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White Student Beaten On School Bus; Crowd Cheers! Still, Doesn’t Look Racist
Written By : John Hawkins

At the top of Drudge right now is a story called: “White Student Beaten On School Bus; Crowd Cheers.

The implication there, of course, is that this was a racist event. The story, which is from St. Louis today, also points in that direction. Here’s an excerpt:

The 17-year-old victim was white and the teen assailants were black. Police released a video of the beating, which shows the victim being punched repeatedly while other students on the bus gather to watch, some cheering. It doesn’t appear that the victim did anything to provoke an attack and tried only to defend himself. Police said it all unfolded in a five-minute span.

The victim was trying to find a seat and was told by two students he could not sit next to them, police said.

As he walked to the seat, someone shouted, “Beat his @ss.”

When he did sit down, one teen tried to push him out of his seat then began grabbing the victim’s neck and punching him in the face.

With each punch, some in the crowd chanted, “Boom, boom, boom.”

The victim eventually returned to his seat, but another student began taunting him a few minutes later. The victim was then struck in the face.

…”In my estimation, it’s racially motivated,” said Capt. Don Sax of the Belleville Police Department. He said one reason he had formed this opinion was that many of the students, most of whom were black, yelled their support for the beating.

“There was absolutely no justification for the beating either time,” Sax said. (Hawkins’ Note: If you want to actually watch what happened, there’s a non-embeddable video at the link, so you can actually watch the whole thing.)

After reading the article and watching the video, there’s nothing in it that strikes me as racist. I know it’s a black kid beating a white kid. I know that the other black kids were cheering him on. You know what that is? To me, it’s just the “bus experience.”

Early on in my high school years, I was kind of mousey. I got picked on. I once even got into a fight on the bus for no more of a reason than that kid did. There were no seats left and I had to sit down in front of the biggest bully in the entire school. He started smacking me on the back of the head just because he thought he could get away with it. That’s how it started. It ended with a flurry of punches and my busting his lip — although I think I would have to give him the victory on the judge’s scorecard. The good guys don’t win them all.

That bully was white, but was the scene significantly different? Not really. High school kids are amused by fights — even very one sided fights. Getting excited, yelling out “boom,” or saying “kick his @ss” are just par for the course. It’s all very Lord of the Flies — and I tell you that from experience. As I got older and meaner, if you count the minor scuffles, I probably got into 8 or 9 physical altercations during high school and my first year of college.

In fact, I never really stopped fighting, ironically, until I started taking martial arts. After enough practice and sparring, I got confident that I could handle myself in a fight. Once you believe you can kick someone’s @ss if it comes down to that, unless you have no self-esteem or you’re a jerk, you don’t feel a need to throw hands over every little thing to defend your honor. Just knowing that you could is enough.

That’s a bit of a winding path, but back to the topic at hand. I don’t know what’s in anybody’s heart, but what you saw on that bus probably wasn’t about race. It was about high school trash acting like animals when they can get away with it. My guess is that across the country today, when kids go home from school, the rough equivalent of what you saw in that video will happen a dozen times with kids of all different races involved.

The bullying? The school should use a firm hand to deal with that. But, I don’t think the bully needs to be sent to some tedious tolerance class because he behaved the same way with a white kid that he probably behaves every day of week with other black kids when he can get away with it.

PS: Let me add that the primary reason this sort of bullying goes on is that schools refuse to effectively deal with the thugs, losers, and troublemakers in their ranks. Public schools are simply not properly equipped to deal with hoodlums. That’s why they should treat public education like a privilege instead of a right, so they can get more of these disruptive students out of the schools. Instead of worrying what’ll happen if that 2% of the population doesn’t get to go to classes they’re flunking out of anyway, they should be much more worried about the other 98% of students whom they’re harassing and slowing down.

