Alt-Right Trolls Use Chicago Kidnapping to Spread Lies About Black Lives Matter

[Grey Lemercier]

http://www.gizmodo.in/news/alt-right-trolls-use-chicago-kidnapping-to-spread-lies-about-black-lives-matter/articleshow/56361692.cms

Yesterday, four teens were apprehended in Chicago on charges of battery. While in police custody, they were determined to be the same assailants depicted in a Facebook Live video which has since been uploaded (and deleted) countless times on other platforms, wherein the same adolescents filmed themselves torturing a young man with mental disabilities. You might have seen something about it on Twitter associated with the hashtag #blmkidnapping.
The half-hour video is deeply upsetting and was pulled from Facebook on account of its glorification of criminal acts. Over those 30 minutes, the victim is beaten, cut, and forced to drink water from a toilet. "Fuck Trump" and "fuck white people" are heard as the kidnappers-all black-attack their captor, a white man. And there's the rub.

Anyone with a shred of empathy can agree it's a heinous act, and determinations as to whether the kidnapping and subsequent attacks were racially or politically motivated are currently being investigated by police. But how exactly are these teens tied to the Black Lives Matter movement? The short answer is: they're not.



Hello again, Centipedes
Not one legitimate news source linked the attack to BLM for the simple reason that no evidence of such a connection exists. Nor did I hear the movement being invoked at any point during the 30-minute video, which I watched in its entirety. An administrator of Centipede Central-a popular Trump supporter chatroom-was able to find the Facebook page of Brittany Herring, the young woman who filmed the act. Her public posts, which stretch back to September 2015, have no references to BLM either.


snip

[Runningdawg]

1. Checking the rwing forums this morning

they are salivating over the chance of a race war (again). Dylans going to fry, Charlie is about to croak, they need to keep their dream alive, of course BLM is a favorite target.
I hope the 4 teens are given the stiffest sentence possible and the victim receives counseling to help repair his life.

[scscholar]

2. And spreading fake news that it was a hate crime

The Chicago police struck them down today so hard. So hard. They made those wringer look like fools for that hate crime law. This alleged bullying was not a hate crime.

[Dr. Strange]

3. ???

Chicago torture video: 4 charged with hate crime, kidnapping

[scscholar]

12. "The Latest: Police: Race Not Motive Behind Video Attack"

Sounds like the police that actually dealt with these people disagree with some prosecutor that seems detached from this event and probably doesn't know what happened.

[uppityperson]

14. It was a hate crime, they've been charged with a hate crime, against a disabled person.

Race isn't the only factor in being charged with a hate crime.

[scscholar]

17. Thanks. I had no idea that term had been watered down so much by the right.

[uppityperson]

18. "Hate crime" has been watered down by the right? What? Clarify, please

How has it been "watered down"???


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_crime
A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime, which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership (or perceived membership) in a certain social group.

Examples of such groups can include and are almost exclusively limited to: sex, ethnicity, disability, language, nationality, physical appearance, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation.[1][2][3] Non-criminal actions that are motivated by these reasons are often called "bias incidents".

"Hate crime" generally refers to criminal acts that are seen to have been motivated by bias against one or more of the types above, or of their derivatives. Incidents may involve physical assault, damage to property, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse or insults, mate crime or offensive graffiti or letters (hate mail).[4]

[Marengo]

22. Don't bother, it's an act.

[LanternWaste]

21. You certainly move your own goalposts with great consistency.

You certainly move your own goalposts with great consistency. I would too if I needed to blame everyone else for my own inaccuracies.

[hrmjustin]

4. It was a hate crime and they were charged as such.

[hardluck]

5. They were charged with hate crimes today

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141656610

As well as felony aggravated kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. A bit more than "bullying."

[Dr Hobbitstein]

6. It was totally a hate crime, and they were charged as such... nt

[scscholar]

10. "The Latest: Police: Race Not Motive Behind Video Attack"

The police say it wasn't:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/latest-police-race-motive-video-attack-44570046

[tenderfoot]

11. I doubt politics had anything to do with it either

but nice try on behalf of DU right wingers in trying to make this out like it's an everyday occurrence.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

13. Race isn't the only factor in a hate crime.

He was disabled. They beat and tortured a mentally disabled man. THAT is a hate crime, and they were charged with a hate crime.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/05/us/chicago-facebook-live-beating/

[SaschaHM]

20. The example that you used actually wouldn't fit the definition of most hate crime laws.

If their motive for beating and torturing him was the fact that he was a disabled, then yes that's a hate crime.

Hence why hate crimes are notoriously hard to prove/prosecute. It's not just about the protected class of the victim, it's about whether that class was the motive for attacking said victim.

[uppityperson]

23. That "example" is what this thread is about, and WHY they HAVE been charged with a hate crime

Edited because I totally mixed you up with another person in the subthread. Apologies.

[SaschaHM]

25. Please don't accuse me of things when I'm just trying to add some knowledge into the discussion.

1. I have said that they've been charge with a hate crime.
2. Absent a the case going to trial and them being convicted, what a prosecutor charges them with is only what the prosecution believes that they should be convicted for. Not what the crime they have committed actually is. One glance at criminal justice in this country would show that prosecutors routinely overcharge in this country
3. Frankly, hate crimes are not simple black and white things because they are based off the motive of the perp more so than the victim. If a white guy were to shoot me, a black male, that doesn't automatically mean if will fit the legal definition of a hate crime. Neither would him using slurs while doing it be any more than evidence towards a motive.

I'm not minimizing this crime. It's hideous and they should be thoroughly punished.

[SaschaHM]

32. Wow. Now you are just accusing me of some false stuff.

The first 2 aren't even things that I've posted. Do you have me confused with someone else? Please edit your post with a link to the original posts and you will see that I am not the one who post those.

