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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWWII vet, 88, beaten to death by teens in Spokane, Washington
WWII vet, 88, beaten to death by teens in Spokane, Washington
(CNN) -- An 88-year-old World War II veteran was brutally beaten and left for dead by two teens outside a lounge in Spokane, Washington, where he loved to go play pool.
The motive? Police don't have one. The teens appeared to have picked him at random, authorities say.
Delbert Belton, a retired aluminum company worker, served in the Pacific. There, friends say, he took a bullet in the leg during the Battle of Okinawa.
He survived that attack.
But Wednesday night, Belton -- affectionately called "Shorty" by friends for his height -- headed to the Eagles Lodge where he was a regular.
Police found him in the parking lot, with serious head injuries. He died Thursday.
-snip-
Full article here: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/23/us/world-war-vet-beating-death/index.html
R.I.P.
rpannier
(24,304 posts)What a way to go.
defacto7
(13,485 posts)for the rest of us.
Archae
(46,260 posts)Their attempt at race-baiting with the Aussie ballplayer fell flat when it was learned one of the attackers was white.
Now they have two black teens being sought for this.
Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)... initially about the Trayvon Martin case was because Zimmerman was not arrested/booked the night of the shooting and he was allowed to go home.
Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)Me and my friends are ready to take some lives, and he posted: 90% of White people are nasty
Edwards also weighed when George Zimmerman was acquitted over the death of Trayvon Martin.
"Ayeee I knocced out 5 woods since Zimmerman court! lol sh*t ima keep sleepin sh*t! #ayeeee."
"Woods" is derogatory slang for white people. The feed also contains tweets glorifying violence, guns and gangs.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/chilling-911-call-details-final-moments-of-melbourne-baseballer-chris-lane8217s-life/story-fni0fiyv-1226700172461
Now explain to me if two white guys, and one of them said something similar, went out and for no reason shot a black man how this would be played out? (and the third member was half-white)
I could care less what the right thinks or what they are saying about it all, but racism is racism. If we are going to call it out in one case than we should be consistent and do the same on others.
And as far as this story, as I posted elsewhere, what motivation do you see? Robbery? Ageism? What motive seems most evident at this point and why is it that if people conjecture on such a motive that their are seen as rw/etc?
If we deny that people do terrible things based on race for every race but one than we are not trying to solve issues but to excuse and ignore them. It all reminds me of how Christians are being burned out of homes and businesses in the ME and the retort comes down to "So, Christians did bad things to others!!" - Hate crimes suck no matter who they are against, and the least we could do is be consistent and condemn such things across the board and not try to protect the racists and haters.
cali
(114,904 posts)it's really hard to talk about this case because we're all aware of the daily racism that gets played out against AA people in this country and we don't want to see that added too or exploited.
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)to see who is more racist. When we see it, call it out - otherwise we are hypocrites and show we don't really care about the base ideal but how we can apply it when we want to.
Why do so many fear calling out racism???
cali
(114,904 posts)read this article and let me know if it makes sense to you:
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/22/no_chris_lane_is_not_trayvon_martin/singleton/
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)If people were apologizing for Zimmerman here and saying what he did was not based on race what would one say?
From the article: "Lanes murder is an entirely different matter. Its disgusting, but the police did their job. They arrested three suspects, and vowed to try to throw the book at them. Thats how its supposed to go. "
Ok, but did they (the perps) act out of a racist motive? There is a difference between saying the cops were racist for how they handled the case and whether or not Zimmeran was - and I sure as hell remember plenty here saying he was.
So if we say this crime was motivated by racism - is it true? Are we wrong to say it?
Folks sure wanted to point out the racism as a motive in that case, but in this one if you mention it you are RW or racist yourself?
cali
(114,904 posts)I'm saying it's more complicated than that- just as the Salon piece says. As the author of that piece points out, there's the matter of institutional racism which comes into play in the Martin/Zimmerman case.
People here are (rightfully, I believe) cautious about stoking right wing white racism which is still such a huge problem.
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)We are cautious about confronting racism because of what others might think or say (presumably on some radio show/web site that I don't care to listen to or read).
I am guessing that the crux of their argument, from your link, is that the right is saying we ignore racism on the one hand and talk about it on the other.
And they may be right - which is something they themselves do all of the time and I don't want to be any part of.
How is it we can blame guns here for crimes (except in cases, like this, where guns did not play a role....), call out racism when it is one race on another, yell about bias when a Muslim is beaten/etc, and then turn around and totally ignore that or make excuses when it is a white person or a Christian?
Either we hold certain values dear or we do not. If we selectively are upset over them in one case or another what does that say about how we really feel?
The right will prop up any attacks on Christians in the world, we will when it comes to Muslims. They won't do the latter and we don't seem to care about the former.
So how different are we really? How much do we really believe what we say when time and again we ignore attacks based on race/religion (or we downplay them and make excuses for them, like 'Christians are just as bad')?
LearningCurve
(488 posts)ChazII
(6,198 posts)individual posts. Well said!
cali
(114,904 posts)I'm saying that the problem of racism by blacks against whites has a very different context and must be addressed differently than that of white racism.
Racism directed toward AAs is in the context of history, systemic and institutional racism. That's just for starters. And the issue of violent AA racism against whites has to be looked at in the context of such issues as unemployment within the AA youth demographic; it's around 45%.
Yes, I think we have to be careful not to stoke systemic and institutional racism.
I'm not suggesting ignoring anything- just being mindful in how we address the issue.
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)surely if you are that concerned about the subject, you must have posted one of those as well.
Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)For one thing, the three attackers were: one African-American and two of mixed race. Moreover, as others have pointed out, the suspects made obvious (and vile) racially-charged comments themselves. While obviously the investigation is ongoing, this is almost certain to turn out to be a racially-motivated hate crime. No "baiting" necessary...
steve2470
(37,456 posts)B Calm
(28,762 posts)agentS
(1,325 posts)Seems like every summer we get one or more of these 'crazy teenager murder' stories in the news.
Usually it's money, gang initiation, now it's boredom?
I admit to being plenty bored in my teenage years...never in my mind did it occur to me to kill people in some parking lot.