Posted on 12/08/2007 5:46:05 PM PST by freespirited
BALTIMORE - A white woman beaten by a group of black students on a bus has prompted a hate-crime investigation, attempts by transit officials to reassure riders of the safety of the system, and radio talk-show chatter over comparisons with the Jena Six case.
The uproar prompted two leading black politicians to issue statements decrying the attack.
Sarah Kreager, 26, suffered broken facial bones and other injuries after she was punched, kicked and dragged off the bus Tuesday afternoon. Kreager's companion, Troy Ellis, was also attacked, but not beaten as severely. Kreager has an unlisted phone number and attempts to reach her Friday were unsuccessful.
MTA police said evidence has not been found to support claims by the students' parents that the children were provoked.
"We are at this point investigating it as a hate crime," MTA spokeswoman Jawauna Greene said.
The attack immediately drew comparisons on talk radio and Internet blogs to the Jena, La. case in which a white student was attacked by a group of black students, leading to demontrations by black activists who alleged local authorities were prosecuting blacks more harshly than whites. Many callers and web site posters questioned what they considered a lack of outrage over the latest attacks.
But Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and Rep. Elijah Cummings, both black, issued statements condemning the attack.
"The physical assault of any human being, regardless of motivation, is conduct that is unacceptable. As police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime, we must rise together as a community to take a stand against violence toward any of our neighbors," Cummings said in statement issued Friday.
Dixon said after the attack that she was extremely concerned about the beating, which she described as "deplorable."
"I will not tolerate intimidation or violence anywhere in our city," the mayor said. "I have offered the MTA whatever assistance they need to investigate this incident and to do our part to ensure the public transportation system is safe for everyone."
MTA Northern District Capt. David Marzola said the middle school students, three females and six males 14 to 15 years old, are also accused of menacing an elderly white passenger and assaulting the bus operator, a black male who defended his passenger.
"He probably saved this gentleman's life," Marzola said.
The driver was not identified because he is considered a witness to a crime, the MTA said.
Video from a surveillance camera on the bus is also being analyzed as part of the investigation, the MTA said.
The students, who ride the bus to Robert Poole Middle School, have been released into the custody of their parents, Greene said.
Col. John Gavrilis, deputy chief of the MTA Police, said MTA Police have stationed an officer on the line since Tuesday and the city school police force has assigned extra officers to the Hampden school.
Greene said the nine students have had their bus privileges revoked.
"Riding the bus is a privilege," she said. "Public safety is our primary concern."
MTA officials noted the system is safe with a total of 381 crimes this year on the transit system, which carries 250,000 riders a day, with property crimes accounting for the vast majority.
However, the attack was the latest in a string of high-profile crimes to have taken place on or near MTA facilities.
Nicole Edwards, 17, was fatally stabbed near a Baltimore light rail station in November, 2006, during an armed robbery of Edwards and her brother. Lataye S. King, 17, was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday in the case, and a 15-year-old co-defendant is to be sentenced in February for robbery conspiracy and aggravated assault.
In October, a twice-convicted rapist was accused of attacking a woman at a light rail station in Linthicum. And an MTA officer shot and killed a robbery suspect late last year at a Reisterstown Metro station after police said he pulled a gun.
That's true and do you know why?
“MTA police said evidence has not been found to support claims by the students’ parents that the children were provoked.”
This is the problem with the Black “Com-mun-i-tea”
These kids never had real “parents”, just genetic spawners who spawn offspring like animals and don’t raise them in normal two parent families.
The result is this - a generation of thugs and criminals who blame “whitey”, guns, society, ANYTHING but the real criminals - people who breed like animals out of wedlock and don’t raise their kids to learn respect for themselves or anyone else or know what self-discipline is all about.
Instead they become hostile, walking time-bombs, social malcontents who serve no purpose in society and are lost to God and their fellow men.
By that statement you are saying that the President of the United States should be a member of the white race because he/she reflects the great majority of American citizens. I agree with you.
Two trains of thought from the late great Eric Hoffer seem appropriate: 1. A stable society, like a stable individual, is the product of an equilibrium in which a tendency to crime and violence is held firmly in check by a more dominant force. Weaken or remove that force and evil will reign. 2. No excuses, and no elaborate sociological rationalizations can be tolerated that will provide a different standard of behavior for blacks or any other minority than for whites. And from the Father of Philosophical Conservatism, Edmund Burke: “Society cannot exist unless a controlling power of will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.” It is obvious that in many instances basic police powers are not being used to protect our fellow citizens. These punks should remember that the law of self-preservation is the primary law of human existence. The common everyday citizen better arm himself. Our society is becoming impotent in dealing with crime and cultural rot. Most corporations don’t care. They pander to these vermin. They’ll sell these impressionable punks any “art”, the more offensive and demeaning to women the better.
