So were the people who threw rocks and bottles at police. So were all the people who encouraged them, watched them, cheered them, and excused them. Which was pretty much everyone else.
None of the “peaceful” protestors seemed to mind too much. We certainly do not have video of the peaceful folks protesting that violence -- even though it was happening right next to them.
Ditto for the people who stopped a car heading for the hospital. Few were arrested. So, officially, not much happened.
A few nights later, they came back. This time to Hollywood, where 50 to 100 black people rampaged, looted, stole a cash register, knocked people down, threatened others, taunted, harassed, and, well, sometimes I just run out of words to describe the chaos and terror that the Los Angeles reporters seem to think is normal.
But which is all on video.
The Los Angles Times called them “rowdy robbers.” Isn’t that a cute way to marginalize a race riot. But that was the drill that night. Sayeth the Times:[210]
“Though the crimes did not appear to be related to the protests over George Zimmerman's acquittal in the slaying of Trayvon Martin, police said they believe many involved in Tuesday night’s robberies were involved in the trouble that followed Zimmerman-related protests earlier this week.”
“They were not engaging in any kind of protest,” Barkley said.“I think this specific group came up to riot and cause problems in Hollywood.”
“The robbers knocked down tourists and grabbed their phones, officials said. In at least one incident, they hauled off a cash register from a business.
A CBS news reporter and his crew were attacked. But they lived. So their injuries were minor. Breitbart reported a fuller picture.[211] The Hollywood riot was a planned assault on soft targets. Complete with verbal references to St. Trayvon. And of course there was lots of video, so you can see for yourself.
Even so, that did not satisfy Salon.com. It said a local media outlet made a mistake about violence at a hotel, so that meant all of Los Angeles media was locked in a conspiracy to tar the peaceful folks at the St. Trayvon canonization as violence-prone thugs.[212]
When they were not, said Salon. And Salon wanted an apology to all the peaceful rock throwers, and their enablers. A Salon reader called BS:
“I watched the live helicopter feed on RT for two hours. I WATCHED with my own two eyes these "protesters" run into a Dollar Tree and run out with handfuls of stuff.
“I watched them smash car windows. I watched them assault a WHITE man that was standing at a bus stop.
“I watched them run up to that restaurant where the waiter was smashed in the face with a blunt object. They ran down Crenshaw like a pack of animals all the way to the Wal-Mart.“There is video of this! There is no disputing that they weren't peaceful! These are not protests; they are FLASH MOBS of "teens/youths" doing as they please.
“Can’t speak on the W hotel. But to say that you know for a FACT that they were peaceful is a JOKE!”
Salon needs some less observant readers.
While the Mayor of Los Angeles was instructing his citizens in the best way to “honor Trayvon,” no one was arrested for throwing rocks at cops or anything like that. They did haul a few folks away for failing to disperse.
Inland from Los Angeles in Victorville, a large group of Trayvon protestors tried to crash into a mall. Again, the Los Angeles Times had it all figured out: Just a splinter group. Mostly peaceful.[213] From the Times: “But 10 to 15 juveniles went into a store at a Chevron gas station near Bear Valley Road and Balsam Avenue and reportedly opened items and left without paying,” authorities said.
(Note to the Times, that is called “robbery.”)
“A large group of people gathered at the Mall of Victor Valley parking lot and tried to force their way into the mall. They were stopped by security guards who locked the doors.” Seventeen people were arrested; apparently being peaceful is a crime in Victorville.
In Oakland the violence was more intense and more open, with lots of graffiti urging people to “kill the cops” and “fuck the pigs.” And of course lots of video featuring local hoodlums quite proud to brag about it.[214]
The local media was equally determined to portray the two-night protest as “peaceful,” said the Chronicle. But again, the video told a different story.
Burning. Looting. Assaults. Chaos. All on video.
The Chronicle did grudgingly admit the otherwise peaceful protestors “kicked and punched an Oakland Tribune photographer and also attacked a KTVU-TV cameraman at about 10:30 p.m.”
And don’t forget the “starting fires, slashing tires and breaking the windows of several businesses in downtown Oakland.”[215] Of course, if someone told me that is what a peaceful night looked like in Oakland, guess it might be hard to disagree.
Up in Portland, Oregon, another surprising center of regular and intense racial violence, Gateway Pundit reminds us that one orator told the crowd of Trayvon acolytes that every 28 hours a young black person is killed by a “security guard who’s trigger happy” or a “racist who’s stalking and killing young black boys.” [216]
And darn it, it was time they did something about it: “I’m tired of waiting”… “Every fucking cop is a fucking target. We need to start making moves that’ll show them we have power to force them into positions that we want them in.”
Turns out the orator was a few weeks late: In June, KATU in Portland talked to two hapless Portland residents who talked about how a black mob invaded their neighborhood and assaulted them.
Ron King reported he took refuge in a local liquor store after his beating, from where he saw the same group of 50 to 100 black people smashing car windows, beating people on bicycles and rampaging through the neighborhood.[217] No one in Portland seemed upset or surprised about it -- not even the victims.
This most likely had nothing to do with Trayvon. Rather, it was just another case of black on white mob violence.
