Hate Crime? White Man Beaten Into Critical Condition Over Racial Slurs

April 25th, 2012 - By Brande Victorian

Source: Newsone.com

Roughly 20 black men, women, and children are said to have been involved in a brutal beat down that occurred in Mobile, AL, Saturday and left the man seen here, Matthew Owens, in critical condition. Four days later, the circumstances surrounding the altercation are still a bit fuzzy.

Many reports on the attack have labelled it a hate crime while others have called it retaliation for Trayvon Martin since one of the men involved in the fight was heard saying, “Now that’s justice for Trayvon” when the beating ended. Mobile’s mayor Sam Jones says that quote has been blown out of proportion and new details suggest that Owens may have actually been the original aggressor in the altercation. One person told WPMI that Owens was spewing racial slurs at people on a basketball court and even pulled out two kitchen knives. Another witness quoted him as saying:

 ”He’s going to lynch all the black kids, he hates black n***ers, he hates that we moved on this street.”

It’s these new details that have stopped investigators from looking into this beating as a hate crime, Mayor Jones says.

“Wait for the facts as far as we’re concerned right now,” he told Fox 10. “But, I would caution people to not jump to conclusions right now. This is really very divisive in communities throughout the country, and I don’t think we have any reason to be divisive here because I don’t see any evidence of that.”

Though Owens is awake now and says he doesn’t know why he was attacked, at the time, he was left unconscious with bleeding on his brain after the fight and witnesses say he was beaten with bricks, bats, and cans of paint by the mob. His wrap sheet doesn’t do much to clear claims that he may have been the aggressor in the case. He’s been booked on charges of assault, domestic violence, harassment and public intoxication in the past.  Despite whatever motivation may have led up to the incident, the brutality of the attack is rather extreme. Still, no one has been arrested thus far.

What do you think about this situation?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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  • amelle

    I dont understand why everyone’s being so racial about it, its their business not yours. This sort of crap happens all the time just because they all happen to black and he happens to be white isnt the problem. Tbh they dont make it out to be a racial thing when a group of white men beat up a person of another race so why are people trying to make it out like it is when its the other way around, race doesnt matter. People need to stop separating themselves into groups because we are all individuals, born alone so you need to learn to walk alone.

  • amelle

    I dont understand why everyone’s being so racial about it, its their business not yours. This sort of crap happens all the time just because they all happen to black and he happens to be white isnt the problem. Tbh they dont make it out to be a racial thing when a group of white men beat up a person of another race so why are people trying to make it out like it is when its the other way around, race doesnt matter. People need to stop separating themselves into groups because we are all individuals, born alone so you need to learn to walk alone.

  • amelle

    I dont understand why everyone’s being so racial about it, its their business not yours. This sort of crap happens all the time just because they all happen to black and he happens to be white isnt the problem. Tbh they dont make it out to be a racial thing when a group of white men beat up a person of another race so why are people trying to make it out like it is when its the other way around, race doesnt matter. People need to stop separating themselves into groups because we are all individuals, born alone so you need to learn to walk alone.

  • maria

    I don’t know I sometimes get angry that there still racism around Im wondering how can we all resolved social injustices without comming to violent acts. Maybe we need to talk it out whites and blacks and other minorities together and for God’s sake if you’re white and not racist show it! Stand up for injustices if you see them,I think that will be a good standpoint for a better race relations and excuse my english not my first language and God bless

  • http://www.facebook.com/babette.aben.cohen Elizabeth Cohen

    No matter what the man said or did NO ONE, black, white, purple or green deserve to receive such a beating, that could have led to his death. What a terrible thing to teach little children, it’s okay to beat a human being. This country has become worse that it was 20 years ago. NO ONE DESERVES TO BE BEATEN.

  • Lrywlf

    I would be interested to know the ethnicity of the witnesses. This story has been ignored by the mainstream media. I have to wonder if the mob had been white and the victim black would it be reported? The media invented racial slurs when Pelosi led her fishing expidition at the Capitol when Obama care was shoved down our throats. In spite of massive video and audio evidence that no racial slurs or spit were used the media and the kool-aid drinkers will still tell you it happened.So if this victim can be made to look like a racist the media can ignore the fact that this was a mob of folks looking for an excuse to hurt a white man.

  • Exile714

    I would like to point out that when the news reported on Trayvon Martin’s rap sheet (see correct spelling) it was called out for being racist. Of course, it had nothing to do with whether he was the aggressor. Nobody is suggesting that Owens was an aggressor, so his prior assault, domestic violence and intoxication cases are irrelevant. Maybe, just maybe, one can argue that he was verbally abusive but nothing verbal justifies assault and certainly not this level of savagery. This is irresponsible journalism to the same degree as talking about Trayvon’s rap sheet and neither is acceptable.

    • Lrywlf

      The media is full of it. They will still try to tell us that the tea party spit at and used racial slurs when Pelosi led the parade of black congresspeople through them,twice. There is massive video and audio proof that no spit or slurs flew but that matters not. If we let them the media, our leadership, and the race baiters(Sharpton,Jackson) will have the races divided forever. They have found ways to profit from the racial problems we have and would hate to see them end.

  • Jut Von14

    A lot of ignorant stuff has been posted here. Truth will eventually prevail. If the idiot pulled out knives and threatened people somebody should have shot his stupid a$$ and left him laying there with the knives in his hand. However someone saying he pulled out knives to justify jumping on a person 20 deep (let’s not forget how pu$$y this is to do) could be bearing false witness. For those saying “we” are better than “them” in any capacity, or let him feel the pain we feel (not necessarily me as an individual, but in reference to past ancestors when I haven’t endured $#!+) is only shaming the names of those who fought for true EQUALITY through NONVIOLENT means!!!!

  • oh well

    It seems that folks missed reading the part that said he pulled out two kitchen knives. I think that at that point the people he was threatening had an obligation to incapacitate him lest he start slashing folks. Were they supposed to let him run around and possibly slash somebody’s child or were they supposed to beat him into submission. I’d go with the latter.  He got exactly what he was asking for/deserved.

  • Noah

    American History X…that movie said it all…violence, whether it is verbal or physical leads to violence…i guess his sorry @ss learnt it the hard way…

  • Spongexwax

    American History X…that movie said it all…violence, whether its verbal or physical, leads to violence, its a vicious circle…and his sorry a** learnt it the hard way…

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