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The Spectacle Blog
The Mobile Press-Register had just about a perfect news story today with the latest on the Matthew Owens beating case about which I have written many times at this site, and which continues to earn national attention. Please read Brendan Kirby’s balanced, comprehensive new report right here. The police chief, Micheal Williams,
disputed key elements of the narrative offered by Owens’ sister and other witnesses interviewed by the Press-Register. Contrary to reports that it was a mob-beating, the chief said investigators could only confirm that one person — Terry Rawls — actually assaulted the victim. And Williams said Owens’ wounds and other physical evidence do not support reports that a host of objects, from law furniture to a paint can, were used in the attack.
This is truly bizarre. Pictures taken of Owens in the hospital cleary and unambiguously show a light-blue paint-like material on his face, especially under his left nostril, very prominently — a color that happens to match, exactly, what shows up on TV news footage of a paint can featuring the exact same color at the scene. Likewise, TV footage shows a broken chair with a very large amount of very red liquid dried all over it; if that liquid isn’t blood, and if that chair just happened to be sitting on that porch even though the chair was badly busted, without having had any role in the beating, then I’m a Plutonian and the moon is a great big key lime pie.
Then there is the chief saying they probably will decline to charge not only everybody else on the scene who was in the yard and, in at least some cases, urging on the attackers, but that he may not even arrest the two other people he described as being “in close proximity” to the assault.
As Kirby’s story rightly notes,
Alabama would appear to give police some options to charge others, depending on the facts. For instance, anyone who voluntarily contributes to a crime — even if he was not present for the incident — could be charged as an accessory. Another statute makes it illegal to incite a riot. The law defines that as anyone who “solicits, incites, or urges another person to engage in tumultuous and violent conduct“ that is likely to caused a grave risk of public terror.
At least the police chief now acknowledges what other police spokesmen spent weeks categorically denying, namely that there was indeed racial tension and there were racial epithets, reportedly from both sides, during the incident. Put into proper perspective — an ongoing dispute between two men, ongoing neighborhood tensions that seem to have been only partially race-related, a lone apparent reference to Trayvon Martin (any idiot observer/peripheral participant among the crowd of 20 could say that and not have it be the main cause of the attack), and other context provided by multiple news reports — the attack can be assessed by the public in full context and adjudged accordingly. But when officials deny the obvious, which was that race played at least some role in the attack, then the credibility of the whole investigation is badly undermined, and racial tension actually rises because people resent seeing things swept under the rug. The path to healing is truth, not a false paint job over the facts, and it certainly should not involve denying that the paint itself is even there when it is in reality in plain view.
What sticks in the craw is a consistent double standard, evident also in the Norfolk beating case http://bearingdrift.com/2012/05/03/virginian-pilot-defends-non-reporting-of-norfolk-beating/ , in which crimes of a certain sort by one race are excused, papered over, not reported, played down, etcetera, while crimes of similar sorts by another race are hyped mercilessly; especially when the racial aspects of the first are denied and when the latter may not even have had any racial aspects but the race angle is nationally hyped by people with a history of inciting violence, but who the national media treat as heroes.
When the Obama/Holder Justice Department stands reliably accused, without a single specific denial from the Holder DoJ, of adopting a policy of not enforcing civil rights laws when the victims are white and the perpetrators black http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/15/racialist-justice/, then it is understandable why so many people want to make a national issue of the double standard when a case that is obviously at least partially race-based, like the Owens beating, attracts not a peep from DoJ.
This is important. Justice should be color blind. Otherwise, racial backlash begets racial backlash, and the cycle of racial tension might be never-ending.
View all comments (15) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/05/09/mobile-police-shames-itself-in
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 5.9.12 @ 6:53PM
Police departments are notoriously corrupt. I worked in one for 30 years and can tell you that Owens is lucky he wasn't arrested for crowd harassement and turned into a Zimmerman NBC edited racial monster
Occam's Tool| 5.10.12 @ 11:26AM
I hide in the rural Great White North.
Vern Crisler | 5.9.12 @ 7:12PM
It's this sort of uncaring official behavior that encourages vigilantism.
C Bowen | 5.9.12 @ 8:39PM
Another story for you Quin:
http://www.katu.com/news/local.....54705.html
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.9.12 @ 9:38PM
The problem with the youthful urban commuter assailants is that they are too young to remember Bernie Goetz. Perhaps someone should text them a photo of Darryl Cabey in his wheelchair.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.9.12 @ 10:51PM
Stepping away from the moment looking at the big picture, in the long run, a conservative objection to hate crime statutes has frequently been made that what is in an assailant’s heart is less important than the act itself, and the intent to do harm. While that is difficult to recall this in the currently racially charged atmosphere that Holder and Obama have helped exacerbate, not getting bogged down in the racial aspect of a given case may be the wise path for many in law enforcement to follow.
It seems difficult to ask aggrieved groups to forswear vengeance as the wheels of justice slowly grind. It is more important to note, though, that it is not necessarily a group which has a grievance in many of these cases.
I do not believe that the evidence known at this point suggests Trayvon Martin was killed because of his race, or that even if hate was the motivation that that was more significant than some other deadly sin, such as jealousy or greed. The only ones that can claim a grievance in that case are his surviving family members (though the evidence might also eventually show that their grief is akin to the anguish experienced by Victor Frankenstein when the villagers kill his creation as it wandered amok in the countryside). Even though it is the State of Florida as “the People” moving the case, the aggrieved don’t include Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson or other racial grievance mongers.
