Police: Robbers tell man, 'This is for Trayvon Martin'

[oberliner]

Source: CNN

A weekend robbery in a racially diverse neighborhood of Washington may have been a hate crime, police said.

"This is for Trayvon Martin," one of the three black men told a white man as they approached him early Saturday, according to Washington Metropolitan Police Officer Anthony Clay.

The alleged robbery happened two weeks after a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman in the 2012 death of African-American teenager Trayvon Martin.

The men kicked the adult white male as they took his iPhone and wallet, Clay said Sunday.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/28/us/dc-robbery-hate-crime/

[Berlum]

1. Doubleplusungood utterance

[spicegal]

2. If true, that's really not good. They're just using TM as an excuse to commit a crime, and it

certainly doesn't help TM or his case.

[Blue_Tires]

25. EVEN if it WERE true, it would have jack shit to do with the case or any justice dept. appeal

Unless the men involved are eventually proven to be Trayvon's long-lost brothers or something...

[Scootaloo]

3. Did they scratch a backwards B on his cheek for good measure?

Gotta check, you know.

[Kolesar]

4. Yeah: this is an "odd choice" for a "national story" ... eom

[heaven05]

12. no

it isn't. MSM is chomping at the bit to paint the black race as rabid animals reacting as blacks were supposed to, which didn't happen and took a lot of race baiting news out the picture, in the wake of florida's shame.

[Nevernose]

29. Yep.

[ET Awful]

6. That was my first reaction when I saw the story. . .

I said pretty much the same thing on CNN's comments section yesterday.

[Iggo]

16. This.

[Poll_Blind]

18. That is EXACTLY what I thought when I first read the article! nt

PB

[tom_kelly]

5. Made up

[Robb]

7. Riiiight. Sure they did.

[Robb]

9. It appears the original reporting in the Washington Post

...was done by two interns:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/adams-morgan-hate-crime-was-motivated-by-zimmerman-verdict-police-say/2013/07/27/377a49ae-f702-11e2-a2f1-a7acf9bd5d3a_story.html

Nicole Chavez and Stefanie Dazio

https://twitter.com/steffdaz

Reporter. Jersey girl. @AmericanU alumna. Summer 2013 Metro intern @washingtonpost. Chaser of stories, baboons and bears. Retweets/links/etc ? endorsements.
http://sdazio.com/

https://twitter.com/NicoleChavz

Dev & Transportation intern at @washingtonpost / @NAHJ board / tweeting #immigration #LatinAmerica @IRE_NICAR @ONA | Fmr @ajc @nyt_institute RTs ? endorsements
http://nicolechavz.tumblr.com/

[oberliner]

11. Which suggests what?

You think the story is bogus?

[Robb]

13. The story is reported accurately, I'm quite sure.

Reporters on this level get plum assignments like traffic closures and arrest reports, and from those try to craft one or two paragraphs that might catch an editor's eye enough to make it into print.

I have no doubt the "victim" told police the "three black men" who jumped him said it was some kind of retribution for the results of the Zimmerman trial. And I have no doubt the officer taking the information down wrote it in his report, e.g. "Victim stated three black men told him yadda yadda."

Two young writers spotted paydirt, as did their editor. The rest is history, since the reporters chose not to include the name of the alleged victim -- which, before you ask, they most certainly could have done. However it would have complicated the story, and made it less eye-grabbing, to hear that the "victim" (for example) had a history of drug abuse, or had been arrested twice for stalking his ex-wife, or had name that matched a Facebook page of racist rantings.

Meanwhile, the story has leapt from the local page to CNN. Because one person told one cop how it happened. And there's no way for a reader to accurately judge the veracity of the story.

To answer your question, yes, I think the fellow's story is "bogus." But that's hardly the issue.

[oberliner]

14. I agree with you

I do think that this story will be played up on the RW talk radio shows so it's good for us to at least be aware that it's out there.

[bigworld]

8. I suspect these gentlemen would have robbed this fellow regardless of the Trayvon verdict.

If any of this is true.

[caraher]

10. Absolutely

If they said that you can bet it was just a tasteless add-on to an ordinary robbery, rather than a bunch of guys sitting around at 1 AM thinking about Trayvon Martin and deciding they would seek retribution by robbing a white guy.

Though I'm curious whether people who think "hate crimes" laws are bad might reconsider if they were used to prosecute a case where the victim is white. Even if true, the level of racial "hate" is pretty much limited, in this case, to the victim feeling his race contributed to his being robbed rather than someone else, and I don't think that quite rises to the level where a conviction would be likely or send much of a message.

[geek tragedy]

15. More likely trash talk during a conventional mugging. nt

[jwirr]

17. Not going to solve anything.

[onehandle]

19. Makes sense. Every time I shoot a black child, I say: 'This is for The Second Amendment.' nt

[nolabear]

20. People rationalize bad behavior all the time. No politics here, just dumbassery.

imho, of course.

[Doctor_J]

21. IF this is true, it's going to make things worse

and a hate crime prosecution would be the right move. HOWEVER, as noted above, it smacks of the forehead carving of 2008 - made-up. I will wait & see

[jtuck004]

22. I read this same, or a very, very similar story two weeks ago. Is it not getting

enough air time?

[displacedtexan]

23. Washington DC is 94% Democrats

This story smells. I lived on Capitol Hill for 12 years and just moved to San Francisco last September. And no single Black, Brown, whatever color person I encountered was ever overtly surly or mean to any white people, at least that I ever saw. Sometimes on the Metro, obvious wingnuts who didn't want to be touched by the masses would sneer and clutch their briefcases, but the rest of us, all colors, would just roll our eyes and smirk.

I know that PEOPLE steal from other PEOPLE, but I doubt the Metropolitan Police report is this lacking in relevant facts. Who, what, where, when, etc., available to the press.

[Bacchus4.0]

26. so there is no crime in DC?

http://dcist.com/2013/06/cyclist_beaten_along_metropolitan_b.php



http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-gray-beyond-a-family-copes-after-tragedy/2013/07/27/a7b8857a-e0da-11e2-8ae9-5db15d3c0fca_story.html?hpid=z1

[LanternWaste]

28. I combed through the post, yet was unable to locate that implication.

so there is no crime in DC?"

I combed through the post, yet was unable to locate that implication. You could of course, direct us to it, yes?

[Enrique]

24. it was also for the iPhone and wallet n/t

[Politicalboi]

27. Wallet and iPhone

Don't these 3 thugs have their Obama phones anyways. Who wants an iPhone when you have an Obama phone with direct access to the President. They took the phone so they could call the man when they were done with his wallet.

[Orsino]

30. Acid is groovy. n/t

[nomorenomore08]

31. Sounds a lot like "You're gonna die tonight!" Don't you think?

Maybe a little too conveniently so?

[Lazpashian]

32. I'm skeptical

Some ultra right wing nutjob got his butt kicked, and robbed, and chances are there was one or 2 guys, and a better chance he could not really ID him or them, so he figured "well, I'll blame it on a black guy... no 3 black guys... and they said..... hmmm, oh, I know "This is for Trayvon!" yeah, that sounds good.

And maybe it was someone or someoneS of color... maybe not. I'm betting, however this was at least as 'made up' as the amazing ZimmerMan 'rescue' of the family from the fiery crash! <rolls eyes>.