'Don't Make the Black Kids Angry': The hoax of black victimization and those who enable it.

by Colin Flaherty

  I too will not be back and next year will go to the Geist "blast on the bridge". A better show and nicer group of people!”

  The national headquarters of the Society of Professional Journalists is four miles from the epicenter of this racial violence. But somehow, the black mob violence as a regular feature of the largest black expo in America did not make it into Aamidor’s discussion.

  Or the Indy Star coverage.

  He did however, talk about how television news directors in Pittsburgh met in 2011 with black activists to form an agreement to reduce the coverage of black crime in that city. Taking it from zero to less than zero.[448]

  Aamidor reports with a tone of admiration how the head of Black Empowerment Project said observing crime is bad for white and black people:

  “If the only information about black people is what’s in the news, there’s a reason why the unemployment rate is astronomic and why we have all these negative issues — because the imaging of black people is extremely negative,” said Black Political Empowerment Project president Tim Stevens.

  “Not only does it affect the viewpoint of white people with their thoughts on black people, I say it affects the psychology of black people.”

  And before I read this I thought I had already heard every conceivable excuse for black mob violence. Guess it is what you learn after you think you know it all that counts.

  No news whether local farmers are complaining about the weather reports. No news from Aamidor about how many people place themselves into fatally dangerous situations because their local media ignores, denies, excuses and even condones this kind of crime.

  So here are the choices: Aamidor and his cronies do not know R.A.T. (Routine Activity Theory) and the routine violence white people can expect in black neighborhoods. Or they do know, and do not want to let the rest of us know.

  If we knew where they lived, that would give us a clue, wouldn’t it, Mr. Aamidor?

  Aamidor and the Indy Star might be too queasy to look racial violence right in the eye, but not everyone there ignores it. Writing in the Indiana Barrister, local attorney Abdul Hakim-Shabazz, is out of patience with people who have too much patience for black pathology:[449]

  It’s time for some tough love in this town. There is a criminal element in this town that consists primarily of young black men.

  The recent attacks on the Monon; the perpetrators were young black men. The“Pop It Off Boys” gang; young black men.

  The most high ridden crime areas of the city, who are the bad guys? Say it with me, they are usually young black men.

  This may be painful, but the truth hurts. ... There is also something even more wrong when people will read this column and get mad at me and call me a“sellout” or an“Uncle Tom” because I was the guy who was brave enough to tell truth.

  Indianapolis, you have a problem. Your problem is young, black men who are out of control. It’s time to step up and start making examples out of people.

  Decent citizens black and white should not have to live in fear of urban terrorists.

  The elderly man who marched for civil rights in the 1950’s and 60’s should not have to live in fear because some Robin Hoodlum doesn’t know how to honor the social contract.

  Not coming soon to your local chapter of the apologists at the Society of Professional Journalists and National Association of Black Journalists.

  Postscript: One of the stated goals in the SPJ Mission Statement is to “To encourage diversity in journalism.” Of the 35 staffers and members of the board of directors of the Society of Professional Journalists, none is black.

  Aamidor?

  Aamidor?

  Aamidor?

  Black Mob Violence on D.C. Bike Trails.

  Community papers tell the truth. Bikers lie.

  The titans at the Washington Post could not get their journalistic minds around a pattern of racial violence on the Metro Branch Trail in the nation’s capital in the summer of 2013.

  But Mary Curtis could. Kind of.

  We met Curtis a few pages ago. She’s the one who wrote the column for the Post about how to detect racial animosity. She called it a “Question of Race.”

  It’s all about the “pattern,” said Curtis. That is how she can “determine the motive” of white members of Congress who oppose President Obama. And whether they are racist. Even though they do not come out and say it.[450]

  It’s so easy.

  Now you try. See if you can spot the pattern the other reporters at the Washington Post missed.

  On Halloween night 2013, a “large group of assailants,” beat and robbed a 50-year teacher on the Metropolitan Branch Trail, a hiking and biking path from Union Station downtown to the suburbs in Maryland.[451]

  This is one of dozens of similar mob attacks at the Metro Trail over the last several years. All the assailants are black. Most of the victims are not.

  They reported the crime but ignored the pattern.

  But the folks at the Titan of Trinidad, a neighborhood blog, must be reading Curtis more carefully that other Washington media types. They had no trouble describing what really happened during a different attack several months earlier when a black mob assaulted a D.C. commuter on a bicycle, sending him to the hospital with broken bones in his face. [452]

  As I was biking home on the Metropolitan Branch Trail today I came across a biker on the trail near R St NE who was severely beaten.

  Apparently he was beaten by a fairly large group of African American teenagers that I passed on the trail near the bridge near Florida Avenue.

  Apparently they beat this biker, a Caucasian male who looked to be in his 50s, for no reason. Cops swarmed the scene and took the man to the hospital, and tried to track down the kids but as far as I know they have not been caught.

  I share this with you to strongly encourage you to use caution on the trail. This incident occurred in broad daylight and the biker did nothing wrong.

  I spoke with one of the cops at the scene and he says there are incidents on the trail all the time, day and night. I for one will no longer be using the Metropolitan Branch Trail—please stay safe everyone.

