TheeBadOne
07-06-2005, 02:58 PM
Hate Crime
Sharpton leads march to protest bat attack
Activist challenges Howard Beach residents to join protest
NEW YORK - The Rev. Al Sharpton led a protest Monday to decry last week’s baseball bat attack on a black man. The rally came nearly 19 years after Sharpton visited the same area to protest a deadly racial attack.
Police have arrested a 19-year-old man in the latest incident that left the 22-year-old victim with multiple skull fractures. An alleged accomplice also was arrested. Both men, who are white, have been charged with robbery and assault as a hate crime.
The attack happened just blocks from where three black men were beaten in 1986 by a white mob after the victims’ car broke down. One of the men, 23-year-old Michael Griffith, was killed by a car as he fled. A week afterward, a protest march was marred by jeers and insults from the mostly white neighborhood.
On Monday, Sharpton and several dozen other protesters challenged community members to take part in an anti-racism march.
“We want Howard Beach residents to march,” Sharpton said. “We want to see if the community of Howard Beach will stand up and denounce racism.”
Police said Glenn Moore and two other black men were walking in Howard Beach early Wednesday when they were attacked by three men. One of Moore’s friends said he intended to steal a car, but Moore was not aware of the plan, officials said.
A lawyer for accused attacker Nicholas Minucci said Moore provoked the violence by holding a screwdriver to Minucci’s neck. Police and prosecutors said that account was not credible.
Article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8415209/)
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Not a Hate Crime
Suspect freed by police hours before slaying
SEATTLE -- According to police, a typo proved tragic for Michael Robb.
The popular high school tennis coach was driving down a street in Seattle when he stopped his car, possibly to help a young man waving him down. He was killed seconds later by a shotgun blast in what prosecutors say was a racially motivated slaying.
The teenager charged in his death, Samson Berhe, had been questioned by police several times in the previous week -- including three hours before the shooting -- about a burglary. Officers repeatedly checked their records for outstanding warrants, but nothing came up so they let him go.
Berhe actually did have an outstanding arrest warrant in a car theft in 2002. But it misspelled his last name as ''Berne," an error police say is the reason officers could not take him into custody before the shooting last Sunday.
''It's incredibly unfortunate," police spokeswoman Debra Brown said Thursday.
Prosecutors filed a first-degree murder charge against Berhe on Thursday, his 18th birthday, the same day as Robb's memorial service.
Robb, 46, married and the father of a 14-month-old daughter, was white. Berhe is black.
Charging documents said Berhe had often spoken to his neighbors about killing white people. A friend, Raymond Valencia, told detectives that Berhe had said, ''I got to shoot a cop or shoot a white person, you know, before I leave this world."
A neighbor, Anna Bell Perkins, quoted Berhe as saying, ''I'm going to kill all the white people" -- a threat he had made at least a dozen times. She said she saw him with the shotgun outside his home Sunday morning.
Police on Thursday released a timeline of several contacts with Berhe in the days before the shooting. On June 19, officers took him to Harborview Medical Center for evaluation after his mother reported him to be suicidal; she told officers his doctor had recently taken him off unspecified medication for mental health problems.
Police took him to Harborview again on June 22, after he was accused of hitting one of his brother's friends but doctors determined that he was not in need of treatment. On June 23, his parents refused to pick him up, saying they were afraid of him. He was released to Child Protective Services, a state agency.
On the day he was killed, several witnesses reported seeing Robb's Volkswagen Jetta come to a stop in the center lane of an industrial street in Seattle. A young man approached, pulled a shotgun out of a bag, and fired nearly point-blank into the open driver's-side window, the witnesses said.
A nearby resident said the shooter had been standing by the side of the street -- agitated and possibly yelling to himself -- a few minutes before the car pulled up. Robb's friends and family told detectives he would have stopped to help someone who waved him down. After the shooting, the young man ran toward the Duwamish River. Berhe was found the next day on a river barge.
As detectives interviewed him, Berhe called them "all you haters" and "all you (expletive) white people," charging papers said. He refused to answer questions, but instead made faces, spit and drooled. He flexed his biceps and challenged detectives to fight.
Robb coached the varsity girls tennis team at Newport High, as well as the junior varsity boys team. He was also a tennis umpire who had previously worked the U.S. Open.