While I can't comment on all parts of this country, that is precisely true in sections of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. Why do you think it is that so many people stood on rooftops in New Orleans with signs that read "help me" in the days after Katrina? They thought they were unable to help themselves and it was strictly because they relied on the offerings of government.
Yes, a home without a father and a mother are a big factor in today's problems in the black community, but the government is at the root of that problem. I've heard young black women talk about their lack of need for a man to marry because they feel that the government will give them than a man. All they 'need' a man for is to get more kids, which equals more 'benefits'.
Yes, I know the reason why. Because they can
We make decisions every day involving our family. These should be the most important decisions we make. When a man decides to abandon his family , for any reason no excuse will suffice. A man has to do what a man has to do and many of these men choose to walk away.
This is the behavior of people with nothing to lose. No consequence is their expectation. Responsible parents have something to lose and instill the idea of consequence in their children. Community and government usually backup this precept, but we live in a society where these norms have been turned upside down.
Now this might sound racist, but their methods of attack while extremely violent, are disorganized uncoordinated and inaccurate like as a gang of chimps on prey, and they count numbers and surrounding the victim (sometimes with two rings and that is where the black women get involved) so they cant get away and knock them on the ground so they can lay in with violent kicks and smash the head with anything they can pick up.
In my case, a sudden reservoir of strength stamina and adrenaline kicked in, and my hits were as hard or harder than their wild swings and much better placed, and I am sure a few saw stars, maybe a cracked rib, or got some loose teeth. If I had had a knife during that fight, some serious cutting would have went down. I was about 22 at the time, 147lbs, had a ripped body and self taught to a degree in the basics of various martial arts. Later in life when I have related such events to black people I have known and the N word slipped out, they have not been offended. There is many a black person who wants to stay out the places where these animals congregate.
About martial arts, just knowing the poses and stances and learning how to drive your blows out of those poses gives one much more power. Also if one ever finds themself in such a terrible situation, he must abandon the fear of getting hurt, you are going to get hurt.
I will say that anytime a group of blacks is taunting a white person and the white person does not have visible backup or reinforcement, there is potential for very great danger and harm to occur. But sadly, many a person like this young woman simply will not recognize the situation in time.
Then again, you are from Calipornia, so your take on racial issues is rather naive.
You are a deluded fool, Uncle Tom. Goodnight!
Out of curiosity, why the {sic}? Should I have referred to the city as "her"?
Actually, I’m not from California, I’ve just lived here the last few years of my adult life. I grew up in east Texas and Little Rock, Arkansas. I’ve had plenty of experience with people of all races.
It’s amusing how quickly some people are to blow off differing opinions as “naive”.
What about you, Clemenza? Ever lived anywhere but New York?
Damn it, WHO'S bone marrow? I feel no guilt. So many, many times I've read of white people's guilt yet I've never heard any of them say they felt guilty. Maybe I haven't picked up on the nuances of why they buckle under at the "frightening" word RACISM.
Unfortunately racism goes both ways and every way in between.
If I witness, read of, or hear about anyone who's behaviour is blatantly harming people in their family, community, or our country, I will not side with them, regardless of race, religion or nationality.
I want to know and understand all sides of the racism issue and use my God-given good sense to see what is true and what is not.
The "racist" attack has been used enough as a defense mechanism for some black criminals. They've worn it out just as those who advocate a path to U.S. citizenship for Mexicans have a worn-out and dishonest agenda.
“Claims by the students’ parents that they were provoked.”
These kids acted like feral, savage animals. Who would have thought that they had parents?
The “parents” reaction sets the stage, however. By next week, the race hustlers will be whining about “the Baltimore nine.”
you don’t have to go that far.
when Jackson Mississippi (my hometown) went overwhelmingly black, the geography did not change either
and look at it now....
I agree with you. With all the money and the programs that are out there; you would think something would change. It’s only gotten worse. That’s because the powers that be and government want us to be non thinkers with no input or say. They don’t want America to be free.
Yeah, a Glock 30 or Springfield XD45 would be about right.
Agreed. The concept of "hate crime" is divise and denies the inherent rights of ANY/ALL individuals. It strikes at the core of what makes individual rights meaningful.
Crime is crime because each individual has a right to life, liberty, and property.
People, please! Have we all decided to play the liberal "hate crime" game? Do we want to make thought illegal? We should fight this notion of "HATE CRIME" with everything we have, or we as freedom loving people will surely come to regret ever embracing it. The perp's of this assault should be punished harshly for assault & battery, not for what they were thinking while pummeling the woman!
As sure as I'm writing this, liberals are planning to implement their thought police in the U.S., as it is in Canada, where it's illegal to impugn homosexuality and is treated as a "HATE CRIME". The leftists are just salivating at the idea of being able to implement their agenda with the use of this powerful weapon. And, with the comments I see on this board, their strategy is working.
We are next.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.