[Nihil]

45. Politics (like religion and colour) are just an excuse for some "people" ...

> I'm not sure that we could even say it was a Chav.

Racist attitudes, mindless violence and a Staffordshire bull terrier.
No conflict so far ...

> In my experience Chav's don't even have much idea of who our own
> leaders are, never mind Obama.

That may have been the problem: having seen pictures of this "Obama" guy
next to the word "election", he probably thought it was a local candidate
and thus "more evidence that *they* are taking over" ...
:eyes:

[Poll_Blind]

17. For those saying this was just a "bb gun", they're correct but only in a technical sense.

There is a big difference between what we might all collectively think of as the Red Ryder hand-pumped BB-gun from A Christmas Story (or from our childhoods) and a modern compressed-gas or electrical spring-loaded pistol.

Factors like the type of delivery system (spring, air-pump or CO2), the type of ammunition (BB or bullet-shaped pellet), where it's pointed at the victim (exposed skin, eye, clothed area, shoes) and the velocity of the missile should be considered.

Modern compressed-gas pistols and rifles can fire projectiles at over 900 feet per second, which is comparable to the speed of many 9mm bullets, for instance.

PB

[tburnsten]

19. 9x19mm was designed around a 124 grain

(1 grain= 1/7000th pound, 437 grains per ounce) bullet at around 1200 feet per second. the 9mm NATO loading is a 124 grain bullet at 1299 feet per second. A once popular load was a 115 grain bullet at 1300-1350 feet per second, some people still prefer that light and fast load. The only 9mm loading that comes close to slipping below 1000 feet per second is the 147 grain variety, which is usually loaded to 1000 feet per second. I don't know how much a BB weighs, but I am quite sure it not nearly as heavy as any 9mm bullet, so while it might get close to the speed of a heavy and slow 9mm load, it will never have the wounding potential of any 9mm load.


BB guns are not toys, but they are also not service caliber weapons either. Sorry to be a nerd about it!

[tburnsten]

20. Something very strange in the article

"To the untrained eye, ball-bearing guns like the one used in the attack look every bit like a real firearm.

The potentially lethal weapons are often converted by criminals to fire real bullets, and can be bought easily in high-street shops and on websites."



"potentially lethal" encompasses quite a few objects, and a BB gun is definitely not high ranking on that list. Even with a higher powered pellet pistol it would be quite a feat for one of those things to put a projectile through a human skull and still have enough energy to damage the brain, and I can't imagine any other way it could kill an adult human, short of the incident causing a heart attack or shooting a BB straight down the victims throat, making him choke.

More importantly, how the hell could anyone "convert" a BB gun to fire any type of firearms ammunition? Has anyone ever seen or heard a realistic case of this?

[slackmaster]

23. Despite the UK's ban on real handguns, anything that looks like a handgun must be regarded as deadly

The only thing you can be sure of in the UK regarding handguns is that law-abiding citizens don't have them.

[SteveM]

39. Just convert it with a safety pin ... like an AK 47. (wink) (nt)

[tburnsten]

46. Oh ok, gotcha!

Loud and clear, I'm off to clear out wally worlds airsoft and pellet gun section, then buy a metric ton of safety pins! Black market riches, here I come!





Wish me luck in my new life as a salesman everyone!

[dysfunctional press]

44. they don't have firing pins for one thing...

and even if there were, i'd have to wonder if the breach would be strong enough to contain the explosion of the cartridge without flying apart.

[tburnsten]

48. And the breech is made of plastic or pot metal

and the barrel might be steel, but very thin walled steel, no extra material to even bore it out to accomodate an actual cartridge, even the lowly .22 Long Rifle, since all the BB guns I've seen have been .177 caliber, there are some .22 caliber pellet guns but they are all air rifles, not pistols.


Somehow cramming a real round of live ammunition into a BB gun and getting it to fire would be a very good way to make a tiny hand grenade.

