Crime and punishment.

The beating of that Iraqi war veteran in Washington D.C. recently was a horrific and inexcusable, and the fact that the alleged thugs who attacked the poor fellow did it in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement made it even more reprehensible to me.

The victim said his attack was racially motivated, and I have no reason to believe that he is lying.

"Christopher Andrew Marquez — who attends American University and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2014 in California — said in an interview that the attack occurred after several black youths asked him whether “black lives matter” and then called him racist.

Marquez, who is Hispanic, called the incident unprovoked. It occurred at the restaurant in the 900 block of E Street NW.

According to a D.C. police report, Marquez, 30, told officers that a group of at least four youths were loud and began to argue with him. The report says Marquez told police that one youth hit him in the face with a handgun and stole bank cards and his wallet with $400 inside. The incident was first reported by the Daily Caller, a conservative Internet news and opinion site.

Police could not verify the motive as described by Marquez and said they are continuing to look into the case. Dustin Sternbeck, the chief D.C. police spokesman, said detectives are reviewing surveillance video of the assault but it was not immediately clear what it shows." [Source]

This case has garnered quite a bit of publicity, and rightfully so, and hopefully they will catch these thugs and give them the punishment that they deserve.

In Western Pennsylvania there was another attack on an innocent man by another group of thugs.

This time, though, the races were reversed: The attackers were white and the victim was black.

"On the night of May 30, 2015, country music fans flooded out of Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pa., after a concert with Tennessee legend Kenny Chesney.

“The body’s a temple, that’s what we’re told,” the singer has famously crooned. “I treated this one like an old honky tonk.”

Outside, people were streaming into the nearby subway station. Among them was Kevin Lockett, an African American man who walked along the platform pulling a cooler in one hand.

That’s the last thing he can remember with absolute certainty. The rest, according to court testimony reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, only comes back to him in bits, pieces and violent flashes.
He thought he heard a racial slur from a group of men, and the next thing he knew, he was being thrown onto the train tracks.

After Lockett lifted himself back onto the platform, surveillance footage shows, 21-year-old Ryan Kyle started beating him. Another 21-year-old, Matthew Laplace, pulled his cooler away.

“I knew we’d find this [n-word],” he recalled someone saying. Then an onlooker called the police.
The attack was brief, but its impact has stayed with Lockett. According to WTAE Pittsburgh, he has undergone four costly reconstructive surgeries since the assault, but still suffers from impaired vision. More therapy awaits.

Four men involved in the incident — Laplace, 22, Kenneth Gault, 22, David Depretis, 21, and Christopher Laplace, 23 — were variously charged with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation, theft, reckless endangerment and criminal conspiracy.

All four are white, as is Kyle. He is the only one who touched Lockett and the only one who could face prison time, as a result of plea deals.

Gault and Depretis pleaded no contest and were sentenced to six months probation, WTAE reported; Matthew LaPlace pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 months probation. All are required to perform 100 hours of community service to benefit a minority community.

Christopher LaPlace, Matthew’s brother, will be sentenced on Thursday.

“There’s no punishment,” Lockett told WTAE with a shake of the head, calling the sentences “slaps on the wrist.”

“The way they would look at if five black guys jumped one white guy. Nobody would be going home. Nobody would get 100 hours of community service,” he said.

At the preliminary hearing last summer, the Post-Gazette reported, Assistant District Attorney Julie Capone called the men bullies and said they were “complicit” in Kyle’s actions.
“They all stuck together,” she said.

But the attorneys for the other four men argued that they were innocent bystanders.

“One of these young men was out of control,” Matthew LaPlace’s lawyer, Patrick Thomassey, told WTAE. “The others, for lack of a better word, was just sort of there.”

Gault’s attorney, Robert Del Greco, said: “In each of the offensive acts, my client’s back was turned, walking away from the fray, toward the exit.”

A police officer testified in court, however, that Gault had said to him shortly after the incident, “Don’t know why you’re making such a big deal over a crackhead [n-word].”

When the men were found at a nearby bus stop, according to a police complaint obtained by WTAE, they “were very upset and wanted to know why they were being stopped.”

The complaint further stated that Kyle admitted to police that he hit Lockett, saying ‘Who cares, it was only a [n-word].”

Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning said on Wednesday he was unhappy with the plea deals, the Post-Gazette reported, but felt compelled to accept them.

District Attorney Stephen Zappala said in a statement that the trial court had not seen the surveillance footage when the no contest and guilty pleas were made. The tape will now be provided, he said, and they expect “that the most culpable defendant, Ryan Kyle, who was the lone participant in the assault of Mr. Lockett, will face a sentence in the state penitentiary.”

Kyle admitted to aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and other charges in a plea deal for dropping attempted homicide charges.

Out of the five defendants, only LaPlace had apologized to Lockett.

“No, ‘I’m sorry?'” Judge Manning prodded Depretis. “No, ‘This shouldn’t have happened?’ Nothing to say?”' [Source] 

What's up with these Kenny Chesney concerts bringing out the worst in these young white men? 

These thugs (at least the ones who have pled so far) seem to have gotten off lightly.

Let's hope that the thugs in the D.C. do not get similar plea deals.

I am sure that my white friends will agree with me on this one.