Today’s Mobile Press-Register contains excellent reporting (on the heels of two days of great reporting by local TV station WKRG) about the racial mob beating of Matthew Owens in Mobile on Saturday night, courtesy of staff writers Brendan Kirby, Rhoda Pickett, and Robrt McClendon. They flesh out what I reported in my column this morning, which is that the victim is no prince, but instead a confirmed troublemaker.
Some neighbors said they have witnessed belligerence from Owens in the past, and police reports show that he has gotten into scrapes before with others — both black and white.
“He probably did as much to instigate this as anybody,” said Marsha Skipper, who lives next door.
…
Skipper, who is white, said she gets along with her black neighbors and has not had problems with the black children. She said it would be bad for the neighborhood to turn the incident into the opening salvo of a race war.
“I don’t want to see a racial issue with this,” she said. “I don’t want to see a black-white issue out of this.”
On the other hand, despite the absurd statements from the Mobile police downplaying the racial angle, the P-R showed ample evidence of just that:
One of Parker’s neighbors, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said he was watching a movie with his family when he heard the confrontation. The neighbor, who is white, said several of the black residents were shouting racial slurs.
He said one of the assailants shouted, “This is justice for Trayvon,” an apparent reference to the unarmed black teenager in Florida whose shooting death at the hands of a Hispanic neighborhood watch volunteer sparked a racial fury.
This is not how Trayvon Martin should be remembered, as an instigator of racial violence. One victim does not require that another, unrelated victim be created for some sort of racial expiation of sins.
At the rally protesting the Trayvon Martin case in Florida sponsored by Al Sharpton, with Sharpton looking on approvingly, radio host Mark Thompson fulminated openly about this country still being “a system of racism and white supremacy.” That is a sick lie, and a dangerous one because it sends the message that society cannot be trusted — which to some minds means that racial vigilantism is the only solution. We are better than this. There should be no victims, black or white. We still await Sharpton demanding justice for Matthew Owens.
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Dixie Pixie| 4.25.12 @ 1:48PM
Personally I sympathize with the neighbors.
Who would like a “Race War” breaking out in their neighborhood?
What is surprising is the “Black” and “Liberal” Preachers of “Racial Harmony” and “Togetherness” are totally silent.
The obvious conclusion is the “Black” and “Liberal” leadership condones such attacks as “Justice” for past “White” sins.
Obama and Holder has got their backs on these attacks.
The true evil is the Democrats and Liberal allies use this same political tactic every Presidential election cycle.
Do you remember when Bill Clinton stated, he remembers being able to read a newspaper by the light of burning Black Churches?
Thus implying that without the Democrats in office, rampaging gangs of White Racists would burn Black Churches and Communities to the ground.
Every election cycle the Democrats pose as the protectors of us all from racial “Injustice”.
Don't expect the Democratic Leadership to do anything except encourage more racial animosity.
Of course after the election the Democrats will demand the White community abase themselves to “Heal the Racial Wounds” and “Persevere Racial Harmony”.
The whole point is votes for Obama and the collection of political / economic spoils after the election.
jstwndring| 4.25.12 @ 2:05PM
To Hillyer, or, AS, or, whoever is deleting my and other's posts here:
If you can't deal with honest reactions, don't do the story in the first place. Work with the mainstream media, and keep us in the dark.
Dixie Pixie| 4.25.12 @ 3:18PM
That would be the webmaster or his minions.
As noted in the Comments Editing Statement the reasons for deletion are rather broad.
Conservative Bob| 4.25.12 @ 2:25PM
Keep your anger and response individual.
I have been watching this rising phenomenon for a while and have a strong sense that it is being orchestrated for a political purpose.
I think race is being used as a tool for O’s re-election, minimally to keep the base fired up although I suspect much worse.
Some of the racial comments I have read are frightening in their overstatement. This president and his minions are seeking to divide us along racial lines, along economic lines etc. Don’t get caught up in it.