[IsItJustMe]

51. You can make a gun out of a toy gun. It is called a Zip Gun. A zip gun is a one time kind of thing

It is dangerous to use because it may actually hurt the person who is firing it by exploding in their hand. But hey, there are lots of fools out there.

[tburnsten]

53. I think zip guns are more commonly made out of pipe

steel or copper pipe of a close enough size, I've heard of PVC before but that would take some brass attachments to attempt, and then they use some sort of elastic or something with a nail so that to fire it they sort of slingshot the nail back and let it fly forward into the primer of the cartridge they have put in their "weapon". Seems incredibly dangerous and foolish, I suppose to some people murder is worth that much, I am glad to be a better citizen and neighbor than that, so I carry an actual firearm that won't kill me and anyone around me with shrapnel.

[OakCliffDem]

25. These are the actions so typical of right wing conservative fundamentalists

They settle disputes with violence.

True right wing nuts attempt to pound their opposition into submission. Failing that, they just kill them.

[sabra]

26. (UK) Man shot for wearing Obama T-shirt

Source: MSN UK

A Londoner who was shot for wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt has spoken of his terror.

Data administrator Dube Egwuatu, 36, needed hospital treatment after he was shot three times with a ball-bearing gun.

Mr Egwuatu was attacked as he tried to buy a mobile phone card at an off-licence in Upper Norwood, south London, on Sunday afternoon while wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with an image of the black US presidential candidate.

A man confronted Mr Egwuatu inside the shop and launched a volley of racist abuse before chasing him with a Staffordshire bull terrier.

The victim ran to his car and tried to drive off but the attacker, described as 6ft and with short hair, attempted to climb in through the passenger window before pulling out the gun and shooting Mr Egwuatu in the face and shoulder at point-blank range.

Mr Egwuatu said: "It was like a scene from a movie, I just couldn't believe what was happening, I'd only gone out to buy some groceries."

Read more: http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=9986783

[lurky]

27. They're everywhere...

I guess McCain is now the official candidate of the worldwide white supremacist movement. :shrug:

[Project Grudge]

28. ...

dupe

[dana_b]

29. I heard this on Hartmann this morning

it's INSANE! people in other countries are getting so upset about our politicians and it brings their own biases to light. Crazy shit. I hope that guy's face is okay.

[JonQ]

30. That's kind of a misleading title

I read the article and at no point does it say the guy attacked him for his shirt. It says that the perp shouted "racist abuse" at the victim and then attacked him. And given the victims name (Dube Egwuatu) I'm guessing he's of African origin, so most likely *he* was being targeted, not his shirt.

Seems like a sensationalist attempt to take a fairly routine (tragically so) case of racism and turn it in to a political statement.

Next up Abraham Goldstein assualted by skinheads who took offense to his nike shoes.


PS: just to nip this in the bud, I am in no way condoning what the guy did, he should be punished and shunned. Just critiquing the accuracy of the title.


On a side note, I'm assuming ball bearing guns are what we would call BB guns in the states?

[melody]

31. That's what "BB" means

Beyond which fact, there may have been comments made that made clear he was targeted for the shirt.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

32. Locking - Duplicate topic

Original here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3531641

[solanus]

33. the devil

:evilfrown: Who would have ever thunk the devil would come in the form of a good looking mother of five; calling herself a christian?

[superconnected]

37. Thank goodness this man is still alive.

Best wish to a speedy recovery.

[tburnsten]

49. BB pistols can only deliver somewhere in

the tens of foot pounds, maybe thirty or so at best. The .22 Long Rifle, which pushes a far more terminally effective projectile, since it is elongated and so more capable of penetrating flesh than an even smaller, less sectionally dense and less heavy round ball (.177) that a BB gun shoots, is about the lowest powered firearm available, and delivers up to 120-130 foot pounds of energy with the higher powered loads. I sincerely doubt the victim was in any life threatening danger. It would have been far worse if the fool had used a knife to attack him.



I hope his swelling goes down as soon as possible.