Last month, there was much debate over whether or not "knockout game" exists or was just a figment of the imagination of white racists. Now, the Obama Administration has ended that debate:
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, December 26, 2013
Texas Man Charged with Federal Hate Crime for Punching and Breaking Jaw of 79-year-old African American Man
Conrad Alvin Barrett, 27, has been charged with a federal hate crime related to a racially-motivated assault of a 79-year-old African American man, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels of the Civil Rights Division along with U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas and Special Agent in Charge Stephen L. Morris of the FBI.
“Hate crimes tear at the fabric of entire communities,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Samuels. “As always, the Civil Rights Division will work with our federal and state law enforcement partners to ensure that hate crimes are identified and prosecuted, and that justice is done.” ...
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| Defendant |
The complaint charges Barrett, of Katy, Texas, with one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. According to the complaint, on Nov. 24, 2013, Barrett attacked the elderly man because of the man’s race and color in what Barrett called a “knockout.” ...
Barrett allegedly recorded himself on his cell phone attacking the man and showed the video to others. The complaint alleges Barrett made several videos, one in which he identifies himself and another in which he makes a racial slur. In addition, Barrett had allegedly been working up the “courage” to play the “knockout game” for approximately a week.
The “knockout game” is an assault in which an assailant aims to knock out an unsuspecting victim with one punch. According to the complaint, the conduct has been called by other names and there have been similar incidents dating as far back as 1992.
According to the complaint, Barrett comments in a video that “the plan is to see if I were to hit a black person, would this be nationally televised?”
I predict the answer to that will prove to be: Yes.
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58 comments:
This is the modern-day equivalent of an attainder, and it is flagrantly unconstitutional.
I'm sick and tired of white people appropriating black culture.
According to the complaint, Barrett comments in a video that “the plan is to see if I were to hit a black person, would this be nationally televised?”
Eric Holder: YES!
It is so incredibly tragic that these simple truths have to be demonstrated by the most barbaric means.
Also note that Knockout Game became "a thing" when a New York City rabbi called foul.
But then it was only just "a thing" and not "a trend" aka "a thing we should really pay much attention to".
But now that a black man is attacked it has become just that. Double whammy.
One thing's for sure: this Barrett moron is not going to enjoy his incarceration.
Holder from Barbados should come out and reiterate that Federal hate crime laws apply to whites while blacks are exempt. He said it once a few years ago and should say it again
Conrad Alvin Barrett, 27, has been charged with a federal hate crime related to a racially-motivated assault of a 79-year-old African American man, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels of the Civil Rights Division...
Acting Assistant Attorney General? The feds really wheeled out the big guns for this announcement!
And just recently..
"Mom Punched While Walking with Young Daughter in Midwood"
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20131225/midwood/mom-punched-while-walking-with-young-daughter-midwood-police-say
The Knockout Game has been around for a long time: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/330495152928?lpid=82
Really rubbing our noses in it, aren't they?
So the "televised" comment always insinuates Barrett realized he was playing a backwards "knockout game." The confirmation is that the extremely rare white-on-black knock-out is a hate crime, while the other way is not.
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20131225/midwood/mom-punched-while-walking-with-young-daughter-midwood-police-say
Are these guys gonna be charged with a hate crime?
http://media.northjersey.com/images/122122013_shsuspects_CMDNG.jpg
They killed a Jew and stole his fancy car.
Didn't Barrett know that he was attacking a protected species?
One thing's for sure: this Barrett moron is not going to enjoy his incarceration.
He certainly is a moron -- for thinking that white people would have his back.
So what we have here is a case of genuine political theater, in the best Leftist tradition. A deliberate act by an agent provocateur intended to highlight injustice and speak truth to power by forcing the hand of The State to act in an unjust manner.
Unfortunately for him, Barrett was working off an outmoded playbook based on an age when The State represented the forces of conservatism while the media organs were controlled by Progressive activists, a state of affairs not seen since the 1960s. Now, when The State has become the major force of Progressive destruction and the media organs merely an adjunct of The State, Barrett will find that he has offended all the regnant powers at once and the theatrical force of his gesture will be utterly nullified.
