Epidemic of black wilding-style attacks in Iowa City, Iowa without a black in sight

In the below AP article, sent by Brandon F., the AP recounts a string of wilding-type attacks in the college town of Iowa City which, based on similar wilding sprees, sound like racial attacks by blacks on whites. But the AP doesn’t describe the perpetrators in any way except that they are “men.” Nor does it tell the race of the victims. I’ve bolded the phrases that sound like typical black thug behavior, with attacks on people for no reason, with attacks on helpless individuals by groups, and with onlookers cheering the beatings. However, I wonder if the city’s black population of a mere 2,500 out of a total population of 67,000 would be enough to create this phenomenon. The article mentions binge drinking by college students as a factor in the violence, which makes it sound as though whites are involved, but the gratuitous violence purely for the fun of it does not sound like anything done by whites or Hispanics.

Iowa City troubled by surge in downtown beatings
Apr 23 12:36 PM US/Eastern
By NIGEL DUARA

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP)—Gangs of men punching people on the street at random. Street fights where bystanders sometimes cheer, and where those who try to intervene sometimes get beaten themselves.

Police in this quintessential college town say there’s been a dramatic rise in unprovoked beatings in the downtown area next to the University of Iowa over the last several months. Though the mix of young people and alcohol often leads to fighting, police say the intense violence and random nature of the attacks have them worried.

“It isn’t always a matter of somebody putting themselves in harm’s way,” Iowa City police Sgt. Troy Kelsay said. “Now it seems like it’s just for the sheer pleasure of it, that’s what seems to be different.”

Police don’t break out statistics for the downtown area near campus, but they point to several disturbing incidents in the past month alone:

_On March 27, a college-aged man was assaulted at about 2 a.m. downtown. Witnesses said six to 10 men ganged up on him, and when another man tried to intervene, he too was knocked unconscious. Police say the assailants then ran along a downtown street, punching other men as they passed.

_On April 2, a 22-year-old man was smoking outside a downtown bar when six men approached him and asked for cigarettes. As he was handing them out, the men knocked him to the ground and took the whole pack. Later, the same man walked past a group of men who knocked him to the ground and stole his watch.

_On April 6, a man woke up to bystanders helping him sit up. The man told police someone he didn’t know knocked him unconscious. He didn’t realize his jaw was broken until a hospital visit the next afternoon.

_On April 16, two college-age men stepped outside a bar to smoke at about 1:15 a.m. After an argument with others, one of the men was pushed to the ground, then kicked and punched by several people. He suffered a broken nose and a head cut requiring staples to close.

“I really don’t understand the motivation for the violence,” Iowa City Mayor Regenia Bailey said. “It’s severe and concerning that people find this acceptable and people are seeking this out.”

Kelsay said police have stepped up late-night patrols downtown, but they have had a hard time tracking down suspects because they usually can’t find witnesses. And sometimes those who see a beating actually cheer on the attackers, he said.

“It’s become an unfortunate part of the bar culture in Iowa City,” Kelsay said.

Some Iowa City officials think a recent proliferation of bars and liquor stores downtown is partly to blame. There are 46 businesses permitted to sell liquor in the nine-square-block area next to the 29,000-student campus—a 50 percent increase from a decade ago.

Next month, the City Council will consider a measure backed by a planning commission that would require future bars to be 500 feet apart and ensure 1,000 feet between liquor stores. City officials earlier rejected such moves.

“With too much of a concentration (of establishments) such as bars and liquor stores, it becomes overburdened with that type of use,” said Karen Howard, an associate planner in the city’s Urban Planning Department. “We want to have a downtown that’s open not just in the evening, but to a whole variety of people.”

Bailey said the city also has sought help from the University of Iowa. Together, the school and city launched an “alcohol summit” in March to address binge drinking and suggest nonalcoholic alternatives.

Students acknowledge there’s a problem, but few seem intent on resolving the situation. [LA comments. If it’s binge drinking by students that’s going on here, that sounds less like black behavior than white behavior. But the wilding-style attacks are still definitely black sounding.]

“It’s easy to blame alcohol,” said 20-year-old Justin Boltz, an Iowa undergraduate. “I don’t know if there’s a solution.”

Thomas Reynolds, a 19-year-old Iowa student, said he noticed the violence picking up last summer, when a friend was hospitalized after being beaten by a man asking for a cigarette.

But Reynolds also seemed resigned to the problem and didn’t think the city’s zoning plan would help much.

“Then they’ll just make the bars bigger,” Reynolds said. “You’ll still see 100 people outside.”

[end of AP article]

I find this in Wikipedia’s article on Iowa City:

As of the censusof 2000, there were 58,830 people, 25,202 households, and 11,189 families residing in the city….The racial makeup of the city was 87.33% White, 3.75% African American, 0.31% American Indian, 5.64% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.25% from other races, and 1.68% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.95% of the population….

