I got several posts that currently exist only as a set of links to things that made me want to write the posts. One is an offering of information to white folks inspired by a lot of disappointing conversations I've read in the comments around Jena on some progressive blogs. There's just some things I think they can understand, but don't. Feels like I got around half of it done last night...figured I'd finish it up and figure out what to do with it today.
I normally read around the newspapers of record, then I scan the headlines of Black blogs and what I consider "coalition blogs"...Latino, multi-racial, feminist (no gay category...Black gay folks are just Black folks). Today I decide to check the blogs first and (via Electronic Village and Costella’s Urban World) find this story only in a newspaper of non-record, the New York Daily News.
Juan Gonzalez
Basketball team: We're target of racial bias attacks
Wednesday, September 19th 2007, 4:00 AMTwo coaches and several players of the Manhattan Community College basketball team say they were the targets of separate racial bias attacks and robberies near City Hall.
They say it happened last week, the attacks were carried out by the same group of white men - and the NYPD has failed to properly investigate.
I'm not posting all the details, but there's some cop shit and some college shit that's annoying me such that at the moment I am not feeling tolerant enough to finish my little essay. Hence this post.
Let's see...shall we do the cop shit first or the college shit? Let's do the cop shit first.
Scott says he was knocked down and dragged into the middle of Chambers St., where four of the assailants started to stomp and pummel him.
When police arrived at the scene they immediately handcuffed Scott and charged him with misdemeanor assault while letting his assailants go, he said.
"The first cop who got there, a female, had to tackle two of the guys to get them off me," Scott said. "I'm the victim but then somehow I end up getting arrested."
The official police report said Scott "was observed fighting and punching along with unapprehended others" and "causing a physical injury to the forehead" of a white male named Labinot Rexhaj.
The NYPD is investigating if this is a hate crime. But damn...how do you arrest the guy who four guys are beating on? Did this cop really think this young man jumped four guys?
Maybe. You see the assumption the young Black guy is the problem goes beyond being the default to being the standard. Oh, and the brother's father is a cop...I'm sure it's a coincidence.
That was the first cop problem. Here's the second.
"My players were traumatized by this, I was knocked down, beaten and have an EMS report to prove it, and somehow the police put me down as a witness," Mapp said. "I don't understand this."
What's up with that? Trying to train a brother out of his victim mentality? This is one of those equal protection issues...the racists should be charged with assaulting each of their victims.
Mapp told cops what happened and accompanied two officers in a patrol car around the neighborhood. Within a few minutes, they spotted three of the attackers near Pace University. One of the men was still holding one of the stolen book bags with a paycheck inside belonging to one of Mapp's players.
Cops charged the three men, Visar Halili, 22, and Dardan Rexhaj, 22, both from Manhattan, and Sammy Othman, 21, from Brooklyn, with misdemeanor assault. Halili also was charged with criminal possession of stolen property.
And theft. Each accomplice shares guilt, no matter how they participated, right?
Okay. Moving on to the college shit.
The guys they attacked were on the Manhattan Community College basketball team. They knew who their victims were.
Bah.
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