US crowd beats passenger to death

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

An angry Texas crowd has beaten and killed a 40-year-old car passenger after a driver injured a young girl near the site of a busy local festival.
Police said the driver of the car stopped to check on the health of the girl, said to be aged three or four.

But when the passenger got out to see how she was, he was set upon by a group of up to 20 people before being left lying in a car park, police said.

The girl was hit at low speed and was not seriously injured.


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6224538.stm

---

Don't suppose the fact that the name of the guy who was beaten to death was Morales was significant here ?

[madmunchie]

1. Why - in Texas- doen't this surprise me?

It should, but sadly, it doesn't.

[Jacobin]

5. A Juneteenth celebration

combustible mix there with a Mexican american driver hitting a black child.

[malaise]

35. add to the mix the

anti-Hispanic hysteria whipped up by Bush.

[Superman Returns]

61. to be fair

Bush is being attacked by right-wing conservatives on immigration. Although I don't know what the crowd's rational for commtting this terrible crime was, if it was anti-hispanic sentiment, don't you think the Tom Tancredo's, Lou Dobb's, and New Gingrich's of the world deserve more criticism?

[BoneDaddy]

77. Wrong

The people who did this are responsible. Don't blame this on Bush. That prick is responsible for alot, this is not one of them. The scumbags who did this are responsible.

[Jane Austin]

9. Well, it should surprise all of us.

I've lived in or near Austin since 1962 and I have never, ever heard of a fatal incident like this one.

Of course, I've never lived in a time when jobs were so fragile, a national government was based on lies, gas cost so much, and health care was so unavailable to so many.

When everything goes wrong, it's easy to blame somebody else and it's inviting to drink a lot of beer, too, especially on such a miserable day.

Yes, I was surprised by this, and I've lived in Texas all my life.

If we don't get some hope put back in the mix, I will be surprised if it doesn't happen again. And again.

[Fleshdancer]

41. Why doesn't it surprise you? Probably because you don't live in Austin.

If you did, then you would be as shocked and heartbroken as I am.

[cherokeeprogressive]

66. I've lived in Austin and was thinking the same thing. Austin isn't like that. n/t

[cherokeeprogressive]

68. Maybe you're also not surprised that a man was dragged from his car in Milwaukee

and beaten for NO REASON other than punks at a Juneteenth celebration got out of hand as they roamed the streets.

Texas bad. Right?

[datasuspect]

81. it has absolutely nothing to do with texas or the south

this happens in northern cities.

activity like this happens when it hot outside.

i remember reading several stories of similar incidents like this happening in chicago.

Chicago crowd beats, kills driver of crashed van
Last Updated: Wednesday, July 31, 2002 | 4:45 PM ET
CBC News

Two Chicago men whose van crashed into pedestrians died after a group of bystanders beat them with bricks.

Jack Moore, 62, and Anthony Stuckey, 49, died in hospital Tuesday. Autopsy results showed the men died from multiple injuries and blunt force trauma.

Both deaths were ruled homicides.

Chicago police say the driver apparently lost control of the van and crashed into a group of pedestrians in the city's South Side. Three women were injured and are in hospital. Two of them are in serious condition.




http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2002/07/31/van_beat020731.html

[peacebird]

2. omg..... what was WRONG with those people?!?!?

[stellanoir]

3. family values folks

gone amuck

[Sequoia]

4. I posted this earlier today but the name of the passenger wasn't listed.

Bet he wasn't blonde or blue-eyed either, and maybe he spoke with an accent. I wonder if those guys who beat him up had been drinking. What gets me is what the celebration was all about...the ending of slavery and this happens. Horrid.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Sorry

I didn't see your earlier post otherwise I'd have just added the BBC link for you.

[Marrah_G]

27. Somehow I think if he was blond and blue eyed it still would have happened

[KittyWampus]

50. talk about prejudice! "bet he wasn't blod or blue-eyed either" and I suppose you'd never

get the irony in your saying that.

[Jane Austin]

7. I believe this was a Juneteenth event.

There is usually a lot of barbeque and a lot of beer at an event like that.

There is also a good bit of unemployment in the black community here, and there are a great many Mexican nationals here, with the assumption of a lot of folks - right or wrong - being that they have taken their jobs.

It was also 97 degrees here yesterday with fearsome humidity.

This sounds like a horrible collision of emotions that got taken out on David Morales.

[MedleyMisty]

49. I'm reading The Nature of Prejudice

And that sounds pretty much like the mix of things the author said was needed for violence based on out-group prejudice, up to and including the heat.

The author also came to the conclusion that it was impossible to generalize about the level of prejudice in any group and that in fact doing so was prejudiced, and referenced a student who thought he was tolerant writing something about how racism would never be solved until the stupid white Southerners could get stuff through their thick ivory heads.