Iowa City is commonly known as a “college town”. It is home to the University of Iowa and a small campus for Kirkwood Community College. The population increases during the months when the two schools are in session.

Iowa City is tied with Stamford, Connecticut, for the US metropolitan area with the highest percentage of the adult population holding a bachelor’s degree or higher; 44 percent of adults hold a degree.

Wiki says that as of 2007 the city’s population is 67,062. The black population, at 3.75 percent of that, would be 2,514. Would that be a large enough population to contain enough hoodlums to set off the wilding spree to do what’s described in the article?

I googled “iowa city” and beatings and there was a bunch of articles but they alll seemed based on the same AP article.

I called the Iowa City Press-Citizen at 319-337-3181, which seems to be the main paper in the city, hoping to get someone at the City Desk for more information on this, but they close at 5 p.m. A search for “beatings” at the Press-Citizen website turned up mostly sports stories.

- end of initial entry -

Brandon F. writes:

Here is a story that describes the assailants in one incident as black males.

Beating in Ped Mall being investigated
Coralville Courier
March 27, 2009

IOWA CITY, IA.—The Iowa City Police Dept, is investigating an assault that occurred in the Ped Mall, on Friday, 3-27-09, near the intersection of Dubuque and College St, between 1:45am and 2am. Witnesses reported that the victim had run to the aid of a college age male who was being beaten up by 6 to 10 black males. The victim, who was knocked unconscious to the ground, was treated for non life threatening injuries at Mercy Hospital. The suspects were last seen running north on Dubuque St, randomly punching other males as they ran by them. One of the suspects is described as a thin, light skinned black male, about 6’ tall, with his hair pulled back into a pony tail, wearing a gray hoodie and white t-shirt with black writing or logo on the front.

Iowa City Area CrimeStoppers is offering a reward of up to $1000 for information leading to the arrest of this suspect. Anyone with information about this crime is urged to contact CrimeStoppers at 358-TIPS (8477). All calls are held in strict confidence and anonymity is guaranteed. Individuals providing information do not have to reveal their identity to collect a reward.

Here is another local paper’s story on the same incident that never refers to their race.

LA replies:

The last item Brandon linked is the same AP story with which this entry begins, but at a different newspaper/website.

Brandon writes:

Here is one incident where the assailant’s race is identified

April 13. 2009
Iowa City beating, robbery leaves man with multiple face fractures
By Carla Keppler
The Gazette

IOWA CITY—An Iowa City man was assaulted and robbed while leaving Los Cocos early Saturday morning.

The 20-year-old victim reported to police Saturday that he’d been charged by an unknown assailant in the parking lot of Los Cocos, 1921 Keokuk St. around 2 a.m. Saturday. The attacker struck the man in the face until he fell to the ground, when the attacker began kicking his face. The suspect then took the victim’s wallet and fled. [LA comments: the kicking of people in the head when they’re lying injured on the ground is signature black behavior, a sure sign that the assailant or assailants are black.]

Several witnesses were present, one of whom helped the victim to his feet before allowing him to walk home.

The victim went to the hospital Saturday around noon where it was determined surgery would be required to repair the multiple facial fractures caused by the assault.

The incident was left unreported until Sunday at 4:51 p.m. when the victim notified Iowa City Police.

The suspect is described as a Black 20-something male around 6-2 and 180 pounds.

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to notify police at 319-358-8477.

Shrewsbury found an article from early April in The Gazette (eastern Iowa) detailing one of the attacks told of in the AP story. He writes:

This sounds like a scene in a television show:

“According to police reports, the 22-year-old victim said that while he was smoking outside the Airliner, 22 S. Clinton St., around 1:30 a.m. today , a group of about six men approached him, asking for cigarettes. As he was distributing the cigarettes to the group—which may have comprised two black males, two Hispanic males and two white males, according to his report—some or all of the men “jumped” him, knocked him to the ground and took his cigarettes.”

LA replies:

By television show, I guess you’re referring to the mathematically proportionate (and totally unbelievable) racial diversity of the gang,

Perhaps this is the only way today that you can safely say that you were mugged by a black gang. You change it to a racially mixed gang that included some blacks.

LA continues:

Or let’s put it this way:

Any whites being portrayed in positions of achievement and accomplishment must be artificially accompanied by black partners.

Any blacks being portrayed committing violent crimes must be artificially accompanied by white partners.

This is what is meant by equality.

Thad M. writes:

Google search “Iowa City” black crime:

IOWA CITY CRIME STOPPERS

March 27, 2009

ASSAULT ON THE PED MALL

Police said witnesses reported that a college-age male was being beaten up by six to 10 black males between 1:45 a.m. and 2 a.m. when another man rushed in to try to help him but was also beaten up.

