The public is shocked by the decision of Detroit Third Judicial Circuit Judge James Callahan who gave Latrez Cummings, 19, just six months for his participation in the savage beating of Steve Utash, 54, who hit a 10-year-old boy with his vehicle and then jumped out to try to aid the boy. Cummings then set upon him and beat him almost to death — leaving him with brain damage. His survival was not expected and doctors had to induce a coma to keep him alive. In a mob attack that came close to murder, Callahan decided a six-month sentence was sufficient for Cummings who is a gang member.
Some 20 people participated in the horrific attack in April. Some then stole his wallet and belongings.
The sentence shocked Wayne County prosecutor Lisa Lindsey who noted that “[t]here is nothing in this report favorable to this young man.” This included not only his gang membership but lying to police after his arrest.
Judge Callahan decided that a sharp lecture was sufficient with the light sentence. Callahan told Cummings “That’s what you have needed in your life is a father” and “somebody to beat the hell out of you when you made a mistake.” In a odd logic, it appears that the lack of that beating led Callahan to largely forgive the beating he gave Utash when it came to punishment.
Over the prosecutor’s vehement objections, Callahan simply said “We’ve all been 19 years of age.” That is demonstrably true. However, I do not recall joining a mob to try to beat a helpless man to death and then rob him. I do not even recall an impulse to do so. Callahan insisted that it might be different for females at 19 but he can understand how this can happen to a male teenager like this. The prosecutor tried to point out that Detroit is full of males without fathers but most do not gleefully try to beat an defenseless man to death.
The case has remained a great controversy over the response to the beating. Some have objected that, had this been a white mob beating a black driver, it would have brought immediate action from the Justice Department and calls for a hate crime prosecution. The light sentence given to Cummings will magnify those objections. Regardless of the merits of that objection, I do feel the sentence is shockingly light. Utash will live out his remaining days with brain damage and Cummings could be back on the streets within weeks given the time spent in jail before trial. In addition, the family will not be given justice with regard to the mob that beat him. Prosecutors only charged a handful of the culprits in the attack, though some may have been given deals to testify against the most responsible like Cummings.
Hopefully the judges in Chicago are a bit less relativistic after a man was beaten down this week in front of 200 cheering and taunting teenagers. He was attacked while he looked for his young daughter.
And in a surprise to no one that regularly reads this blog, the usual lowlifes have either: (1) made excuses for this miscreant; or (2) changed the subject…but, but…white privilege! The NYPD is bad! And black males are incarcerated at a higher rate! Thank goodness this dirtbag did not attack Hillary Clinton or a Kennedy. You’d be so torn.
If your comment about “marriage parties” refers to my statement about single mothers, let me explain further:
In some demographics, single mothers account for 75% of births. And this is not the European phenomenon where committed couples just don’t get married. In this case, the man is just completely absent, dumping all responsibility on the mother. And the federal government makes a poor parent. The offspring of single mothers have exponentially higher rates of drug use, dropping out of school, not going to college, joining gangs, committing crimes, ending up in foster care, and going to prison. Any of these risk factors can have severely detrimental effects on the lifelong prospects of each child; when a cascade of these events occurs, it’s extremely difficult for the child to overcome.
Any reasonable person would have a problem with this.
Children’s issues are very important to me.
So am I saying single mothers should walk around with a scarlet letter? Force people to get married who don’t want to? Of course not. I respect and admire single moms who do battle every day to make ends meet. I have less respect when a mom has 5 different kids with 5 different fathers, because it means she is oblivious to the selfishness of her actions in how it affects these children. It’s no longer a mistake at that point; it’s a lifestyle.
Why do we tell our kids to wait to start a family until they’ve found a good life partner, settle down, and become financially solvent? Is it because we’re out of touch? No. It’s because it’s the simple truth that it’s much harder to have a good and productive life if you start having kids as a teenager with guys who don’t stick around. You’ll struggle, and your kids will struggle.
I’m just repeating the wisdom most of us pass down generation after generation – be responsible and think about your future.
John:
What are you talking about, “marriage parties” and the “brain police?” Can you explain what, specifically, you disagree with?
BarkinDog, if you favor outlawing tobacco, then you must also be in favor of outlawing fast food, high fructose corn syrup, GMO food, animal protein, any one of which by itself kills far more than tobacco annually.