Likewise, it is Mr. Owens who took the beating in the Mobile case, not the white race. Even if the beating was racially motivated, he is the one who is hospitalized, and while the effect of the assault reverberates, to try to manipulate his victimization beyond him or those who innocently witnessed the attack is to engage in the behavior of a Sharpton-like race-baiter. Hopefully, competent investigators will continue to investigate, locate the witnesses that the newspaper and the victim’s sister speak of and develop the evidence necessary to charge and convict all involved, and punish them appropriately for their role. Should they fail to do so, it is incumbent on the people of Alabama and the voters of Mobile to change the administration to one which is sufficient skilled to administer the city and provide public safety.
In any event, I wouldn’t count on Eric Holder’s Justice Department investigating whether or not Matthew Owens’ civil rights were violated, which is among the reason that the November election is as important as it is.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.9.12 @ 11:44PM
"which is sufficient skilled to administer the city and provide public safety."
Though if I hadn't sent all my adverbs to the State Department to be used against Assad, I might have written "sufficiently".
WL| 5.10.12 @ 12:40AM
I agree with you on this....however, when race is blatantly playing a part in the distribution of justice...then Race is a part of it whether we like it or not.
I'm sorry, but it's real hard to be colorblind when we are paying taxes to support a Dept. of Justice that doesn't care about it when we are the victims...but will go to ANY measure to defend others based on THEIR RACE.....
Lastly....all of us whitey's have been trying to be colorblind all of our lives...but the other side sees nothing BUT color...
We don't want to do them wrong...we just want to make sure crimes against us aren't swept under the rug because of our race.
Marco2| 5.9.12 @ 10:56PM
Perhaps time for the State of Alabama to step in? You do have honorable, honest civil servants (for the most part) at the state level of law enforcement, yes?
TYR| 5.10.12 @ 3:42AM
So, the Mobile police chief Michael Williams states, that "investigators could only confirm that one person -- Terry Rawls -- actually assaulted the victim."
Oh-ha.
And the hospitalized fellow, Mr. Matthew Owens, was so incapable of handling just Terry Rawls during the scrap? Mr. Owens could not defend himself? At least some?
See, normally in a one-on-one, particularly if Mr. Owens is not otherwise infirm prior to the incident and is of a young enough age, and if Mr. Owens has already been in physical scraps, there'd be some "damage" to Mr. Terry Rawls, too.
From this incident was Mr. Rawls in any way injured? Did Mr. Rawls have scars, any bruises, bleeding or need any ER care?
I bet that the answer is no.
And that would lead me to believe in multiple assailants.
Please keep the spotlight on this, Mr. Hillyer.
I smell rotten fish comin' outta da Mobile Poleeze Station.
Will| 5.10.12 @ 6:42AM
I saw Ken Cuccinelli on O' Reilly last night, regarding the Norfolk case. Have to say, he was rather defensive, and chose his words carefully. O'Reilly didn't do much prep work for the interview and was more or less shot down pretty quick. A man with his resources should have known ahead of time just what Virginia law can and can't do. It seems as though both departments are willing participants in the game, as they know that Washington will remain hands off. Hopefully, legistlators in both States are working on investigations that will lead to removal of these clowns.
Troubles in Tidewater VA| 5.10.12 @ 9:42AM
It is good that both incidents in Mobile and this less reported (to date) one in Norfolk are at least getting some national attention.
I don't think that people have much confidence in the Norfolk P.D. It really is odd that in a super large military city like Norfolk with so many military families that come and go, don't know the area all that well (they're only there for 2 or 3 years at most), that the lawlessness of the streets is so bad. Drugs. Gangs. Organized crime. And a large but very, very inefficient Norfolk Police Department. It really is too bad. Otherwise it could potentially be a relatively decent place to live. But it just isn't. Totally unsafe. Students, professors and staff at Norfolk's Old Dominion University are told to stay on campus always, don't stray off, or look to get mugged.
One would think that the four star Navy and Marine brass would kick some tail in the Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, and Portsmouth areas -- so as to make it a safe place for military personnel, contractors, and their families. Seems that nobody much cares. Everybody just cares about themselves only. Just lookin' out for number One.
Oldefarte| 5.10.12 @ 11:43AM
Quin, we all know that your second-to-last paragraph [boy TAS PARAGRAPH POLICE WON'T ARREST YOU FOR SURE] 'slains it in entirety. This is reverse racism in spades, and is being filtered down from on high aka USJD and/or 1600. What else is new? Whose is shocked or alarmed about this? Certainly not me! I saw this coming well before 11/4/08, but sadly others did not obviously. Again, I do not so much blame the police department as they are caught between a rock and a rock here. Without credible witnesses to come forward and definatively point out the perpetrators in this incident and be willing to testify in court over same, what can the police really do? The fault lies with the chicken-excrement neighbors/residents on this street that were not involved and KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, but are too afraid to stand up for justice and what's right. This happens in my neighborhood as well, in that they are no one with the guts to step up, man up etc. Gutless/spineless/worthless etc is the only description, and it applies sadly in life in general. People witness assaults on streets in braod daylight and say nothing to police. What, get involved, are you kidding me????? Owens would be smart to simply find the very best attorney in Mobile, Alabama and file the largest lawsuit against anyone/everyone who was involved in his beating. He knows [or should know who of his nieghbors] who were involved, and possibly the homeowners' insurance coverages of their houses should possibly become liable under law for such acts of violence. I'd simply sue the hades out of them and obtain justice through the civil courts, and say to heck with the criminal courts system!!!!
Jake| 5.10.12 @ 1:28PM
The police chief is black.
Flip the races of the victim, the perps and the police chief and it's almost certain the police chief would be looking for a new job.
And every American would know the name of the beating victim.