As for the story itself - it is very sad and scary and my thoughts are with all involved.

[CTD]

53. Um, the attackers weren't white.

Juneteenth is a black celebration.

[xchrom]

8. as another poster said -- family values.

[Jane Austin]

12. Do you really think that was a bunch of white, Republican people

at a Juneteenth picnic?

[xchrom]

14. what i think is that it's a phrase that

has been relegated to the status of a fucking nightmare -- regardless of the colour who commits a crime like this.

this was a fucking nightmare -- there was never an idylic ''family value'' -- and ''families'' -- of any colour can often act like this.

might as well brand this act with that horrifying phrase -- and make the republick party eat it.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jane Austin]

15. Wow. Just Wow.

Inbreeding? In a state that has had a huge influx of immigrants from North, South, East and West?

Fucked up? Yeah, I guess those people were. Especially in the sense of being drunk.

I am sick at the people this state has sent to Washington, but a whole hell of a lot of us tried to warn everyone who would listen about what an ass George W. was.

Isn't it wierd that people on DU didn't say that Virginia was Fucked Up when one of their citizens killed 32 people at one of their colleges?

There's bad crap that goes on everywhere, and with everything in this country being patched together with string and chewing gum while we spend all our money in Iraq, there's going to be more bad crap - everywhere.

I hope it doesn't happen to you.

[KAZ]

16. You're probably right. Sorry. I just had to spew.

When I think of all that's wrong with this country, lately, TX is first on my list because of the Chimp. Wasn't always this way.

[Jane Austin]

19. Thanks. It gets pretty frustrating living here, sometimes, too.

It's hard to believe that it was only, what, fifteen years ago that Ann Richards was our governor.

[snappyturtle]

23. Well, in my book Molly Ivins, Ann Richards, Bill Moyers, Jim

Hightower,LBJ,Jack Valenti et. al. more than make up for *.

Edit: After all, as my husband says, * is a carpetbagger....++++!

[KAZ]

32. Perfectly stated! n/t

[qdemn7]

67. Jack Valenti???

You're proud of HIM?? OMFG, that sorry, worthless SOB as head of the MPAA. :puke: :grr: :nuke:

[northernsoul]

79. Bush is from CT

come to think of it, so is Joe Lieberman... maybe we should start painting the nutmeg state with a broad brush

[qdemn7]

65. Yes, you're right

And if Richards had not refused to sign the Concealed Carry Bill, Bush probably would have never gotten elected. To any office.

[Ezlivin]

83. "Sometimes"?

With the total non-representation of Kay Bailey "DoD Whore" Hutchinson and John "Oil Company Whore" Cronyn and a smattering of other Republican cronies, I feel constantly frustrated.

I have a stack of auto-generated letters sent to me in response to my letters to them. They all basically say "Yeah, we heard you but we've already made up our minds. Fuck you very much."

[iamthebandfanman]

69. does this work for ya ?

the whole united states in general is fucked up.

[muntrv]

18. Like there are no fuckups in the other 49 states? I

[brentspeak]

21. Yeah, really

The Northeast region of the U.S. sure isn't lacking its share of weirdos, crazies, and criminals. No one state has a monopoly on stupid people.

[lstrether]

71. monopolies on stupid people...?

Well **of course** no state has a monopoly on stupid people. Besides, I have a few beloved cousins who live in Austin. It's surely not a haven for stupidity, from what I've heard.

In a winner-takes-all two party system, whoever doesn't show up, or whoever votes for a third party candidate, in effect in retrospect votes for the eventual winner. If roughly speaking half the country showed up to vote (probably fewer), and a little less than half of *them* voted for boy george, then about 73 percent of this country in effect were on boy george's side.

There are morons everywhere in this country!!!!!

q e d

;-)

[Jacobin]

22. Um, it was a Juneteenth thingy

[shance]

11. Does this sound like it could have been a set up for the guy?

Does to me.

[Xipe Totec]

25. I have no idea how you came to that conclusion nt

[snappyturtle]

13. A better link with more details:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3298571

[Xipe Totec]

28. Thank you for the additional information

It was a sad stupid thing to happen.

I hope there are enough people with a conscience in that crowd to help the police track down the culprits.

It will send a very bad message otherwise.

[Solo_in_MD]

17. Crown Heights anyone?

[Blue_Tires]

20. vigilanteism run amok

and at a party celebrating freedom, peace, and brotherhood, no less

[JVS]

58. isn't the title of your post redundant?

[roody]

24. Why did it take 35 minutes to get to the hospital?

[snappyturtle]

29. That's what I thought too...why? Well, the ABC article says that

the police had to secure the area....????? I think it's unforgiveable.

