[xJones]

This story is terrible.

Pattah was 16 and Venn 17 when Venn punched him between the eyes during a melee in the parking lot of West Bloomfield High in 1994. Pattah fell backward, hitting his head on the pavement with such force that his brain stem was severed.

Pattah came from a deeply religious Chaldean Christian family that had immigrated 30 years before from Iraq. Desmon Venn has been in and out of trouble ever since. That was one hell of a punch, and the 16 year-old lingered in a coma for 9 years.

[Charles Henrickson]

Though Pattah was Iraqi and Venn is black, the punch was not believed to be racially or culturally motivated.

What if the races had been reversed, the assailant white and the victim black?

[ffusco]

Pattah came from a deeply religious Chaldean Christian family that had immigrated 30 years before from Iraq.

this is relevent because?


Pattah fell backward, hitting his head on the pavement with such force that his brain stem was severed.

Finally some facts.....
but then more editorializing.....


Desmon Venn has been in and out of trouble ever since.

That was one hell of a punch, and the 16 year-old lingered in a coma for 9 years.

You should write for the NYT