No hate crime charges in Philly racial assault
We could title this story, “The hate whose name no respectable white person dares speak.”
James P. writes:
Follow up story—no hate-crime charges for black teens. Probably a complete coincidence that the Philadelphia DA is black.
Here’s the article:
Teens Held in Attack on Cabbie and Passenger Won’t Face Hate-Crime Charges
By Allison Steele Inquirer Staff Writer
The teenagers arrested after an attack on a cabdriver and his 21-year-old passenger in Center City last weekend, during which racial epithets were shouted [LA replies: Ahh, the passive voice, where would modern civilization be without it?], will not be charged with committing hate crimes, the District Attorney’s Office said Thursday.
“We have to be able to prove that race was the motivator for the crime,” said Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office. “Just because epithets were said during the crime doesn’t mean it was the reason for the crime.” [JP: Needless to say that would not be the standard if a gang of whites screaming racist slurs beat up a black person.]
The three teenagers charged in the assault, who are black, allegedly spewed racial slurs as they reached through the window and punched passenger Brian Goldman, who is white.
Racial epithets can be used as evidence of ethnic intimidation, Jamerson said, but cannot be the sole indicator. To allege racial intimidation, she said, authorities would need additional proof that the teenagers committed the assault due to hatred of Goldman’s race. [LA replies: What would such additional proof consist of?]
The three teenagers, who have not been identified because they are juveniles, have been charged with assault, conspiracy, and related charges.
The cab was stopped at a red light at 15th and Chestnut Streets around 8:30 p.m. Saturday when Goldman, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, felt a blow from a punch through the open window. Goldman got out and saw up to 10 teenagers swarming the cab. [LA replies: Reporter Allison Steele is veering into dangerous territory. A “swarming” attack sounds like something that animals, not human beings do. But in reality that is exactly what these black flash mobs and wilding attackers do, they swarm all over their victims. As I wrote of an incident in Florida last September when an entire black football team including the coach chased after the refugee and brought him down:
But is “savages” the most accurate description of what we see on this video? I get no pleasure from saying what I’m about to say. I have always resisted describing certain black behaviors in animalistic terms. But when we see this mob (a.k.a. “the Sarasota Gators football team”) surging with incredible rapidity into a single mass and chasing wildly after their victim (a.k.a. “the referee”) and bringing him down and swarming all over him, they appear like wild chimpanzees in a group attack. Blacks are not animals. They are human beings. But how can the problem of such behavior among blacks, which is a growing threat to society, be solved or even dealt with, unless it is identified?]
The 53-year-old cabdriver, who could not be reached for comment, also climbed out and threatened the teenagers with a tire iron. Though some ran away, one hit the driver from behind, Goldman said.
The driver later told police he heard the teenagers using racial slurs toward Goldman. Goldman, who said he never heard them, fled the scene after a minute.
“Initially I was really shocked and angered by this,” he said Thursday. “But now I just feel fortunate that the driver and I made it out with minimal injuries.”
Goldman said the incident had not made him fearful of spending time downtown.
“I love Philly,” he said. “Nothing will change that.” [JP: Typical Eloi sentiment.]
- end of initial entry -
John Dempsey writes:
What else could the attacking predators possibly have known about Goldman, except the fact that he is white and male? Could they have been motivated to attack him on the basis of his gender? I think not. Goldman sounds like a Jewish name which would suggest that he could have been wearing a kippah or yarmulke. But that would still make it a hate crime if he were assaulted for his Jewishness.
There seems to be no legal justification for the lack of hate crime charges. There is no evidence on the side of the attackers that it was anything but a hate crime.
LA replies:
My impression was that when there is a crime against a person, and the perpetrator makes ethnic or other derogatory statements toward the victim, that’s what makes it a hate crime. Now the Philadelphia DA says that the true motivation of the perpetrators is not known and must be discovered.
Of course the very idea of a hate crime is a legal and logical atrocity, as I’ve discussed before, but it’s what we now have. Among other things, it distorts society’s response to a crime because a crime is seen as “truly” serious only if it is designated as a hate crime. All other crimes are now implicitly seen as somehow less grave than they would otherwise be.
February 4
LA writes:
In a subsequent entry I expand on the meaning of hate-crimes statutes.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 03, 2012 04:27 PM | Send