E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSA 16-year-old boy was charged Thursday in connection with a mob assault on two reporters in Norfolk, Va., where their newspaper waited two weeks before reporting the incident, police said.
The Virginian-Pilot didn’t wait to report the arrest, posting it online shortly after a police news conference.
Norfolk Police Chief Sharon Chamberlin said at the news conference the juvenile suspect, who was not named, was charged with throwing a missile at a vehicle, a felony, two counts of simple assault by mob, destruction of property and participation in a riot, NBC station WAVY reported.
Only a handful of people were involved in the assault on reporters Dave Forster and Marjon Rostami, who are white and who told police they were beaten April 14 by a group of young black men, Chamberlin said.
"At no time in our investigation or in the statements taken from the victims did it appear that this assault was racially motivated," Chamberlin said.
The reporters had left a rock concert at Attucks Theater when they stopped at a red light amid a crowd of about 100 people, they told police. The beating ensued after Forster confronted a rock thrower who likely had responded to seeing Rostami locking their car door, they told police.
Chamberlin said large events at several downtown venues emptied out about the same time.
The police department received criticism for its handling of the case after the story broke in the Pilot May 1, Chamberlin said. The department received comments that "Norfolk is unsafe" and "the Police Department does nothing to fight crime."
She said that is not true and stated that she is proud of their work, WAVY reported.
Pilot editor Denis Finley earlier said the newspaper reported the incident after doing “due diligence” on the story.
Earlier: Questions raised over Virginia newspaper's delay in report of attack on reporter
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Leave a Comment:
The missiles were probably skittles. You just can't be too careful with skittles...
Interesting to note. When a black mob attacks white reporters it is never ever racially motivated. I bet if it had been reversed Jesse Jackson and al Sharpe would have showed up in Norfolk.
Wheres Zimmermann when you need him?
I bet msnbc will run the attackers picture of when he was 10 years old.
oh man. can't tell what is worse: the riot. the violence. or the lame response from the press that is scared to call this a race riot.
Whte Girl Bleed a Lot is a book that shows this is part of a pattern. both the violence and the indifference --- and worse.
Where are all the comments? Guess Al and Jesse don't care when it happens to non african americans. Sheesh....
"At no time in our investigation or in the statements taken from the victims did it appear that this assault was racially motivated," Chamberlin said....Its only a racially motivated crime when its white on black but white dont run in mobs and act like animals!!!!
chamberlin is a female barney fife saying its not racially motivated and 100 people are just a few , need too fire her , like now caus shes a liar or just stupid
"throwing a missile at a vehicle, a felony"
When is chunking a friggin rock at a car become a FELONY. These people are out of there skull. Out of control police !
Your a jackass!!! This is a hate crime pure and simple.
Whites dont run around in Mobs beating people up and IF they were and they were beating up black people, the DOJ would have been on the case and Obama would have had a State of Union address on it, everyone of them would have looked like Obamas son if he had one(how silly for a President to comment on this), how many times recently in News have I seen Black Mobs committing crimes, stealing, beating white people and laughing about it... Cmon!!
I wish they could show us a picture of the assilants, they would look like Obama's sons if we could find them.
Wait, let me get this straight, a group of Black men, committing crimes, attack a white reporter... and at no time did Chamberlain think it was Racially motivated.... Um, ARE YOU STUPID!!>!>?!?!? Reverse racism once again, and no Al Sharpton, the race baiting king... how sad have things become in this country.
SR2006 - You are 100% correct. Like I posted earlier, this is a hate crime pure and simple. It appears that blacks have in their pea sized minds that it is open season on white people. Guess again.
We have always had a nice quiet neighborhood until recently.. it seems Section 8 I think its called, which is basically free rent for those formerly from the Projects, are all over the Apartment complexes nearby, we've had a huge spike in robberies, theft, you name it, so sad ... I always carry my glock 9mm now, so sad that I have to, but if my life feels threatened ever, I will protect myself and my family. What a Country.
Do what you have to SR. I know I will.
This SH@^ is getting ridiculous! Not racially motivated? Me as a white male if this happened to me and my girlfriend I would have KILLED as many as I could. Yes I have a gun on me all the time, with a permit to carry!!!!!
As long as we let these @!$%#s get away with this SH@^ they will continue to believe they are going to take over, not while I'm alive! 30 or 100 whatever @!$%#s come at me then some will die that day or night. I will defend myself and family from these thugs. The head thug is holder and he won't do anything about this or any hate crime committed by a @!$%# against a white person. We need to take back America and put these losers back where they belong. They elected a @!$%# for president, can you tell I didn't vote for him, now these @!$%#s think they run SH@^. You see where the head @!$%# has done to or economy, tanked it and has damn near broke this great country. Hell @!$%#s can't balance a meal let alone a budget. Racist, maybe a little because they are racist towards us. Put the little rotten @!$%# in jail and throw away the key!!!!!!!
AMEN!!!!! Holder is going to jail here soon anyway. Then, when a white human is in the DOJ we'll have fairness and justice.
your klan hood is showing or ss hat take your pick
I don't wear a hood or am I a part of the SS. I am just telling the truth plain and simple.
Cause the great white man is all about fair play in this land lol ''white human'' your words
"the Police Department does nothing to fight crime." This holds true were I live in Aberdeen, MD as well. Someone runs into a neighbors portable basketball hoop and 4 cops investigate it for 4 hours. Two weeks earlier a gun is fired during a fight down the street from me and 4 cops investigate that for 2 hours (and of course no one one was arrested).