With any luck, some gutsy lawyer will take up his case to drive the absurdity of "hate crimes" laws all the way to a Supreme Court reckoning, though that will simply mean the four Commie justices plus the co-opted Roberts will stamp them as State Approved.
White people: they can't win for losing.
I've read some comments from people on other sites about this furious that now whites can't argue that this is a 'black' crime since there is a white guy who did it.
While its true that it's not exclusively a black crime, in my mind, this essentially changes nothing. Can you think of any 'black' crimes, like rape, murder, robbery, etc, that there aren't at least some people from other races committing? If blacks are still committing this at 1000x the rate whites are, is it not still fair to call it a black crime?
I remember reading last summer about an elderly chinese woman vandalizing monuments in the US with paint. Does this mean graffitti is not a NAM 'thing?
Law Enforcement: The alleged "knock-out game" is nothing more than a few random mischievous youths. In this particular incident, there was absolutely no racial element, and we all suffer when right-wing extremists seek to divide our...
Sotto Voce: Sir, the suspect is white and the victim black.
Law Enforcement:...communities are torn asunder by such calculated barbarity! This office will be prosecuting the hate criminal to the fullest extent of the law. He will be given a fair trial and then imprisoned for life.
While many will wax sarcastic on this event, living supine under such a caricature of tyranny fills me with a statutorily proscribed emotion...a healthy, virile emotion.
I notice the relevant law is the "Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act."
Shouldn't they delete the reference to gay-saint Matthew Shepard since a new book by a gay journalist reveals that Shepard was a meth dealer whose death was the result of a dispute with another meth dealer. Also, the guy who killed him was a bisexual friend of Shepard who had had sex with him a few times, so the whole gay hate crime story is bogus.
Ann Althouse made a good point about hate crimes recently: "We all fear crime, and if there is a lot of murder going on, it erodes our sense of well-being and may inhibit our freedom to move around town. But when the crime is hate crime, it has a disparate effect on the minds of the people, so that some are constrained and afraid more than others. That matters! In fact, spreading a false belief that a murder is a hate crime also imposes that disparate burden on members of the group that was supposedly targeted."
Althouse's point is that if you believe hate crimes deserve special punishment (I don't), then the penalty for falsely claiming a hate crime occurred should be just as severe as the penalty for committing a hate crime, since both have the same effect. Therefore, it would be a good thing for America to acknowledge the truth about the death of Matthew Shepard so gays would stop quivering at the thought that they might be crucified on a fence post. However, we have become a country whose primary beliefs are almost completely rooted in the liberal fantasy narrative, so it ain't gonna happen soon.
The policy goals behind hate crimes laws are sensible. A racial attack against a minority group menaces a wider group of people.
A racial attack against the majority group does not have the same effect on whites because as the majority whites are in better control of the levers necessary to get rid of such a problem.
Charging blacks for racially motivated crimes against whites would be a waste of time from the policy point of view of hate crimes laws. Doing so against white racial crimes against blacks wouldn't be.
"A deliberate act by an agent provocateur intended to highlight injustice and speak truth to power by forcing the hand of The State to act in an unjust manner."
How was the thug speaking truth to power by hitting an old man?
How is the thug being treated in an unjust manner?
I've read some comments from people on other sites about this furious that now whites can't argue that this is a 'black' crime since there is a white guy who did it.
Gotta love that "reasoning".
If only more white people would go around randomly assaulting black people, the media and other organs of The State could pay attention to it!
More grist for the eternal White-on-White strife. Yes this will be trumpeted as more of the "evil non Alpha White guys oppressing Blacks" by the media, infotainment, etc.
And no, this will continue indefinitely. Until it snaps.
Related to the prediction post, many social functions are discontinuous. That is they suddenly drop off to nothing. Myspace usage, VCR usage, Blockbuster Video, etc. The collapse of the Soviet Union, Subprime lending, all exhibit discontinuous functions. They keep on until they suddenly cease.
Civil Rights division best be careful. Non-trivial chance they jump the shark on a case like this and their double standard becomes part of the mainstream zeitgeist. Would be the beginning of the end, or at least a significant roll-back in their influence.
