I'm amazed nobody has started a thread about this yet. There is the case of David Morales getting beaten to death in Austin by a gang of thugs, while a crowd seemingly watched and did nothing. (Of course Austin officials have been attempting to disassociate this act from the Juneteenth celebration itself, but that is just spin.) And a man pulled from his car and beaten in Milwaukee. (Also on this site is some horrifying video of roaming crowds jumping on cars and intimidating passersby until the mounted police arrive, then the crowd scatters). And stabbings in Syracuse, leading to organizers shutting the celebration down three hours early. What the heck is going on? Someone needs to find out if there is a trend here, and if so what can be done about it. Why does this kind of anarchy not occur with, for example, events associated with Cinco de Mayo, gay pride, St. Patrick's Day, etc.? Does anyone else find this to be disturbing?
OK, I wouldn't have thought to check the Hangout for this topic. Maybe the admins should move that one to D&D and lock this one then.
Why is it just spin that the attack had nothing to do with Juneteenth? Has stabbing a man been a tradtitional part of Juneteenth that the rest of us don't know about? In Wisconsin, and NY where the other stabbings happened, Juneteenth isn't really celebrated by near as many people, if it is celebrated at all. Celebrations have been increasing, but it isn't a widely celebrated event like it is in Texas and other parts of the South.
I don't know about Cinco de Mayo but I've seen a lot of arrests and fights on St. Pats. At my band's St. Patricks Day show this year the cops hauled off a couple of guys for being drunk and disorderly. Yeah who would've thunk it. Drunk and disorderly on St. Pats...
Who doesn't know about people getting drunk and disorderly, and a few arrested, on St. Pat's? But that is not the same thing as anarchy. Watch the Milwaukee Juneteenth video, and tell me that you've seen anything like that. The closest comparison I can think of is a Pistons championship celebration.
It was a beating, not a stabbing. The stabbing was in Milwaukee. If you have any questions about the spin, read this Chronicle article
What part of this is spin, exactly? http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/?SecID=278&ArID=186578 Moments after the Austin City Council officially hired Art Acevedo as the new police chief, he apologized for the Austin Police Department' role in the misinformation reported around the world about the brutal beating death of David Morales. "We apologize to the community and we will not have that happen again," Acevedo said. Morales was killed by 3-4 men in the parking lot of the Booker T. Washington apartments in East Austin on Tuesday night. Police say the men attacked Morales after the car he was in struck a 2-year old boy. Police are still investigating, but city manager Toby Futrell said it didn't go down the way news outlets around the world reported. Futrell was one of several top city and emergency management officials to address the media Thursday during a press conference at City Hall. "I will give you an example of the national news coverage that I heard this morning, '500 people people saw the assault,'" Futrell said. Futrell said the number of people who witnessed the beating was 15 to 20, not 500. She also said Morales was not killed by a crowd of people like reported. "I also heard on the national news that up to 20 people participated in the assault. What we are trying to tell you is that three to four people could have participated in this assault. That's what police need help with, not 20," Futrell said. Reports the beating was linked to the Juneteenth Festival was addressed by assistant city manager Michael McDonald. "This happened several blocks away. It had absolutely nothing to do with the Juneteenth festival," McDonald said. Assistant Police Chief David Carter said the police department was partially to blame for the confusion. "The police department has some responsibility in putting out accurate information. We did not do that with our initial press release," Carter said. Originally, police said there were 2,000 to 3,000 people in the area. They were referring to the entire area near Rosewood Park that was packed with people from the festival. They were not referring to the parking lot where Morales was killed. "What happened was that information we put out allowed people to jump to conclusions," Carter said. Mayor Will Wynn said he's received several e-mails from misinformed international media outlets. "The city played a role in that. We didn't handle our initial public statement well and it caused confusion," Wynn said. Carter said the confusion forced the police department to evaluate and improve the way police release information to the public. In addition to clearing up the confusion, city leaders stressed the fact the murder is still unsolved. It's the one fact police hope every media outlet everywhere keeps reporting until the men are caught. "We're looking for three or four heinous criminals. I want to bring them to justice," Carter said.
