So, this happened on Sunday. I live on Booth & Hadley, just north of Reservoir Park where this happened. I know both Mark and Jim who give statements in the article, I also know the girl who was beaten & had her backpack stolen...and I considered going down to the park to watch the fireworks but my girlfriend's parents were in town so I went out with them instead. Good thing I did.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/125027704.html
Surveillance video/story: http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/124986519.html
Lame press conference: http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/125044579.html
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said:
A 29-year-old social worker who has lived in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood for 10 years said he was punched in the face, a 28-year-old census worker said he suffered a black eye and a 28-year-old man who has also lived in the area for a decade saw a female friend thrown to the ground, beaten and her backpack stolen...
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said:
Lange said he told a police officer about the beatings but noticed the officer didn't write anything down or note his name. Lange said he was surprised to hear police say that only two armed robberies occurred in the park and no other violence.
Since the attack, the police have largely tried to downplay any connection between the robbery and the attack, and the racial side...the victims I know (all white) have said that it was a group of 20-30 black kids and that they were not only carrying armfuls of snacks clearly taken from the gas station, but without going into detail (not in the spirit of this board), there were some VERY anti-white racist comments made while the attack was happening. Two of the people that were hanging out were visiting Milwaukee from NYC for the first time. Wow, what an introduction.
The neighborhood, Riverwest, is a historic area currently going through a lot of gentrification, as it is across the river from the UWM campus and the trendy east side. There is occasionally a drug related shooting or whatever every few years but crap like this is TOTALLY unheard of.
The cops and the mayor just had a press conference where they basically acknowledged two strongarm robberies but failed to make any real connection to an assault of more than 10 people (sent two to the hospital) who were just watching fireworks in a scenic neighborhood park...and this is after they failed to take statements or bother to investigate when they initially were on the scene.
Not only is this clearly a bad thing for the neighborhood, but it is rapidly gaining media attention; some parties are trying to use this issue as a lightning rod for concealed carry legislation or the voter ID bill, and others are using it as a platform for flat-out racism...the incident was pretty clearly racially motivated, and while racism is bad and a tough topic to go on the record with, to avoid a discussion of it altogether in a city that clearly has segregation issues is just silly. And those issues are leading to violence like this.
I hear New York is nice.
shame it only takes a few people to ruin everything
It sounds like they're in full denial up there, and unwilling to face facts.
I'll leave it at that.
At least we are getting concealed carry here by the end of the year. About damn time. Hood rats will be thinking twice now, hopefully.
or packing more heat to compensate. Just be sure you know how to use it
We were having similar problems in Lansing. My brother in laws ex-girlfriend and her fiance were seriously beaten and "marked" exiting a Rite-Aid on the south side by a group of 10-15 males. Sarah had her jaw and right cheek, 2 ribs and her left arm broken. Ryans' skull was broken and he was in intensive care for months. Both had racist epitaphs carved into their abdomen or back. The police were never able to find out who the attackers were. Both of them are basically shut ins and their lives have been changed forever.
I am not a violent man, I do not seek retribution lightly but this nonsense has to stop. There is no reason for it at all.
This is really scary, as in "I'm running down to rent the U-Haul" scary.
When I finally left Memphis 6 months ago, it was to avoid what I felt was the potential for a situation like this. In Memphis's case, EVERY issue no matter how big or small has for YEARS/DECADES? been about black vs white. Some folks, like the alternative weekly newspaper, blame politicians who ignore these types of build ups to suit their own agendas. My fear, tho I never experienced it, was this type of police apathy. THAT part of this is truely disturbing.
Meh, sometimes the police have better things to do. Investigating stuff is hard.
Seriously, though, that's some wacked out mess. I just don't understand why some people can bother to think that way. Beating up somebody (brutally) because he is white or black or whatever... it's deplorable.
I know.. I do not get it either. I work with Black, white, hispanic, and asians all the time. We do get some fun rivalry going, but nothing serious. Are things really that bad in some places that everything is truely race related?
Wow, at least in NY when you get robbed it's to take your stuff, not because of your color.
It would be if the colors were reversed. 
xd wrote:
Is this a Hate Crime?
There are no hate crimes when white folks are the victims. If a black man attacks a honkey with a pipe and the honkey defends himself, injuring the black man in the process it's a racial attack and the white man would be in jail for years. There is no racism against white folks. There is no discrimination against white folks. There is no injustice against white folks.
If there were an NAAWP organization it would be shut down. If there were a cable channel WET it'd be shut down. If there were colleges exclusive to white folks, they'd be shut down. I just want to know, how many years before MY kids can say the "man" is holding them down?
mndsm
SuperDork
7/5/11 9:00 p.m.
At what point do "positive" minority groups say "Ok shiny happy people knock that E36 M3 off, we're tired of trying to disprove what you're proving"?
mndsm wrote:
At what point do "positive" minority groups say "Ok shiny happy people knock that E36 M3 off, we're tired of trying to disprove what you're proving"?
Bill Cosby tried to say that, and that did not end well.
On a similar note: Certain people could find this EXTREMELY offensive- You've been warned.
sadly, there are people on both sides of the "colour line" that will use race as an excuse for being shiney happy people.
mndsm
SuperDork
7/5/11 9:09 p.m.