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  • http://conservativebootcamp.com martinhale

    I'm reminded of my days at the boarding school I attended from age 8 to 13. It was in a rural stretch of Southern Ontario and the laws of the time allowed corporal punishment of students by teachers. The school was modeled after the British "Public" School and therefore all of the staff had birch pointers with which they dispensed brutal classroom justice. Headmaster had a collection of wooden paddles for the heavy duty knockaround action, but believe me, a well-placed birch rod applied with force to the tops of your stretched hamstrings is more than enough to get any point across.

    But to the good side, we listened, and more importantly, we learned.

    "Wrong, Do it again!"

    "If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"

    "You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy!"

  • karensp9

    Oh my god that is soooooo strange Martin, guess what song is playing on my radio at work right now!!!! Wow talk about freaky!

  • CoolCzech

    I suppose if this kid doesn't particularly care for black kids from now on, he'll be labeled "prejudiced."

  • http://WriteWinger WriteWinger

    If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck then it is a duck .. there is no clearer example of racism against whites that I can think of in recent memory.

    Reverse the skin colors at play in the story and you will go deaf from the cries of "racism" .. is it right?

    Perhaps it is just a simple case of a group of friends ganging up on an "outsider" and bullying them .. I just don't buy it.

  • http://redinktexas.blogspot.com Rorschach

    Back when I was in school, it was understood that self defense was an affirmative defense to prosecution (prosecution in this case being a 1 x 4 oak paddle with holes drilled in it to lessen drag). So if you were the aggrieved party and you defended yourself you were in the clear when it came time to dispense punishment. Nowadays it doesn't matter if you were defending yourself, you are still going to be suspended if you throw a punch. The obvious intent is to teach you to never ever defend yourself. I have instructed my girls that if they are attacked, they are to do their level best to kick the snot out of whoever attacked them, because the school sure as hell is NOT going to protect them or defend them. If they are suspended then the school will have to deal with a very angry and pissed off parent.

    This is what "zero tolerance" gets you.

  • D-Vega

    Doesn't seem like a racially-motivated assault, but its hard to tell.

    I've dealt with similiar types of thugs in my past. They don't really have to have a reason to assault you. It's more about status than race.

    On the flip side, it was actually a black student who pulls the assailant off of the victim. And there are white kids in the background encouraging the violence as well.

    This is an example of high school brutality. Next time, the victim should just hit the black kid with a chair to demonstrate a crazy streak. That's the way its work in that world. There's a pecking order.

  • http://conservativebootcamp.com martinhale

    Karen, I still have a reflexive cringe when I hear that song. Especially the line with "laddy" in it – most of my instructors were English and they used the term laddy like a derisive curse. So every time Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2 pops onto the radio, I shudder just a teensy bit – it brings back memories of five years of being hit.

    But as I said, I was able to read the Venerable Bede (Britain's first historian) in the original Latin when I was in what amounted to fifth grade, so I guess the ends justified the means.

    Or some such poppycock.

  • http://www.superdickery.com mightysamurai

    I can't seem to find any video link in the article so I can't say for sure. I will say though that if this had been a white kid beating up a black kid with students cheering all around them, there would not be the slightest clue in the minds of any liberal in America that the incident was racially motivated.

  • D-Vega
  • karensp9

    Martin, wow that sounds like quite the experience you had and education to boot! Sorry you got hit though that couldn't have been much fun!

  • http://www.superdickery.com mightysamurai

    On the flip side, it was actually a black student who pulls the assailant off of the victim. And there are white kids in the background encouraging the violence as well.

    Not relevant. All that proves is that those particular students are not racist. The point of concern is the black student who decided, for no apparent reason, to beat on a white student, and the black students who cheered him on.

    I submit again that if the races had been reversed in this situation the cries of racism from the left would be deafening.

  • karensp9

    Mighty-I agree with ya there. I believe that if this was reverse there is no doubt we'd be hearing all kinds of crap about it and Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would be all over the net screaming racism.

  • D-Vega

    There's no real way you can tell either way, sam. I don't care the color. They should be prosecuted as hate-criminals if it was racially motivated. Though I don't know if St Louis even has those laws.

