Reply #21: There are a number of things in this story that are disturbing...

[rasputin1952]

If, as stated in OP, they were calling him "cracker", it can easily be viewed as a hate crime.

Depending on what the tape in bus shows, it should be relatively easy to see who perpetrated the attack.
It is one thing to talk, argue or use nonvocal ways to show emotional levels, but once a punch is thrown, it becomes battery, and that is whole new level we're looking at.

Here is the truly sad part of this situation though, the passengers, for whatever reasons did not step up to the plate and confirm/deny what happened to this man. I have gotten into the fray in defending people of other races than I, (caveat: I readily admit, those were years ago, at my age now, if I take a dump, I'm afraid I'll throw a hip out...:eyes: )

But truly, this is the crux of the situation, people witnessed something and not one of them will speak up? It makes no difference in color, religion, sex, anything...except that people stand up and right a wrong, whomever is at fault. Each time someone is allowed to get away w/a crime because others stay silent, it denigrates all of us as human beings; and that is what we are, human beings, or at least we should be.

On edit: from the article...

<snip>

Police reviewed the security surveillance video from the bus and saw that the victim was the only white person on the bus. When asked by police and interviewed by Milwaukee County Transit System security officials shortly after the incident, none of the estimated 50 passengers said they witnessed the attack.

The responding officer said in his report that it appears the victim was targeted solely because of his race as he did nothing to provoke the incident. The videotape showed the victim enter the bus and simply sit in his seat before the assault began.

"From this information, the possibility exists there could have been a racial motivation to this battery, but this is now for the district attorney's office to review and decide," said Wauwatosa Police Lt. Dominic Leone.

<snip>

The man said he believes the attack was racially motivated because of the derogatory names used against him during the assault.

Still, he does not hold hard feelings against an entire group of people because of what happened.

"They were ignorant kids and it's a shame there is that ignorance in this city, but I don't hold any hard feelings against anyone," he said. "I could tell the bus driver was pretty fed up with this kind of behavior, too."

<snip>

Maybe we should all read the article before posting.