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Subscribe to RSSThe Virginian-Pilot newspaper of Norfolk, Va., waited two weeks before reporting that two white reporters were beaten by a group of young black men. And since the story came out, the city’s police department has defended its handling of the case.
Columnist Michelle Washington broke the news of the April 14 attack on reporters Dave Forster and Marjon Rostami in the May 1 edition of the newspaper.
“Wave after wave of young men surged forward to take turns punching and kicking their victim,” Washington wrote.
Washington and a police report obtained by NBC station WAVY indicate the reporters were driving away after attending a rock concert at the Attucks Theater. When they stopped at a red light among a crowd of about 100 people, Rostami locked her car door. Someone threw a rock at her window.
Forster stepped from the car to confront the rock thrower but was punched by him and several other black males, the police report says. When Rostami tried to reach over the driver’s seat and pull Forster back into the car, she was struck in the head, cheek and eye areas by a black assailant standing outside the car, the police report says.
After the pair managed to lock themselves in the car, the crowd thinned and Rostami called 911, police reports said.
The two suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene by paramedics. They told Washington that a responding police officer did not take witness names and told Rostami to shut up, and that the attackers were probably teenagers from nearby public housing. The officer gave them his card and told them to complete the report on the following Monday.
The 911 call came at 11:08 p.m., Officer Chris Amos, Norfolk police spokesman, told msnbc.com. An officer was there by 11:09 p.m., he said. Other units followed, and their lights and sirens likely caused anyone remaining in the crowd to scatter, he said.
Amos told msnbc.com that the responding officer decided to leave the pair to respond to another call – reports of shots fired amid a crowd – after determining Forster and Rostami were safe and advising them to leave the area. They did come in the following Monday to complete the report, he said.
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The officer involved, Amos said, denies the quotes attributed to him in Washington’s story, which he called editorial comment. There was no delay by the police in providing information on the case, he said.
Norfolk police respond to attack
“From the very beginning we have been actively involved in this investigation," Amos said. "No arrests have been made.”
Many people were on the street late that Saturday because several events got out at once, Amos said. Many in the crowd that Forster and Rostami encountered live in neighborhoods adjacent to the venues and were walking home, not loitering, Amos said.
Amos said he suspected anyone, regardless of race, who had gotten out of a car to confront the rock thrower would have seen the same result.
Virginian-Pilot editor's memo to staff regarding the attack
Forster told Washington he had seen one Tweet linking his case to revenge for Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teen fatally shot by community watch captain George Zimmerman in Florida.
“(Do it for Trayvon Martin),” it said.
Critics accused the paper of burying the attack over race relations. But Pilot Editor Denis Finley, in a memo to the staff obtained by WAVY, said, "We did not cover up anything. We bend over backwards to treat ourselves the same way we would treat any other member of the community. ... We have done our due diligence with the story."
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This is a hate crime by definition and the attacker should be prosecuted as such. Hate Crime "In crime and law, hate crimes (also known as bias-motivated crimes) occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, sex, gender identity, social status or political affiliation."
You're making a very large assumption that this group attacked him for being white as opposed to attacking him for being stupid enough to stand up to them en mass. This is a classic case of mob mentality. When a mob is challenged, it will nine times out of ten react and react violently.
Had this been a one on one attack, or a group of 5 or 6 people vs this one guy then I would be inclined to agree with you. Unfortunately a crowd this big can sweep even the most upstanding of people into doing something violent, something they would never normally dream of doing.
Also, stop being so influenced by how reporters write. The make-up of the mob is technically unknown. Going by the reports of the victims is shaky at best because they will only see what they expect to see. I've seen examples of this first hand in the (predominantly white) VA high school I went to. A white male was jumped by about six people. There was one black student among them, yet when he reported the incident and talked to his friends about it he said he was jumped by "a group of black guys."
So instead of trying to make this about race, why not just say this is a tragedy and hope that justice is done.
You have got to be KIDDING me rj2029x.. Call it what it was HATE. If it were Black reporters and a WHITE mob Brother Al would be all over Hampton roads and you know it.
Poor up bringing, no rules at home, and being able to disrespect adults with no recourse .. the PARENTS of these THUGS failed!! Our city is paying the price. the p[olice needs to ENFORCE the laws and through the lot in jail.. then the THUGS can see what a real bad A$$$ is like !!
What white people got beaten by blacks, where is all the media attention, this is a hate crime just like if the roles were reverse, pure and simple but the media and the other organizations deem it not news worthy. I don't care what color your skin is this is wrong and should be put on the same level as others.
“Wave after wave of young men surged forward to take turns punching and kicking their victim,” Washington wrote. hmmmmmmm...........The two suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene by paramedics. Double hmmmm hmmmmm....... Sorry I find something fishy about their story.
You MUST be black.
And stupid !
HA!!!!!!! Bobr is right, you must be stupid!
