NYC hate crime on election night
New York City blog Gothamist reports that on election night, a teenager was beaten with bats in Staten Island:
17-year-old Ali Kamara, a black Muslim, was walking home on Staten Island Tuesday night after it was announced that Barack Obama was elected president when he was brutally assaulted by four white men. Kamara tells the Daily News: "I see the car coming. They looked at me and said, 'Obama!' They were not happy. They had hoodies on. They started hitting me with bats and my body started vibrating." Luckily, Kamara was able to break away and hide until the thugs left; his mother, who moved with Ali to Staten Island from Liberia in 2000, showed the News a bloody towel she used to staunch his wounds.
The NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the attack as a bias crime.
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My goodness the post-racial world that we have supposedly entered is full of pit falls isn't it. Perhaps we are just as racialized as we have always been. People need to get a clue. electing a black man didn't change a thing. In the light of dawn much work needs to be done.
Thanks Jessica for posting this. Along with the burning cross on the lawn of an Indian-Cuban family's home in Jersey, I fear for what dumb-ass racism is on its way.
Fucking Staten Island--the only burough to go red.
Staten Island. Not surprised. Before you jump all over me- I KNOW not everyone from SI is a racist (WU TANG!), but it's reputation doesn't come from nowhere. It was the only Burough to vote republican. Urban rednecks.
What is a bias crime?
We have hate crime legislation in my state but we call it that, a hate crime. How is bias crime different? Are the penalties different? I'm confused.
My friend Linda tells me that Staten Island is very red...
What the hell, y'all? Suddenly Staten Island's being the most Republican-leaning borough in New York -- and hey, did you not notice that it elected a Democrat to Congress for the first time in ages? -- makes a hate crime occurring there a surprise?
This isn't about politics; it's about racially motivated violence. Have y'all forgotten Howard Beach? Queens isn't exactly a red county. I don't know what the voting patterns of all the guys who attacked Griffith, Turks and Hawkins were, and I don't care. If they were card-carrying members of NOW it wouldn't make their attacks any less reprehensible or racist.
Also, separately, give Republicans some credit. The 50-odd million people who voted for McCain are not all stalking around at night looking for minorities to terrorize.
Make that "no surprise" -- e.g., "makes a hate crime occurring there a surprise."
Someone should tell Ashley Todd what a real hate crime looks like.
That is majority fucked up and I hope those men get whatever's coming to them! OMG I'm so mad as I type this!!!
How could they do this to a person especially a young girl they don't even know. I can't even describe how much hate I have for them right now!
I thought this happened to a guy?
Seriously, though, who thinks like that. "The election didn't go how I wanted it to so I'll go beat someone." Wtf? It's like we have two separate countries in one country.
Oh shit I just noticed that error....God I just had a dumb moment.
But really it's just fucked up people really think like that. Now if McCain won I wouldn't have beat up random people because I was pissed things didn't go my way. It amazes me people do stupid shit like this and can probably still get a good sleep at night.
These fucks probably gave each other a pat on the back after they were done.
Word. I was sooooooo pissed when Bush won twice (!)--or once, depending on how you look at it--but I didn't beat up any Young Republicans.
My new least-favorite term: post-racial.
Excuse me while I go barf.
I think that this is despicable, why on the biggest and most important night of the year would someone do this?
I think these fools would have done this on any night. The election was just an excuse.
I think it's important we stop focusing on how something could happen in a blue or a red area - bigotry and racism can be found anywhere at any time.
When we elected Obama as the next president, we elected hope and change. This means stepping back from the red state/blue state mentality, working together as a nation to make the change we want to see in this country, and this is not going to happen if we can't be bi-partisan.
Don't forget a few days after the election, a group of teens in CA took part in what basically was a lynch mob and beat to death the first Latino person they came across. Violence is not Republican or Democrat. Hate crimes can happen anywhere. I agree with Lalareina, the attack in NY could would have done this on any night. Let's work together to stop the hate and violence, starting by withholding judgments based on geographic voting tendencies and political party.