Four Calif. Teens Charged With Hate Crime

[RedEarth]

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - Four white teenagers who allegedly beat a black youth at a suburban shopping center were booked on suspicion of committing a hate crime, police said Tuesday.



The 17-year-old victim, who lives in the San Fernando Valley, was treated for bruises, swelling and a dislocated knee at Simi Valley Hospital and released to his parents after the attack, police said. He was not identified because he is a minor.


Police said he was selling newspaper subscriptions outside a Simi Valley shopping mall when the four teens approached and yelled racial slurs about 6:45 p.m. Monday. After being punched in the face, the youth tried to run away but tripped on a planter.

......

After fleeing, two teens were arrested on Monday night and the others on Tuesday afternoon, said police Sgt. Paul Fitzpatrick. Items about white supremacy were found in a suspect's cars, he said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=718&e=10&u=/ap/20041208/ap_on_re_us/teen_attacked

[Melodybe]

1. Nazi's! I'll bet a million dollars that their parents voted for Shrub.

[movonne]

2. Make that 2 million...I bet they learned their values from the family.

[catzies]

4. You are probably correct. Simi puts the 'red' in red, white & blue

n/t

[SW FL Dem]

9. Highly likely in Simi Valley - home of the

Rodney King trial and the Reagan library. Just north of LA but definitely redder than it is blue.

[catzies]

3. Simi Valley hosted the Rodney King trial & has the Reagan Library

There's a 'seamy' underside to Simi, under the veneer.

[RedEarth]

10. Where is Simi Valley located?

[BeHereNow]

13. Western Valley of Los Angeles area-

Actually not that far from where Charles Manson set up
camp.
I don't like the area myself.
I have always gotten a creepy vibe
in that neck of the concrete jungle.
bhn

[RedEarth]

21. Good old Charles Manson

and the Manson family....what a lovely group of people. I remember them well. Their rampage seemed to put an exclamation mark on the end of the Age of Aquarius. Yep, I would think the bad vibes might linger.

[catzies]

19. Ventura County, just north of Los Angeles County, and inland.

as opposed to coastal.

[MADem]

26. First time I heard the name

...was in connection with the Rodney King case. I understand that it is a bedroom community where a lot of the LAPD live. I made the "seamy" connection, too, but I have to admit I have no personal knowledge of the area.

[FredScuttle]

5. And the reason we DON'T need hate-crime legislation is.....?

oh yeah, the kids would still have gone after this poor guy if he was white. Uh-huh.

[qs04]

11. Because it is actions that should be penalized and not thoughts?

[Streetdoc270]

16. I thought all acts of violence were hate crimes.

I mean if a white guy punches me because he don't like the color of my car, or he's just an asshole. Because I'm a white guy I'm not entitled to the same 'justice' that a minority male would get?

Yes I do beleive that certain groups are targeted for violence because of their Race/Religion/Orientation but I do not see it as a reason to change the handling of the case or punishments.

[xchrom]

23. you are prosecuted according to motive

a crime of passion may indicate that an individual was taken by surprise by the depth of their emotions in a certain context -- however a hate crime indicates that the individual is a constant walking time bomb.
always exhibiting a certain degree of willingness to commit violence for the flimsiest of reasons.

[customerserviceguy]

24. In that case

we should add road rage crimes to hate crime legislation. At least to be consistent with your explanation.

[snippy]

22. Motive or intent or knowledge are elements of several crimes.

Murder for hire is one example. If the prosecutor can prove motive beyond a reasonable doubt I see no problem with making motive relevant to determining the severity of a crime.

[BUSHOUT]

28. So....if I WANTED to kill you but didn't suceed, is it "attempted murder"?

Hate crime laws are important. If you attack a man that's assault. If you attack him BECAUSE he's gay (for example) then that's more than assault....that's worse.

Hate crime law provides specific "extra" protection for religious, sexual, genders, ect.

In short, the answer to your quesion is NO.