Ideally, from an institutional-perpetuation point of view, they would have a Czar that reins in any ideological overreach and plays according to an ultra-long-term playbook. Someone acting similar to Chief Justice of SCOTUS.
Now the Obama DOJ will look for some "white nationalist" to come to Barrett's defense. That is beside a few idiots on twitter, who will be subject to the mandatory two minutes of hate.
Instead when all that Holder and the DOJ hear is crickets, watch them go nuts.
This Barrett is a sickening idiot, he broke the old man's jaw.
He could have just as well proved his point by hitting the old man with a pillow filled with cheese doodles and have him fall on a bed of packing peanuts. Holder still would have tried to indict him with a hate crime. Hasn't this moron heard of any of the hate crimes hoaxes that got national media attention.
bold experiment from a foolish texan.
"violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act"
speaking of matthew shepard, how do recent revelations alter the understanding of that case? was he killed by one of his own homosexual sex partners in a drug deal gone wrong? and if so, does the hate crimes prevention act retain it's title?
While I would ordinarily have no sympathy for someone who would assault a septugenarian just for kicks as this vicious nitwit Barret did - I really, really have no sympathy for someone who would commit such a heinous crime and be stupid enough to film himself doing it. In a just society, the family of the old man whom he beat up would be permitted to throw the attacker a soap-bar and quarter-roll party.
"Harry Baldwin said...
Shouldn't they delete the reference to gay-saint Matthew Shepard since a new book by a gay journalist reveals that Shepard was a meth dealer whose death was the result of a dispute with another meth dealer. Also, the guy who killed him was a bisexual friend of Shepard who had had sex with him a few times, so the whole gay hate crime story is bogus."
Well that (you know, the truth) certainly won't do. A skeevy queer meth-dealer killed by another skeevy queer meth-dealer? No teachable moments there. Shepard must remain a secular saint, just like Emmett Till. Fifty years from now, NPR and the Gay Lady will still routinely trot out stories about him (just as they do now about Till).
I'm sick and tired of white people appropriating black culture.
So am I, and I'm white.
South Africa: Oppression exists!!
Israel: Oppression? What's that?
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/greenwald-snarks-at-msnbc-i-defend-snowden-like-you-defend-obama/
How is the thug being treated in an unjust manner
He's being tried for a crime that doesn't exist. He's being tried for who he is, not what he did.
He broke Texas law, but this is a prosecution by the U.S. government using a pretext that Attorney General Holder has told us is not a law.
The Pendulum had swung out to the Left of Pluto and is now swinging back. All energy now generated accrues to the swing right.
Let them generate disparate impact energy. We just need to keep pointing it out.
"Anonymous Anonymous said...
""While I would ordinarily have no sympathy for someone who would assault a septuagenarian""
Except for Nazi war criminals"
Yeah, pajama-boy, everyone who disagrees with you is a nazi. Idiot.
The reason this is national news is because it falls under the category of "man bites dog".
I saw this story on a mainstream website, and they explicitly mentioned the race of the attacker and victim. By doing so, they inadvertently acknowledged that yeah, we all know it's blacks knocking out whites, but here's the shining exception, so we can mention race this time.
It is alright to mention race as long as it's the exception.
I think Obama and his buddies pounced on this as their 'great White Defendant' as Steve would put it, but they really ought to be a bit more careful about stuff like this. If people start paying more attention they'll begin to realize that all that this really does is underscore the profoundly negative disparity in how whites are treated by the justice system and media compared to blacks. Thousands of homies do this for years to whites and not an eyebrow is raised by the system, but one white guy does it, and its a horrific hate crime and he is to be treated like a Nazi war criminal, and white America is to wring its hands about the terrible treatment of blacks.
Blacks commit a tsunami of violence and rape against whites and the tribal-controlled media ignores it, But when its a whiet guy attacking a black,,,well,, that's a whole other story.
I've read some comments from people on other sites about this furious that now whites can't argue that this is a 'black' crime since there is a white guy who did it.
While its true that it's not exclusively a black crime, in my mind, this essentially changes nothing. Can you think of any 'black' crimes, like rape, murder, robbery, etc, that there aren't at least some people from other races committing? If blacks are still committing this at 1000x the rate whites are, is it not still fair to call it a black crime?
