June 6, 2008, - 2:12 pm
When Race is & ISN’T Reported: Black Mob Beats White Pedestrians in “Wilding”
By Debbie Schlussel
If a mob of 20 white teens severely beat Black pedestrians and customers around your city, you can bet your local news media would not only note–but harp on–the race of the perpetrators and the victims.
But, in Detroit, that’s not the case when the races are reversed. Sunday Night, a mob–most of which is still at large–traveled around Mt. Clemens, a Detroit suburb and severely beat random White customers at a gas station and other locales. It’s been a big story in Detroit, all week, especially because the victims were innocent people going about their business being attacked by 20 people–twenty versus one–and were even chased by the mob when they ran away.
I wondered about the race of the perpetrators and the victims. Does that make me a racist? Or does it mean that I note that the mainstream media only reports race if Whites are the perpetrators? And does it mean that I wonder why the race of the violent criminals is whitewashed, when they’re still at large and sought after by police?
Yesterday, the disturbing video–watch it here–was released. And my suspicions were confirmed. Don’t expect for Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson to come to Detroit, marching and protesting for the innocent victims here, demanding justice.
And don’t expect to hear their legions of followers here condemning these vicious–race-based attacks.
More (note that race is not mentioned anywhere, even though many of this mob are still at large):
They didn’t say a word. They just started pummeling.
First, the group of teenagers attacked one 25-year-old as he walked down Gratiot near a Marathon gas station in Mt. Clemens.
Then they turned on his friend, stealing his cell phone and beating him in the face.
That’s how the victim seen in a video surveillance tape released Thursday by the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office describes what happened off-camera — right before the video shows the group chasing him down and punching him in the head and face.
The 25-year-old Clinton Township man, who said he has a black eye but is otherwise OK, asked not to be identified because most of the mob is still at-large. He’s afraid they’ll attack again.
Sheriff Mark Hackel hopes the video and still frames released Thursday will help identify the young men, who also are thought to be responsible for another random beating on North River Road near midnight Sunday — about 20 minutes before the gas station incident.
Late Thursday, officials said one person has been arrested.
“We want these kids,” Hackel said. “Not even animals act like this. To do this for sport. … This is absurd. We want these kids bad.”
In the first attack, a woman, her husband and a friend were driving down North River when a group of between 20 and 30 young adults threw a brick at their minivan, smashing a window.
Andy Kauffman, 30, of Plymouth got out to investigate and was beaten unconscious by about 12 people in the group as his 29-year-old wife frantically called 911.
Their friend, a 30-year-old from Warren, tried to intervene and was beaten, too, though less severely.
Sgt. Larry King of the sheriff’s office said Kauffman’s skull was fractured. He’s expected to recover.
The mob also is thought to have thrown rocks at another woman’s car shortly before the minivan attack. Officials are investigating whether the group is linked to a couple of robberies around the same time.
The video footage, shot from inside the gas station, shows a group of about 14 young men streaming into the station and an employee promptly shooing them out.
Within two minutes, the Clinton Township man is seen running to the station, trying to get inside as several of the men punch him in the head and face, slamming him against the glass doors.
“When you see the tape, it’s sickening,” Hackel said. “It makes you stop and think about human nature. How can one human do that to another human?”
The victim in the video, located by Free Press reporting partner WDIV-TV (Channel 4), said there were about 20 men in the mob that surrounded him and his friend as they walked toward downtown Mt. Clemens.
The beating was completely random, he said, “and that’s the most dangerous act. It could be anyone.”
No, not anyone. Just anyone White.
Yep. You see Debbie – white people aren’t victims. They’re the oppressor and they deserve what they get. That’s America’s new view of civil rights. Yeah, we’ve come a long way, baby. NOT!
NormanF on June 6, 2008 at 3:06 pm