Forget the hot dogs and cold cuts – processed meats boost heart failure risk by more than 25 percent
(NaturalNews) Heart failure incidence is escalating at an alarming rate and now affects more than six million men and women in the US, a number that is expected to double over the next ten years. It is a problem caused by years of elevated blood pressure…
http://www.naturalnews.com/046069_processed_meat_nitrates_heart_disease.html
This is from the internet regarding the number of chumps who smoke and die in New York City:
Deaths in New York from Smoking
Adults who die each year from their own smoking 23,600
Kids now under 18 and alive in New York who will ultimately die prematurely from smoking 280,000
I know that the whole world is following the death toll in Gaza and Israel but look what is self inflicted here in the U.S. Let us take care of our own people first. Sue the tobacco companies into oblivion. Outlaw smoking. If you outlaw smoking only outlaws will have cigarettes. That is a good one. They will die quicker.
Off topic. We need a blog spot for us to suggest new topics. A good new topic would be the punitive damage award of 23 Billion dollars against some tobacco company that has killed millions of people.
Karen S,
Are you the “Brain Police?”
Ultimately, will you be prescribing marriage parties?
Where will you end?
Was Charles Manson charged with and/or convicted of a “hate” crime?
Look in the mirror and tell us if you’re the personification of the rationale for severely limited government.
Do humans have lives and shall they conduct any affairs on their own or is it “womb to the tomb” comprehensively, completely, irrevocably and in perpetuity?
Damn! This really is a Brave New World and you embrace it heartily.
Scary. Really scary.
Dredd,
Focus like a laser and please give me one succinct answer.
Was Lincoln RIGHT or
was Lincoln WRONG?
Was Lincoln BRIGHT or
was Lincoln DIM?
Was Lincoln’s vision for the future the correct one or the wrong one?
From the above article, it sounds like they did charge at least one of the suspects with “ethnic intimidation,” so it does sound like a racial hate crime.
Sad.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/judge-orders-trial-4-charged-mob-attack-detroit-motorist-article-1.1764465
The real hero of the day was Deborah Hughes. She is a nurse who not only rushed to the aid of the boy with a broken leg, but intervened to stop the attack on Utash. She said that Cummings must have kicked the old man at least 10 times.
It takes a brave lady to face down a mob, but God bless her for doing so.
http://www.freep.com/article/20140717/NEWS01/307170085/Utash-sentencing-Detroit-beating
It appears that none of those involved got sentences that followed sentencing guidelines.
It was just a “boys will be boys” verdict.
Apparently, Cummings lied about his school status, and claimed he had a back injury before beating Utash.
I do not know what evidence convicted him of the beating.
BarkinDog:
An elderly white man accidentally hit a child with his car. A mob set upon him and beat him almost to death.
You can GOOGLE Latrez Cummings mob beating and you’ll find numerous articles.
I want to know if the men were questioned as to whether it was a hate crime. Because they only seem to ask when it’s Caucasion against African-American. But racism is racism, and it’s wrong no matter who the victim is.
anonymous:
“Now that is so Karen.”
You’re just saying that because I obsess about the plight of children.
There is something happening here…….
From the internet:
Five people have been arrested in connection to the brutal mob beating that left him critically injured. Now, one of those suspects is at home, freed on bond, and spoke to Local 4 about what happened that day.
“I’m not the perfect dude,” said Latrez Cummings. “I did stuff in my past (but) I’m not the kind of dude everybody thinks I am. I was there. Don’t mean I did anything. Police say something about people everyday; don’t mean it’s all true. I was just basically at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Quick Clicks
Steve Utash’s family says he is able to breathe on his own
Prosecution: 16-year-old threw first punches in Utash…
Steve Utash shows sign of improvement
Cummings said he was one of several people that day who ran into the street to help the 9-year-old boy who was hit by Utash.
“I was going to try and help him and they were like, ‘Don’t touch him, he might have something broke.’ Little dude was crying then that’s how it all escalated,” he said.
Cummings said that’s when the violence erupted.
“Words get exchanged, they fighting and in the middle I see it was time for me to leave,” Cummings said. “I never hit the dude.”
Utash, 54, was left to die in the middle of the road. He then spent weeks in a coma.