I remember reading last summer about an elderly chinese woman vandalizing monuments in the US with paint. Does this mean graffitti is not a NAM 'thing?
Haha, silly rabbits.
First, it's a perfect way to highlight how the leftist media and establishment (but, I repeat myself) forge nationwide trends out of single anecdotes, while downplaying real nationwide trends as series of anecdotes. Like the Zimmerman affair, the Duke Lacrosse Hoax, the Tawana Brawley Hoax, etc., vs. the "knockout game."
Second, this crime is shaping up as a great example of how hate crimes are actually political crimes; so far, it seems that his crime didn't actually involve any "racist" behavior, other than setting out to target a black (which can't be racist because blacks do it all the time and it isn't a hate crime according to the gov't, or even racist according to Tim Wise).
The policy goals behind hate crimes laws are sensible. A racial attack against a minority group menaces a wider group of people.
A racial attack against the majority group does not have the same effect on whites because as the majority whites are in better control of the levers necessary to get rid of such a problem.
Charging blacks for racially motivated crimes against whites would be a waste of time from the policy point of view of hate crimes laws. Doing so against white racial crimes against blacks wouldn't be.
Right: creating the impression in the minds of the public that the gov't is racist, and favors one group while disfavoring another, is key to creating racial amity in the public. A polity where the majority is induced to resent a minority is a peaceful one. And a gov't that entrenches racism and favoritism in its legal system, and dispenses with equal treatment before the law, is a respected and especially legitimate one.
How was the thug speaking truth to power by hitting an old man?
He said it himself: "will I be nationally televised?"
How is the thug being treated in an unjust manner?
By being treated unequally by the law.
Yeah, pajama-boy, everyone who disagrees with you is a nazi. Idiot.
I think he was saying "kill the septuagenarian Nazis is 'okay'".
The reason this is national news is because it falls under the category of "man bites dog".
Horseshit. If it becomes "news" (I suppose it will), it'll be because it fits and serves the narrative.
I think Obama and his buddies pounced on this as their 'great White Defendant' as Steve would put it, but they really ought to be a bit more careful about stuff like this. If people start paying more attention they'll begin to realize that all that this really does is underscore the profoundly negative disparity in how whites are treated by the justice system and media compared to blacks. Thousands of homies do this for years to whites and not an eyebrow is raised by the system, but one white guy does it, and its a horrific hate crime and he is to be treated like a Nazi war criminal, and white America is to wring its hands about the terrible treatment of blacks.
Those were my first thoughts as well; this is a big miscalculation on the feds' part. Sure, he might be guilty of violating the (illegitimate) "hate crime" laws. No, it's probably not a good idea to throw the book at him, seeing how they've been giving blacks all over the country a pass for years. Selective hard-assedness isn't hard for folks to suss out.
Just watched a piece on CNN about this crime. It was interesting how CNN managed to report the crime while completely ignoring the attacker's political motivation for committing the crime.
Well, I'm glad they finally caught one of these Knockout thugs. I was starting to worry.
Wasn't James Byrd also involved in a drug deal gone wrong?
Shame such a redneck racist tried to make the point. If he had been smarter, he would have staged the thing as 'performance art' with a willing African-American actor and stage fighting tricks.
Breaking an old man's jaw and knocking three of his teeth out because he's black is a hate crime. Not sure why punching white people in the head as a 'game' is not prosecuted equally.
Oh yeah, the feds are charging him? If they're taking that from the states, will states be allowed to have hate crime laws? States can't arrest illegals cuz it's a federal thang.
I guess that means states can't enforce hate crime laws
Hey! Hold on! The Two Minutes of Hate for Phil Robertson hadn't expired yet! Barrett is cutting in line! There oughta be a law!
"I think Obama and his buddies pounced on this as their 'great White Defendant'"
This time the great White defendant is an actual real White person and not a Triracial Peruvian mutt.
Typical news.com.au, no chance to comment, no mention of "polar bear hunting", no mention of any of the background behind this.
Just watched a piece on CNN about this crime.
