This happened last year, and the final sentencing was handed down in September, I believe. I don't know about the other 5 people involved, but my mother told me that one of the pieces of shit who did this (who happens to be my first cousin) only got 2 years in prison. 2. fucking. years. That's it. It makes me sick. This happened in my home town. http://www.blogher.com/west-virgina-rape-case-not-hate-crime The six Logan County, West Virginia residents who were charged with the week-long forcible confinement of a 20 year-old black woman who was beaten, sexually assaulted and forced to eat dog and rat feces will not be charged with a hate crime. Last Sunday police visited a mobile home in a remote area after an anonymous tip was called in from someone who had witnessed the abuse. When the police left their car to speak to one of the suspects, Frankie Brewster who was sitting on the porch, they saw the woman though the window, limping towards the door. Besides being beaten and raped for at least a week, the woman had her hair ripped and cut out and been stabbed in her left leg at least four times. Medical reports believe the wounds were inflicted at least a week ago. Police are still looking for two more suspects, one who might have lured the girl over the Internet, kidnapping her and taking her to the house. The discussion of this assault being constituted as a hate crime began when it was revealed that all of the women’s assailants, three men and three women, were white. More importantly, the victim told police that she was repeatedly called the ‘N-word’ right before each stabbing. Also, another one of the suspects, Karen Burton allegedly told the victim that she was being beaten because she was black. Yesterday it was announced that hate charges would not be added to the present state charges that have been laid against the six suspects. If found guilty of the numerous kidnapping, forcible confinement assaults charges, the six will probably each serve life in prison, so if convicted of a hate crime (which is a Federal charge) it will not make much difference in the outcome. On a side note, state prosecutors also declined to press hate crime charges against two white teenagers from the same area of West Virginia when they were arrested for beating and repeatedly running over (with their car) a gay African-American man in 2000. The argument seems to be that unless the crime consists of denying someone a ‘federally protected’ right, such as voting, gaining employment or housing,’ racially motivated crimes do not automatically constitute as a hate crime. While bloggers have been reporting on the case since it broke on Monday, there has been a bit of hesitancy by some as to how much they should comment on the story. Perhaps it is the recent development that the victim might have had a previous relationship with one of the suspects, therefore changing the ‘racial assault’ to a domestic assault….which while still considered heinous, it serves as a way to downplay the viciousness of the crime. Rachel from Rachel’s Tavern looks at the way how some reports are emphasising the poverty-stricken, habitual criminally-minded suspects ( who have 108 criminal charges between them) by labelling them ‘white trash, thereby separating their actions on the basis that they are somehow not really ‘white.’ Jill from Feministe has this to say: It takes a special kind of evil to do what those people did. But it’s not rare. It’s not a symptom of poverty. It’s not about “white trash.” For every one of us who reads these news articles in horror, there’s an upper middle class white college kid somewhere who idolizes Patrick Bateman and thinks that misogynist torture is kinda cool — you know, if you’re classy about it. The focus on the class background of these torturers obscures the larger picture of what they did. It makes it comprehensible — those pieces of trailer trash aren’t quite human, which is why they were capable of doing this. Only subhuman hillbillies are racist. Is this another indication is that this is another example of (North) America’s history of sexual and racial violence towards black woman? What About our Daughters seems to think so. She has compiled an uncomfortably high amount of black women whose disappearances, rapes and murders that have garnered little (or any) media attention in comparison to reports of celebrities going without panties. Stephanie Dunn also weighs in at New Black Man taking a further look into how the media reports on these issues, commenting on the Don Imus case and how the attention quickly moved its focus from the black female basketball players and gravitiated towards the 'role' that Hip-Hop played in it - the dialogue about why what Imus said was so damaging towards black woman got lost in the blame game. While there is certianly a technical reason as to why the country prosecutor declined to press hate crime charges, I think what they are conveniently forgetting is that it is not just the potential for more jail time or to convict on federal charges that people feel that they deserve - it is the public, moral and legal acknowledgement that what these six suspects are accused of doing was primarily on the fact that she was a black woman. That not only to violent acts perpetrated on the basis of race actually exist, but are punishable under the law.
Shit, that's pretty messed up. I remember reading something about this a while back. You're really related to one of those guys?
Yeah. Danny Combs is my first cousin, and was my neighbor for about seven years. He's the spawn of satan.
I don't believe in the concept of a hate crime, in the sense that it is separate from all other crimes. I believe that the people who did this horrible act should have been locked up for a long period of time. But I don't feel that they should be punished for their motives/reasons as to why they they did what they did. It's like we're punishing thoughts almost as much as actions. Whoa to the crime victim who's victimized with no racial/ethnic bias intent.
Wow. I can't believe that. You better watch out though. Some people on this board might think you're racist because you're related to him
I've already been called a racist on here before. I think it's sad how quickly the word is thrown onto the ladies on here. I don't give a fuck what they think. Anyone stupid enough to think that's enough to make me racist can lick my ass.
