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.
"...They deserve what they got. Black or white. DON'T STEEL.."
The black car thieves were unsuccessful on their mission. Not only did they NOT steel, they didn't aluminum, plastic, rubber, leather, gasoline, oil, or glass either!
~ Blue Jays ~
Maybe they beat them because they figured out they were going to steal a car by the tools they were carrying or maybe they saw running away from someone's car earlier.
Your reaction is odd, IMHO. Did someone insult your mother or daughter? If so, I missed it.
It was a perfectly acceptable thing to say.
When making a point that an area is not safe, pointing out that one would not want their family members to go there is a perfectly valid way to point it out.
I, personally, would not advise my daughter to walk through Bed-Stuy or the South Bronx at any time of the day.
I see no problem with saying as much.
You sound like you may not be 100% cut out for online message boards with your bizarre level of sensitivity (most of us are strangers, and we often mention our families) ... but that's not my call to make.
We're only seeing part of the story in this article. You may be right, or the three guys may have been acting suspiciously (looking into cars, checking door handles, etc.) enough to warrant intervention. I don't want to judge anyone based on a one-sided newspaper article.
I understand that. But, would that same question be asked if the races were reversed?
Highly doubtful.
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You may speak or write about your own wife or daughter or mother as much as you like. My point is that it is poor form and indicative of a lack of understanding of acceptable social behaviour to make the same comments, unsolicited, about anyone else's family members. Insulting or not, other guys' wives, daughters and mothers are not part of any conversation unless the guy himself brings them in. It may seem small to you but that just indicates a different standard.
Much the same as insisting that "Guido" is a description versus an insult? I've read the whole thread, and find your scolding (schooling?) here a little incongruous. You have excoriated several individuals who, loutishly or not, have taken exception to your use of the term "Guido", and then you admonish someone who makes a valid point in a style you don't appreciate?
If you desire to have the finer points of your sensibilities be followed, please accord others the same for theirs.
Why is this incident news?
that's a very good question with a rather obvious answer.
Did you use ethnic slurs while riding in your "radio car"?
And what does using ethnic slurs anonymously on the internet make you?
I wasn't trying to be tough. Just a simple statement of fact.
Generally speaking when one guy calls another by an ethnic slur it causes a fight, except for the tough guys in "radio cars" that is.
"In NYC-LI guido doesn't mean exclusively Italian. It describes a type, a style, an attitude. Make of it what you will"
You don't know what you're talking about. I'm of Italian descent and I consider it a slur.
Your argument sounds similar to the justifications of people that still use the "N" word.
The MSM is all up on this one because of the history of the area that they were in. But if the one guy hadn't spoken up and admitted they were there to steal a car, they would have come across as being more sympathetic characters. Either way, they are not the sharpest tools in the shed for picking that area to steal a car. Maybe these young men have learned their lesson.
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Yep, NYC ain't Kansas Toto. Guido encompasses more than just Italians here. It is a description of an attitude, an attitude shared by Irish, Jewish, Greek, (heck even Indian guys are getting in on it these days) on LI/Bklyn/Queens. You don't have to like it for it to be true.
My whole family still lives in NYC and I was born and raised there.I didn't move to Florida until I was about 36 which was about ten years ago so stop acting like you are the ultimate authority on what constitutes civil discourse in NYC.
But I suppose if you were familiar with civil discourse you wouldn't have used the term in the first place.
Multiple posters have told you they consider it an ethnic slur and yet you persist as if you alone have insight into the residents of NYC.
I disagree, and think this is just plain silly.
It was a generalization made to illustrate a broad point, and had nothing to do with your particular mother, daughter or anyone else. I could have just as easily said "Would you advise someone else to let their mother or daughter walk through the South Bronx". Would their have ben a difference? In the general scope of the discussion, I don't think so. I think you irationally overreacted. I don't even know if you have a wife, daughter, etc ... ergo they were merely fictional people in a general discussion, espcially since I said nothing specific about them that would sperate them from the general population as a whole.
Insulting or not, other guys' wives, daughters and mothers are not part of any conversation unless the guy himself brings them in. It may seem small to you but that just indicates a different standard.
Yes, I consider it completely irrational and it make one have to go to extraordinary lengths to walk on eggshells when having a discussion with you since you follow your own narrow discussion parameters. It is for this reason that I forsee much annoyance on your part in participating in online message boards, as many people who utlize such means of communications don't adhere to the obsessively strict interpretation of "he", "she" and whatever else may pull your trigger.
You think I was out of line. I think you were way out of line.
Unfortunately in these circumstances, all we can do is agree to disgree. They outlawed dueling some 100 years ago.
The three blacks told investigators they had been looking for a car to steal when they entered the Howard Beach neighborhood.
Stop the world, I want to get off. These three upstanding citizens didn't get charged with anything ?
I see how it works in New York. I wonder how it would work if the rolls were reversed. I highly doubt it would be treated the same.
I lived in Carroll Gardens Brooklyn for a several years, and "Guido" would earn you a punch in the face.
Make of that what you will.
I personally don't find the term offensive, nor do I find many terms offensive, so this isn't my fight. I'm just telling you in case you find yourself in the neighborhood without your sidearm.
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Gee, I was in Carroll Street Park just two weeks ago, without a weapon...why would you assume that I carry one?
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If you and your family think it's fine to use a stranger's wife or daughters to make a point go right ahead. I'm saying that I was taught that men don't do that and that guys who do should know better. Perhaps you and Stu grew up together. As I said, it's just a different standard.
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