Criminal law, Politics, Society

Second Video Shows Brutal Attack On Tourist By Mob In Baltimore

This new video has emerged showing the brutal attack on a tourist in Baltimore on St. Patrick’s Day. The video also clearly shows a man who stands above the victim to take his picture as he and others laugh at his being beaten, stripped, and robbed on the street. In the meantime, the Baltimore Police Chief Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III is being criticized for dismissing the possibility of a hate crime — insisting that this is nothing like the Trayvon Martin case.

Various commentators have asked why the attack by the black mob on the one white person shown on the street was not treated as a possible race crime. Bealefeld, however, insisted that the video shows that this is just a “drunken opportunistic criminality” by people on the street. Notably, he said that he did not want to hear people raising race and suggesting that this is another Trayvon Martin case with “race-baiting” and “fear-mongering.”

While I am not sure that race was a factor based on this evidence, I am unsure how the Police Chief can rule it out on this evidence. You have a single white individual shown on the street who is singled out for this attack. He was not simply beaten and robbed but demeaned. The stripping of this clothes and taunting of the victim was an act of hate not opportunistic crime. Without speaking with a single witness or perpetrator, it is unclear why this is being immediately dismissed as a random act of violence where in the Martin case the Justice Department Civil Rights Division intervened within days into the Florida case as a presumptive hate crime.

Part of the problem rests with the vague definition of a hate crime. Race is often a factor in crime. There are some areas of cities like Baltimore where a white person is unwise to go into out of fear of an attack. As mentioned once on this blog how my sister was once told by an African American police officer that she should leave a Chicago neighborhood immediately because she is white. The officer was doing this out of genuine concern for her. Conversely, black people have been followed and attacked in white neighborhoods, as alleged in the Martin case. Police know that, if they are honest about the role of race in crimes, there would be an explosion of cases defined as hate crimes.

Here is the Maryland law:

§ 10-304.

Because of another’s race, color, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or national origin, a person may not:

(1) (i) commit a crime against that person;

(ii) damage the real or personal property of that person;

(iii) deface, damage, or destroy, attempt to deface, damage, or destroy the real or personal property of that person; or

(iv) burn or attempt to burn an object on the real or personal property of that person.

(2) commit a violation of item (1) of this section that:

(i) except as provided in item (ii) of this item, involves a separate crime that is a felony; or

(ii) results in the death of the victim.

The question is whether a crime occurred “because” of the person’s race. Many crimes are triggered by a person being singled out due to their race in a hostile neighborhood. Thus, many crimes begin with a confrontation with racial elements or identifications. Part of the controversy over hate crime prosecutions is the lack of a clear standard which crimes can be denoted as hate crimes. Some Maryland organizations insists that a crime is a hate crime when the “victim perceives it to be a hate crime.” That is a pretty low standard and dangerously subjective. One site advises readers that the victim’s perception is enough for a hate crime:

What is a Hate Crime?
A hate crime is a criminal act directed at an individual or group because of membership in a particular racial, religious, ethic or gender group. Vandalism to a house of worship, assault on an individual, or a bombing of a building – each may be a hate crime – if it meets any of the following criteria:

When racial, religious or ethnic statements are made during the incident.
When hate group symbols are displayed.
When the motive of a crime is to harm, injure or intimidate a particular group or organization.
When the victim perceives it to be a hate crime.

Frankly, it is often difficult to have an objective and civil discussion of such cases with passions running high. I am not convinced that the Baltimore case is a hate crime and I certainly understand why the Police Chief does not want to add an inflammatory race element to a crime that is already causing public discord. However, the Baltimore and Martin cases do raise interesting questions on how certain crimes are defined as suspected hate crimes. The question is whether “but for” the race of people like the Baltimore tourist attack, the mob would have left him alone. He was the only person currently known to have been subjected to this demeaning attack on that day. It is unclear how that question can be answered from these videos alone. If he was initially singled out due to his race, does that make this a possible hate crime? In either case, do you believe it is possible to exclude race as a motivating factor based on this videos?

Source: Baltimore Sun

63 thoughts on “Second Video Shows Brutal Attack On Tourist By Mob In Baltimore”

  1. sorry to all the Posters who made neutral and dismissing comments. How the hell would you react to this happening to you while tipsy celebrating in a tourist destination? BULLSHIT is how you’d react. This is a disgusting crowd, race is an obvious factor, and this city should be avoided by all decent people. This is crowd depravity, and no one, had any sense of decency and remorse. Filming it instead of dialing 911! what is wrong with these people in Baltimore. I am never visiting, and hope the city rots in it’s own mob cesspool morality.

  2. Idealist707, you act so “educated”… you’re a fucking idiot. If those thugs robbed and beat you I bet you would be singing a different tune.

  3. Pingback: Remember: Only white people are racist « The Right of the People

  4. Woosty,
    “—that is the realm of animals… or rather, beasts…. animals are more civilized…”

    Indeed they are. A submissiion gesturei immediately stills the aggressive action. Not so with us. We have “developed” a greater control of aggression so it may remain engaged lasting through even a lifetime.

    Thanks for the idea. Such realizations as you show are important for us all, as we all shere that “development”. Especially those like Malisha’s tormenter. are prime examples. The hatred in the heart must be fed from time to time, otherwise it would fade and die, leaving peace and a quenchd hatred which enrages no mind.

  5. “It all emerges from sickness in a heart which inflames a mind.” idealist707
    that is well put…strikes an image….

