Man sentenced for hate crime attack on West Seattle teen

[speltwon]

Source: Seattle Times

Jonathan Baquiring, who attacked a West Seattle teen last year because he was white, was sentenced Friday to six years in prison.

Baquiring, 21, pleaded guilty last month to first-degree robbery with a deadly weapon and malicious harassment, the state's hate crime statute.

Baquiring and Ahmed Mohamed attacked Shane McClellan on May 25. Mohamed, 22, pleaded guilty in December to first-degree robbery with a deadly weapon and malicious harassment. He was sentenced in January to nearly six years in prison.

According to court documents, McClellan was walking home from a friend's house around 2 a.m. when Mohamed and Baquiring asked the teen for a light. When the teen turned to face the men he was beaten.

For more than four hours, according to court documents, the two men punched McClellan, urinated on him, beat him with his own belt and burned him with cigarettes. They also poured Four Loko on the teen and taunted him by saying, "How do you like it, white boy?" and, "This is for enslaving our people," according to the charges.



Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/theblotter/2014402732_man_sentenced_for_hate_crime_a.html

[AsahinaKimi]

1. I can see Fox News

Running this story to start their own little Race war in this country. I Bet you people like Rush Limbaugh will run with this.. mark my words.

[speltwon]

2. It's possible. But it's also a good example

to counteract some people's claims that only whites are charged with hate crimes. That's a false meme that gets repeated a lot. Whether one is for or against hate crime legislation, stats show plenty of minorities are charged with hate crimes. The facts here were pretty blatant.

Also, it had a 4 Loko angle!!!

[provis99]

5. minorities are much more likely to be charged with hate crimes.

Ironically, hate crimes laws are now used oppressively against black males.

[Zax2me]

7. To say you are wrong is an understatement

Why would you think such a thing?
Because the facts are completely opposite of your beliefs.
By race
In 2009, the racial breakdown of the 6,225 known hate crime offenders was as follows:

■62.4 percent were white.
■18.5 percent were black.
■7.3 percent were groups made up of individuals of various races (multiple races, group).
■1.0 percent were American Indian/Alaskan Native.
■0.7 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander.
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2009/offenders.html

[provis99]

8. your own statistics just proved my point!

Blacks are only 12% of the population, but are charged with 18.5% of hate crimes. That is 50% more than their share of population. Whites make up 74% of the of the population, yet are charged in only 62.4% of hate crimes.

It is obvious that prosecutors are disproportionalely going after blacks, by a substantial margin, unless YOU want to conclude that blacks are just more racist.

Thanks for the statistics, schmuck!

[hughee99]

10. Are you sure about that?

While blacks are charged disproportionately compared to their population with hate crimes, they are also charged disproportionately (far more than 18%) with non-hate crimes as well.

You would certainly have a valid argument if each demographic were charged with crimes in proportion to their percentage of the population, but that is not the case.

Blacks are FAR more likely to be charged with a crime, and more likely than that to be convicted. As of 2007, Blacks are almost 6 times more likely to be incarcerated than whites.

http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_stateratesofincbyraceandethnicity.pdf

If you want to argue that prosecutors are disproportionately going after blacks by a substantial margin, you're 100% correct, but if you're arguing that this is the case for hate crimes in particular, I don't think these numbers show that.

[Zax2me]

6. So, this guy is beaten for 4 hours...

and this is your take?!
Okay.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. A little light under the circumstances...

But at least there was a conviction

[emilyg]

4. I wish it was more time in jail.

[WatsonT]

9. 6 years for a 4 hour beating?

Some justice is better than none I guess. But an appropriate amount of justice is even better.