  According to the web site: “Notably, this was not a robbery; the group of teenagers apparently just attacked and beat this man on the trail without any obvious motive other than to beat him.”

  Talking to ABC affiliate, the biker did not wish to use his name. Nor did he wish to identify the attackers as anything other than a group of “kids.”[453]

  “One of the kids peeled away from the group, just came running at me then clocked me as hard as he could,” said the biker. “I can’t make sense of it.”

  As Dr. Phil might say: If you had to guess why they attacked you, what would you say? Do you think it had anything to do with the fact that you are white and they are black?

  Twenty hours after one of the June assaults, police said they could not figure it out either. In a statement they said:

  “Based upon this offense, we have received a number of questions concerning the Metropolitan Branch Trail. Allow us to address your concerns here. This was an unprovoked assault by a lone individual and not a pattern connected to other criminal offenses that were reported to MPD.”[454]

  Uh, let me see. What do we call that? Oh yeah, a lie.

  There was a black mob of at least 15 people. Many kicked him in the face. And it was part of a pattern of black mob violence both on and off this biking and hiking trail.

  Maybe for Post reporters and D.C. cops it’s like one of those pictures where you stare at it for a long time and a 3-D image emerges. Only in the Post’s case, they have been staring for 50 years and still come up with nothing. Let’s look at a few of the more recent attacks and see if the picture gets any clearer:

  A teacher from a nearby Charter school was heading home at 9:15 p.m. The Post picks up the story:

  The victim told police that 10 men ages 18 to 22 were in front of him, near the 600 block of Rhode Island Avenue. The victim said he was on
his cellphone when he heard a man say,“Let’s get him.”

  Police said he was pushed to the ground and beaten in the head. They said the robbers took personal items and $260.

  In February 2013, another bicyclist posted about mob violence on the same trail. Writing in the neighborhood blog, Popville.com, he said:[455]

  I was assaulted on the Franklin St. Bridge today on my way home from work at about 4:30pm. I was on my bike and a group of about 10 14/15 yr-old boys were walking along the sidewalk (which is separated from the road by a concrete barrier).

  Two of the kids jumped the barrier into the street as I approached on my bike, the first hit me over the back of the neck (right under my helmet) with something really hard, the second kid tried to punch me and mostly missed.

  In October of 2012, another biker reported the same crime in the same area with the same results:[456] Is your Mary Curtis barometer exploding yet?

  Last night on my way to Chinatown I got clothes-lined (or something) as I was blazing down the metropolitan branch on my bike. 4 kids, probably 13-19 were on either side of the trail and decked me good before fleeing the scene. The incident was at the intersection with T St., at about 4th.

  I think they mostly just wanted to cause suffering for fun, rather than steal anything.

  In February 2012 another poster at Popville reported a black mob assault nearby: [457]

  I was attacked by a pack of 14-15 yr-olds, boys and girls, and knocked to the ground. Nothing was stolen and the kids ran off after giving me a few kicks to the head.

  In August 2012, a woman reported yet another black mob assault:[458]

  I was biking home at 7pm and passed a whole bunch of cop cars taking a report from a guy who had just been jumped by a group of kids. It was broad daylight out, and this guy was easily 6’2″ and fairly well muscled.

  I’m a woman. If they’re not afraid to jump a big dude in broad daylight, I shudder to think what they would do to me. I haven’t ridden the MBT since.

  The urban pioneers who run a web site for bicyclists in Washington scoffed that anyone could detect any kind of racial pattern. By now, you probably know this: Surely as denial follows violence, the Straw Man always follows the scoff. Here it is: [459]

  The idea that there is any racial pattern in the attacks is“laughable,”said these mobile advocates.“But, they're right that there have been many similar attacks on this trail over the last year. It is novel argument - however - that the police are somehow biased in the favor of black people. I've not heard that one before.”

  To sum up: My reporting was wrong, then it was right, then it was something I cannot figure out. Let’s call the whole thing off.

  Finally, by the summer of 2013, police promised to crack down, kind of.

  The Washington City Paper reports that several surveillance cameras have been installed near some of the violent hot spots on the path. But there is a minor glitch.

  “The cameras are solar-powered,” said the paper, “so they don’t work that well at night.”

  And they don’t do too well in the day time either: A spokeswoman for the city’s transportation department that is responsible for the cameras, told the paper that her department is “not in the security business,” so there’s no one monitoring the video feed.

  In 2014, police on bikes started to patrol the area. Things changed.

  In June 2014, a woman was knocked from her bike and robbed and they actually caught the guy. [460]

  The week before that a hiker was attacked on the trail. She escaped the attempted sexual assault in the middle of the day. They caught him too.[461]

  Another pattern?

  Not so fast: That was the second assault on the trail that day. The second attacker remains at large.[462]

  It happened again a week later: “For at least the third time this month, a woman was attacked on the Metropolitan Branch Trail. Police say a juvenile was arrested in connection with the crime.”[463]

  Two for three, that’s pretty good.

