Revenge Beating for Michael Brown Shooting Not a Hate Crime

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Quote:

Police are investigating a brutal beating at a Mississippi restaurant that some are calling revenge for the killing of black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. A verbal alternation between two white men and up to seven black men began at a West Point, Mississippi, Waffle House shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday. The restaurant’s management warned the two groups to “take it outside” and the two whites, Ralph Weems and David Knighten, left the scene after words were exchanged. About an hour later, the men stopped at a Huddle House restaurant and realized they had been followed by “about 20 people,” according to a local TV station. The verbal confrontation resumed and, this time, it turned violent. When police arrived at the Huddle House about 2:10 a.m., they found Weems, a 32-year-old former Marine, lying in the parking lot severely beaten. Two men were bent over Weems trying to render aid, police said, but all of the beating suspects were gone. Weems was airlifted to North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo where he underwent emergency brain surgery, according to a family member, and was put into a medically induced coma. Knighten told AP he and Weems had gone to a Waffle House early Saturday. He said a man waved him over outside the restaurant and warned him that people were upset by the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and it wasn’t a safe place for whites. He went inside anyway, he said, and saw Weems arguing with some of the men. ... But Brinkley [black police chief] was hesitant to label the incident as racially motivated. He said his investigation has turned up no evidence of racial slurs, and if slurs were used, that does not automatically qualify the case as a hate crime. “And right now we are investigating it as an aggravated assault, not a hate crime. We know there’s an aggravated assault, we don’t know that the actions and the evidence will support a hate crime, but if we get enough evidence to support that then we can amend the charges at that time,” Brinkley said in a phone interview Monday.

Should have kept their noses clean imo

Revenge Beating for Michael Brown Shooting Not a Hate Crime