Posted on 12/27/2013 11:33:21 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The US Department of Justice on Thursday stepped into the cultural fray about the so-called “knockout game” when it brought federal hate crime charges against a white Texas man for assaulting an unsuspecting black man.
The decision shines a brighter spotlight on the knockout game, in which an assailant tries to knock out a bystander with a single punch. A spate of incidents have gathered national attention in recent months, though it is unclear whether the game has become more popular or whether the Internet has simply allowed for isolated incidents to be broadcast more widely.
The majority of the reported incidents, however, have involved black men targeting white victims – and none triggered federal involvement. The fact that the Justice Department has elected to step in now, when a black man was the victim, has led to criticism among conservative pundits that the Obama administration is applying the hate-crime statute unevenly.
“The reason why you have black perpetrators and white victims being prosecuted asymmetrically hinges on what evidence there is about why they’re doing what they’re doing,” says Donald Green, a political scientist at Columbia University in New York.
Conrad Barrett was arrested Thursday and charged under federal hate crimes law, which defines a hate crime as “motivated by enmity or animus against a protected class.” (The Federal Bureau of Investigation also lists anti-white crimes as hate crimes.)
“If suspects call the victim racial names, and one of the other witnesses testifies to that effect, it would be prosecutable as a hate crime,” says Professor Green, speaking generally about knockout cases...
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Have any of the hundreds of black on white attacks been prosecuted this way?
If not, I think he has a strong defense against the federal charge based on equal protection under the law. The federal hate-crime should be dismissed.
However, like others have said, he deserves to be punished for criminal assault. Considering the nature of the attack, I would think aggravated should apply as well.
But let’s have some equal enforcement.
I actually predicted this to my wife.
I want to know if this ‘white guy’ is really a liberal ... doing the fake stuff to blame a conservative. Anyone know?
“I want to know if this ‘white guy’ is really a liberal ... doing the fake stuff to blame a conservative. Anyone know?”
I doubt it very much. If he were a liberal trying to screw up conservatives, it would come out and I wouldn’t think holder would have arrested him. Maybe the local police but DEM Feds?
I think they would have been in on it.
AZ, one thing for sure, Whitey could be getting REALLY angry and is starting a knockout war that won’t stay there for long!
I don't think the Feds moved this fast against Al Capone.
In fact when have the Feds moved this fast over ANY local assault case?
“In fact when have the Feds moved this fast over ANY local assault case?”
That too makes it important to nip Whitey in the bud before things get out of hand.
“Making an example of Whitey” WILL BACKFIRE! They should have caught a couple of 0b0z0’s Amish sons before Whitey! That would have conveyed a message that they’re even-handed and serious.
But we know better than that.
It certainly appears to be a violation of the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
Of course, the Constituion has never stood in their way before.
“I will not be prosecuting any white person that commits a crime against a black person.”
And this is exactly what Holder said, in reverse.
I think that believers in Black Liberation Theology sincerely believe that Black men are incapable of guilt and are preemptively innocent of crimes against a White man because of past crimes of humanity (particularly colonialism) against the Black man's ancestors.
Nothing else can explain their behavior.
That this is illogical and irrational and even damaging to the Black community is irrelevant to those who hold such beliefs.
Complete and total hypocrisy.
Also, this is selective enforcement - a deliberate and discriminatory decision of law enforcement to prosecute some criminals and to not prosecute others, based on bias.
As I said so many times, hate crime laws were created to criminalize everything that a White says or does, or doesn’t say or doesn’t do, and to set free non-Whites who physically assault Whites.
As for a "hate crime" charge....I will never,ever,*ever*,as a juror,vote "guilty" on any such charge...even if I believe the defendant deserves 30 years (or more) for the harm he did in assaulting the "person of color/gender/sexual orientation".
Yep, was just televised on my local WXYZ in Detroit, complete with the WHITE GUY’s photo.......
Is there racism involved?
Does a bear crap in the woods?
Has the media or the DOJ EVER explained why it’s a *hate crime* if it’s white on black? How come whites aren’t as *protected* as blacks? Or is that a dumb question?
“Or is that a dumb question?”
Not at all. It’s an excellent question where racist feral animals in the DoJ have no answer.
They would rather be called dumb and incompetent than racist, which they are!
And we allow them to get away with it. Wish I could put the genie back in the bottle.
There is the key word, PROTECTED. Whites are not a protected class according to the federal government. Therefore blacks can not be charged with a federal hate crime, even if they should be shouting "down with honkey" as they commit the crime
I wondered how long it would take for the white yutes to decide they had “equal rights”, too. (A lesson learned in the race riots in high school, long ago and far away.)
Then there was the lesbian who carved hate messages into her own skin and blamed conservative men. The police were ready to go after conservatives.
And the radical feminist who wrote herself ‘rape threats’ and said they were from conservative men.
Someone needs to check this white guy out... it was a little too convenient that someone was there to film him... the other ‘knockout’ films came from security cameras. This guy was ‘lucky’ enough to have someone ready to shoot ‘the deed’... which is remarkable timing.
Crazy how *they* have an image in their feeble minds of what the bad guy looks like.
Was just reading about the white guy. He was denied bail, is bi-polar and is being given lithium while in the detention center.
Good luck finding out at the Christian Science Monitor.
According to the Associated Press:
The white offender was previously diagnosed with “bipolar disorder” (just “mania” in his case) and was taking lithium in the period before the attack, and is still taking lithium in jail.
I looked up symptoms of “mania.”
(1) Impulsive high risk behavior that may lead to self-injury or injury of others.
(2) Grandiose thoughts - he recorded himself saying, “I wonder if this will get on national TV.”
(3) Odd social interaction - he went into a bar shortly after the assault and started showing his “knockout video” to complete strangers, which is how he got arrested.
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.