    And either way these punks should face charges of assault, since the victim didn't do anything to provoke it.

  • http://conservativebootcamp.com martinhale

    Karen, it was an everyday experience for most of the students there. Usually just a flick of the birch pointer on your knuckles or forearm – sometimes a trip to the front of class for the old "grab your ankles, laddy, and stay still". And on a bad day, a trip to headmaster's office for a legally sanctioned beating.

    My best friend from home attended Brother Rice Academy in Birmingham, MI and the Jesuit Priests who ran it were no more or less physical in their approach to education that they were at my school. Even at the girls companion school next to Brother Rice, Marian, the nuns did a lot of knuckle-whacking with rulers and yard sticks. BTW, the yardsticks were there to measure the distance from the hem of a girls kilt to her kneecap. Less than three inches and the lass was on her way home to explain to her parents why she was such an abject trollop and a slut-to-be.

    Good times.

  • karensp9

    Mart-lol!!! slut to be that's just awsome!!

  • http://www.superdickery.com mightysamurai

    There's no real way you can tell either way, sam.

    I didn't say there was. My point is only to note that, if the races were reversed, there would be no doubt in the minds of the majority of liberals that this was racially motivated.

    Personally I don't think it matters whether this was racially motivated or not. If it was racially motivated, does that make the beating worse? Does it make the victim's bruises hurt more? If this was exactly the same set of circumstances only with a white kid beating on another white kid, would the crime somehow be less wrong?

  • smelvertising

    The obvious intent is to teach you to never ever defend yourself.

    Is it any wonder that people growing up on such suicidal ideals then start comparing Joe Wilson, a bold truthteller, with Kanye West, a pompous douchebag?

    There's no real way you can tell

    And speaking of bullies that could have used some serious education via paddle to the backside… hey, cowardboy, if you can't stop sticking to featherweight topics because you're so in the red with credibility Obama is almost ready to subsidize you, at least don't project your utter inability to understand on others. I, for one, understand very well what's going on there. Also, not touching that if the skin colors were inverted you'd be screaming racism louder than you beg for mercy when I easily school you on any topic, any time… hypocrite.

  • gfchicago

    Everyone knows that if it had been in the reverse it would be racism and the white students would be charged with a hate crime.

    If it's good for the goose it's good for the gander. Those little thugs should be charge with a hate crime pure and simple.

  • D-Vega

    I didn't say there was. My point is only to note that, if the races were reversed, there would be no doubt in the minds of the majority of liberals that this was racially motivated.

    I'm not sure if you or anyone could speak for the majority of liberals. If you are asserting that the usual race-baitors/exploiters would take advantage, I would have to agree.

    Personally I don't think it matters whether this was racially motivated or not.

    It does in the broader context because one incident could easily lead to another, even though the students may not even know each other.

    And mind you kids, especially the "young, dumb, fun of ___" kind, fight all the time. Everytime a black kid is beaten up by a white kid, its not national news. Fights happen all the time. Even this incident, while wrong, is not really that bad as compared to other assaults.

    Now, a black kid being set upon by a gang of thugs, or vice versa, is a different story.

    If it was racially motivated, does that make the beating worse? Does it make the victim's bruises hurt more? If this was exactly the same set of circumstances only with a white kid beating on another white kid, would the crime somehow be less wrong?

    It is an added element in terms of the motivation behind it. And hate crimes laws, which should be used to increase severity of the punishment, are used as a deterrent for future similiar acts.

  • http://guardian.blogdrive.com/ CavalierX

    hate crimes laws, which should be used to increase severity of the punishment

    I've never understood the need for "special" treatment of people according to race or gender. Can you explain why, if I murder a man, it's somehow worse if he's black or gay? Aren't we all guaranteed equal treatment under the law?

  • tblrk2006

    I've never understood the need for "special" treatment of people according to race or gender.

