In 2001, a 15-year-old named Nicholas Minucci allegedly beat an elderly Sikh gentleman with a baseball bat while spitting racial epithets against ‘Arabs’ (via Turbanhead). He allegedly lay in wait outside the main gurudwara in Queens and shot several people with a paintball gun.
Because the attack happened the day of 9/11, Attar Singh chose not to press charges, saying it was a time for healing. Another Sikh did press charges, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.
Singh’s 62-year-old grandfather, Attar Singh, who wore a turban, was walking to a Richmond Hill temple when Minucci and two other teens assaulted him as the twin towers burned… Mistaking Singh for an Arab, they screamed: “Go back to your own country!” the sources said. Two of the teens shot paint balls at Singh, and when he turned to run, one of three beat him with a bat… “F- Arab, why don’t you blow this up,” Minucci allegedly screamed, the sources said…“It was Sept. 11,” the grandson said. “The country was in mourning. He didn’t want to make it a big deal…” [Link]
Mistake. Attar Singh’s magnanimity, when he was just five months from death by cancer, turned into his own version of Spiderman’s origin myth. Minucci was encouraged by the slap on the wrist. A year later, he allegedly stabbed another teen in the stomach. Before the victim could testify, he ‘accidentally’ stepped in front of a subway train. Nobody saw nothin’. In that case, the unusually lucky Minucci skated by with probation.
He then made a guest appearance on (surprise, surprise) Growing Up Gotti, the show about Mafia kids. The unemployed teen managed to get ahold of a $60K Cadillac Escalade through his family. For the coup de grace, Minucci, now 19, is accused of beating and critically injuring another man with a baseball bat a couple of days ago.
Minucci’s got a long criminal history, so why is his face all over the papers now? Because he was too dumb to realize that beating a black man in a neighborhood notorious for race riots would land him in the NYT and guarantee the mayor’s attention.
A group of white men set upon three black men on the streets of Howard Beach, Queens, early yesterday, beating one with a baseball bat and fracturing his skull… One of the black men, Glenn Moore… tripped over a lawn. There, his assailants beat him with a metal bat, stole the sneakers off his feet and ripped an earring from one ear, the police said. [Link]
It’s unclear whether the victims were blameless. Some reports say one of the three wanted to steal a car, while Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he of the speed feeds, says Minucci concocted the story.
Howard Beach suffered race riots over a similar incident 19 years ago. His girlfriend’s statement is unbelievable:
“The judge is black,” said Janine, who would not give her last name. “Everyone is ‘hate crime, hate crime, hate crime.'” [Link]
Yep, Jan trivialized Minucci’s lengthy criminal assault record into ‘Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.’ I’d love to unleash Rushdie on this thug. Everybody needs a little critical feedback sometime.
The lesson here: forgiveness isn’t the best policy at all. Sometimes it’s your duty to press charges, not out of vengeance but rather to force a fix and save others from identical harm. It’s as basic a human duty as kicking aside broken glass on a preschool playground. The garbage must be taken out.
I agree…would be very interesting to imagine what Rushdie would have done in such a situation….lol!..perhaps he would have struck back with a hardbound copy of ‘Satanic Verses’!!
forget rushdie, unleash dalip singh on his fat ass
It makes me very sad when I read of the actions of people like him. I grew up in New York, and saw stupid things like this and prayed it would somehow end as people grew more aware of the differences and saw we live together like everyone else. I can only hope that finally they will deal with this animal. Yes I am calling him an animal since no man would behave this way towards any other human being. Perhaps we need also to take his parents and make them pay for this crime since somewhere they must have failed to teach him behavior like this is unacceptable.
Unfortunately, there will always be sociopaths. How the rest of society deals with them is the only thing that may change as awareness grows.
I can think of some guys from Texas who should have a talk with Nicky, the Zepplin.
The incredible stupidity of Americans astonishes me, and scares me deeply. The worst part is, Democracy empowers these people. Give ignorant racist sociopaths the worlds best weaponry, add misplaced idealism and shrewd business interests, glib copy writers, and what you get is a “war” on terror.
How come so many of the hate crimes commited by whites in NYC are done by Italian-Americans?
Does NYC have a large Italian-American underclass like Boston has a Irish-American underclass?