As to the 3rd, the example said that it was a hate crime simply because the victim was disabled. That does not make it a hate crime under the legal definition. It's still a horrible thing, but hate crimes deal with motive not specifically the victim. A bank robber can shoot a black guy during the course of a robbery, but unless he shot him because he was black, he wouldn't be charged with a hate crime.

[uppityperson]

34. I apologise, am very sorry, yes did get you confused with someone else. My sincere apology

I self deleted as was very much in the wrong

[Dr Hobbitstein]

38. That example is WHY they have been CHARGED

With a hate crime. You seem to be missing the operative word here. CHARGED. They were, in fact, CHARGED with a hate crime.

There were other charges, as well.

[SaschaHM]

39. It's not worth my time to debate this anymore.

They were charged because the DA feels that they have actionable evidence to secure an indictment and a conviction. For hate crimes, that has always been more than the protected class of the victim as you used in your example.. The DA feels that they have something that can prove the MOTIVE behind the attack was that the man was disabled or white. That's what makes it a hate crime, by the legal definition, not the fact that he was disabled or white.


And no I didn't miss the operative word. However, anyone who follows our criminal justice system could tell you that there can disparities between what the DA charges at the outset and what the defendant is found guilty of. Overcharging has been one of the most used ways across this country that overzealous prosecutors force defendants to accept a plea.

[RandiFan1290]

8. Nice try

[cwydro]

15. It was a hate crime. nt

[Chasstev365]

28. You're FALT OUT WRONG!

While it had nothing to do with Black Lives Matter, it was a hate crime and they have been charged accordingly.

[tenderfoot]

7. That was the whole point of it.

eom

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

9. Question?

What is "alt-right"? Why do we still insist on normalizing hatred on DU? Why does my refuse to normalize hatred make me seem like an outsider on this board?



Hell yea, it was an hate crime, btw.

[roamer65]

16. Too bad they aren't just as aggressive when it's white on black violence.

But then they are Nazis...so no hope there.

[SaschaHM]

19. The "alt-right" that typically complains about hate crime laws is about to learn how...

hard they are to enforce. The police charged the teens with a hate crime, but absent damning evidence that we haven't seen, that's going to be very hard to prove as hate crimes deal with the motive and not class of the victim.

[uppityperson]

24. 1 of them knew him from school & they picked him because he was disabled. UPDATE article

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-facebook-live-attack-video-20170105-story.html

[cwydro]

26. Ugh.

Awful people.

[SaschaHM]

27. Then that makes it a hate crime, but I'm not seeing where it says they attacked him

because he was disabled at least not from law enforcement forces. This is a prescient part of the article.

Hours into the visit, the victim and Hill were engaged in a "play fight" when it got out of hand, police said. The sisters got angry and tied him up, police said. "That's when the attack begins," Duffin said.

They beat, stomped and cut the victim and made him drink water from the toilet, he said. The victim was tied up for four or five hours until he escaped. After police found him on the street, they discovered that he had been reported him missing on Sunday. He was taken to a hospital and reunited with his family.

If the question of "why did you do this to the victim", is answered with "because we were angry after rough housing" as the police are saying and not "because he was disabled or white", then that makes it very hard for them to prove in court that this was a hate crime motivated by his race or disability.

[uppityperson]

31. Would they have taken him, then kidnapped and assaulted him if he weren't disabled?

[SaschaHM]

36. From the article you shared with me.

He met up with them for a prearranged meetup.

Police said Hill knew the victim because they had attended the same school in Aurora. On Saturday, the victim's family dropped him off at a McDonald's in Streamwood to meet Hill, with plans to spend the night at his place.

Hill stole a van before picking up the victim and passed it off as his own, police said. The pair drove to Chicago's West Side, visiting with friends for two days. The victim slept in the van before arriving at the apartment on Lexington apartment where the Covington sisters lived on Tuesday.

Hours into the visit, the victim and Hill were engaged in a "play fight" when it got out of hand, police said. The sisters got angry and tied him up, police said. "That's when the attack begins," Duffin said.

The kidnapping charge springs from them keeping him against his will for those 5 hours(which legally fits the definition of kidnapping), not them meeting him at McDonalds and hanging out for 2 days.


We've had it out quite a bit and I'm really not trying to fight with you. I'm also not trying to say this was anything less than a hideous crime. What I'm saying is that for this case to get the sentence upgrade that a hate crime provides, the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that him being a member of a protected class was their motive. Now I don't think these girls would have felt entitled to tie him up and do these things to him if he weren't disabled, but then again people do despicable shit daily without connecting it to class related motives. Whether or not this falls under the legal definition of a hate crime, it doesn't diminish the crime or the fact that they should be seeing the inside of a jail for a long time.

[uppityperson]

37. Yup, thank you and again my apologies

[HoneyBadger]

40. Play fight that got out of hand?

[Initech]

33. That was a beat down, and they're still not shutting up about it.

One I saw on Twitter was "They are pressing hate crime charges only B/C of the collective hell we raised!".

So to extrapolate there's no justice like angry mob justice. Got it.

[Generator]

35. I expect BLM to be outlawed

on January 21st or maybe it takes a few months. They will be targeted and in prison. What will Americans do then? Oh we shall see if we do fuck all. We only value our liberty when it doesn't cost us anything. And i find it almost impossible to believe these awful people weren't paid by some "alt right" Nazi's to do their crime. They are still awful-it doesn't excuse anything they did-but i don't believe for a minute it was only their idea. And the reason for that is simply their comments about white people AND Trump. Maybe one but not the other-what did this poor kid have to do with Trump? Nothing. It's too freaking obvious. I am watching history being made.