Free Republic

Fearing one day an errant bullet might strike her home, Constance's kids no longer watch the TV or play video games in the main-level living room. They are upstairs, hopefully away from the line of fire. Roving bands of youths congregate near the home her grandparents have owned for more than 80 years, brazenly blocking traffic or daring motorists to hit them. Constance, who lives near the site where a 26-year-old man was brutally beaten by a gang of thugs Aug. 4 in St. Paul's Payne-Phalen neighborhood, feels as if she's living in Baghdad or Damascus, not in the Saintly...

A St. Paul, Minn., man is in a coma today, fighting for his life after a black mob beat him, stripped his clothes off and left him for dead. Even if he recovers, he will have permanent brain damage. Ray Widstrand thought he had nothing to fear from moving into a black neighborhood on the East Side of St. Paul. This young white guy and aspiring filmmaker thought he had nothing to fear when he decided to take a Sunday night stroll through his adopted part of town. Nothing to fear from a crowd of 50 black people fighting outside...

A St. Paul, Minn., man is in a coma today, fighting for his life after a black mob beat him, stripped his clothes off and left him for dead. Even if he recovers, he will have permanent brain damage. Ads by Google Ray Widstrand thought he had nothing to fear from moving into a black neighborhood on the East Side of St. Paul. This young white guy and aspiring filmmaker thought he had nothing to fear when decided to take a Sunday night stroll through his adopted part of town. Nothing to fear from a crowd of 50 black people...

Four young males have been arrested after the senseless, brutal beating of a man on a late-night walk Sunday on St. Paul's East Side, police said Friday. The victim, Ray Widstrand, 26, of St. Paul, reportedly was in critical condition at Regions Hospital with potentially fatal brain swelling.... "He's in the most difficult time right now, as far as swelling and cranial pressure. We're in that critical time," his father, Peter Widstrand, said. According to the complaint, Widstrand was attacked when he tried to walk through a group of 30 to 50 juveniles and young adults fighting near Payne and...