[struggle4progress]

63. Friend of mine was murdered in Texas thirty years ago.

She was still alive, with an abdominal bullet wound, when another friend found her.

The paramedics came, put the woman in an ambulance --- but then remained parked at the scene and didn't leave the scene for the hospital for another hour. Their excuse? The traffic's bad at this time of day...

[tammywammy]

26. How sad

Most since it was at a Juneteenth celebration. I wonder if there was a lot of drinking going on.

[BlooInBloo]

30. (shrug) That's Texas.

[Fleshdancer]

39. No. It isn't. eom

[BlooInBloo]

40. "An angry Texas crowd". To hell with facts! lolol!

[Fleshdancer]

42. Tell me about Austin. Please.

No really. I'm listening to whatever you have to say about my city. Go ahead.

[BlooInBloo]

44. Whaa? I never said, suggested, or implied a damn thing about Austin. You guys are insane.

[Ishoutandscream2]

47. I'm sorry. Who's insane?

Who's "you guys"?

[KittyWampus]

52. YOU are the one who suggested this was the norm in Texas by saying "that's Texas"

although I suppose now you'll pretend like you didn't mean to imply that.

We all know you did.

And this occured in Austin which is a liberal bastion in Texas.

[ikojo]

31. A pogrom is what that was.

But...go on your way...nothing to see here.

Get along now.

Mexicans or any other immigrant (legal or otherwise) are not the enemy of the working class. They are merely the current pawns in a game as old as the industrial revolution. Divide the working class along ethnic and racial lines and they will not unite against those who truly oppress and limit opportunity, those who run corporate America and the politicians OF BOTH PARTIES they have bought.

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[fishwax]

56. huh?

are you basing your understanding of the holiday on a couple of incidents? Strange notion.

[malaise]

34. Thanks Bushie

Your people have followed you so well.

[onenote]

55. you think this was chimpy's fault?

Look, I dislike the guy as much as anyone, but you just sound stupid blaming this on him.

[malaise]

73. Not specifically

but he's sure created the mob environment.

[pampango]

78. It's not my fault. Society made me do it.

What others say or do to you is often out of your control. How you react (emotionally, verbally and physically) should (as much as possible) be something you can control, at least as you grow from being a little child to a mature adult.

I have tried to teach this to my son (successfully, I think, so far - he's 18 and off to college), that he may need to act quickly to defend himself at times, but that the true skill is to try to retain your wits, use your head and attempt to deescalate the situation - make things better not worse. It doesn't mean that you don't do anything, but that you do not make the situation worse.

It is, as he tells me, easier said than done, but, as I tell him, not to try is to act like a 6-year-old boy only the damage you can do is much worse since you are bigger and stronger.

[brentspeak]

60. ??

[OldschoolDem]

70. I don't like George Bush either but

comments like that make people not want to vote democrat.

There has to be more to this story. People, even in Texas, don't go around just beating people senseless for no good reason.

[brentspeak]

74. It was a nonsensical comment, but why

would it "make people not want to vote democrat"?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

36. This may turn out to be very exaggerated

The news tonight said it was rumored to have been a crowd of people leaving the Juneteenth celebration. However, witnesses said it was 10 or so men who also lived in the apartment complex where the accident took place.

Let me suggest caution until there are some solid details that are not either hysterical or racist in nature.

[kurth]

37. FWIW Austin's new police chief Art Acevedo attended this event

The Juneteenth event, not the beating event.

[Fleshdancer]

38. This isn't a Texas thing, it's a groupthink thing so please don't bash the entire state

As an Austinite, I'm extremely disgusted and shocked by this. My heart goes out to the family and loved ones of David Rivas Morales.

Austin is a wonderful, liberal city and while I know it's fun and easy to bash Texas, most people who have been here know that stuff like this is far from the norm. Again, what happened is not ok and I hope the people responsible receive the justice they deserve. It just drives me up the wall when bad things happen here and it's chalked up to being a "Texas thing" when bad stuff like this happens in just about every state in the Union.

I recall a certain groupthink disaster that occurred at a parade in a certain major liberal city many years ago. I don't recall people blaming the entire state for it.

[tammywammy]

43. Indeed, there was violence at a Milwaukee Juneteenth celebration

http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/8092297.html

Police Release More Detail About Juneteenth Violence
By Jon Byman

Milwaukee Police say a 33-year-old man has a broken tooth and cuts all over his face after a group of teenagers pulled him from his car and beat him following Milwaukee's Juneteenth celebration.

It happened after the festival ended in the 3000 block of north 1st Street which is a short distance from the actual festival. Police say hundreds of teenagers started kicking the man's car. Today's TMJ 4 video from the scene shows the teenagers damaging at least several cars.