Can CNN reports on similar crimes committed by blacks against whites be far behind?
Ha ha ha. Just kidding.
Wow, this kid is the scum of the earth, attacking an innocent elderly man. At the same time, the story does demonstrate the racial animus that drives Holder's Justice Department. I hope we all are able to recognize such racial injustice, while having no sympathy for this evil young man.
Paul Mendez said: He certainly is a moron -- for thinking that white people would have his back.
The commentariat rebuts:
How was the thug speaking truth to power by hitting an old man?
How is the thug being treated in an unjust manner?
This Barrett is a sickening idiot.
This vicious nitwit Barret
Shame such a redneck racist tried to make the point.
This kid is the scum of the earth
this evil young man
It's like fish jumping in a bucket. Fortunately though, we whites may eschew the gauche sentiments of racial solidarity because there once was a thing called "Tribal Warfare"...but it is a thing no more. We're not even sure what those two words together mean.
It's glaring that even as gay marriage is forced upon us in state after state under the rubric of "equal protection of the laws," hate crimes laws enforced in a decidedly unequal manner will remain the law of the land.
"Porter said...
""Paul Mendez said: He certainly is a moron -- for thinking that white people would have his back.""
It's like fish jumping in a bucket. Fortunately though, we whites may eschew the gauche sentiments of racial solidarity because there once was a thing called "Tribal Warfare"...but it is a thing no more. We're not even sure what those two words together mean."
Surely you can see that an unprovoked attack on an old black man does not advance the interests of our tribe - quite the contrary. This idiot - and he is an idiot - did not help our cause, he hurt it. I don't owe him any solidarity.
I think the specter haunting USA 2013, the specter of young white Texan men punching elderly blacks (assuming this is no Soros/ThinkProgress black-bag job, ouch), will prove both trivial as a law enforcement & judicial matter and somewhat underwhelming as a media-fostered moral panic, for reasons having to do with reality etc.
The Caucasian take on the Chicago Way: Put one of ours in the hospital and we’ll put one of yours in the White House. Because the best defense is no offense. And any whites so uncouth as to extend even mild retaliation will unhesitatingly be attacked…by other whites. It’s pathetic. And it’s why our children’s future is emergency rooms and concertina wire.
And when it's your door the youths are kicking in, do you hope your white neighbor is a “vicious nitwit” or a HBD intellectual to come blazing with ballistic witticisms? I wonder. Though if cultured barbs were a viable tool then the Boers would be peacefully counting sheep and Sailer would be peacefully counting Ferraris.
We have many enemies who want us off Earth now. Mr. Barrett is not one of them.
I don't owe him any solidarity.
Make that your posterity’s epitaph.
I took a look at a lot of these Videos on youtube.com, its really pathetic; Black people went through so much trouble, they are making public fear Blacks now. People will start sterotyping and racial profiling again. I think most of these Kids are disenfranchised, and Violent Video Games maye be a cause. They might feel there is no bright future for them, and take to these acts.
Orwell perfectly described Holder's DOJ:
"Some people are more equal than others."
"Porter said...
And when it's your door the youths are kicking in, do you hope your white neighbor is a “vicious nitwit” or a HBD intellectual to come blazing with ballistic witticisms? I wonder."
If they're kicking in my door, the character of my neighbor is, by then, beside the point. The character of my response is what is important. More generally, when it gets down to that, I would prefer my neighbor be a brutal and competent. A nitwit, no matter how vicious he may be, is still a nitwit.
"We have many enemies who want us off Earth now. Mr. Barrett is not one of them."
He isn't helping us stay on this Earth, either. F**k him. A guy whose only function is to land you in pointless battles that do not serve your interests or that of your group is not an ally. He is a millstone.
"I don't owe him any solidarity. Make that your posterity’s epitaph."
I feel I owe you some solidarity, Porter. That will have to do.
The act of whites attacking other whites who retaliate against black violence is so spectacularly maladaptive that I fear we'll have few remaining generations to lament its occurrence.
Regarding so-called nitwits: I would cherish the opportunity to stand with men of courage and erudition. Though barring that, I'd choose the former every time.
I feel I owe you some solidarity, Porter.
Likewise.
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