[AP]

29. One reason I find hate crimes very logical is because of this:

Often a victim of cirme, although innocent, does something that leads to the crime. Yes, many victims are in the wrong place at the wrong time. But some chose to be in the wrong place and then suffere the consequences: you don't pay your bookie and your bookie breaks your legs; you go to a bar, get drunk, mouth off, and get into a fight; you give someone the finger on the highway and they shoot at you.

Hate crimes are especially shitty for the victims because you have done nothing at all wrong. You're being yourself in a place you're allowed to be, and for a reason you shouldn't be required to change, someone cracks your skull.

It's like rape. We don't treat rape like we treat battery. It's a separate, more serious crime, and the victim is often only a victim because of geneder and nothing else. You want to give people a lot of time in prison if they are inclined to pick on victims who have done nothing to them other than just exist. You don't want to have a society where people have to repress their indentities and their immutable characteristics out of fear of psychopaths who rape, beat up black people and bash gay people. You have to do a little more to dissuade crap like that: thus hate crimes.

And the law makes all sorts of distinctions in criminal law based on different sorts of motives and mental states behind actions.

It's very important to realize that a hate crime isn't a thought crime. It's an action which is punnished to a higher degree because of the motive and mental state of the defendant -- and that's basically the story of criminal law: the time you get depends on the action + mental state.

A thought hate crime is where you think about beating up a black person because he's black but you don't do it.

[ZR2]

6. But, but, but

California is a blue state.

[sakabatou]

15. Western California is a blue state

Eastern is red.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. "Items about white supremacy were found in a suspect's cars"

CARS???

How many teens own more than one car these days?

[FredScuttle]

8. misplaced apostrophe, I imagine

probably meant to say "suspects' cars"

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. More like he meant to write

"a suspect's car"; then again, maybe we're talking about wealthy fascist racist piglets.

[MaroonVette]

12. Maybe they will wind up here...

http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_5789.shtml

New York Times to White Prisoners: ‘Bend Over and Take It’

Hate crime begats hate crime...

[martinolich]

18. ....Michnews...

This is from the link you gave: Note the "well-to-do leftists" line?...Can you say.".RRRIIGHT wing!)

Or at least, white, heterosexual men who aren’t well-to-do leftists. Conversely, if it were known that white prisoners were violently raping, sexually enslaving, and murdering black prisoners through the deliberate transmission of HIV infection, the story would run in its proper place, on the top of page one.

[Blue_Tires]

30. i need to shower in lysol after reading that site

[pelagius]

17. The local Ventura County paper's article on this incident...

...includes the following quote:

Lisa Foxworth of Simi Valley, who said her 15-year-old son was among the teens arrested, said he was trying to break up a fight provoked by the victim and his co-worker, who were selling subscriptions to the Ventura County Star.

"One of the kids swung on him and he swung back," she said.

Racial tensions have sparked fights between her son and black and Hispanic teens before, most recently a few weeks ago, with her son being the target of the beatings, she said. The incidents by school officials were referred to as "mutual combat" rather than hate crimes because her son is white, she said.

"It's a hate crime against my kid," Foxworth said.

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_3383636,00.html

[Piperay]

20. Oh uh huh

he just seems to keep being the target in fights with blacks and Hispanics...uh huh. :eyes:

[pelagius]

25. Yeah, in Ventura County all the black and Hispanic kids...

...meet once a year and decide who they're going to beat up in acts of racially-inspired violence. This poor guy's number just came up! The trouble is there's enough people in Simi that would probably buy this argument.

Very bright mother, too. Juveniles have anonymity in the justice system, but Young Master Foxworth has just been outed by his mommy.

[Malikshah]

27. Let's hope Elizabeth "Lady Macbeth" Vargas doesn't cover this

Otherwise, suspicions will be raised...

The victim's race didn't matter-- the attackers were just hanging out...they'd had a rough upbringing....they were just acting out--trying to make some money over an ill conceived drug score....


In the real world-- hope that these teens get what they deserve.
They won't last long in the clink.