Posted on 08/26/2010 3:32:01 AM PDT by Scanian
A crazed film student who recently embedded with Marines in Afghanistan is accused of a drunken, hate-fueled attack on a Muslim cabby in Midtown -- further heightening tensions in a city already gripped by the Ground Zero mosque controversy.
Michael Enright, 21, of upstate Brewster, asked his victim if he was a Muslim and exchanged pleasantries in Arabic before going berserk and slashing the driver's neck and face through the taxi's partition, police said.
He has been charged with attempted murder as a hate crime for the attack, in which he allegedly shouted, "This is a checkpoint, motherf- - -ker! I have to put you down!"
Cabby Ahmed Sharif, a Bangladeshi immigrant, said anger over the proposed Park Place mosque may have played a role in the horrifying attack.
"I know many people are upset. I didn't support the mosque at Ground Zero, either," the Jamaica, Queens, resident said.
"I've lived in this country for 35 years. I've worked hard. This country has helped me a lot. But before yesterday, I never felt like I didn't belong here.
"I feel very sad," Sharif, 43, continued. "I have been driving a taxi more than 15 years. All my four kids were born here. I never feel this hopeless and insecure before.
"Right now, the public sentiment is very serious. All drivers should be more careful."
Enright -- whose alcoholism has lead to several minor brushes with the NYPD -- returned to the United States in May after five weeks in Helmand Province filming the Marines.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
LOL I didn’t realize so many drunks took taxis. Better than them driving, though.
Oh yes, absolutely. Responsible 'drunks' anyway. Even back in 'the old days'
*** Better than them driving, though. ***
Yes it sure is.
Until one night I got a Cabbie who liked to drink more than me. He started showing up an hour earlier than I normally left and would drink and wait for me.
I found a new cab company ;-)
So, what was so important about the information that he “embedded with the marines”? I mean, it is a fact, and therefore a useful piece of information to include in a story. But the article put that in the first sentence, before even describing what he did.
Since this makes it read like a marine did the attack, the most reasonable explanation is that the journalist wanted to smear the military for this, and also to imply the guy is a right-winger because we all know that lefties don’t join the marines.
First, we have no independent confirmation yet about what he said; while we don’t have to assume it is false, we also can’t know that it is a correct quote.
Second, maybe something happened to him or one of his fellow film students that made him angry and fearful of muslims, and looking for revenge. A good news media would research what happened to him in Afghanistan, to see if there is something that caused him to crack like this.
What seems clear right now is that they can find NO connection between what this guy did and the mosque discussion; if anything, on the mosque he’s with an organization that SUPPORTS it, so if you were going to blame someone for bringing it to his attention, you’d expect it was his employer.
Bloomberg should attend a few mosque meetings before he presumes to know what New Yorkers believe. He might find that a good number of people in his city believe it is perfectly fine to slash people's throats if they violate the religious laws.
Haven't there been honor killings THIS YEAR? I don't remember Bloomberg ever saying THAT violated the principles of new yorkers.
It is sad to see a supposedly reasonable news story accepting the assumption that the attack is about the mosque, when the guy never mentioned the mosque. Unless they find somebody else who can give any evidence that the guy said something against the mosque.
(on an aside, I'm stuck listening to CNN, and I can't believe how left-wing they are pretending to just be reporting the news. They are now talking about how "Scott" bought the election, and going through every single negative attack on him and asking him about it. I can't remember CNN EVER interviewing a Democrat nominee and asking them a question about negative attacks -- unless it was to say "how can you soldier on with all these unfair negative attacks")
We figured it out yesterday - the Ft Hood shooter wasn’t yelling “Allahu Akbar!”,
he was yelling
“all a’ you at the snack bar!”
but no one knows why he was so upset about the line at the snack bar that he started shooting.
My thought was that if an individual leftist would attempt to kill someone in order to further his cause,
what would really committed people, say, 0bama, be willing to do to further the cause of the left?
Maybe... blow up an oil platform?
His liberal psyche ran into reality when filming the Marines.
He comes home to America. Attempts to maintain his liberal viewpoints by supporting the mosque. He must maintain or he loses his “support system” of liberal friends etc. Peer pressure mounts as he tries to continue to deny the truth he has learned.
He snapped.
Watch the experience with the Marines be blamed.
to post 30
Yeah, liberal ideology colliding irrefutably with reality could cause a lib to really SNAP.
Heard this AM on Fox that the Muslim victim DID NOT support the Mosque being located that close to the 9/11 site while the perpetrator DID!
This sounds to be 180 degrees different than the left and many in the media originally portrayed it.
It could very well be the Muslim driver told this kid the Mosque shouldn’t be built there and the kid blew up!
Heard this AM on Fox that the Muslim victim DID NOT support the Mosque being located that close to the 9/11 site while the perpetrator DID!
This sounds to be 180 degrees different than the left and many in the media originally portrayed it.
It could very well be the Muslim driver told this kid the Mosque shouldnt be built there and the kid blew up!
No you have to be white to do a hate crime. And it must be done against a communist.
That is my suspicion. He is a Leftist and the cabbie angered him. He must listen to Ed Shultz the communist aggitator on MSNBC.
I remember years ago my brother, friend and I were in Key West and you have to drink in Key West, so we got a cab and my brother got sick and threw up in the cab. He said he was gonna threw up and the driver kept saying, “no, Lewis (he heard us say his name), please don’t threw up, no Lewis, don’t do it.” Well, he did. The driver laughed it off, but I am sure he wasn’t very happy.
WE GOT THE WINNER!
You've got a left wing freak that just can't understand why a muslim doesn't hate the US the way he does, so he goes berserk and cuts the muslim up pretending he's a marine doing it.
His objective.
Do you hate America now muslim?
Does the UCMJ have a “hate crime” provision?
The left has been setting a meme that all military have PSTD and all war participation is dangerous to the mental health of all participants, even embeds. This comment in the article is reinforcing that meme.
Also, when reading the various reports of the event at individual news sites, many of the comments invariably reference right-wing Tea Party members, Christians and talk radio. Some, supposedly from abroad, slur all Americans, as well. It is as though there is a predetermined filter through which the Left is determined to show any act.
They never quit.
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.