Posted on 06/30/2005 4:56:10 AM PDT by Abathar
NEW YORK (AP) - Three black men who ventured into a historically white neighborhood early Wednesday to steal a car were chased by a man with a baseball bat, police said. One man was beaten and suffered a fractured skull.
The attack happened several hours before dawn in the same section of the borough of Queens as an infamous 1986 beating of three black men whose car had broken down.
In Wednesday's attack, Nicholas Minucci, 21, was being charged with first-degree assault as a hate crime, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a news conference.
The three blacks told investigators they had been looking for a car to steal when they entered the Howard Beach neighborhood. They told police a white man in an SUV passed them in the street, exchanged stares with them and then returned with two friends and a baseball bat before chasing them on foot.
Glen Moore, 20, stumbled to the ground and was beaten, suffering a fractured skull. He was in serious condition. The other two men escaped and summoned police, who scouted the neighborhood with them and spotted the SUV again.
Police stopped the vehicle and found the bat inside. The driver was arrested, and officers were seeking two other suspects.
The hate crime charge is punishable by a minimum of eight years in prison. The district attorney said that he didn't know if Minucci had a lawyer and that he would be arraigned Thursday.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he and the police commissioner would not allow such "an ugly incident" to divide the city.
"We've accomplished too much to let that happen," he said, noting that the area had been free of such crimes for at least two years.
On Dec. 20, 1986, a group of white teenagers attacked three black men who were stranded in the neighborhood when their car stalled.
One of the men was fatally struck by a car as he fled. Another was beaten with a baseball bat and tree branches. The third escaped.
The attack ignited racial tension in New York and was compared to a lynching by then-Mayor Ed Koch. Eight of the teenagers were convicted or pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter, assault, conspiracy and rioting.
Good point.
It does seem the media is trying to feed a few flames.
In NYC-LI guido doesn't mean exclusively Italian. It describes a type, a style, an attitude. Make of it what you will.
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Except I didn't say I was either in uniform or armed. but, hey, don't let that get in your way.
The NY Daily News story has a few more details. They had already tried to steal a car but ran off when a light went on in a house. Maybe this was known and they matched the description.
The NY Daily News story also mentions that Moore had a hammer and other tools. Maybe those were exactly the type of tools car thieves carry and maybe they were visible.
Either of those facts would explain the confrontation. There's a whole lot we don't know yet.
Perhaps I misjudged you.
I agree with most of everything on your webpage anyway.
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That's because you don't know HB or Bensonhurst or Mill Basin. In the 70s I answered a call where a guy got beat up in HB by the locals just for dating a girl from the block. They trashed his car and broke his jaw. He was a white college kid. The attitude was, "He shouldn't have been here..."
Whew! Man, this story sure got twisted into a pretzel, didn't it?!
Then you were somewhat fortunate.
Surely you don't advise your mother and daughter to do the same.
Oh, and try to do it while jiggling car door handles and let me know how that works out for you.
yeah, I think it did.
As I said, if they were caught trying to break in to a car or steal it, they're fair game. I've fantasized the scenario of actually catching a break-in in progress with a baseball bat, frying pan, or other "weapon" in my hand.
This is either very bad reporting or a vigilante group that jumped the gun on getting the bad guys.
Somebody has screwed up.
Whoa! Seems to me butt kicking was in order! Cops don't get it anymore - they are tunnel visioned. The guy with the bat needs an award.
How about, "Car Thieves Thwarted"?
"Oh my God", you gone and been and done it now! YOU TOLD THE TRUTH! That in it'self gotta to be a hate crime!!!!!!
I expect this to be the topic of several "Law & Order" episodes. I wonder, do you suppose the screenwriters will change it so that it's white car thieves beaten up in a black neighborhood?
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What a ridiculous thing to say, and rude. In my world a stranger does not bring anyone's wife, daughters or mother into any conversation.
No harm, no foul.
Of course it was, but remember, you couldn't blame them, they were justifiably angry /sarcasm
I wonder how many cars these people had stolen from this neighborhood in the past.
I would imagine these kids aren't completely innocent in regards to the incident. Being from a neighborhood not unlike this one in Queens, i can tell you, you don't just attack three dudes with a baseball bat - Unless you have a few screws loose. Which, of course, may be the case.
It's funny though, there is a stratification in the Hate Crime agenda.
If a Hispanic dude attacked these kids it would still be a hate crime, but if a black dude attacked three hispanics it would not be.
I live in Boston, and I can think of one case that was interesting. About a year ago this group of Asian kids came down to a park in South Boston from a city north of here called Lowell. These kids were supposedly in a gang with ties to Dorchester. They were playing hoop with a bunch of kids from the South Boston projects when a fight broke out. It escalated into brawl and one of the kids from Lowell was beat to death.
I think they were ready to pull the trigger on the hate crame gun, but then it came out that all the kids who were on the other side were all different races, black white and hispanic.
That must ahve really confused the PC lawbots.
The idea of a hate crime is absurd, it is a subjectively administered charge that is based solely on some warped idea of societal payback.
it falls apart when the victims are of a historically less oppresed race.
For all the assailant knew, they were just three black guys. He coudln't read their minds, and there isn't any evidence that they confided their criminal intent to him.
It looks like he saw three black guys in his neighborhood and figured they were up to no good, mostly based on their color.
It just so happens that they were in fact up to no good.
Well did they beat them because they were in the process of steatling a car or did they beat them because they were Black? That is what separates the label "hate crime" from simply defending property.
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