If someone regardless of color attacks me or my family I will direct my response in a very controlled manner to their center of mass. Whether they attack me because of my color, political persuasion, age, or just because they want to take what is mine, my response will be the same, 230 grains at 852 fps. I am and always have been responsible for my own safety and the safety of my family. I am armed and proficient in the use of a wide variety of weapons. I do not and will not look for trouble; I actively seek to avoid places where I might encounter trouble. If however it seeks me out or worse yet my family my response will be immediate, brutal and fatal, without concern for race creed sexual orientation or national origin. It also will be exclusively focused on the individual or individuals actually attacking, not their neighbor or their uncles or their brother or sister or cousins.
As a believer in individual liberty I also am a believer in individual responsibility, socialists subscribe to the theory or group rights and group guilt.
Do not allow yourself to be manipulated by people seeking to control us by dividing us.
One last point.
No one ‘wants’ a race war, some may think they do but they are fanaticizing without any connection to what that reality would look like. Recall the tribal genocide that erupted in Uganda when Clinton was in office. Do you want to expose your children or grandchildren to that kind of madness? Direct your ire not at some group of ‘others’ but at the politicians and media hacks that think fomenting this kind of insanity is somehow beneficial to their political aspirations.
Oldefarte| 4.25.12 @ 2:35PM
My previous posting regarding the individual responsibility of this issue aside, this race hustling/class division/community organizing crapola [strictly fro political purposes] that is being manipulated from 1600 and southside Chicago is dispicable. There is one and only one solution and that is the election of Mitt Romney [and as many other Republicans as possible] in November. I do not say this for partisaned political purposes, but instead because we hve a POTUS who is attempting to manipulate citizens racially for political reasons and same is extremely dangerous and asinine. He should not have been elected to our highest office because of the potentiality of his history, but he was so elected [and the past is the past, but it does not have to become the future]. His whole administration and partially beyond within the Democratic Party is also dangerous as to the attitudes and professed policies that are now coming forth from same. There is again one solution and that is 11/4/12......WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oldefarte| 4.25.12 @ 4:10PM
Obviously someone agrees with me on this:
http://bloom.bg/JWe7M2
Crassus| 4.25.12 @ 2:53PM
These Ubangi Stompers being urged on by Jackson, Sharpt0n, and the New Black Panthers need to stop and consider one thing---what's going to happen when the white people finally wake up and start fighting back.
JohnD| 4.25.12 @ 3:09PM
This is of course a reference to the Warren Smith hit song "Ubangi Stomp."
Don't take the bait folks. We are being baited into a reaction to this. Just inventory your ammo and supplies and keep calm.
dca| 4.25.12 @ 4:01PM
Don't know anything about Ubangi Stomp but I can assume the nature of the reference. JohnD is exactly right. Inventory the guns and ammo. Teach the wife & kids to shoot straight. The black racists and their media and Chicago acolytes DO want a race war, literally and/or figuratively, whichever empowers them more. But they don't think we (non-blacks) know how to or will fight back. We'll soon see which side is correct--but make no mistake, the Trayvon worshippers are not Americans. They hate America, they hate you, they would love to pull a Hutu-Tutsi tribal cleansing over on as many non-black Americans as possible. It's a matter of what we let them get away with.
Seek| 4.25.12 @ 3:56PM
The Mobile beatdown stands as another example of why racial integration was way oversold as a means to achieve social justice and harmony in this country. By its nature, it can achieve neither -- no matter what the country.
So Matthew Owens is no choir boy. So what? Where is it written that black gangstas have a right to play judge, jury and executioner? As for the late Trayvon Martin, another murderous-tempered black bully, he already has received due justice.
Ed| 4.25.12 @ 4:07PM
Was Rich Lowry seen investigating this incident while you were down there? He's a stellar example of the race pandering "conservative". Who's closer to the reality of life on Delmar-John Derbyshire or Lil Richie.
Seek| 4.25.12 @ 4:25PM
Last I heard, Rich Lowry was planning an MLK celebration for conservatives.
Ed| 4.25.12 @ 4:09PM
There have been multiple incidents in Chicago where people involved in car accidents have been dragged from their cars and beaten to death by similar groups.