In Memphis, less than 24 hours after the acquittal, a white man was abducted and attacked by a carful of black people. "One of them asked, 'Do you know who Trayvon Martin was?'" Holts quoted the man as saying. “He looked at the driver and said ‘give me the damn gun.”
The white man got into the car. Soon after, they stopped the car, let him out, then kicked and beat him until he was unconscious. “His exact words were ‘we are going to beat your ass for Trayvon.’” He was taken to a hospital and treated for his wounds.[218]
Ditto in Baltimore: This time a real estate agent saw it happen: “Christina Dudley said she was walking to her car just before 9 p.m. when she saw several young black males and two black females chasing a 37-year-old Hispanic man west on North Linwood Avenue past East Fairmont Avenue.
"One of the boys had a handgun out and it was pointed at the back of him," Dudley said in an interview.
“They caught up to the man at the corner of Fairmount and N. Streeper Street, and the male with the gun beat the victim with what appeared to be his gun while others kicked and stomped him,” Dudley said.
"They were just yelling and calling him names as they ran after him, but once they were hitting him and after that they started yelling, "This is for Trayvon, [expletive]," said Dudley, who heard the chant repeated multiple times.”[219]
Ditto in Milwaukee. The day after the verdict, a man only identified as Chris relates his encounter with post-Trayvon violence to TMJ4 news:[220]
Chris was walking to the bus stop Sunday evening after visiting a friend when he says about a dozen African-American teens attacked him near 25th and Cherry Streets.
"At some point during the assault I blacked out for about a minute," Chris explains.
Chris says he didn't get a good look at his attackers because he was being punched and kicked in the face but he remembers what one of them said.
"I know what the guy said: 'this is for Trayvon Martin' because he was right in my face and after he said it he punched me right in the mouth," said Chris.”
I
n Houston, a mob of black protestors stopped a car with a woman taking her grandchild to the hospital because the seven-year old girl was having an allergic reaction to a medication. It was an emergency. That did not matter:[221]
“One of them was hitting the windshield and I was just screaming, 'We've got to get to the hospital,' and they were screaming and chanting," she said. "All I could think of was, I got to get my granddaughter to the hospital."
"My mom rolled down the window," said Georgia's daughter. "She said, 'We're trying to get my granddaughter to the hospital,' and a guy just started hitting her."
“A Local 2 camera covering the protest recorded the entire incident. On the video you could see Georgia sitting in the front seat of an SUV, she had her window down and you can see a man reach in and grab her. Georgia said she was hit.”
Quanell X said he gave specific orders for no violence. Hey get off the dude’s case: Except for beating one granny on the way to the emergency room, they were largely peaceful. We’ll meet Quanell X again, don’t you worry.
Even the Washington Post could not ignore this one: “A Bethesda man was beaten and robbed early Saturday morning in Adams Morgan by three men who yelled, “This is for Trayvon Martin,” before attacking him, police said.[222] Washington police spokesman Araz Alali said, “There is no pattern in these types of crimes.”
Guess Araz does not know Mary Curtis, a Post writer who knows how to recognize a pattern of racial animosity when she sees one. You remember her.
In San Bernardino, California, the Blaze reports that 120 pro-Trayvon protestors threw rocks and bottles at cops. Some of the rocks hit a police horse.[223] Let’s get the rest from NBC:[224]
“A crowd of demonstrators became violent in San Bernardino, Calif., Thursday night when they threw rocks at cars while protesting the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, police said.”
The San Bernardino Police Department was responding to reports of vandalism when they encountered about 120 protesters. The group began throwing rocks and bottles at passing motorists, police officers and patrol cars, according to a police department press release.
Eddie Jones, president of the Los Angeles Civil Rights Association, said police caused the violence.[225]
The San Bernardino Sun talked to some of the violent protestors, who said it was OK:[226]
Referring to other Trayvon Martin protests, Lati Harris said some violence was understandable. "This is natural emotion," he said. A few protesters yelled profanities, and at least one 12-year-old protester said she wanted to kill Zimmerman in order to feel safe from being killed as Martin was.
In Downingtown, Pennsylvania, firefighters responding to an arson fire at a local warehouse found the words “Kill Zimmerman” scrawled on the stucco wall.[227]
Near Palm Springs, California, another episode of racial violence seemed to escape the notice of the otherwise hyper-aware racial watchdogs in the local media. But the father of the victim noticed. A few hours after the acquittal of Zimmerman, “one man was seriously injured during a brawl in Twenty Nine Palms.”
The man was a member of the United States Marine Corps. And this was no brawl. Let’s hear his father’s side:[228]
On the morning of the 14th (Sunday) my stepson, a Lance Corporal in the United States Marine Corps, was out with two other friends off base in 29 Palms CA.
One was a Marine the other a civilian. Steven and the other Marine are both white, and their mutual friend is black. The three men observed a large group (15-20) African American males walking down the street making a lot of noise, shouting, causing a scene. Many were carrying weapons, i.e., batons and at least one tire iron.
The mob noticed the three men sitting on the porch and proceeded to make their way up the drive. At this point Steven, the other Marine and their civilian friend told them to leave. The mob attacked the other Marine first. Steven, seeing his friend being assaulted attempted to intervene.