Cummings was arrested and charged with assault with the intent to murder and assault with the intent to do great bodily harm.
Four other men remain in jail for the beating.
When asked if he was worried about going to jail for a long time for a crime he said he didn’t commit, Cummings said, “No, I’m not worried at all. I pray everyday. I know I didn’t do it. Nothing to be worried about.”
Cummings also had a message for Utash.
“Prayers to him. (I) hope he gets better,” Cummings said. “I didn’t do anything to him so there’s no beef between me and him. Prayers to him and his family.”
I agree with fiver above. The judge might know more about this case than we have learned here in our article. Photo of black kid described as Gang Member on the left and old white guy portrayed as hero on the right. What is it that riled him up? Fireworks? Two hundred people in the park. How many in the city and what difference does it make?
Maybe this story needs some more investigation.
“I wonder if this young man was the product of a single parent. Because he fits the profile – criminal history, gang affiliation, etc.”
Now that is so “Karen.”
So sad. There is no justice in this sentence.
From what I read, it is possible that this was a racial hate crime.
Is the judge sending a message to all the fatherless youths of the area that they can beat elderly men with impunity? That having a tough childhood renders them irresponsible for their own actions?
If this man suffered a traumatic brain injury – that’s a life sentence. Part of him is gone. He may not be able to function on his own ever again. As someone who watched a loved one die in degrees from Alzheimer’s, causing a traumatic brain injury that can cause dementia, memory loss, disability, or loss of function is very serious.
It’s true that 19 year old youths are immature, but we don’t typically see gangs of them beating the elderly almost to death. Something is seriously wrong with either impulse control, a complete lack of empathy, and a lack of values for a 19 year old to almost murder an elderly man by beating him.
I was 19, and I never had the impulse to assault anyone. My brother was 19, and he made it to adulthood without beating up any old men.
Part of the problem is thug culture, a glorifying of racism against whites, and the proliferation of single mothers. Kids pay the freight for the mistakes of their parents. And the children of single mothers are statistically more likely to drop out of school, join gangs and/or engage in other criminal behavior, and end up in jail.
I wonder if this young man was the product of a single parent. Because he fits the profile – criminal history, gang affiliation, etc.
Really Professor?
We know you’re well aware that we live in a society that has set all time records, both in raw numbers and per capita, in the amounts of people we imprison. You’ve written about it. We’ve read it.
Surely you’re also aware how fear mongering has contributed to this result – especially fear mongering about “gangs” of dark skinned teenagers attacking innocent white people. Watch out! They’re “wilding!”
Of course, fear mongering works best with embellishment and loose words that allow the reader’s fear to fill in the blanks. Just what did Latrez Cummings, himself, do? This is what we’re told:
Reads pretty much like Cummings was the ringleader. Indeed, it reads like Cummings did this pretty much single-handedly. But is that what actually happened?
A lawyer would want to know. A demagogue wouldn’t care.
But this was a plea bargain. And not the only one resulting from this incident. Of the four attackers who have pleaded, the prosecution has only whined about two: Latrez Cummings and James Deontae Davis. Davis was given a year as part of a five year intensive probation. The prosecution wanted 19 months. http://www.freep.com/article/20140717/NEWS01/307170085/Utash-sentencing-Detroit-beating
Yet we’re told Latrez Cummings was the guy who “set upon [the victim] and beat him almost to death”? That doesn’t sound right at all. Another guy was given twice Cummings’s sentence.
Also, that man in Chicago who was victimized by a terrifying “gang” of two hundred teenagers? Nope. Only three teenagers (plus one who intervened on the man’s behalf). The “200” number? Sounds scary doesn’t it? Except: “Police estimated there may have been as many as 200 teens in the park that night.”
Not 200 teenagers that were part of or encouraging the attack. There “may have been as many as” 200 teenagers total in the entire park.
There also appears to be more to the story than “poor innocent man looking for his daughter is set upon by rabid kids.” Indeed, checking your link, it doesn’t appear that he was “looking for his daughter” at all and the skirmish seems to have resulted following an argument about fireworks.
Who was the aggressor? Couldn’t tell you. There hasn’t been a trial yet. Yet at least one nationally recognized lawyer and law professor is already “hoping” for stiff sentencing.