Gotta love Texas.

[theweaselking]

Angry mob beats passenger to death for riding in vehicle that struck small child.

For bonus points, the child was not seriously hurt, and the mob was able to catch the passenger only because he and the driver were out of the car and trying to help the little girl they'd accidentally hit.

Comments

Race

[unclestoner.livejournal.com]

If this had been a white mob beating a black person, I'm pretty sure you would have pointed out the racial factor (as may be appropriate).

In this case it was a black mob beating a Hispanic guy. I wasn't there but I also wasn't born yesterday...I would be willing to bet race was involved.

Re: Race

[mrbankies.livejournal.com]

Maybe, maybe not. There was a Juneteenth festival here in my city (Syracuse, NY) that was marred by several fights that ended up getting shut down early by the local constabulary. Nothing as serious as that, mind, but I'd be more inclined to blame the mob mentality taking over after an initial instigation. Sad that the perpetrators will likely not be caught or charged.

Re: Race

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

If there had been anything in the source story about the races of the participants, I might have mentioned it.

There wasn't. There's only the victim's last name, Morales, which means he *might* have been Hispanic.

Re: Race

[unclestoner.livejournal.com]

Actually you bring up a related point...why didn't the article mention the fact that a crowd of one race beat to death an individual of another race? Because if the crowd had been white, and the victim black, you can bet it would have.

And give me a break, we can guess with near certainty that the crowd was black. Juneteenth is a black holiday. There is no call to be obtuse. The vast majority of people named "Morales" would identify themselves as Hispanic, and most of those that wouldn't would identify themselves as white. So in this case a crowd of black people beat a man of another race to death.

Re: Race

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

"Juneteenth" is a black holiday? Never heard of it - and when you mention some random holiday with a stupid name from a hick town in Texas, what's the natural assumption?

Re: Race

[mamomo.livejournal.com]

Um, Austin's not exactly a hick town. And Juneteenth is a pretty common celebration throughout Texas and the South. It is mostly celebrated by African-Americans.

This article didn't mention the races of those involved, but most of the articles and news stories in town (I'm a local) have brought it up. The dead man was, in fact, Hispanic, and according to witnesses, the ones who beat him were black men. A lot of minorities live on the East side of Austin, and authorities and community leaders are scrambling to try to prevent any further racial strife b/c of the incident.

I do think that the mob mentality (and the possibility of celebratory drinking) probably had more to do with this than race, but it still could be a factor. It's all really speculation, though.

Re: Race

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

It's a city with most of a million Texans in one place.

That pretty much *defines* "hick town".

And I'm not saying they weren't black. I'm saying that I didn't mention the races of the people involved when I linked the article, because I had no reason to believe that race was relevant and the article didn't specify the races of the people involved - meaning they obviously didn't think it was relevant, either.

Re: Race

[mamomo.livejournal.com]

Well, Austin is consistently liberal and often acts like a blue-state oasis in the middle of this massive red-state. Yes, Texas is full of retards, but we're not all George W. Bush - and in the larger cities, we're not even all Texans. For me, a 'hick town' is the small town I grew up in with a only about three-thousand people and almost all of them white, redneck, uneducated morons that only knew or cared about things happening inside that little town. Austin definitely has it's flaws, as this article shows, but for the most part, it's very different in attitude than the rest of Texas.

As for the race thing, I agree that it may not be relevant, but since it came up in the comments, I wanted to clarify. The local news is making it into a pretty big deal, even if it's actually not.

Re: Race

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Juneteenth is a half made-up holiday, but aren't all of them?

Roughly two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and about two months after the surrender of the South, word reached slaves in Texas that they'd been freed. This first happened when Union troops landed at the port city/island of Galveston on June nineteenth, 1865. (The Emancipation Proclamation was issued in early 1863, I don't remember the exact date, and Robert E. Lee surrendered in April 1865.

It started as a Texas celebration, morphed into an official statewide holiday, and has spread throughout the south.

And if you call my home, and the capital of Texas, and the home of the University of Texas (which is a Public Ivy League school) a "hick town" one more time, we're gonna have issues. I've been in hick towns, and this isn't one of them. :-D

Seriously: Here you're belittling a culture that is worthy of appreciation and that I think you'd actively enjoy.

Re: Race

[torrain.livejournal.com]

> Juneteenth is a black holiday.

Hmh. Weird. I'd kind of expect everyone to celebrate it. I mean, the end of slavery was a good thing, right? Everyone should be happy?

> There is no call to be obtuse. The vast majority of people named "Morales"
> would identify themselves as Hispanic, and most of those that wouldn't
> would identify themselves as white. So in this case a crowd of black people
> beat a man of another race to death.

May I be gently amused that you're apparently less comfortable making assumptions about the race of the victim (for whom you have the name and photos of his relatives available) than about the race of an unspecified number of people who are about *checks your userinfo and GoogleMaps* 1,300 miles away about whom you have neither written nor visual identification information?

*goes off to ponder the hardline black/white distinction, one-drop theory, and associated other cultural phenomenon*

[unknownpoltroon.livejournal.com]

You know all them there meicanians are guilty of something!!!

[jirel.livejournal.com]

Right out of a CSI show - which I suspect means it has happened before. Except there they beat the driver to death as he was about to call for help to the person he hit who was already dying from a gun shot wound or something (can't remember but I do remember he wasn't responsible for the teenager's death).

[gothpanda.livejournal.com]

Your posts make me sad today. Sometimes I wish someone would just nuke us all into oblivion, but then I think about all the innocent puppies that would be nuked, and I take it back.