Or he could be thinking logically and actually reading the story. There are many gang initiations, for all races from Mexican, to black, to White, that use a similar idea as what happened here. It may be a rock, laser pointer, flashlight, catcalls, high-beam headlights, etc etc. When the victim gets out of the car, they then get jumped with the initiate leading the charge and everyone else "getting theirs'" when he is done.
The officer explicitly said that the color of their skin was not a factor. Had they been any color, getting out of the car when that outnumbered was a stupid move. I don't care who you are.
You all complain about the race baiting but you're only propagating it by trying to be up in arms about what you're ASSUMING is a race related case, or hate crime. Racism will never stop until everyone lets it go. Which basically means it will never stop cause no one wants to be the bigger man and JUST LET IT GO.
Yep, good ol' Al n Jesse would have been there to protest the unfair treatment of the protesters who were unjustly goaded into attacking, but they had a previous engagement.
Before ya all start screeching at me, this is said with tongue-in-cheek, though it does state my attitude toward Jess n Al.
I heard the "New White Panthers" are just now leaving the golf course. :)
planet of the apes
Charleton Heston was a visionary. lol
What would have happened if the reporters were armed and started blasting.... hmmmm self defense.... or another Jess n Al show for the cameras....
You have to wonder if certain people would have been better off not calling the cops and taking off.
Of course there was no news about this until two weeks later---the VICTIMS WERE WHITE and the ATTACKERS BLACK. Only when the ethnicities are reversed is there any "news" in the story. 'BLACKS" are the most PREJUSDICE people in this country
I can see Jesse and AL high-fiving now saying "We got whitey"
Amen.
And you are a teacher????
A GED teacher. Don't think to hard about it Drive. Look at how he spelled "prejusdice". That should tell you what you need to know right there.
BTW all.. VA is not a "stand your ground" state but it is a "shall issue" state meaning you will get a CC permit if your background is clean.
When in a crowd is attacking your vehicle. You step on the gas and leave...
You DO NOT get out of the vehicle to physically confront an attackers...
I would not want a story published, about how I incorrectly reacted during a uncontroled incident, either...
Just be happy that it was a rock and not a bullet, flying at your vehicle...
IMO - If YOU confront a rock thrower with a gun. YOU should be the one going to JAIL and I have a CCW...
Rocks can be a deadly weapon.
AC Robertson, I love how you went from ''crowd attacking'' turned into ''rock thrower'' as soon as the gun came out. You just skipped right over the part where the woman got punched in the face by a man. That is so typical of the left and the media. You blame an innocent woman for her own beating and describe the crime against her as only ''an ''uncontrolled incident'' to which the victim reacted ''incorrectly'' as if she encountered a pack of wild animals instead of other human beings. You insult African Americans by acting like they aren't people responsible for their actions. Using words like ''uncontrolled incident'' dehumanizes the African American perpetrators. If white people had done such a crime against a black couple then they would have been characterized as evil. Only an alligator or a black person gets this free pass from the left. As for blaming the victim, she survived her attack. You weren't there. If she hadn't gotten out of the car, the crowd could have surrounded the vehicle and stopped her from moving forward. We don't know that ''people'' weren't blocking her path either. My favorite part of your comment is where you suggest that the victim should be happy she was attacked with rocks and not bullets. If the passenger had a gun (or anyone else for that matter), he would have been perfectly justified in shooting the attackers once they assaulted the female victim. She had every right to confront the people throwing rocks at her car. Anyone with a gun would have been justified in shooting and using deadly force. I sincerely wish that he had blown them to kingdom come for attacking an innocent woman with no provocation what so ever. The world would be a better place without them.
Actually he didn't need to go into the woman being punched, because she would never have been punched had the man STAYED IN THE CAR, or the woman DROVE OFF WHEN THE ROCK WAS THROWN. He did not "blame" anyone per say, he just stated what anyone with an inkling of common sense should know. You're in an unfamiliar area, with very large crowds of unknown people. As reporters they see mob mentality crimes almost everyday. ANY mob, comprised of any make up of people, can commit a crime like this. This just covers AC's comments.
Now back to you Kathy. First off, reading comprehension is your friend. Especially if you're going to attack someone personally for making a fairly common sense response, or attack an entire group of people politically. The article says the MALE driver got out of the car. The woman was struck when she reached over to pull him into the car. In other words, she exposed herself to violence by leaning across the car and out the door. Second, you're assumption this crowd was made up of ALL African-Americans and that AC was dehumanizing them is insulting. I happen to be a young black American by the way, cause African-American is an archaic and borderline offensive term in and of itself. An incident is a thing, a descriptor for a situation. You're the one applying it to people. This was an incident, and the mob aspect of it means it was definitely uncontrolled. If you don't understand that, you should probably Google the "mob mentality phenomenon".
Overall guns wouldn't even have to come into this argument if this male had done the smart thing and driven off (by the way, before you bring up his way might have been blocked, cars do go in reverse). If I were to lay blame I would say the driver let his pride, ego, machismo, excessive love for his vehicle, take your pick, get him and his passenger injured. He is responsible for her safety and his own in such a situation and it is obvious he was not thinking of either when he chose to step out and confront a giant mob of people.
