The Denver Post reports: "Racial attacks like the ones behind the arrest of 32 suspects in Denver are part of a trend spreading across the country, gang experts said Saturday."
Here's the sort of thing they're talking about:
[Warning: not for the easily offended. Violent assaults accompanied by thoroughly appropriate music.]
Here are some excerpts from The Denver Post's report:
"As part of the trend, black gang members videotape the assaults...and sell them on the underground market as entertainment.
"'They knock a young white guy out with one blow to see if his knees will wobble and surround them and take their money,' said the Rev. Leon Kelly, who runs a Denver gang-prevention program. 'It's a joke.'
"Denver police announced the 32 arrests Friday after a months-long undercover investigation into what authorities said were racially motivated assaults and robberies...
"Several months ago, Kelly said, he got a copy of a videotape recorded in West Palm Beach, Fla. Gang members surrounded a white couple at a club. One of them told the others to hold on.
"'He said, "Let me get this camera on" It's a staged thing,' Kelly said
"The gang members crave the notoriety of having their one-punch knockouts recorded on tape and sold on the black [sic] market. They'll rewind the tapes and watch them over and over, he said.
"When they watch the videos and see a big punch landed and gang members at the scene start laughing, they'll all break out laughing, said Kelly...
"'They think it's so cool to see someone get beaten up like that,' he said.
"In Denver, groups of four or five black men would approach a victim late at night or early in the morning and taunt a man with racial slurs...Gang members have broken victims' noses and shattered eye sockets...
"A task force including Denver cops, FBI agents and prosecutors...identified 26 incidents since July in which the gangs assaulted or robbed white or Latino men..."
Etc.
In one of their reports on this interesting phenomenon, which includes a more extended version of the video posted above, TwinCities.com asks their readers: "Is it real? Do you think these are real assaults on people?"
Their poll offers four choices:
(1) It's real, and outrageous! I hope they catch these kids.
(2) It's real, but not all that bad. Just boys being boys, a la "Jackass."
(3) This is clearly staged. What's the big deal?
(4) I'm not sure.
Well.
As for whether it's "real" - of course it is. The only new element here is the videotaping. Back in my student days in Chicago and Berkeley, this sort of thing was absolutely routine, and I was incautious enough to get victimized, several times, myself.
Unfortunately, TwinCities.com's poll does not include my own preferred response:
(5) It's real, and it illustrates the importance of the Second Amendment.
;^)
Tip o' the hat to Auster.
Comments (9)
As a Denver-area resident and occasional early night visitor to Lower Downtown, I've been following this story since it broke.
The comments on the story have been very informative. Police did not announce the racial nature of the attacks for the stated reason that it could affect the investigation. They are taking much criticism for it.
However, the Denver Post apparently cooperated in the cover-up. While the Post would initially report the possible racial motivations, this information was removed from the website by the time the paper went to press.
Commenters have called out the paper on this, and many of us are upset we were not given information necessary for public safety.
It's easy to see this behavior as part of the same mindset that gave us Major Jihad Hassan. Bad news was suppressed so that a real problem went unaddressed.
One commenter on the Denver Post site also broke the news that prison rape targets whites. Newspaper commenters often don't represent trends, but recent stories are continuing to discredit the political silence that gets innocent people beaten, violated and killed.
Posted by Kevin J. Jones | November 25, 2009 6:12 PM
Get's my vote.
Also makes me reflect again on the multiple profs I've had that insisted that humanity was basically good.
Posted by RobertK | November 25, 2009 6:41 PM
If and when white racism returns in force to the United States, stuff like this will be the cause.
Posted by Mike T | November 25, 2009 6:56 PM
"(5) It's real, and it illustrates the importance of the Second Amendment."
One on one, perhaps. But one man against a group of possibly armed thugs? Sorry, but drawing a gun probably won't save your life there.
Also in Denver the victims were sucker-punched from behind after being surrounded, so there was no time to draw if the victim was already in trouble.
The thugs would have just picked up a free gun.
Posted by Kevin J. Jones | November 25, 2009 8:40 PM
Mike T - exactly. Liberals always pretend to be so interested in "root causes." But when it comes to the root causes of white racism, they prefer to avert their eyes.
Kevin J. Jones - generally speaking, I think that a well-armed citizenry is a cautious citizenry. That said, my crack about the Second Amendment was just a crack. Obviously, there's a deep problem here that cannot be solved by tinkering with gun policy.
Posted by steve burton | November 25, 2009 9:48 PM
Steve, you say,
Can you give all of us inexperienced and nervous readers a quick primer on being cautious so this doesn't happen? I noticed that in the list at VFR all of the attacks listed were after 10 p.m. and most around 2:30 a.m. So #1 take-home lesson for me is, "Don't go out in the club area of a large city at night, especially not late at night."
Posted by Lydia | November 25, 2009 10:24 PM
Lydia (and others),
For what it is worth, I would echo your take-away -- if you were planning to go out late to a club, then make sure you are in a group and you are careful when entering and/or exiting the club. I would also stay away from low-income black neighborhoods at night -- my experience in walking around these same neighborhoods here in Chicago (including public housing projects) is that a white person is fine during the day. The main reason for this, at least as told to me by some street-savy black folks is that hurting a white person in broad daylight is bad for business (drug-dealing business) as it will bring serious heat to the neighborhood. Of course it helps to be lucky -- I was at times reckless back when I was a student at U of Chicago, occassionally drinking with a buddy late at night at the Point, and even encountering young black kids who thankfully left us alone.
Of course the phenomenon described above and that Steve says has been going on for years is darker (pun intended) and more difficult to defend against since the whole purpose is to attack defenseless white people. The video from the Twin-cities takes place in the day and it also appears to be taking place in white communities (i.e. the black gang members are traveling to these neighborhoods to pick their targets). My advice to those communities is be on the look-out for young black males (especially those with cameras) and call the police before anything happens -- it is better to be on record with a suspicious activity call so if something does go down you can hold the police accountable.
Posted by Jeff Singer | November 26, 2009 2:02 PM
Lydia - the interesting thing about this new "trend" is the targeting of helpless individuals, especially older people and young children, in well-to-do neigborhoods, in broad daylight.
It seems that the usual common sense precautions are no longer enough.
Posted by steve burton | November 27, 2009 8:21 PM
That video is, I believe, copying an SNL short. I suppose the short could have copied the video, but that seems less likely.
Posted by Marie | December 3, 2009 8:11 AM