    Posted by CavalierX

    2009-09-15 16:31:21

    According to lefties it’s because white people are inherently racists and it’s to combat that.

  • D-Vega

    I've never understood the need for "special" treatment of people according to race or gender. Can you explain why, if I murder a man, it's somehow worse if he's black or gay? Aren't we all guaranteed equal treatment under the law?

    It's not worse in terms of the crime, but in terms of the motive behind the crime.

    If someone victimizes a child, for example, the public outrage is higher and the person would usually face stiffer punishment than, say, one gang-banger shooting another.

  • D-Vega

    Also, hate crime legislation came out of a desire not to give special treatment to anyone. On the contrary, it was developed in order to treat such crimes as being just as serious as any other assault.

    There was a time when no one would really care whether some black kid, or gay kid, was roughed up on the street. Probably didn't belong in the neighborhood in the first place.

  • http://guardian.blogdrive.com/ CavalierX

    It's not worse in terms of the crime, but in terms of the motive behind the crime.

    Ohh, the Thought Police will punish me for my ungood thoughts.

    If someone victimizes a child, for example, the public outrage is higher and the person would usually face stiffer punishment than, say, one gang-banger shooting another.

    First of all, we do not (or should not; I forgot Sotomayor is on the SCOTUS now) set punishments according to the level of community outrage. Second, you are comparing two entirely different things. How about if omeone victimises a white child as opposed to a black child, for instance? Why will you not address my original question about why it is worse for me to murder a black man than a white man?

  • http://guardian.blogdrive.com/ CavalierX

    Also, hate crime legislation came out of a desire not to give special treatment to anyone. On the contrary, it was developed in order to treat such crimes as being just as serious as any other assault.

    To quote the great Joe Wilson, "You lie!" Why should one murder have the additional punishment of "hate crime" attached to it because the victim (let's be honest about this) happened to be a member of a minority group while the criminal was not? Equal treatment under the law, Vega: that's all I'm asking for.

  • http://www.superdickery.com mightysamurai

    I'm not sure if you or anyone could speak for the majority of liberals.

    Well I am anyway.

    Come on, D-Vega. We both know what the response from the left would be if the races were reversed in this instance. You would all be screaming bloody murder and accusing these kids of racism. Deny it if you want, but we both know you would.

    It's not worse in terms of the crime, but in terms of the motive behind the crime.

    So you've decided to punish criminals for the thoughts they were having at the time of the crime? Wow. That's so transparently fascist I can hardly believe it.

    If someone victimizes a child, for example, the public outrage is higher and the person would usually face stiffer punishment than, say, one gang-banger shooting another.

    Yeah, because those are different crimes.

    Victimizing a child is manifestly different from victimizing a fully grown adult. There is no such difference when it comes to race. I defy you to prove otherwise.

    Also, hate crime legislation came out of a desire not to give special treatment to anyone. On the contrary, it was developed in order to treat such crimes as being just as serious as any other assault.

    Really? So out of a desire to treat all crimes "equally" you've decided to treat certain crimes specially?

    Do you really not see the incongruity here?

  • Ralph_Gizzip

    Just line them up against the wall and shoot them now. It'll save the Criminal Justice system money in the long run.

    Now that's zero tolerance!

  • http://Kingfisher Kingfisher

    It's not worse in terms of the crime, but in terms of the motive behind the crime.

    The problem is that extremely difficult to prove the motive behind the terms.

    I have called both Clinton and Obama socialists. Take a guess where I am labeled as a racist by the left? Take a wild, wild guess.

    Hate crime legislation exists solely to force political correctness onto society.

  • DrEvil

    "Hate crime" laws are an abomination against against the Constitution,equal protection under the law, blind justice and simple fairness. Something like 90% of all crimes are intra-racial, blacks mug blacks, whites rob whites,etc. Of the inter-racial crimes something like 90% of the time the victim is white and the victimizer is black. Less than 10% of the time the victim is black and the victimizer is white but something like 90% of the time those charged with hate crimes are white. A white is about 50 times more likely to be the victim of an inter-racial crime but whites are like 1000 times more likely to be charged with a hate crime. Reverse the stats and there would be riots in the streets and non-stop news coverage of the gross discrimination of "hate crime" laws.