Berhe was being held on $1 million bail pending his arraignment July 7. He would face a standard sentencing range of 25 to 31 years if convicted. He was not yet represented by a lawyer.
web page (http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8B29USG0.html)
Sharpton leads march to protest bat attack
Activist challenges Howard Beach residents to join protest
NEW YORK - The Rev. Al Sharpton led a protest Monday to decry last week’s baseball bat attack on a black man. The rally came nearly 19 years after Sharpton visited the same area to protest a deadly racial attack.
Police have arrested a 19-year-old man in the latest incident that left the 22-year-old victim with multiple skull fractures. An alleged accomplice also was arrested. Both men, who are white, have been charged with robbery and assault as a hate crime.
The attack happened just blocks from where three black men were beaten in 1986 by a white mob after the victims’ car broke down. One of the men, 23-year-old Michael Griffith, was killed by a car as he fled. A week afterward, a protest march was marred by jeers and insults from the mostly white neighborhood.
On Monday, Sharpton and several dozen other protesters challenged community members to take part in an anti-racism march.
“We want Howard Beach residents to march,” Sharpton said. “We want to see if the community of Howard Beach will stand up and denounce racism.”
Police said Glenn Moore and two other black men were walking in Howard Beach early Wednesday when they were attacked by three men. One of Moore’s friends said he intended to steal a car, but Moore was not aware of the plan, officials said.
A lawyer for accused attacker Nicholas Minucci said Moore provoked the violence by holding a screwdriver to Minucci’s neck. Police and prosecutors said that account was not credible.
Article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8415209/)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not a Hate Crime
Suspect freed by police hours before slaying
SEATTLE -- According to police, a typo proved tragic for Michael Robb.
The popular high school tennis coach was driving down a street in Seattle when he stopped his car, possibly to help a young man waving him down. He was killed seconds later by a shotgun blast in what prosecutors say was a racially motivated slaying.
The teenager charged in his death, Samson Berhe, had been questioned by police several times in the previous week -- including three hours before the shooting -- about a burglary. Officers repeatedly checked their records for outstanding warrants, but nothing came up so they let him go.
Berhe actually did have an outstanding arrest warrant in a car theft in 2002. But it misspelled his last name as ''Berne," an error police say is the reason officers could not take him into custody before the shooting last Sunday.
''It's incredibly unfortunate," police spokeswoman Debra Brown said Thursday.
Prosecutors filed a first-degree murder charge against Berhe on Thursday, his 18th birthday, the same day as Robb's memorial service.
Robb, 46, married and the father of a 14-month-old daughter, was white. Berhe is black.
Charging documents said Berhe had often spoken to his neighbors about killing white people. A friend, Raymond Valencia, told detectives that Berhe had said, ''I got to shoot a cop or shoot a white person, you know, before I leave this world."
A neighbor, Anna Bell Perkins, quoted Berhe as saying, ''I'm going to kill all the white people" -- a threat he had made at least a dozen times. She said she saw him with the shotgun outside his home Sunday morning.
Police on Thursday released a timeline of several contacts with Berhe in the days before the shooting. On June 19, officers took him to Harborview Medical Center for evaluation after his mother reported him to be suicidal; she told officers his doctor had recently taken him off unspecified medication for mental health problems.
Police took him to Harborview again on June 22, after he was accused of hitting one of his brother's friends but doctors determined that he was not in need of treatment. On June 23, his parents refused to pick him up, saying they were afraid of him. He was released to Child Protective Services, a state agency.
On the day he was killed, several witnesses reported seeing Robb's Volkswagen Jetta come to a stop in the center lane of an industrial street in Seattle. A young man approached, pulled a shotgun out of a bag, and fired nearly point-blank into the open driver's-side window, the witnesses said.
A nearby resident said the shooter had been standing by the side of the street -- agitated and possibly yelling to himself -- a few minutes before the car pulled up. Robb's friends and family told detectives he would have stopped to help someone who waved him down. After the shooting, the young man ran toward the Duwamish River. Berhe was found the next day on a river barge.
As detectives interviewed him, Berhe called them "all you haters" and "all you (expletive) white people," charging papers said. He refused to answer questions, but instead made faces, spit and drooled. He flexed his biceps and challenged detectives to fight.
Robb coached the varsity girls tennis team at Newport High, as well as the junior varsity boys team. He was also a tennis umpire who had previously worked the U.S. Open.
Berhe was being held on $1 million bail pending his arraignment July 7. He would face a standard sentencing range of 25 to 31 years if convicted. He was not yet represented by a lawyer.
web page (http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8B29USG0.html)