Steven’s black friend also stepped in demanding they stop. The mob ignored Steven’s black friend and attacked Steven instead. They struck him in the head with a tire iron, punched him repeatedly, kicked him repeatedly and then stabbed him in the right side of his chest.
Once they had him on the ground and unconscious they continued to beat him. The other Marine was able to get away while Steven was eventually robbed while he lay helpless and unable to defend himself.
The police did arrive along with an ambulance to transport Steven to the Desert Palms hospital where he received multiple stitches, and staples to his chest and head. It should be noted that the mob that attacked Steven was composed entirely of black men, 15 to 20 of them.
At no time did they attack Stevens’ black friend. All this took place Sunday the 14th following the George Zimmerman verdict.”
Within a week several people were arrested for attempted murder. And the sheriff insists the attack had nothing to do with Trayvon.
In Rochester and Baltimore, black mobs attacked white people within 24 hours of the verdict. But the few who suggested this might be related to St. Trayvon were quickly dismissed.
Those who dismiss the Trayvon connection might be right: This just might be another run of the mill black mob attack on a few white guys. And as far local news coverage goes, at this point, we might ask, what difference does it make?
Kansas City: Curfew Wars.
Where I get to repeat my favorite quote in this book.
Let’s start with that, my favorite quote:
Emanuel Cleaver used to be the mayor of Kansas City. Today he is a member of Congress. He does not question who is responsible for the long-term and intense racial violence at the County Club Plaza in Kansas City.
He just wonders if the people who support a curfew to stop it have really thought it through: [229]
“All we are going to do is make a lot of black kids angry and they are going to take out their anger somewhere else.”
OK, let’s get this curfew story started:
Kansas City councilman Jermaine Reed wanted to have an “honest” discussion on race. But like Attorney General Eric Holder and former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien who made similar pleas before him, he did not really say more than that.
Reed’s call for honest talk came after three years and dozens of episodes of black mob violence at the Plaza in Kansas City. [230] He wanted an explanation as to why police only cited black people for violating the curfew.[231]
I could not tell if he was unhappy with the black people for frequent and large-scale episodes of mob violence. Or unhappy with the police for catching them. Smart money is on the latter.
Some residents of Kansas City say black mob violence is out of control, and has been for a while. Not Reed. This councilman says black people are the victims of police prejudice, not the perpetrators of mob violence.[232] "The data is the data. That's what I'm looking at," Reed said. "We've got to be honest and have an honest conversation. Say, 'Here's what it says and have an honest conversation, as well."
Reed declined to have a conversation of any kind for this book.
Local talk show host Greg Knapp of KCMO radio did. He said Councilman Reed “tried to imply the police were racially enforcing the curfew.” [233]
Another councilman said black people do not feel welcome at the Plaza, and that is the reason for the violence. It is amazing how often I hear the “we don’t feel welcome” line. Including Virginia Beach. St. Louis. And loads of others.
It is a great script flipper.
Reed’s racially charged comments attracted the full -- and surprised -- attention of at least one TV news station.[234]
“The fact that a lot of the teens that congregate here on the Plaza just to hang out are black teenagers has largely been an implied or unmentioned fact,” said Michael Mahoney, a local TV reporter with Channel 9 news.“The big deal on this is the issue of black teenagers down here on the plaza and a year round curfew is something that has been hinted at. Implied. Whi
spered about.”
Except for White Girl Bleed a Lot of course. We shouted it. Right there in KC.[235]
No one is really sure when large groups of black people started showing up at Country Club Plaza. But by 2010, the crowds were so big and so violent they were getting increasingly difficult for newspapers and public officials to ignore.
The Business Journal was among the first to bell the cat, maybe because one of its reporters saw the violence first-hand. Steve Vockrodt described one night as an “ugly scene” of 1000 “youngsters” that was “nothing less than a riot.”[236]
There were assaults, robberies, vandalism, and broken jaws. Nearby businesses closed early, and there was a lot of general mayhem. Shoppers were afraid. When police tried to step in, the juveniles greeted them with profanities and disrespect “every time there was an interaction.”
Vockrodt said he was surrounded by fifteen people who tried to steal his bike.
Back in 2010, then-mayor Mark Funkhouser said the mobs were nothing new, and it happened every spring. Funkhouser announced he was darn well going to stop it.
But by August 2011, Kansas City had a new mayor with the same old problems of black mobs at the Plaza. Two years later they are still waiting. And no one is pretending the problem is isolated any more.
By 2013, local television stations showed groups of black people at the Plaza fighting, running from police, and creating mayhem. “The scenes of teens running and ending up in handcuffs are all too familiar now at the crown jewel of Kanas City, the Plaza,” said the Fox affiliate in Kansas City. “Just last week another similar incident took place.”
Many of the attacks happened in February, prior to the summertime curfew, said the Fox News affiliate in Kansas City.[237]
A homeless man told police he was beat by a group of fifteen kids thought to be younger than sixteen years old. The men and women on the streets say it is a common occurrence.
'Don't Make the Black Kids Angry': The hoax of black victimization and those who enable it. Page 11