Lynchings ALIVE and happening NOW in South Carolina ! ! !

[QuettaKid]

un-be-lievable.

""Five white teenagers have been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to second-degree lynching in an attack on a black teenager last summer. Christopher Scott Cates will serve six years in prison after pleading guilty to lynching and assault, said Murray Glenn, a spokesman for the Cherokee County prosecutor's officeJason Grice, Justin Ashley Phillips and Kenneth Eugene Miller Jr. will have to spend three years in prison each, and Jerry Christopher Toney will have to spend 30 months in prison, Glenn said.""

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/13597236.htm

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. the Feds say they determined it wasn't a hate crime?

And if the black kid was lynched, and not just beaten, why in the world were the perps given basically a slap on the wrist? The article doesn't say.

[WernhamHogg]

2. No hate crime laws on the books in that state

I saw the story on one of the news channels the other day. IIRC, they said that South Carolina is one of two states with no hate crime laws, so the most they could charge the scum with was lynching.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. By lynching do they mean

they killed the black fellow by hanging? The fact that they weren't tried for murder is what is throwing me.

[Clark2008]

5. The story says they beat him up, not killed him. eom

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Thank you.

I read that part, too, but if memory serves, historically a lynching starts with a beating and then ends with a hanging. That's what threw me.

[Tesha]

20. I thought it started with a pubic hair on a Coke can...

I thought it started with a pubic hair on a Coke can and
ended up with you being confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Or maybe that's just the "high tech" style of "lynching".

Tesha

[WernhamHogg]

6. I do not believe that the victim was killed

If the story that I heard about is this same story, the victim did not die. The report also said that the state defined lynching as two or more people against one in a fight. This is just what I remember hearing.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. Odd definition of lynching

in doing historical research, lynching usually refers only to hanging someone, though a beating could be something that happened before the hanging.

[WernhamHogg]

12. I agree

I thought the same thing when I heard the story...

[slaveplanet]

19. early origins of the term

tend to indicate that it was punishment reserved for Tory or loyalist judges, or loyalist commisioners and agents. It was very effective in persuading those in positions of power to get with the new program.
The punishment often include tar and feathers




so effective , it was then used for frontier justice where law enforcement was non existent.


It does not seem to have morphed into a widespread tool of terror until reconstruction. In this morphed form,law enforcement was often in cahoots with the mobs and the events were highly planned for maximum effect.

What goes on nowadays is plain old vigilantism or straight up assualt,
and it happens black on white, just as much as it does white on black

2 weeks ago in N Carolina there was a case of 2 blacks who chained their white victim to his pickup truck that they just carjacked...and dragged him, he survived but no hate crime was charged.
I suppose this would also qualify as a Lynching.

[peacebaby3]

21. Actually, I got me degree in history at an HBCU and a lynching in not

defined only as a hanging. You can have a lynching without a hanging. A lynching has other aspects such as beating, mutilation of a corpse, humiliation, etc. and is not just a black/white issue. Most of the cases of lynchings have been white on black crime, but there were also many Jewish people lynched as well. Although the victim is usually killed during the process, technically you could have a lynching without death, but legally I would think it would be considered a lynching with attempted murder.

A really great, yet disturbing, project about lynching is called "Without Sanctuary." If you can handle it, I would highly recommend viewing. I will warn you, it is graphic and will tear you up emotionally. You will see photos of lynchings where there was no hanging.

For anyone who has not seen this:

<http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/main.html>

Again, this is GRAPHIC!

[Rowdyboy]

9. Here's a link with the whole story....

http://www.courttv.com/trials/grice/background_ctv.html

It was a severe beating but the black youth lived (no hanging involved). Apparently the definition of lynching varies.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

14. Thanks for the link

when I was doing historical research, lynching inevitably was defined as an illegal hanging by a mob, often including beatings and torture. I'm glad I can now read the entire story.

[Solo_in_MD]

17. Lynching is their legal term for a gang attack

It does confuse some outside of the state.

[Clark2008]

4. This was in North Carolina.

Which is far, far, far more advanced in race relations than South Carolina.

[WernhamHogg]

10. Thanks, I stand corrected, I thought it was South Carolina n/t

[Clark2008]

15. Actually, you're correct.

The newspaper is in North Carolina, but the story's out of South Carolina.

Still - NC is more progressive than SC by a long shot.

However, they pleaded to second-degree lynching, which is more than I would have expected in SC. I lived there for three months and it was AWFUL (and I'm white!).

[Catbird]

16. NC vs. SC

The Charlotte (NC) Observer is sometimes referred to as the best newspaper in South Carolina.

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. Lynching means any mob attack according to the law there

The only reason this even made the papers is because of a slippage in the meaning of "lynching." In this case, "lynching" means a group attack on an individual. According to this definition, I myself have been been "lynched" about five times growing up in New York City, and - quite frankly - I also did a bit of lynching myself! The term has a general cultural currency, but it is completely different from the specific legal meaning in this case.

[Pavulon]

13. YOUR HEADLINE IS WRONG!

This was in gafnee SC. Home of the giant peach that looks like a vagina.

Cherokee County, S.C.

5 teens sentenced in lynching of 16-year-old last summer

[LostinVA]

18. Lynching there means assault by a mob

[graywarrior]

22. No shit. They call it coon hunting.

I lived there for awhile. And don't kid yourself, it happens in mid florida, too.

[ladjf]

23. Terrible but not the same as before. In days gone by, the

perpetrators NEVER were punished. However, the sentences are ridiculously too lenient.

[Chimichurri]

24. THAT'S all they got? meanwhile selling weed gets you 55yrs!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/national/11sentence.html

remarkable.

[High Plains]

25. What we're really talking about here is aggravated assault.

The sentences don't appear unduly lenient.