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Mob Burns Venezuelan Man Alive Over $5 as Justice Fails
ABC News ^ | May 19, 2016 | hannah dreier

Posted on 05/19/2016 5:45:11 AM PDT by detective

The mob didn't know at first what Roberto Bernal had done, but he was running and that was enough.

Dozens of men loitering on the sidewalk next to a supermarket kicked and punched the 42-year-old until he was bloodied and semi-conscious. After all, they had been robbed of cell phones, wallets and motorcycles over the years, and thought Bernal had a criminal's face.

Then a stooped, white-haired man trailing behind told them he'd been mugged.

The mob went through Bernal's pockets and handed a wad of bills to the old man: The equivalent of $5. They doused Bernal's head and chest in gasoline and flicked a lighter. And they stood back as he burned alive.

"We wanted to teach this man a lesson," said Eduardo Mijares, 29. "We're tired of being robbed every time we go into the street, and the police do nothing."

Vigilante violence against people accused of stealing has become commonplace in this crime-ridden country of 30 million, once one of the richest and safest in Latin America.

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: feelthebern; venezuela
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To: Pollster1

Did you read the whole article? The man they beat and burned to death was not the thief.


21 posted on 05/19/2016 6:33:09 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Stone cold sober, as a matter of fact.)
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To: moovova

The article says he was innocent, falsely accused by the victim. The victim says the poor guy they burned was not the thief.

Regardless, would really want vigilantes to douse people with gasoline and burn them to death over accusations in the streets? You are one cold, heartless SOB.


22 posted on 05/19/2016 6:34:30 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: detective

Dear God.


23 posted on 05/19/2016 6:35:00 AM PDT by sauropod (Beware the fury of a patient man.)
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To: stockpirate

“A democrat on Fox last night said it isn’t fair to compare this type of socialism to Bernie’s type, they’re not the same.”

Which Dem? They need to be forced to explain the difference.
Is it that Bernie’s socialism is the talk and Venezuela’s the reality?
Is it different because the US has more to steal before total ruin triumphs?


24 posted on 05/19/2016 6:35:00 AM PDT by Chewbarkah
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To: Pollster1

Agreed.


25 posted on 05/19/2016 6:35:48 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Thank you!


26 posted on 05/19/2016 6:47:35 AM PDT by moovova
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To: moovova

Note to self: cancel “foodie” tour of venezuela.


27 posted on 05/19/2016 6:55:33 AM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
As I read the article, it says:

"A man in his 70s walked out, tucking a stack of bills worth $5 into a hat that he then hid in his jacket . . . Bernal grabbed the cash and started running . . . The mob went through Bernal's pockets and handed a wad of bills to the old man: The equivalent of $5. They doused Bernal's head and chest in gasoline and flicked a lighter. And they stood back as he burned alive (taken from the article out of order) . . . Bernal was taken away in an ambulance on a cross-city quest to find a hospital with enough medical supplies to deal with his injuries."

While the article says those who attacked him had no evidence that they had the right guy, I missed any reference to Bernal not being the criminal.

It sounds to me like the mob got the right guy. It would be better if the police and the courts could and would deal with petty criminals, but they have systematically failed. The old man's life man depend on the money that was stolen; I have no sympathy for the thief.

28 posted on 05/19/2016 6:56:08 AM PDT by Pollster1 (Somebody who agrees with me 80% of the time is a friend and ally, not a 20% traitor. - Ronald Reagan)
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To: detective

Venezuela is a failed socialist paradise and utopia. The Dummycrats should take note—if they weren’t too dumbed down to write.


29 posted on 05/19/2016 7:02:56 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper (And yet...we continue to tolerate this crap...)
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To: WKUHilltopper

I guess if you can’t legally keep and bear arms, getting mobs together to burn suspects alive is one alternative.


30 posted on 05/19/2016 7:06:04 AM PDT by ChuteTheMall (Tagline: (optional, printed after your name on post):)
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To: detective
ValJar the last time she heard a man had been burned alive:


31 posted on 05/19/2016 7:06:46 AM PDT by null and void ("when authority began inspiring contempt, it had stopped being authority" ~ H. Beam Piper)
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To: Biggirl

The reporter missed mentioning WHY the Venezuelan economy is in collapse. This is like a long report on the plight of Jews in Germany in the 1930s without mentioning National Socialism. Just an oversight. (Liberals are blind to reality when it comes to the record of socialis. They always want to give it one more try, “but this time, we’ll do it right.” So liberal reporters bury the lead, that this is a story about the end state of socialism.


32 posted on 05/19/2016 7:12:36 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Pollster1

My take also.


33 posted on 05/19/2016 7:15:08 AM PDT by moovova
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To: null and void

That photo is very disturbing. The only ‘male’ is a sodomite and the other three look posessed.


34 posted on 05/19/2016 7:22:31 AM PDT by Carthego delenda est
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To: Pollster1

Here’s what you have: members of the mob who killed him, said he robbed the old man (natch); Bernal to literally his dying breath said they grabbed the wrong man. Add to that the fact that what we know of his personal history (as reported here) reveals a man with no criminal proclivities, but quite the opposite a man outstanding for his upright and godly character.

If you think that’s enough to convict Bernal and exonerate the mob that murdered him, I sure hope you can spend the rest of your life far from the mean streets -— and away from jury duty.


35 posted on 05/19/2016 7:50:33 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Stone cold sober, as a matter of fact.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

The fault lies with the Gummint. When it places delusional priorities above it’s legitimate function.


36 posted on 05/19/2016 8:24:27 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: jalisco555
"Feeling the Burn"

I am an adult grown up.

I don't do "LOL".

However, I got a good "L" out of your comment, so thanks for that.

37 posted on 05/19/2016 10:25:20 AM PDT by T-Bone Texan (Don't be a lone wolf. Form up small leaderlesss cells ASAP !)
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To: stockpirate

It’s the same, all right, it’s just that in the US, there is more to loot before it begins to fail and totalitarianism sets in.


38 posted on 05/19/2016 10:33:01 AM PDT by Chaguito
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To: Travis McGee

I thought THIS might, just might, wake my 30 year old daughter from her infatuation with Bernie and “democratic socialism.” I pointed out that this is the logical end-state of all “socialistic” experiments the past 100 years. Her response was predictably naive. I will be waiting forever for the scales to fall from her eyes.


39 posted on 05/19/2016 7:40:11 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

I hope she doesn’t have to live through a starvation event and social collapse before she learns. It’s not as if this hasn’t come through in cycles for centuries, and it always ends with guillotines, gulags, gas chambers, and lao gai camps in China today.


40 posted on 05/19/2016 7:55:54 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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