    My analogy to the ‘man’ is not misunderstood from your meaning…..I believe it holds across all interpretations…. ‘Men’….or the ‘Man’….is not a puppet of violence and does not impart that manner (OR ANY OTHER) negative force on others to ‘get his way’, control or gain or whatever…that is the realm of animals… or rather, beasts…. animals are more civilized…

  6. Woosty,
    I fourth that too. Summarizes all crimes well.

    Using race aa an ingredient serves no good purpose, for either “side”.
    Violence is violence. It all emerges from sickness in a heart which inflames a mind.

    “The man” was, I meant, the police. The “man” which embodies the justice system and are the ones who lock you up, etc. coming down on the black men.
    Unclear as to what you thought I meant. Poetry was not intended.

  9. “And if you will define them as hooligans to justify condemning them—-then be glad they chiefly predate on their own kindl So frustrated are they, and cowed. The man has hard punishments. ” Idealist
    —————————
    That sounds poetic, almost lyrical.

    All crimes are ‘hate’ crimes….even the ‘white’ collar ones.

    They all harbour the design of hostility, they all harbour the design of ‘want’, they all harbour the design of ‘harm’ or ‘punishment’ or ‘gain v loss’…in short, they all harbour the act of aggression against another….

    And they are not ‘the man’….because real men do not act this way and that would be a good thing to remind people of………

  10. I’ve gotten all teary eyed here over the white man’s burden, mespo.

    *sniff*sniff*HONNNNNNKKKY!*wipe*

    Ahhhhhh. Much better.

  11. Hey, Jeff, still hocking your site I see. Those African-Americans and Hispanics get all the breaks.

    The median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly available government data from 2009.

    These lopsided wealth ratios are the largest since the government began publishing such data a quarter century ago and roughly twice the size of the ratios that had prevailed between these three groups for the two decades prior to the Great Recession that ended in 2009.

    -Pew Research

    Yep, those poor put upon middle aged white guys. The world’s everybody else’s oyster. How do they survive the world they created.

    Let me know where to send the Kleenex boxes, won’t you? Race-baiters like you should be ashamed.

  12. Jon,

    Certainly by now you realize that hate crimes are only committed by white Americans against other races. Indeed, the Holder Justice Department looked the other way on the obvious voter intimidation by the Black Panthers in 2008. They are looking the other way on the Panthers proposed bounty. But Holder will pursue Zimmerman. This case doesn’t surprise me at all.

    Jeff Metz
    http://www.mostly-right.com

  13. AND WHY IS THAT FAT COW OF A GIRL STANDING OUT THERE WITH NO PANTS ON WTF KIND OF TOWN IS THIS? I HOPE THEY GET EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM AND I HOPE THEY FACE HATE CRIMES BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT THIS IS!!!!!

  14. A POSSIBLE HATE CRIME? PLEASE, HE IS THE ONLY WHITE MAN AND THE ONLY ONE BEING BEATEN!! JUST SICK!!!!!!NO HUMAN BEING COULD DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS, THESE ARE NOT HUMANS!!!

  15. I always understood that the hate element goes into sentencing and is not itself the basis for guilt. What’s wrong with giving a stiffer sentence for a morally repugnant state of mind? Isn’t state of mind — mens rea– the very foundation of criminal guilt in the first place. I express no opinion re the video.

  17. Sadly, this several week old story dovetails with John Derbyshire’s article titled “The Talk: Non-Black Version” which dissolved his editorial relationship with The National Review. I fear we’ve moved on from living in merely interesting times to living in increasingly horrific times.

    Government must handle this very carefully to assure the proper administration of justice while keeping a lid on the racial kettle. I have no confidence Baltimore or Maryland or the Department of Justice is competent or even so inclined to handle this very, very essential task.

  18. Yes, Johnny Boy, I do wonder where the police were on St. Patrick’s Day night. Aren’t they usually out in force? And why was there not ONE police officer at a COURT HOUSE? Shouldn’t there be someone stationed there inside and outside to guard government property?

  19. The Commissioner either had his job threatened by the mayor, or is a complete moron that needs to be replaced in office. By the way, where is the MAYOR speaking up about this? And where were the police that night? A busy main street, and no police anywhere around, with groups of boisterous blacks loitering all over the place. I think that hate crime laws are stupid, but if they were ever meant to apply to crimes, this would be one. What if the victim was black, and the perps white? What if the victim was an Orthodox Jew, and the perps black or Arabic? I think the Commissioner would be singing a different tune. This is why I, and my family, go NO PLACE where there are any significant numbers of blacks present (or possibly present), especially after dark. I say, BOYCOTT Baltimore and any other city where these attacks on whites continue to go on and on, without much being done to control it.

  20. This incident is a perfect example of how good intentions can produce bad laws. The purpose of hate crime legislation is to provide enhanced punishment when the wrong is motivated by, for example, racial or ethnic hatred. But it makes no difference to the victim of a crime that he or she has been singled out as a representative of a disfavored class. Had the victim in Baltimore been a black person, would the crime have been less heinous? Had George Zimmerman shot a white man, should that fact influence the thoroughness of the ensuing investigation?

    Hate crime designations reinforce class-based notions of law enforcement. Furthermore, they divert attention from the inherent nature of a crime to issues extraneous to the goals of the criminal justice system. If we instead focus on ensuring due process and equal protection for both crime victims and those accused of criminal activity, we can gradually reassure the public of our commitment to the uniform application of the law. In the end, after all, one’s motives for mugging a stranger on the street are and ought to be immaterial.

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