Baltimore police arrest suspect in man's beating, stripping

[alp227]

Source: CNN

Baltimore police say they made an arrest in a violent robbery in March that left a man battered and stripped of his clothes on a street while onlookers laughed and did nothing to help.

Police arrested Aaron Parsons, 20, Friday evening for his alleged involvement in the March 18 incident captured by cell phone videos that went viral nationwide. He faces multiple counts of robbery, theft and reckless endangerment, police said.

The victim was headed to his hotel from a downtown Baltimore club when he was attacked, according to a police report. The man, who had been drinking, told police he could not recall exactly what happened. However, the videos fill in the blanks.

In them, a man is seen standing unsteadily against a row of mailboxes. A crowd starts to gather and women dance suggestively against him. Someone notices his watch and a hand seems to grab something from one of his front pockets.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/14/justice/maryland-beating/index.html

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The link includes a video, and many are suggesting that this is a hate crime simply based on the fact that the victim was white and suspects black. Other reports claim that the victim was drunk. I think the crime was motivated more on robbery and taking advantage of a drunk person and could have happened to anyone regardless of race.

[msongs]

1. pretty scummy people in this neighborhood nt

[Kingofalldems]

2. Of course this was a hate crime

Victim was targeted because of race.

[bitchkitty]

5. And you know this how?

Did the suspect make a statement? Was there a "let's attack this guy 'cause he's white?"

[Kingofalldems]

8. My opinion and life experience

[PBass]

7. It's not a hate crime

It's a crime of opportunity. If the victim was black, he would have been robbed too. And punched/beaten if he would have resisted.

I don't see anything that suggests there was a racial motivation for robbing and beating the victim.

[Zax2me]

19. So where are all the black victims from that night?

Hate crime.

[JonLP24]

21. Doesn't matter

Even if it was a white victim and perp was black. You need to prove bias and/or motivation. Usually for it to be a hate crime you need to find evidence that supports it such as comments made online that indicates he hates white people or known to have hate paraphernalia, things like that. Evidence such as lack of crimes against similar races is usually not enough because opportunity may not have been there.

[sarcasmo]

3. Aaron Parsons, one of the many reasons to never spend an evening in Baltimore.

[SemperEadem]

4. the people standing around laughing

are all witnesses to a crime... they need to be found and questioned. Bet they'd stop laughing then.

[Snake Alchemist]

6. Maybe I should cancel that trip to Baltimore. nt

[Hissyspit]

9. It was a particular area of town at a particular time of night and the guy

who was attacked was completely out of it, apparently unable to make cognitive decisions with avoiding the situation or make strong decisions about defending himself.

None of this in anyway justifies the attack at all, but I assume more than likely you would be able to avoid such a situation, and otherwise have a great time in Baltimore.

[sulphurdunn]

10. If you reverse the colors

do you have a hate crime?

[alp227]

11. Only if the perps were calling the victim the N-word or stuff like that.

Just because crime happens between people of different races doesn't inherently make it a hate crime.

[sulphurdunn]

12. Does that mean

I can do what was done to the guy in the video and it's not a hate crime if I don't make any racial or ethnic slurs while doing it? If the thuggish trash in this video had been white, wearing white hoods and robes with swastika and confederate flag regalia it would be considered a hate crime and rightly so. Since blacks have few if any symbols of racial hatred or preferred methods (like lunching) of murdering whites of which I am aware, how does one determine a hate crime without evidence of racial slurs?

A hate crime is usually defined by state law as one that involves threats, harassment, or physical harm and is motivated by prejudice against someone's race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation or physical or mental disability. It appeared that most, if not all the people in the video were drunk. Only one was white and only he was accosted, assaulted, degraded and robbed while the rest of the crowd mocked and jeered. So why isn't this a hate crime?

[alp227]

13. Let's recap the basic premise of what happened.

from the original article:

In (the videos), a man is seen standing unsteadily against a row of mailboxes. A crowd starts to gather and women dance suggestively against him. Someone notices his watch and a hand seems to grab something from one of his front pockets.

He pursues the supposed thief and is punched in the face. The man falls over backward and his head hits the sidewalk so hard it can be heard on the video.

"Smackdown!" someone yells.

His pockets are rifled and his clothes pulled off. Some people can be heard laughing, and no one comes to his aid.

It didn't start with the people yelling "HONKY!" or anything like that, instead it started when the man was robbed and he chased the robber. I think this case is more about drunk hooligans than a genuine "hate whitey" attitude that the extremist right wing perpetuates fear about.

[sarcasmo]

14. Was it not a group of blacks against one white? Do they really have to yell "Honky" ?

[wellst0nev0ter]

15. I did hear them use an ethnic slur against the white guy

Not one that you're thinking of, though.

[alp227]

18. I will acknowledge that the victim could have been targeted for being white,

but the burden of evidence always lies with the prosecutor in our country's justice system. The question is: was the victim targeted for his race or targeted for his possessions? I've heard these kind of mobbing/robbing stories where a mob of teenagers will circle an unsuspecting older person, and that kind of crime happens between all races.

[Elaine_Baltimore]

22. Right you are alph227

This has nothing to do whatsoever with the race of either parties. These punks chose this guy because he was vulnerable (drunk). This is not a "race" issue - it's a humanity issue. I doubt seriously that this is the video mugging punk's first crime or charge and he is from Baltimore County - not the city. I live here. There is more black on black crime here than anything. Why? Generally (not always)because of drugs and those who deal them, an argument over drug sales turf, a drug deal gone bad. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of white drug buyers - they come down from Pennsylvania and Westminster.

[alp227]

23. Thanks for the insight, and welcome to DU!

[-..__...]

16. Looks like a textbook example of an SYG situation.

The victim is lucky that he wasn't severely fucked-up or killed when he hit the pavement like that.

[sulphurdunn]

17. Hell, he's lucky

those fucking savages didn't finish him off after he hit the ground.

[Zax2me]

20. So it took almost a month for an arrest.

Why.