  Now if we can just get Mary Curtis re-assigned to the Post crime desk, we’ll have a trifecta.

  We’ll get back to black mob violence on bike and jogging trails soon. There’s a ton of it. Bicyclists are soft targets. And hard deniers.

  Let’s go to the “prank.”

  The Fatal“Prank:”

  Seven Days in November.

  By November 2013, more and more people were aware of the Knockout Game. But not all. The CBS affiliate in New York had different name for it: “Prank.”[464]

  Whatever the term, Ralph Santiago is dead -- just another nameless, faceless victim of what police call “unprovoked” assaults from black people on non-black people.

  The rules of the Knockout Game -- or the teenage prank -- are simple: Start with a group of black people. Find a white person. Punch him in the face. Don’t stop until the person is knocked out or your arms get tired. Or the person is dead.

  I get some push back from readers who do not like how I call this violence a game. It is a game: That is how the predators play it. They beat the hell out of you just for the hell of it. And there is laughing. Always laughing.

  The teenage prank on Santiago took place September 10, 2013, but the real damage was done in an identical attack 27 years ago. A group of black people stalked and beat Santiago near his Bronx home, leaving this father, gymnast and artist with brain damage; unable to do anything but wander the streets in a permanent fog.[465]

  Even so, sometimes the 46-year-old Santiago was a happy man. A religious man. But on the streets, a vulnerable man.

  That is what three black people from Jersey City who arrived in Hoboken via the Light Rail discovered that afternoon. The CBS affiliate provides a few details:

  “Santiago was followed by the three teens while walking on 3rd Street between Adams and Jefferson Streets in Hoboken on Sept. 10 when one of the juveniles threw a punch at Santiago’s head in what detectives believe was a game of “knockout.”

  Santiago then collapsed onto the fence, wedging his neck between two iron fence posts, where he died, the prosecutor said.”

  The alleged perpetrators turned themselves in when a video of them surfaced after the attack. They are in custody and charged with murder.

  Ten days before that, Jesse Downs was heading to his home in the suburbs of Boston when he came upon a group of black people at 2 p.m. Downs had left work early to get a head start on the Labor Day weekend. His girlfriend, Melissa Merrill, told the Eagle Tribune she just happened to be driving by when she saw Downs sitting on the curb, covered in blood.[466]

  “He kept asking me, ‘Why did they jump me?’” Merrill said of how Downs reacted immediately after the attack. “He still had his money and paycheck on him. They didn’t touch it.

  “They attacked him right in broad daylight, in the middle of the sidewalk,” Merrill said. “They jumped him from behind and beat him in his head for no reason.”

  WHDH reports the suspects were "hitting (the victim) in the face and head." And that one of the suspects "...slammed him on his head on the pavement."

  After three brain surgeries, Downs is still in the hospital, unresponsive. His survival is still in question. Two men have been charged with assault and witness intimidation.

  The weekend before that, in Syracuse, Jim Gifford was beginning his Saturday the way he started every day: He walked to the local 7-11 for a newspaper, donuts, coffee and a can of soup. At 6:08 a.m., the 70-year-old Gifford was confronted by “five or six men” in their 20’s.

  “Award winning columnist Sean Kirst” of the local paper reports: “Two of them began striking and kicking Gifford. The beating continued after he fell to the ground.”[467]

  Kirst quotes the local police as saying it “is too early to describe it as an example of the ‘knockout game,’ a chilling national trend involving anonymous attacks.”

  Earlier that same week, police arrested Romeo Williams and charged him with assault. Williams had a pending felony weapons char
ge outstanding. According to Syracuse.com:

  At a press conference before Williams' arraignment, Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler said Williams celebrated inside the convenience store after he knocked Gifford unconscious. He continued beating the unconscious man after the brief celebration, according to police.

  The papers presented lots of details save two: The assailants were black. No news about what, if any, charges the others at the attack will face.

  Kirst did remind his readers that a similar attack took place in Syracuse last spring. Curiously, he reported that two people were arrested, though as many as a dozen black people were present at that attack where a 51-year old man died.[468]

  Probably just forgot.

  New York Times: the New Black Moses

  Take a look at whom the Times coronates. And why.

  To hear the New York Times tell it, Chief Keef is the new Shakespeare, Dickens or Dylan. Or all three combined. Topped off with a dose of Mozart.

  All wrapped up in a teenage hip-hop performer whose work The Times calls “the defining document of the current Chicago sound.”

  A few more quotes from the Times’ recent coronation. (And by all means, read the whole review.)[469]

  “Chief Keef serves as a reminder of what’s been whitewashed out of the hip-hop mainstream: a sense of the struggle bedeviling the communities that produce much of the music.”

  Whitewashed? That is what critics call it when black rappers stop acting black and start acting white. I would pay to hear The Times tell us what that means. And people wonder why The Times ignores, condones, minimizes and excuses black mob violence? Wonder no more. If black people are expected to act that way -- like performers in a criminal minstrel show -- it is not news.

  Someday pop historians will be examining this moment as a seminal time in the birth of something very important, says The Times. Maybe by then The Times will reveal its policy of how it expects black people to act.