The man who was pulled from his car was treated and released from a local hospital.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away a group of girls started fighting. When police went to break up the fight near 1st and Auer, the department says a 17-year-old girl started punching and kicking a 15-year veteran officer.

*snip*

there's more at the link

[Marrah_G]

45. Riots can happen with any group

No matter how peaceful they usually are. Rioting and mob violence are a bizarre phenomenon.

[brentspeak]

57. Riots don't happen with just any group

Depends on the group.

[jeffrey_X]

76. And it depends on the history of that "group"

Historically, african-americans have only been able to use riots as a way of being heard in this country. Not so much lately, but it is ingrained in the history of african americans.

[ben_meyers]

46. Peaceful Henley in shock as teenagers beat man to death

I think I'm detecting a pattern here. Goddamn Texas and Repigs and no jobs and Juneteenth and black people and Lieberman and and......

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article666500.ece

[BlooInBloo]

48. Yup - there are NO patterns WHATSOEVER to be diserned...

Prevaricator.

[-..__...]

54. This one, maybe?

Chicago fatal van crash; deadly vigilantism draws national attention - Crime
Jet, August 26, 2002

A deadly auto accident segued into murderous vigilantism in Chicago recently after an angry mob took the law into their own hands by pulling two men from their vehicle then beating them to death with fists, feet, bricks and stones, authorities said.

Jack Moore and passenger Anthony Stuckey were bludgeoned to death after they somehow lost control of their vehicle while making a wide turn on a narrow street on the city's near south side. The van jumped a curb, catapulted in the direction of Andrea Long, Jenny Lawrence and her cousin, Shani Lawrence, and slammed the three women onto the concrete stoop.

A group of men separated from the crowd of onlookers and attacked and killed Moore, 62, and Stuckey, 49.

Chicago police superintendent Terry Hillard denounced the attack as "senseless," "cowardly" and "disgusting."

Complete article...

[CTD]

51. Before this goes any further - everyone needs to READ THIS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth

This is a black holiday. The participants who beat this Mexican to death weren't white Republican Texans but urban black people.

Now before we go off on one stereotype (the ignorant white Texan stereotype) understand that there is a different stereotype at work here and avoid sounding any more ignorant than you all already do.

And Austin is a VERY BLUE CITY in the middle of Texas.

Please. It's threads like this that give Freepers ammo.

[struggle4progress]

64. Until I know exactly who beat the fellow to death, I think I won't make any assumptions at all

[ellisonz]

72. No shit, really?

<snark>

[Nikki Stone1]

59. Have we lost all civility?

....

[Truth2Tell]

62. This is the result

of years of leadership determined to DELIBERATELY divide us among ourselves and into groups. This color over here. That nationality over there. Gays around the corner...

Blame immigrants for lack of jobs.

Blame urban blacks for crime.

Blame, blame, blame.

This is the reaction they WANT!

Groups of victims turning on one another. Killing one another rather then turning on the real perpetrators.

UNITE and overthrow the criminals in power! That's the answer.

[brentspeak]

75. Uh, this is the result of people behaving like savages.

It doesn't go any deeper than that. The divisiveness perpetrated by the GOP has created consequences in other areas of American life -- just not this one.

[SayWhatYo]

80. I wouldn't be so quick to blame Bush, or the GOP as a whole.

Doing so only makes the person doing it look silly. I mean, it would be one thing if crowds didn't get crazy like this in other countries(that do not have the GOP), but this happens around the world, and not just here in the states. Feel free to point out how I'm wrong though, but I'm not seeing the direct connection here.... But if you want, then please explain in detail how any specific political group for crazy shit like this.

*I ask this same question when conservatives try to blame liberals when things like this happen. In fact, I'm betting I could head over to one of the conservative forums and find an inverse of your post...


*note* I replied to the wrong person... but ehnn.

[Truth2Tell]

84. I don't necessarily mean just Bush

when I refer to leadership. I mean a broad spectrum of leadership, political and cultural, in our society. Of course it's not a "direct" connection between Chimpie and this exact incident. But I believe that real leadership, over time, could reduce this behavior.

I really believe that if you treat people like savages they will act like savages. I stand by that.

Other countries may not have a GOP, but most in the modern world have their own versions of small-minded, divide and conquer, us vs them mini-Machiavellis.

I believe there is a real and direct tie between state violence, media violence and violence by individuals. Call me crazy if you like.

We reap what we sow, and yes, I think it's a crisis of leadership.

[LibertyorDeath]

82. So the moral of the story is

If you hit someone especially a child accidentally at low speed with your car

in Texas don't get out to check on them

or you may be beaten to death by a bunch of Retarded vigilantes with

know fucking concept of the Rule of Law.