Yeah, I seem to remember that. My problem is, I can't say a word of that myself (being blonde and blue eyed, ya know your prototypical white boy) without getting dirty looks. And it seems that no one else will speak up either. It reminds me of something I told the wife a while back-
"You spent HOW long working for equal rights and you want me to do THAT? (I think it was do a typical guy thing like take out the trash or something). No. Y'all fought for your rights, use em". For whatever reason, this seems to apply here.
DISCLAIMER- That comment was not meant to inflame anyone. It was more how I see things. People want this, that and the other thing, and when it comes time to actually own up to what comes with those priviledges both good AND bad, they don't want it anymore. You either get it all, or you get none.
mndsm and i had a conversation along the same vein the late this past week about a certain "gathering" that happens in this city.
Simple google-fu will tell the tale. I live in Indianapolis. The key word is "expo."
integraguy wrote:
When I finally left Memphis 6 months ago, it was to avoid what I felt was the potential for a situation like this. In Memphis's case, EVERY issue no matter how big or small has for YEARS/DECADES? been about black vs white.
I lived in Memphis about 15 years ago. I hated that about it. EVERYTHING was about race. I'd never seen anything like it. Really ruined the place.
Why do you guys think we aren't allowed to discuss the subject in an open and reasonable manner?
serious question
DrBoost wrote:
xd wrote:
Is this a Hate Crime?
There are no hate crimes when white folks are the victims. If a black man attacks a honkey with a pipe and the honkey defends himself, injuring the black man in the process it's a racial attack and the white man would be in jail for years. There is no racism against white folks. There is no discrimination against white folks. There is no injustice against white folks.
If there were an NAAWP organization it would be shut down. If there were a cable channel WET it'd be shut down. If there were colleges exclusive to white folks, they'd be shut down. I just want to know, how many years before MY kids can say the "man" is holding them down?
I'm going to break my response up point-by-point, so pardon my choppy formatting.
I thought the typical news story was, "White man protects himself against armed black attacker." Except that the weapon that the attacker was holding was actually a phone. And except that the man wasn't attacking, he was asking for directions because he was new to town.
The NAACP was formed in a time where there were serious legal and social discrimination against one group of people. Are there any equivalents to Jim Crow Laws aimed specifically towards white Americans?
There is no "white entertainment television" channel because most of television on air caters to white audiences. Observe who fills the leading roles and who are the protagonists, and who are the antagonists.
If you look at most universities in the United States, white students are in the great majority, so there doesn't have to be specific white universities. The historically black schools do not exclude white students. The main reason that historically black schools even exist is because historically, black students didn't have any other choice; they sure as hell weren't getting into the white schools.
Your children can say "the man is getting them down" whenever they want. It's never to early to find a scapegoat. The man can be anything; rich people, corporations, the government, the tax man, liberal media... Adopting a defeatist attitude has never been easier!
I don't hate whitey or anything. I just hear and see enough ignorant E36 M3 from other white people to delude myself thinking that we're poor victims in the whole mess of race relations. Each side is guilty of perpetuating the problem, and each side is guilty of protecting their own regardless of wrongdoing. A few years back, I remember a kid walking in a store with his father. The kid was wearing a shirt that had an illustration of an oak tree with four looped ropes hanging from it. Above the illustration was the title, "--- family tree." Is anyone comfortable with this message? I am not. I hear enough race-fueled garbage spoken to me by complete strangers to think that the problem is solved.
Osterkraut wrote:
mndsm wrote:
At what point do "positive" minority groups say "Ok shiny happy people knock that E36 M3 off, we're tired of trying to disprove what you're proving"?
Bill Cosby tried to say that, and that did not end well.
On a similar note: Certain people could find this EXTREMELY offensive- You've been warned.
The most frustrating show i ever tried to watch. I loved and hated that show and that episode was one of the better ones. When i first watched it i could not believe what they were saying on national TV. I would be strung up for saying the same things. Some other episodes the director/writer had his head SO far up his own ass.
MitchellC, the race issue is pretty much over now. Yes, there is still white-on-black racism and there shouldn't be. But there is jsut as much other-race-on-other-race that doesn't make press because only white-on-black matters.
I've heard of waaaaay too many issues where a group of, say, black guys beat a whitey nearly to death. Was ir race-related? I dont know. Could be that it was random, maybe they knew and hated the victim, maybe it was race. It never get's more than a quick mention on the news. But, a white boy (singular) punches a black kid in the face it's HUGE news. It could have been random, maybe he knew the black kid, maybe it was race whoknows? But the news will blow it up and make it Mississippi burning again. THAT'S what I'm sick of.
And as far as BET, NAACP, Black History Month et al, drop it. You want equality (not you personally) then you get into college on your merits, not skin color. You want a job, it needs to be based on your resume, not skin color. You want a loan for your small business, it should be based on your business plan not skin color. If there was any school that was set aside just for whites, or scholorships for whites etc. it would never fly.
Anyway, back to my original post. You'll never hear of a "hate crime" that is perpetrated against white folks.
DrBoost wrote:
And as far as BET, NAACP, Black History Month et al, drop it. You want equality (not you personally) then you get into college on your merits, not skin color. You want a job, it needs to be based on your resume, not skin color. You want a loan for your small business, it should be based on your business plan not skin color. If there was any school that was set aside just for whites, or scholorships for whites etc. it would never fly.
Anyway, back to my original post. You'll never hear of a "hate crime" that is perpetrated against white folks.
The current system is racist in itself, really.... If we're "all the same" (And i do believe that we are) then let's just hold everyone to the same standards hrmmmm?