It really is sad. Some of these guys just like to make other people's time on here miserable. I just get so sick and tired of some of these guys saying white women are racist because of this and that. I've read on here what some black guys have said about white women, about how they just wanna fuck them and what not, but that's not considered racist.:smt102. Whatever! That's good. Don't pay those dickheads any mind. The reason I said what I said about that was because some people on this board believe in this "collective guilt" that whites should feel for what happened to non-white people in the past. It's like guilt by association that Joe McCarthy used in the 50s against suspected Communists. It's wrong. I believe that individuals and only individuals are responsible for their actions. I don't believe in the "sins of the father being hoisted upon the son" thing. It's so pointless and gets people nowhere
... Some people.. argh. God, I get way to angry when I read this sort of stuff. How can any one do that sort of stuff to someone else? I really don't get violence.
Sometimes people get so caught up in their own pain that they can't understand how everyone else can't feel it. When no one else does, they try to make them. Here are some of my amazing observations about humanity: Most people are stupid. Most people can't see past the shit on the tip of their nose. No one wants to get along, because when we all get along there's no drama to incite and inspire people. Without negative things to focus on the world is lost in the dull hum of monotony. The internet is proof, because even growing up where I did I've seen more hateful things spouted on the internet than anywhere else. Eventually the collective thought process will change and things may get better. Hopefully. Until then all we're left to do is bitch on message boards.
How? I can't speak for the other assholes, but my cousin seems to be both a natural and a made monster. The seeds for his violence were sown in his blood, and they grew and bloomed every time his parents beat him until he was bleeding. Add into that recipe a terrifyingly low IQ and a community that worships racism, bigotry, and hypocrisy, let it simmer for about 20 years, and you've got your own little homegrown time bomb waiting to explode. It can happen when someone internalizes their anger and hatred for years. The human mind is a fascinating place, really.
Heres your cousins info on the DOC site... In Jail Available For Transfer Next Parole Hearing 9/9/2011 Maximum Parole Discharge Date Projected Release Date 9/8/2017 http://www.wvdoc.com/wvdoc/OffenderSearch/tabid/117/Default.aspx Seems the longest time is for the mother and she will be out on or before 2017.
If they were smart they'd take them all behind the prison and shoot them in the head. Again, I can't speak for all parties involved, but I personally know there's no hope for my cousin. He'll get out and go back to the same shit he's always done, and end up back in jail within a few months or years. It's only been a short time since the last time he got out of jail. He spent most of his teenage years locked up in juvie. Anyone capable of doing things like that to a human being, whether it was racially or personally motivated, does not deserve to share my oxygen.
I just wonder if I might get called a racist in person if I were to express my views in a group setting outside of cyberspace? I wonder if the guys are using the boards as a place to sound off in other words! I agree 100% with the above statement! You put it very well. I'm sorry for your cousin, that's sucks, and I wish there was a way to get to these kids sooner, but like you said he may have very little hope if any of ever changing and sending him to jail for only a brief 2 years will only serve for him to learn harder methods from others in jail and when he gets out he'll be worse than before. I also believe in the death penalty, but unfortunately he hasn't yet killed anyone, and usually we only enact a death sentence on those how do. Does West Virginia have a death sentence?
I don't believe so, but I'm not sure. I've not heard of anyone receiving the death penalty there, so I'd assume not. A lot of the rednecks prefer to have their own version of justice, anyhow, and a lot of the police allow it to happen that way. The people there are really strange. It feels like a different country, not a different state. I personally don't think he would've been different if he hadn't dealt with the things he did. I can't be for sure, obviously, but there's something about him that unsettles me. Well before he ever did anything violent to people (and he's done a lot. He almost broke my nose once, when I was about 16) he was doing the whole torturing animals thing. He killed so many of my kittens while I was growing up One of our cats was found in the driveway disemboweled, and I'm nearly certain he did it. But at the same time, his home life could've caused it, and definitely had an impact on it. When children are presented with such pain and suffering it generally goes one of two ways: either the kid blames himself, or he blames the world. The first one can lead to self mutilation and possibly even suicide...the latter usually leads to violence and prison. He obviously chose the latter of the two roads. Not to get into a nature vs nurture debate, but in my opinion the people who tend to choose the second path were likely predisposed to that sort of thing in the first place. Environment accounts for a lot in a child's development into adulthood, but it's not everything. I'm living proof of that. Does it make me a bad person that I wish he would be killed? He's evil. I don't generally use that term in serious conversation, but he really is. Looking in his face is like staring down the devil. There are things I saw in his eyes that haunt me. I knew he was going to do something bad one day, I had just hoped someone would kill him before it happened.
I don't think it's wrong to want people who are evil to be done away with, yes to be killed. I won't go into the whole Bible thing here, cuz I don't think that's what you're asking, but I do think some people are really evil. (If you want my Christian view we'll discuss it in that section of the forums, just ask the question, OK?) As I put it in another thread, those "evil" people are completely devoid of love, or the capacity to love. It sure sounds like he fits that category. I have seen that type of evil in a couple of people I knew, and it does unsettle you. To wish that such people be killed is IMO a form of justice, and a form of self preservation, and wanting to protect others from them. Only someone as close as you are to him can identify those types of people before they commit a heinous act that might take them down the pathway for our government to deal with them. Unfortunately you can't do anything until he does something horrible. Wow, it does sound like another country though, not another state. I'm glad you're in Texas now. Is it better there, as far as the police are concerned?
I dunno. The only experience with the cops I've had here was unpleasant. Hadn't done anything wrong at all, and got harassed by them.
