I don't know how many saw this story in the news a couple of days ago, this is an AP story from Yahoo:
Police on Wednesday 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 Tuesday when David Rivas Morales died defending the driver from members of a crowd leaving a Juneteenth celebration. There could have been anywhere from two to 20 attackers, Austin Police Commander Harold Piatt said.
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.
What I found interesting was buried way down in the story:
Police said the injured child was a girl, but (Katherine) White (a Morales family friend) said it was a boy with long hair he wears in ponytails.
So, I wonder about this child, is he a child who would prefer to be a she and has understanding and supportive parents?
Curious, eh?
Karen J.
Comments
Karen, maybe you know
Karen,
Your having been in the police some time back, is this a common problem with street festivals, violence afterward?
Milwaukee's Juneteenth Day had some serious violence this year and that is after they voluntarilly shortened hours -- and cut back on beer sales I think -- to reduce the problems from past events.
An interesting side light on the news.
Oh in realy weird news, a two headed snake -- WE(?)-- died recently at nine years of age, it was both sexes.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Mob mentality
John,
People will do things in a mob they would never consider doing when by themselves, it's what makes mobs a frightening thing, even to police. Let me tell you, a cop hates being faced by a mob, even more we are afraid of them. A mob is like a wall of mud, somebody once observed, it will roll right over you and swallow you up. Remember this when you see the "police brutality" being shown when officers are being confronted by an angry mob. Your training can go right out the window and you'll do anything to protect yourself.
These days violence has become much more common, and people will resort to it much more quickly than they used to. In this case the trigger was some "righteous indignation" that a small child was injured, particularly if the child was seen to be female as it seems. Drinking may not even have been a factor, but certainly didn't help. It could as easily been a person complaining that they'd been cheated by somebody else, all you need is a trigger and the anonymity of being in a crowd.
The really sad part in this is that the person killed had nothing to do with the incident, having been a passenger in the vehicle that struck the child.
KJT
"A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to want to take it off you."
Francoise Sagan
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Doubly sad...
...that a celebration of freedom ended in willful tragedy.
For those who don't know, Juneteenth (June 19, 1865) marks the actual, effective end of slavery in the former Confederate States when Union forces took control of Texas, two months after the war had ended in Virginia. All slavery in the USA legally ended December 18, 1865 with ratification of the 13th Amendment. Delaware and Kentucky, slave states that fought on the Union side (at least nominally) had not yet abolished slavery at that time though three other Union slave states had.
Until the 1970s, Juneteenth was celebrated mostly by black communities in Texas and Arkansas. Since then it has spread to about 14 states, officially, and several others, unofficially. The troubles with the holiday are mostly very recent. But still, very sad.
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.