March 12, 2009

FOUR SUSPECTS ROB WOMAN

Iowa City police are looking for four black males they say attacked a woman and robbed her as she got off a city bus near the intersection of Hollywood and Grantwood about 9:08 p.m. Wednesday.

February 5, 2009

CAB DRIVER ROBBED

On Thursday, February 5th, at 12:13am, the Iowa City Police Department received a report of a robbery, involving a cab driver, at intersection of F St and 2nd Ave. Responding officers learned that the cab driver had picked up a fare in the 2400 blk of Lake Side Dr and drove him to 2nd Ave where they stopped in order to confirm an address. After the cab was stopped the robber grabbed the driver by the throat and threatened her, with a knife, while demanding money. The driver, who was not injured in the incident, gave the robber an undetermined amount of money. The robber then fled northbound on 2nd Ave.

The robber is described as being a light skinned black male, with a skinny build, wearing a brown thigh-length coat and jeans.

LA writes:

Thanks to our commenters for doing the detective work and filling in the color in the AP’s strangely colorless, stick-figure version of Iowa City’s crime wave.

As it turns out, this story is not, as in the AP story, about oddly race-less human beings performing prototypically black acts of violence, mayhem, and wilding; it’s about black human beings doing it. Now we have a news story connected with reality, which wasn’t the case before.

David B. wreites:

You comment: “the kicking of people in the head when they’re lying injured on the ground is signature black behavior, a sure sign that the assailant or assailants are black.”

This jogged my memory of something I had read long ago (I have reread it a few years ago). It was an article in the January 1966 Sport Magazine on San Diego Charger running back, Paul Lowe. I went to my pile of old magazines and found this issue. Lowe grew up in the Watts section of Los Angeles.

In this article Lowe is quoted as saying, “It’s (Watts) a bad place for a person to grow up, because he is surrounded by bad things and learns wrong things.”

Lowe tells this anecdote, “One night, we raised hell at a dance and on the way home we jumped this guy. He was a Negro. We didn’t know him and he didn’t start up with us. There was no reason for us jumpin’ him. You didn’t have to have a reason. It was just something to do. We knocked him down and the leader of the gang began to kick him in the head. He had on big boots and he stomped him until he darned near killed him. I didn’t like that. And it scared me. So I drifted away from the gang.”

Paul Lowe was born in 1936, so this incident happened well over 50 years ago. You will note that the victim was also black. Lowe, to his credit, never was in trouble after becoming a pro football player. Your comment above reminded me of this 1966 article, which has always stuck in my mind. I found it a few minutes ago in my personal library.

LA replies:

I should have written: “Knocking one’s victim to the ground and then continuing to kick him in the head while he’s lying on the ground is signature black behavior, a sure sign that the assailant or assailants are black.”

LA writes:

I hope reader ME of Albany appreciates the fact that I haven’t used the “S” word once in this entry.

April 24

Morgan writes from England:

Please don’t think for one minute that this happens only in America. It happens wherever there are large numbers of blacks.

Here’s a very recent piece of CCTV film from Australia.

April 24

Buddy writes:

You wrote: “Knocking one’s victim to the ground and then continuing to kick him in the head while he’s lying on the ground is signature black behavior, a sure sign that the assailant or assailants are black.”

I meant to send a reference to this article in the Johns Hopkins alumni magazine when it appeared in June 2008. The article is about the murder of a young Hopkins employee by a gang of blacks on the streets of Baltimore:

Ramos and Price got out and walked toward Zach, while Jeter and Martin waited in the car. When Zach reached his front steps, Ramos, who outweighed Zach by 90 pounds, applied his heft and his fist to knock Zach out, Price said. Ramos then used the fender of a Nissan Sentra parked outside the house as leverage, leaning on it with his right hand as he repeatedly slammed his foot against the back of Zach’s head, which lay between the car and the curb.

Imagine the pain of such an attack—a kick on one side of your head that bangs the other side of your head against a concrete curb, over and over. The mind boggles.

The magazine used the attack to bring up the larger issue of urban violence, “Urban Violence: Can We End the Epidemic?” It was filled with what you would expect from an elite university publication—a dishonest assessment of the problem and the usual, tired “solutions.”

Van Wijk writes:

Seattle recently lost a local eccentric known as the Tuba Man. From what I’ve read, five youths jumped the Tuba Man (Edward McMichael) and beat him while he lay in the fetal position. He died a week later. I hardly need to tell you what color the “youths” are.

Three of these little demons were caught and plead guilty, and the other two are still at large. The sentences handed down are ludicrous. Two will serve 72 weeks and the other 24 weeks in juvenile detention.

I predict a relatively long criminal career for all three. They beat a white man to death, and so will have much “cred” while in detention. Soon they will rob, beat, rape and kill again and will end up in prison, the ultimate rite of passage for their ilk.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 23, 2009 09:41 PM | Send