I live in Norfolk. The police do a great job of harassing active duty service members and fighting soft crime. I lived near this area a few years back, and my house was repeatedly broken into. The quickest the police arrived (after my girlfriend, who was home alone discovered somebody in the house) was 40 minutes. They do not do anything to enforce the hotspots of crime until one of their officers is killed/injured or media attention forces them to. I think 12 units in these kind of neighborhoods is far more useful than a dozen speed traps at night. Great to see my tax money put to such good use...
It's not enough that it's reported. It's not enough that the assailants are caught, tried and convicted. How in the hell do we actually stop the ridiculous and disproportionate amount of black crime in the United States?
Are the progressive and liberal policies designed to uplift blacks not working? Are the laws preventing discrimination not working? Perhaps it's time to change our approach. Perhaps it's time to stop treating blacks in the inner city with kid gloves. Perhaps it's time to promote fatherhood, personal responsibility and education instead of EBT, affirmative action and identity politics.
How about approaching a black PhD economist like Walter E. Williams and asking for his thoughts on how to best uplift blacks? Will he not be listened to because he doesn't demonize whites? Will he not be listened to because he's a libertarian? Perhaps.
What this country needs to do is start reporting the names of any one that commits a crime...anyway, I live in the Northeast, what does Norfolk have for streets...dirt and farmland? Where'd that jackass get a rock...next to the blacksmith's shop? This was racially motivated and everyone knows it...quick call Rev Al and Jesse, especially Jesse before he impregnates someone else ! What was emptying out, rap concerts? Thug meetings.. or maybe NBA tryouts? If a 16 year old Black male hits my car with a rock, You better believe it I am gonna run him over..."poor boy...his momma will say...his upbringin was good" ...yeah...after I run him over he'll think straight..straight ta hell. If the colors were reversed we'd have Rev Al yelling Tawana Brawley all over again...remember that fiasco ? Change the laws, Give the names out so everyone knows who the asses are...if he's so proud to throw a rock, put him on the front page of the paper for all to see !!!!That is if people there can read. The chief is a coward and dances the questions like a firefly... I wouldn't visit Norfolk...it's full of inbreeders. Seriously, there must be decent folks there but the inmates are running the asylum.
Amen again!
I'm guessing if the victim was a Lesbian it would have been a hate crime......
Lets be honest here folks, this is a sentence association game. These are real sentences taken from you tube of real atheletes supposedly with a free college education ( I couldn't afford it, I had to go to Vietnam ) That are professional football and NBA players and you try to guess the race... and you tell me why some may act like thugs and bring guns into locker rooms, throw punches for the hell of it....here we go...." These are sentences not 'cleaned up by the reporters...: "Well are gonn axe me dat o what? ... Number 2... My Momma ain't raised no dummy...I is smart !... number 3....I went to da midda uh dafield and he frew me da ball and dare I go... and last but not least....sho nuff I gots da super bowl trophy baby..I gots ta go !. Now these are role model atheletes... supposedly with an ..dare I say it their way..edumacation...what's wrong with society...go figure.....learning is fundamental.. and they just waste a freeone at that !
Stncld - You put a smile on my face dude. LOL!!!!! You hit the nail dead on. You fo-got the base-bawl playa that beat the crap out YT for telling him he looked like another celeb. Roll models my a$$.
Thanks, just telling it like it is. I want anyone to tell me that those aren't true statements. You can hear them on Sportscentre or Youtube and it's shameful. I would've given anything to play football and get a college education for free and they waste it. And dude, the gold and chrome teeth have got to go...I don't want to hear look at mah grille...I have a grille.. a nice Char-broil 2012 that does my steaks really well and the burgers for Veterans Day come out just fine ! If a thug enters my home he won't leave alive and his mamma can have his hoodie as a nice momento. Tell everyone what a great kid he was and I'll tell them that he wasn't visiting and I used him as a pinata. Enough, Let them shoot each other...Al and Jesse don't show up for that, if Obama wants a son with a gold mouth so be it...My son was ARMY and I like it that way, he turned out to be fine young man, no gold teeth, just gold on his medals, and he speaks English !!!!
Very well put. I am a Navy vet and my wife is a Marine vet. Believe me we understand.
As for the "grill", maybe they can cook some skittles and drink some iced tea. I agree. Let 'em shoot each other. Just stay out of my house and my neighborhood.
By the way, Thank you for your service. We thank your son as well.
POLICE should have known there was a roving mob walking around a busy intersection with no apparent destination. Not hard to know something is wrong when that many people are walking together.
Sounds like this Police dept gives roving mobs a free pass with the attitude that it is "blacks just being black" mentality.
Weak Police Chief = Crummy Policing. ANY QUESTIONS?
Yeah but ..
How come Blacks always get to use free parking in the Handy Cap spaces ?
Come on . . . they clearly deserved it! They were the racists who lock their door just because some black kids are walking by . . . how racist is that? I think we should charge the reporters for being racists. </sarcasm>
the above link has a horrendous racially biased crime that was barely reported.
Black on white crimes are almost always classified as crimes of opportunity.
google
"white couple raped and killed by black gang" the link would not post.
Media does not want to hurt their feelings, in my small city an African American activist had brow beat the newspaper and local news into basically not reporting the race of suspects, but you always knew because they still reported if the suspects were white so if they did not tell you a race then you would assume they were not white.
As usual the shoe, when on the other foot, doesn't get any attention. It doesn't matter if it was racially motivated the real problem is the news paper's editor is a gutless fish afraid that reporting the situation would hurt their image and the police chief's weasily equvication that there were so many events letting out caused their failure to act on a crime. I believe the GOV could use Obama's line: He could say, "If I had a son he'd look like Dave Foster" maybe that would get Sharpton and Jackson to show up in Norfolk. Who says there is not a double standard.