    Have an Evil day

  • tblrk2006

    Posted by mightysamurai

    2009-09-15 18:38:55

    BIGNO

    Posted by DrEvil

    2009-09-15 21:28:01

    BINGO

    Damn vega, you really did let your inner liberal shit head out on this one.

  • http://wastingtimewithalex.com/ AlexinCT

    Also, hate crime legislation came out of a desire not to give special treatment to anyone. On the contrary, it was developed in order to treat such crimes as being just as serious as any other assault.

    Are you really saying that for some reason it used to be that people that committed a crime because of some hateful motivation somehow got less punishment than someone that committed the same crime otherwise before hate crime laws where passed? If I kill a guy because he is gay and I hate gays, and some other guy murders someone else based on anything but hate, are you really saying my punishment would be less? WTF?

    That above Vega is a prime example of why I think the progressive movement is, and those that adhere to it are, about as f-ing dangerous and stupid as it ever gets. Its is why I am not one too. That this illogical nonsense passes for something smart or good these days, just increases my belief that people that think like this will be the downfall of civilization.

  • Toastrider

    If I thought for one minute that hate-crime laws would be applied equally across the board, I could probably scrape up some support for them.

    The problem is that they won't be. They'll simply be used to establish 'protected' groups. Some animals will be more equal than others.

    Snohomish has it right. It's surprising how fast bullies find other people to annoy when you dislocate their body parts, headbutt them, or casually yank them from a desk and toss them to the floor. :D

  • http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/genesis/kingbounty/ murray_the_miser

    I don't for a moment buy the idea that this crime does not at least in part have a racial component. Blacks are by far currently the most openly racist of any ethnic group in US. The last couple of generations of blacks have been taught and encouraged to resent and hate mean 'ol "Whitey" by their leadership and the resulting anti-White racism is ignored or even encouraged by self-loathing White liberals. It's no wonder this sort of thing happens so often. And yes, had the races been reversed in this case the left would be howling for blood.

    As to the larger topic of hate crimes laws, I too would be more supportive if they were more evenly enforced. Blacks commit, according to FBI crime statistics, over 90% of the inter-racial crimes that we classify as "hate crimes", yet are almost NEVER prosecuted under existing hate crime laws. And didn't the new AG recently state that Whites are NOT protected under the new proposed Federal hate crime law?

  • johngalt

    Sorry John but I disagree. I live near Milwaukee and lived relitivly close to the more african areas. I also worked in a capacity that had me interacting with blacks on a regular basis. I had noticed a major shift in attitude after the election. This shift was not for the better. Since January I have been in Iraq so I cannot say what it going on there.

    I do think that we will see more blacks lashing out at whites as Obama goes down in the polls and as he is called more and more into question. Obama and his cronies will pull the race card every chance they get and with it we will see more violence. It may not look like crimes but then what exactly does a hate crime look like. Just look for an uptic in black on white crime.

  • CoolCzech

    There was a time when no one would really care whether some black kid, or gay kid, was roughed up on the street. Probably didn't belong in the neighborhood in the first place.

    Posted by D-Vega

    2009-09-15 17:27:26

    That may be, but I think we can all agree those times are long past.

    I'm distinctly uncomfortable with the business of government trying to convict someone of what was going thru their minds as they committed a crime. That, by definition, is a "thought crime."

    Frankly, what goes on in my head is NO ONE'S business. All the law need concern itself with is what my body does or does not do.

  • http://Kingfisher Kingfisher

    They are all angry cowards who seek to harm those whom they perceive to be vulnerable and in a much weaker position to defend themselves.

