Disabled Men, Woman Beaten Over Not Paying 'Fee' For Being White

[The Straight Story]

Disabled Men, Woman Beaten Over Not Paying 'Fee' For Being White


ORLANDO, Fla. -- Four men in Orlando were charged with a hate crime after they pummeled a 62-year-old woman and her two mentally-challenged companions at a public park after they didn't pay a "fee" for being white, police said.

Investigators said the victims were walking into a Kaley Park when they were confronted by Christopher Colbert, Erick Golden, Willie Pritts and Antoniette Boone.

Police said the victims were told that since they are white, they had to pay a fee to be in the park.

When the three didn't pay, the men beat them, officers said.

http://www.local6.com/news/15747448/detail.html

[Zywiec]

1. I guess this certainly falls into the category of a hate crime

I'm just surprised there weren't any comments after over 125 views.

[L1A1Rocker]

3. Yeah, I think this one deserves some recommendations

[Lex Talionis]

22. Why do you think there were no comments? I'd take a wild guess. n/t

[Quantess]

30. People are afraid of getting their heads bitten off, maybe?

:hide:

[Lex Talionis]

26. Up over a 1000 now and only 25 posts. Weird huh?

Probably need to reverse something, or other. Just can't quite put my finger on it, though.

[riverdeep]

27. Maybe because people are curious but don't feel like posting?

Exceedingly few posts number more than a 10% response (10% of those viewing reply). Most are under 6%, especially with a lot of views. Of course, this is a rough calculation since some of the ones viewing can post many replies, but it points to the likely culprit: disinterest rather than a conspiracy of silence.

[Lex Talionis]

32. Yea, your probably right. Can't help wondering though,

how many would have posted by now if the attackers were white and the victims were black.

[roguevalley]

37. this sucks for anyone to be hurt like this for reasons of any kind

let alone this. Poor things. I hope they get well.

[Lex Talionis]

38. I agree. Just the fact they had disabilities is bad enough. n/t

[L1A1Rocker]

2. Very disturbing

And it goes to the heart of why so many are choosing to arm themselves these days.

[riverdeep]

4. This is unusual.

White people don't usually get the benefit of hate crime designation. It's usually just crime.

[FredScuttle]

5. "the benefit of hate crime legislation"

yes, because everyone is hating on white people all the time.....excuse me, straight white men. :eyes:

[selador]

11. sarcasm is misplaced

the statistics show that

1) MOST crime is intraracial . white on white. black on black . etc.

but that when INTERRacial crime occurs, whites are MORE likely to be victims than offenders.

so, your sarcasm is misplaced.

also, there are cases where hate crimes HAVE been less likely to be charged because victims have been white. there are politix involved.

see, for example, this incident.

note that seattle has under 10% african american population, yet in this incident, over 3/4 off the offenders were identified as african american by VIDEOTAPE evidence. and that NUMEROUS examples of racial epithets being yelled towards whites were heard. DESPITE this, initially the police/prosecutors refused to consider the hate crime aspect. later, they somewhat recanted, as this quote shows.

personally, as a minority, who HAS been the victim of a hate crime, i am still against hate crime designation. i am 100% for equal rights: gay marriage, etc. but i do not believe in creating special victim classes based on perception of race, sexual preference etc. i think its too easy to inject politics and racial bias into said crime's prosecution and that it creates somewhat of a tiered justice respone. and again, i have personally suffered from hate crimes, so it's not something i take lightly.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/mardi16.shtml

"Three-quarters of the more than 100 people identified so far as suspects in crimes committed during the Fat Tuesday riot are black, Seattle police sources say.

Many victims say some of the random beatings in Pioneer Square were clearly tinged with racial hatred. And in at least two Mardi Gras incidents under investigation, African American attackers were heard yelling racial slurs at white victims, police said.

In another instance, a woman witnessing the beating of two white men by a group of blacks heard one of the attackers say, "That's what you stupid white people get."

Police officials say they're not actively investigating any hate crimes, but they are no longer insisting there is no evidence of underlying racism or an apparent prevalence of black-on-white violence."

note: NO LONGER insisting...

notice also that during the riots, police were ORDERED by cop-o-crat supervisors NOT to intervene. arguably the worst case of (officially ordered) police cowardice i have ever seen in my life. cop administrators were more worried aobut being seen on CNN as "thugs" with batons than they were about saving the lives of innocent victims. iow, it was "reverse brutality" so to speak. kind of ironically, they (the administrators) thought it better to let people riot (and kill and injure people) than dare being seen as the "bad guys" swinging sticks and lord forbid enforcing the law.

i know lots of seattle officers, and they think it is one of their darkest hours ever. it shows the craven political considerations of police chiefs (appointed cop-o-crats) who are more concerned with APPEARANCE than with justice and helping innocents.

[FredScuttle]

15. "the statistics show..."

link please

and the article you linked to describing the Mardi Gras riot in Seattle is from March 16, 2001. Either this is the most comprehensive criminal investigation in U.S. history, or the Seattle PD would have concluded their investigations long ago if these assaults as hate crimes. Any update?

