Posted on 01/08/2007 7:27:26 AM PST by nctexan
DURHAM -- The angry punch to his face didn't have a lasting effect on Eliseo Hernandez.
The lumps caused by fierce kicks to his body have long since disappeared.
But the terror of having three guns thrust against his body as he was beaten, threatened with death and robbed on Thanksgiving Day spawned lingering emotional trauma.
Hernandez's tale of terror is anything but unique in Durham. For a variety of reasons, many say, Hispanics are a lucrative, vulnerable and growing target for armed robbers.
The Hispanics also say most of the robbers are black. Of 17 Hispanics asked, all said they were either a robbery victim or knew one -- and that the assailants in every case were black.
An assistant Durham County district attorney supports their assertion, saying armed robbery of Hispanics here is chiefly a black-on-Hispanic crime.
Sleepless nights and a gnawing fear of again facing death at the point of a gun barrel are the mental barbs hooked into Hernandez's psyche, he said.
Retelling his experience is obviously painful -- his head hung low, mostly avoiding eye contact, his voice is an odd mixture of anger and shame.
But the immigrant from Guanajuato, Mexico, believes his life-threatening experience is little more than a statistic to police.
And in Durham, such statistics illustrate grave vulnerability -- nearly half of all robbery victims are Hispanic, although Hispanics represent only about 9 percent of the city's population, according to the 2000 census.
Robberies increased 58 percent during the first nine months of 2006 when compared with the same period in 2005, according to Deputy Police Chief Ron Hodge. Most involved stick-ups, and most of the victims were Hispanic, he said.
In July, August and September 2006, the most recent period for which statistics are available, 46 percent of all Durham robbery victims were Hispanic, police spokeswoman Kammie Michael has said.
"It's probably more like 90 percent," Hernandez said. (snip)
He and a Hispanic friend who also was beaten and robbed that night did call the police, but Hernandez said that was futile.
"Police don't do anything," he said.
Instead of posting more patrols in high-crime neighborhoods, police told him it was his fault for carrying so much money, and advised him to look out his windows to be vigilant of suspicious activity, he said.
Prolly cause no one is allowed to ask.
I can attest from first hand experience that Durham is a certified sh*thole.
That is a possibility, but those who live here can see otherwise.
Durham is not really like Oakland, either. It's not a predominantly black city. Many of the blacks in Durham are well off, as it was a center of black entrepreneurism long before the Great Society sidelined this approach to advancement. It has been the headquarters of a black-owned insurance company since early in the last century, IIRC. Over time, it has drawn many liberal graduates of Duke to stay on and, in the process, change the political landscape of Durham. If you want to compare it to anything in California, it's more like a mix of the worst of Berkeley and Oakland, with a significant share of decent, God-fearing, patriotic Southern conservative working class people thrown into the mix, joined by illegal Hispanics, who are still a relatively small share of the population.
but WILL the robbers, if ever caught, be charged with a HATE crime?!
I'm not holding my breath, even though these are CLEARLY hate crimes. Wait, I forgot, only WHITES commit hate crimes.
As much as I don't like their illegal status, it's a shame that these people who worked hard for the cash are seemingly ignored by the PD. I have little doubt that this gets an ambivalent response at best.
Surprising that it made the front page of the Durham paper though.
You might recall that ole' Favorite SF Mayor Willie Brown and his minions DEMANDING that Pizza Companies deliver Pizza's to these areas (or leave town).
Didn't matter that the Delivery Guys were being murdered while doing a delivery...Social justice means Social Justice! honk honk!
Please see #27.
Of course not, especially in Durham where the black community still wants a conviction of the three Duke lacrosse players, even if they are not guilty. They want a conviction!
When you have a black police chief, black city council, and a DA who coddles to the black community, what else would we expect?
That is a possibility, but those who live here can see otherwise.
Since I don't live there, I couldn't (and wouldn't) do any more than propose it as being a possibility. I'll certainly defer to anyone such as yourself with direct knowledge of the situation.
***It's more like Oakland on a bad hair day.***
LOL.
A REAL bad hair day.
I remember when Willie Brown was demanding that all homeless people be given a free cell phone, because the public pay phones were being destroyed. Supposedly, the homeless needed a way to call 911 in case of emergency.
That's true; but you'd have to include San Francisco's Hunter's Point, Tenderloin, Western Addition,... etc. One wrong turn in SF will get you a car-ride into your worst nightmare...
Well...we'll see who gets charges filed against them.
And don't forget all those ripped off grocery store shopping carts: The poor NEEDED them.
How about all the piss in nearly all public stairwells! We were all told to "grin and bear our fair portion" of sympathizing with the plight of the homeless.
It's not a predominantly black city.
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=local&id=4057386
It's pretty doggone close.
This then, of course, was dealt with by the ever super efficient San Francisco Board of Supervisors demanding taxpayers fund "public restroom kiosks".
The last time I was in San Francisco was for a trade show at
Moscone Center. We had to wade through homeless people to get there from our hotels, some of whom were even threatening. I said then that I would never come back, and I have kept my word. The city was once nice.
I remember paying an extra fee there on my phone bill, to pay for those people to have services. Unbelievable.
No, most of us have left. I went to downtown Durham one time. One time. That's all it took
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