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In reply to the discussion: (White) Man Beaten By Mob, In Critical Condition "Justice for Trayvon" [View all]npk
(3,660 posts)It's been all over the news pretty much since Monday. Lots of neighbors being interviewed and some are suggesting that a couple of the men in the "mob" were overheard saying something about "justice for Trayvon". But a lot of the neighbors are refusing to talk and the media has been basically talking to the sister and a couple of the more outspoken people in the neighborhood.
I can tell you I know this area. Delmar Drive is a pretty poor area of town, as much of Mobile proper is pretty poor. It's just south of downtown and lies on the other side of the bay. It is a very mixed racial area of Mobile. There are a lot of very old residents of many races that have probably lived in those homes for more than a couple generations. The street is very old and was only recently paved. Before that it was an old clay road that was pretty hard to play basketball in. So a lot of the neighborhood kids would have to play ball in the more even areas of the street or in yards that had a dead patch of grass. But since the road was paved, the kid tend to play in the street. My Uncle used to live near Hank Aron Stadium, which is about 5 miles or so from Delmar Drive. Most of this area is mixed with very old industrial sites, ship building or oil rigs to the east.
The thing is this is an area of Mobile that has alway suffered a lot of violent crime in general. Though the funny thing I was born very close to this section of Mobile. I lived in Jackson for much of my youth. It was almost non-existent to hear of a black person harming a white person. I even remember when I was a kid me and a few of my friends yelled at what we thought was a homeless man in the area of 90% black neighborhood. What is funny is that several young (mid 20's) black males just stared at as us and basically told us that we were acting "foolish". I never once feared for my safety. And I was 15 or so at this age, and I talked a lot of trash as most kids do. But I never feared anything other than fist fight. yet I was never hassled with a fist fight even when I definitely deserved one.
I can tell you straight up that it would have taken a lot and I do mean a lot for a group of black people in this area of Mobile to attack a white person in this manner. Reading a bit more from the article I was able to discover that the victim Mr. Owens has had a lot of altercation with kids in the neighborhood. I am not blaming the victim, but I can tell you that it would either take a very long history of racial language or a very vile verbal racial assault for any black person to respond like this.
Just my .02 cents.