Memorial Day Racial Violence Even More Widespread than Previously Reported
I have to apologize to the readers of American Thinker. Last week, I wrote about more than a dozen episodes of black mob violence around the country over the Memorial Day weekend.
Turns out I was wrong: I missed at least three examples of large-scale racial violence. Or 300 depending on how you count.
So let's see if we can make up for these grievous errors of omission, starting in Chicago.
Shortly after Memorial Day, cops and other readers of the Second City Cop blog in Chicago started reporting large groups of black people rampaging through the upscale Gold Coast area of the downtown. All over the holiday weekend.
"Michigan Ave and the lakefront were a complete disaster tonight," said one reader. "Jumping on [top] of cars and using racial slurs at the taxpayers."
Said another: "Some poor woman was stopped at a light and had 40 savages completely surround her car and begin to rock it back and forth from each side in an attempt to tip it. When then didn't work, at least one of them ended up on her car and began stomping on it. "
And another: "It wasn't just jumping on cars. There were assaults and batteries as well."
And another: "This comment is from a senior citizen and life long Chicago resident. I listened saturday night at around 7pm to the scanner and heard police officers tell of packs of 40, 50, 100 and even 200 individuals causing trouble at north avenue and oak street beach areas.
"Fighting, running across the outer drive, throwing bottles at the oak street underpass,and pushing people. I have not heard of any comments by the mayor, the newspapers, or tv news on their websites.
"There were even packs of teens at state and lake near the ch 7 tv station. They probably could have just looked outside and seen them."
And on and on and on.
Cops in Chicago will tell you: The Second City Cop blog is the most reliable source of crime information in the city. But this time was different. There was pushback: Several readers said they did not believe the dozens of accounts of black mob violence because there was no video, no news stories and no official acknowledgement.
That changed one week after the mob violence: The Superintendent of Police came clean: "Over the weekend, we had at least five or six examples of large groups of kids coming off the CTA," said Gary McCarthy told the local CBS affiliate. "We escorted (them) around basically like NATO protesters, which is the tactic that we used last year that was so effective."
You may remember Superintendent McCarthy: He is the guy who variously blames Sarah Palin and the pilgrims for the violence in Chicago.
So, how many acts of black mob violence were there? Somewhere between 5 and, say, 100.
Sorry I missed them.
In Baltimore, I did get at least one act of racial violence correct: Hundreds of black people were rampaging through the downtown Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Beating, destroying property, creating mayhem.
But it was not until Friday that we got a fuller story about 50 to 100 black people fighting and attacking people at a local swimming pool in another part of town. After getting kicked out, they made their way over to Druid Hill Park, where the city parked 40 bikes as part of its CitiBike program.
You know: Where the city buys bikes and lets people ride them, hoping they will return them and thus create the utopian carless society. Enter the mob. According the Baltimore Sun: "bikes were stolen by mob of threatening youths. City-owned bikes were brazenly stolen by 40-50 youths, some ejected earlier from the municipal pool for fighting."
But not before taunting and assaulting city employees who tried to convince them of the error of their ways.
Per usual, the reporters pretended that black mob violence was not an every day fact of life in Baltimore. Which, per usual, attracted the ire of lots of commenters to the paper's web site who wanted to know when the paper was going to start reporting the epic levels of black crime and violence in Baltimore.
It is hard to say why it takes days to reach the local media when 50 to 100 black people rampaging and stealing and beating their way through an entire section of a big city with lots of people seeing them. And when it does, it is presented with a gauzy filter that obscures more than it reveals.
I missed it too. Sorry about that. But I'm also having a bit of trouble with my math: How many cases of black mob violence is that: Is it two, one at the pool and one at the bikes? Or many more, since there were lots of individual acts of crime inside the mob.
That's above my pay grade. Sorry about that too.
Finally, San Leandro. Here I have the least excuse for my crime of omission: I've been there. I have friends there. Yet in San Leandro over the Memorial Day Weekend, 200 black people took BART from the Oakland area and beat, stole, kidnapped, pistol-whipped and rampaged their way through town.
The local ABC affiliate gave a few details, but saved the good part for last: "Local police are warning violent packs of teenagers are attacking and robbing people, seemingly at random," said the station.
We interrupt that recreation of that broadcast to remind you that racial violence is not random. We now return to the regularly scheduled portion of the city's video press release masquerading as a news story. "One of the kids that we arrested tried to take a car from the victim, who had a baby in the car, so we arrested him for kidnapping," San Leandro Police Lt. Mike Sobek said.
Ready for the punch line: Its been happening for a while. None of the Bay area newspapers got around to mentioning this before, but: "This has been taking place every weekend for the past month and the Bayfair mall has been dealing with a lot of these problems, but it is starting to happen more often."
Here's my final confession. My final plea for, if not forgiveness, then at least understanding. I believe this was just the tip of the iceberg.