[riverdeep]

12. But when they do get singled out, they should recieve the same treatment as anyone else.

Frankly, I have a problem with the entire hate crime category. Mexican gangs are wiping out Blacks in the L.A. area, to take over their turf. But they are singling out Blacks and targeting them based on race. Even non-gang member Blacks are being killed. Isn't this a 'hate crime'? But are they charged with a hate crime on top of murder charges? No. Hate crime legislation is informally seen as a way to curb white racism.

The charges of standard criminal code are enough, no special laws are needed for anyone- race, gender or orientation.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Zywiec]

14. No, singled out like this...

http://www.local6.com/news/15747448/detail.html

[FredScuttle]

17. So these four assholes in Orlando make up for 400 years of terrorism waged on minorities?

Hmmm.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

18. No these four assholes

show that racism hate and bigotry know *no* skin color..

[Scriptor Ignotus]

40. bigotry knows no bigotry

I suppose...

:shrug:

[riverdeep]

19. I think your assumption is wrong.

You can't make up for that, period. Those people aren't alive anymore, nor are their abusers. All we can do to honor the memory of the former is to learn from them. Make the law fair in the here and now. Not try to make it more fair for some. Assigning tiers of justice based on ethnicity, orientation, gender only brings obfuscation not clarity, and it's a very slippery slope.

[Lex Talionis]

24. I think your right. Maybe we need to just kill and maim more whites

until all is even. At what point will that be, you think?

[IronLionZion]

6. Right, I think crime is wrong no matter who the victims are.

So I'm glad those guys got caught. I don't see what anyone's ethnicity has to with anything in this case. I'm not sure what else to say.

[Wcross]

10. "I don't see what anyone's ethnicity "

You are reading the same post I am aren't you? They were beaten for not paying a fee to the thugs due to their being white. At least thats what the story I saw said.

[IronLionZion]

21. Sorry, I wasn't clear

I wasn't refuting the hate crime designation of this case.

My point was I don't see how hate crimes against whites are any different than hate crimes against blacks or any other minority. Sorry for the misunderstanding. My fault.

[Wcross]

34. I misunderstood, sorry!

I think hate crime laws are neccesary & like you feel they should equally enforced.

[marshall]

16. The crime was against a race rather than an individual

They weren't trying to rob them just to get money and they weren't randomly beating up just anybody. They were targeting whites only. It is a crime against society.

[northzax]

7. i think the good news is

that we know these thungs aren't racist, at least, since only the dominant class can be racist (seriously, someone told me this on this board last week)

so I don't see how it can be a hate crime?

[The Straight Story]

9. It's a hate crime because they hated to do it to them

But did it anyway ;)

And dominant depends on area. Where I live the dominant group is hispanic and I am the minority (as far small businesses, population, schools, etc).

[IowaGirl]

31. If you put somebody down because of their race, it's racism and I don't care who says what about the

dominant race. And whoever does it is wrong, IMHO.

[Celebration]

8. Throw the book at them n/t

[Mz Pip]

23. I hope they do.

Creeps.

[lumberjack_jeff]

20. Developmental disabilities are the last frontier of civil rights. n/t

[Lance_Boyle]

41. nobody demanded that anybody pay a developmental disability

tax to use the park. You have a point, I'm sure, but probably not one that's germane to this thread.

[Rex]

25. Sick.

[Hannah Bell]

28. The "hate crime" designation serves to rachet up racial tension.

Profoundly misguided, possibly deliberately so. Crime is crime, whether motivated by race or not. Prosecute the crime, not the motivation.

[nomorenomore08]

29. Looks like the very definition of a "hate crime" to me.

For the record, I support hate crime enhancements in any case where it can be reasonably proven that the crime was motivated by the victim's race/ethnicity, religion, etc. Which is to say, black-on-white should be treated the same as white-on-black, and Jew-on-Christian the same as Christian-on-Jew.

[Karenina]

33. America is a VERY sick puppy

and an 800lb. gorilla...

[undercutter2006]

35. I wonder

If we can apply the principle of affirmative action to the hate crimes? For example, if certain race is underrepresented in high paying jobs, that means they are being discriminated against, and we must use quotas to make sure the result is equal.

In hate crimes, most people prosecuted are white people, while minorities are underrepresented, should we use affirmative action principle and stipulate that all races should be equally represented as hate criminals?

[readmoreoften]

36. Uh...hate crime legislation doesn't just protect minorities, it protects everyone.

Black, white, hispanic, asian and Native American people are protected.
Both men and women are protected.
When in effect, both straights and gays are protected.

Anti-genocide law doesn't have preferences.

[Ritchard1]

39. Glad they got caught....

Hope they get 20 years-no parole.....

[Codedonkey]

42. So locking them away for 20 years is going to help?? how?

Yeah, ruin lives because of a stupid mistake they made...

[The Straight Story]

43. Um, a stupid mistake is a little different than intentionally beating someone

how did the word 'mistake' get into all this?