One for Red - A Media Acknowledgement of Black on White Hate Crime

A mob attack on a motorist in Detroit.

Red baiting aside (sorry, but it was something I remember him commenting on a number of times as never happening), the most worrying thing for me in the story was this:

Police have said Utash was driving home from his job as a tree-trimmer on April 2 when he struck a 10-year-old boy who stepped out into the roadway. When Utash got out of his truck to check on the boy, police say he was jumped by 10 to 12 people.

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Hit and runs are a major problem and now, potentially, there is a defence against the crime "I didn't want to get beaten half to death by an angry mob of locals"..

LMPD investigating string of Mob attacks in downtown Louisville

LMPD Chief: Teens at Big 4 Bridge had gathered to remember TARC stabbing victim

the media, has gone out of their way to avoid describing the profile of exactly who was involved in the mob




hoodies


Teens accused in mob attack claim innocence

"They have been falsely identified, falsely accused," Allen exclaimed.

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Ugh.

I was wondering when this one would show up here.

As much as I have seen black-on-white hate around Detroit... (And trust me, I have.) I don't really think the Steven Utash incident had much of anything to do with his color. It had everything to do with the vigilante mob mentality that has taken a very strong root over the past years.

People drive recklessly through the inner city of Detroit. Some of them are lost. Some of them are scared. Some of them are high. Some of them are just assholes. It appears that Steven Utash was none of them. He was unlucky, and had a kid step directly into his path, with no where to go. It's probably unlikely that anyone in the mob even saw what happened. They just saw a kid down, a guy getting out of the truck, and decided that they needed to do something about it. That something in Detroit is vigilantism. There is no thought of calling the police. There is almost no police. And if someone did call the police, they'd show up 2-3 hours later, and probably arrest the person that called the police for possession or an outstanding warrant. That's pretty typical.

The only real difference is if it were a black driver that hit the kid and got beat up, it makes page 5 of the blotter. A footnote in the routine daily violence of a city that has an ineffectual, overtaxed skeleton of a police force.

You make the inner parts of Detroit sound like it's a demilitarised zone.

In truth the post was simply to point that some in the media are prepared to make the claim that black on white hate crimes are called as such. Now as to whether or not this is an actual example I'm happy to take your word on it - it seems Detroit is almost a world of its own and several times you've explained where outside observers were wrong.

You make the inner parts of Detroit sound like it's a demilitarised zone.

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Heh... And I try not to be too negative about it.

But I think there is a strong temptation to fit Detroit into the same mold as other nearby cities that people are more familiar with when discussing these things. Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Philly... The downtown skylines of these cities superficially look a lot like Detroit. But I've never seen anything like a few of the streets in the inner city of Detroit, anywhere. And that is including the time in the late '90's I accidentally drove through Compton at night. Detroit is a different animal.

A couple weeks ago on a popular call-in Detroit morning radio show, a woman was relaying a story about how it's a culture shock when she got married and moved from the inner city of Detroit to her husband's house in Warren. (a decidedly middle-class suburb) She had parked her car in the street in Warren, and noticed kids had broken into it. She laughed at her husband for calling the police. But then she was completely shocked when they showed up within 10 minutes, and actually picked up the kids who had done it at the local pawn shop several hours later. She's all like "We live like KINGS out here, now!! It's AMAZING!" I wish I could find a podcast of the call. It's so Detroit.

I'm surprised the other vigilante shootings of home invaders hasn't made any of the gun threads here. This story has links to several others...

In the latest in a string of such fatal shootings, a 47-year-old man is in custody after police said he shot two people who had broken into his home on Detroit’s west side this morning.
http://www.freep.com/article/20140409/NEWS01/304090071/Man-dead-home-invasion-shooting-Detroit

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ilwrath said:

I'm surprised the other vigilante shootings of home invaders hasn't made any of the gun threads here. This story has links to several others...

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Detroit Police Chief said Detroit residents have been dealing with an epidemic of violence for some time and expressed approval of individuals who are exercising their Second Amendment rights to fight back against criminals.

metalman said:

Detroit Police Chief said Detroit residents have been dealing with an epidemic of violence for some time and expressed approval of individuals who are exercising their Second Amendment rights to fight back against criminals.

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Yup.... And another home invasion shooting early this morning. This time they shot the get away driver, who was outside the home, too.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/...ther-house?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

[...] the homeowner shot at the suspects who returned fire, Woody said. The two suspects ran away on foot while a third suspect, a getaway driver, was shot inside a vehicle sitting outside the home, Woody said.

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I wonder if red will see it? He doesn't seem to have been around for a half a year. Anyone know what's up with him?

FluffyMcDeath said:

I wonder if red will see it? He doesn't seem to have been around for a half a year. Anyone know what's up with him?

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Well, he's taken extended breaks from here before. I guess he's become fed up with the circular nature of the discourse on the site and I suppose that's happened to quite a few posters over the years.
The other Robert hasn't been around for awhile either.
Wayne hardly ever posts.
Lee only pops his head up occasionally.
Karlos took his ball home years ago.
Even Faethor seems to have gone AWOL.
Etc, etc.

FluffyMcDeath said:

I wonder if red will see it? He doesn't seem to have been around for a half a year. Anyone know what's up with him?

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http://www.whyzzat.com/threads/biking-while-black.25018/#post-71022

and as i got ready to leave... i realized i had one more thing to do... thanx to your new posting... and you can quote me on this and hold it against me for all times,"you sir, are a racist"... and "you are icky because of it"... i hope it washes off, and far away from you, and i pray to a god that i don't believe in, that someday you will be struck "kind", at the very least.... just ugh!! ​

robert l. bentham, Sep 19, 2013 Report
cecilia likes this.

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The last time I was here for any length of time I remember the other Robert going off on red in a serious way and wondering wtf I'd missed in the intervening months. I guess he finally got sick of it.

These days he can be found on moobunny if anyone is interested.

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Ya, I was wondering about Red as well. That sucks, but I don't blame him as I too have been wondering why I keep coming back.

the (American) Robert has been moving to Colorado.