Race has nothing to do with stupidity.
"Race has nothing to do with stupidity".
Except when it does!
Stop trying to mitigate the crime by blaming it on the victim.
She tried to pull him back in the car to leave. So it's her fault some jerk off punched her in the face??? Wow. Are you serious? Who cares if it was a black, white, asian, or latino person who hit her. She didn't deserve it. Period.
throwem a basketball
LOL
Typical BLACK animals!!!!!
you see this is a perfect case from carrying a gun. Stand your ground. Blacks want some sh!t give it to them.
Bang bang.
And you call black people animals...
The black community, specifically young black males, wonders why they are sterotyped. When you act like thugs you will be classified as thugs. Matthew Owens pummelled almost to death in Mobile and this incident are the latest cases of black on white hate crimes being trivialized as simple assault. The Martin case is the obvious flashpoint for all these hate crimes but the MSM deliberately closes their eyes to this. It is no wonder that the highest crime areas are in the highest areas of densely populated black communities like Detroit, Atlanta, Mobile and and apparently this part of Norfolk. It is not a surprise that the prison population, school expulsions, arrests are led by the black community. It is a self perpetuating problem accented by government subsidies such as welfare, food stamps, et al that the white community is subsidizing.
They delayed in reporting it because they don't want us to know what really happened; it was a race riot!
Don't believe me? The proof is at www.whitegirlbleedalot.com
Lorinda, I read that book. And what happened in Virginia has happened more than a hundred times in 50 cities. Race riots. No one wants to talk about them other than to deny the obvious. Luckily, YouTube can settle most disagreements about whether the riots have a racial component.
It's all there folks. White Girl Bleed a Lot is still the only book to talk about it. I heard about it on a talk radio show the other day. Most people are afraid.
Some cities refuse to address roving groups of people out doing nothing.
NORFOLKS POLICE and MAYOR are also to blame for allowing this to happen.
Maybe NORFOLKS POLICE think this is just "blacks being black".
Had this been a white group attacking a black couple then the Virginia Pilot would have been all over this. This would easily have been called a hate Crime by the cops but Norfolk is a black city and a very very dangerous city.
A lot of black are moving from Detroit to Norfolk.
Expect a lot more of this through Dec. as obama and holder has given them a free pass. When obama looses the election this Nov. the rioting will start in full force. If the blacks riot over a peaceful skinhead march in Topika Kan., or police being let off the hook from beating rodney king just think of the potential when obama gets rousted from the WhiteHouse. obama and holder has broke the relief valve on the melting pot called the USA, and it's about to blow!.
The guy was stupid for getting out of the car with a woman passenger.
Harry, you are the stupid one....lets see, black people are attaching them, but you blame them because they got out of the car? If its a newer car, most of us would get out and have something to say. WHY is it always whitey's fault if they get attacked? Where are whitey's Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton?Where are whitey's New Black Panthers? why does no one stand up for whitey when there is a wong? Wrong is wrong no matter what color, and the news media and Norfolks PD has handled it wrong.Rascim is wrong, made worse by the media and Pd's turning there backs on it when its a whitey as a victim. I am sick and tired of the black community playing the race card all the time unless they do something. They did this and its wrong and its racist. Period. you are still stupid
"Amos said he suspected anyone, regardless of race, who had gotten out of a car to confront the rock thrower would have seen the same result."
Maybe so, but why was the rock only thrown at the car holding white people? That act of violence was what REALLY kicked off the incident, not the white guy confronting the perpetrator. It seems like there is always an excuse why black-on-white crime shouldn't be classified a "hate crime" but it is always an immediate jump to judge the reverse as "hate".
“(Do it for Trayvon Martin),” it said."
Really? A big tough black guy beating up a little white woman who had nothing to do with Trayvon, is some kind of justice? That statement alone proves a racial motivation and should cause an incident to be enhanced as "hate". White-on-black crime, regardless of true motivation, is enhanced if the white perpetrator uses the dreaded N word during the commission.
Even if the perpetrators in this incident didn't "do it for Trayvon," similar statements have been made in other incidences across the country. At some point in time the racial majority is going to get tired of this and may start fighting back. That will not be a pretty picture, guys. Some cooler heads and more logical thinking needs to prevail, especially in the black community.
Right. I bet Trayvon and his family are proud. Why doesn't his parents speak out against this behavior?
Can't find much fault with the police response on this one. The guy got out of the car to confront a rock-thrower. Under those circumstances, what a GOOBER!
Pathetic- the ignorant masses of all races will bring this country to it's knees over something as insignificant as skin color. Perhaps we should segregate ourselves-it seems as human beings just aren't smart enough to co-mingle peacefully.
Punk-a$$ thugs.
typical knee-grows
where's Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson when you need them? oh wait. this wasn't racially motivated. pffft. This is more confirmation that getting my concealed carry license was a good idea. Act like a animal.. get shot like an animal.