    Posted by snohomish

    2009-09-15 23:28:35

    You just described yourself perfectly, hoggo. That explains why you constantly change your ID.

    Too bad you made the colossal mistake of trying to argue against us….people who are far smarter than you.

  • http://conservativebootcamp.com martinhale

    Posted by snohomish

    2009-09-15 23:04:44

    Posted by snohomish

    2009-09-15 23:28:35

    Another patented hoggo 'oh, and another thing…' afterthought. This time it took 24 minutes for your alleged thoughts to percolate though and spit out two more sentences, which say in essence, the same thing as did the posting before it.

    And you wonder why you have no credibility, hoggo.

  • D-Vega

    I do think that we will see more blacks lashing out at whites as Obama goes down in the polls and as he is called more and more into question. Obama and his cronies will pull the race card every chance they get and with it we will see more violence. It may not look like crimes but then what exactly does a hate crime look like. Just look for an uptic in black on white crime.

    Sure, keep stoking those racial fears of Obama. Just like Limbaugh has with this incident.

    This had nothing to do with national policy or Obama. It was an assault by a bully.

  • http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/genesis/kingbounty/ murray_the_miser

    Don't be an idiot, Vega.

    You have to be blind not to see that baseless charges of phantom "racism" from the left and perpetually agrieved blacks have exploded since Chimpy's election. We've also seen more and more examples of blacks openly spouting anti-White racism. Here is just one example:
    http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-e

    Increasing anti-white racism will logically lead to more and more examples of hate crimes against Whites. Like I stated today in another thread, Obama's election will set back race relations in the US at least ten or twenty years.

  • http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/genesis/kingbounty/ murray_the_miser

    Posted by snohomish

    2009-09-16 14:54:29

    That's an open admission of troll status. You shold not only be banned from the ste, but beaten half to death for being a coward and an idiot.

    But time again the staff of this blog, from the owner on down to the moderators, have shown that the clearly stated rules mean nothing at all. Thus this idiot, now onl like his sixth or seventh name, will be permitted to stay.

  • whats_up

    Posted by murray_the_miser

    2009-09-16 15:10:12

    Lucky for us this is not your blog, if you dont like how its run, dont post, trust us you wont be missed.

  • http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/genesis/kingbounty/ murray_the_miser

    Posted by snohomish

    2009-09-16 15:13:52

    You just posted an admission that you are a troll. why are you bothering expressing an opinion now? What little credibility you had is completely shot now. Like MightySamurai is fond of saying "No one cares what you think.".

    Lucky for us this is not your blog, if you dont like how its run, dont post, trust us you wont be missed.

    Posted by whats_up

    2009-09-16 15:19:37

    Yeah, lucky for you it's not my blog. By now I would have filed a complaint with your ISP in regards to your repeated sock puppet accounts.

  • http://conservativebootcamp.com martinhale

    "What if the creators of RWN…"

    OK, hoggo, I'll play 'what if' with you.

    What if you suddenly got intelligent? What if you wrote with a personality that didn't resemble someone sucking mixed lemon juice and grapefruit juice through a straw made of alum? What if you didn't need to hide behind a dizzying array of user names? What if you reset your interactions with people on this site so that they were based on honesty? What if you didn't have to carry the baggage of being the guy who fed everyone BS about who he is for nearly two years? What if you stopped lecturing us like bad children and tried to actually talk in an adult manner with people here? What if you hadn't spent most of the last couple of years alienating anyone who might actually talk and debate with you? What if…

    Still want to play 'what if'?

    Alas, dear hoggo, none of us are particularly interested in you, your ideas, or you pie-in-the-sky 'what-iffing'. You've dug a pretty deep pit for yourself, and I think most of us would just as soon see you stay in it.

  • http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/genesis/kingbounty/ murray_the_miser

    *golf clap*

    Well stated, sir.

  • http://TheNixonTape.Com Dick_Nixon

    snohomish will now have his confession inserted into every thread he posts in by Nixon. Public service, etc.

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