The part where they say that only 20 people witnessed it, not 500, which contradicts not only the earlier police reports, but statements from witnesses quoted in the press. Also they say that the incident had nothing to do with the Juneteenth celebrations - so what were 500 people doing in the parking lot then? The officials in Austin are clearly desperate to avoid racial tensions. I can't say I blame them, but it's still spin. Link Police search for members of mob that killed passenger riding in vehicle that hit child LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON Associated Press Writer (AP) - AUSTIN, Texas-Police were pleading for witnesses to help them track down members of an angry mob that beat a man to death after the car he was riding in apparently struck and injured a child. Investigators were struggling to piece together what happened when David Rivas Morales died defending the driver from members of a crowd. There could have been anywhere from two to 20 attackers, Austin Police Commander Harold Piatt said Wednesday. The car in which Morales, 40, was a passenger had entered an apartment complex's parking lot when it struck a 3- or 4-year-old child, Piatt said. The child was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The driver got out of the car to check on the child and was confronted by several people, Piatt said. When they attacked the driver, Morales got out of the car to protect the driver and was attacked as well. Police said no guns or knives were used. The driver got away and is cooperating with investigators. Police identified the child as Michael Hosea Jr. There were conflicting accounts of how many people were in the area. Police originally estimated 2,000 to 3,000 and a woman who lives at the complex said hundreds who had been at a Juneteenth festival commemorating the announcement of the end of slavery in Texas filled the parking lot and street. But late Wednesday police spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz said only 20 people were in the area where the assault occurred. Chovanetz also said there was no connection to the nearby city-sponsored festival for Juneteenth, which commemorates Texas slaves getting the word that they had been freed. Margaret Morales said a young boy came to her door to tell her that her brother was lying on the ground outside. She found David Morales, sprawled on the pavement 100 feet (30 meters) from her townhouse, battered and choking on blood. She said her mother came running after hearing her screams, but police would not let either of them get close to him. Police arrived one minute after receiving a call, by which time the beating had stopped, Chovanetz said. But the Morales family complained that medical help was slow in coming. Chovanetz said witnesses told police that three or four men attacked Morales, knocking him to the ground. A man got out of another vehicle and hit Morales again, Chovanetz said. David Morales arrived at the hospital about 35 minutes after the call was received, said Warren Hassinger, Austin-Travis County Emergency Services spokesman. Emergency officials said police ordered them to wait until the area was secure. Several hundred people had filled the parking lot and street as the daylong festival celebrating at a nearby park ended and spilled over into the surrounding neighborhoods, said Katherine White, a Morales family friend who lives in a townhouse next door to where the beating took place. Margaret Morales said her brother, who was staying with her, was a painter on his way home from work. The driver, whom she knew only as Victor, picked him up and dropped him off everyday, she said. The Morales family remembered David as a caring brother who loved the San Antonio Spurs and was thrilled when they won the NBA title last week. Earl White, Katherine's brother, said David Morales enjoyed sitting on the porch, watching the neighborhood children play in the parking lot. "I just want the people caught and brought to justice," another sister, Elizabeth Morales, said. "I want them to feel the same pain that they caused my brother."
I think you're crazy if you think 3 events constitute a disturbing trend. Drunk driving deaths on New Year's, rapes over Spring Break, suicides at Christmas -- those are disturbing trends. This is 3 events in one year. Do you remember when those white girls were beaten by a group of blacks during Halloween? Do we have some kind of Halloween crisis? People commit crimes sometimes. I doubt I would be hard pressed to find 3 examples of violent crimes committed by hispanics on Cinco de Mayo. And what about the gay pride parade? Mr. Brightside got his hood jumped on.
Not necessarily. The witness included both the parking lot and the street. The 20 people or whatever that the City referred to was the parking lot. Not knowing the layout of the place or specifically what happened, I have no idea whether people hanging out on the street would have witnessed the beating. There weren't 500 people in the parking lot. And there was a Juneteenth celebration in the park a few blocks away, which would explain people in the street. So you think the City is simply lying about a fact that would be easily verifiable by simply asking residents of the apartment complex? And instead you're choosing to believe one person's account of it instead?