Tragicomix,
While Nicholas Minucci may be an ignorant racist, it is unfair to extend your criticism to the entire American population.
This would be akin to me stating that all Indians are “incredibly stupid sociopaths” because of incidents like the destruction of the Babri Masjid, the burning of Muslims in Bombay in 1993, the underworld’s retaliation that same year, or the Gujarat riots only a few years back.
Every country has sick people. America has people like Nicholas Minucci while India has its own anonymous killers who have poured acid on, raped, and killed people because they belong to a different religion.
On a different but related note, Bob Herbert wrote a piece in today’s New York Times, in which references “Fat Nick.” It is worth reading.
How come so many of the hate crimes commited by whites in NYC are done by Italian-Americans?
Like this?
Does NYC have a large Italian-American underclass…
There are lots of Italian-Americans in New York– ubiquitous family-owned pizzerias, former mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Little Italy and so on. AFAIK, that neighborhood in Queens has some rough parts.
In school, it was never the popular kids who would put down the outsiders, but the kids who were not-quite-popular and trying desperately to get there. I think with race, it’s the same thing. Most Italian immigrants came from Southern Italy or Sicily, whose denizens were already deemed “racially inferior” by their often fairer, more affluent Northern counterparts. Once arriving in the U.S., they had their “whiteness” called into question-in the South, for example, they were often subject to Jim Crow laws due to their slight edge in the melatonin department over the other white folk. This ambiguous position of racial identity in Italo-American culture causes more preoccupation with maintaining their “whiteness” than “Anglos” who have pretty much always been established as white and “socially desirable”; racism towards “less white” groups is a way of asserting this. Combined with underclass frustration, this can have violent consequences, as discussed in this interesting article which refers to the frequent attacks by Italian-American youth on African-Americans in Bensonhurst.
“How come so many of the hate crimes commited by whites in NYC are done by Italian-Americans?”
Its not just in NYC, I lived in various Italian dominated towns in Bergen County, NJ and dealt with ethnic slurs/racism from many Italians, including some teachers in high school and some local officials. In one predominately Italian neighborhood where everyone on my street was Italian, I lost count of how many times “Hindu” was spray painted on my garage and door. We even saw the Italian teenagers who did it but the (Italian)police and locals had the “kids will kids” attitude.
The dotbusters of NJ were Italian-American. I think those committing the firebombings in Staten Island were as well.
I lost count on how many times I heard anti-Indian attitude displayed on shows like SOPRANOS which is mostly shot and takes place in NJ and NY area.
No kidding? Like what?
There was one episode where Tony Soprano was in cahoots with the Indian owner of a restaurant who was selling bulk calling cards to immigrants (there is big money in that shit). The cards crap out, and the buyer (the sucker immigrant) won’t report it to the police for fear of the INS. Tony eats a meal at the restaurant and gets a nasty case of Delhi Belly and blames the Indian restuarant and that food of theirs – Carmella his wife says that is racist. Turns out his IBS was due to other stress in his life – like fear of a takeover from rival families, FBI wiretaps etc.
The folly of many Italian Americans is that they choose to accept and promote (not just condone) the glorification of Italian mobster violence and criminality which inundates mainstream media.
I would imagine an Italian kid growing up would find it hard not to WANT to be considered a tough, criminal “wiseguy”, considering how that is portrayed.
“Everybody’s psycho or some type of goodfellow But me I keep it real,that’s all swine like jello” -Jeru
I can’t believe this turned into a thread about Italian-Americans being racist against desis.
Antway, I was utterly shocked when I saw the headline for this; I literally thought for more than a few moments that it might be a retrospective look at the Howard Beach murder from 15-20 years ago.
Ditto Saurav.
In defense of Italian Americans, my roomate from grad school was one from Jersey and he is the nicest and one of the most respectful person I have ever met. Same goes with his whole family. As a matter of fact, most in their community despised the show Sopranos. They were also from the south of Italy and part of the group that was looked ‘down’ upon by the northerners. Lets not go stereotyping “They do this and they do that”.
There are douchebags from every lot. Moral of the story is that when such folks do break the law, they should be vigorously pursued and made to pay for their actions.
the fact that this guy got a ‘slap on the wrist’ shows you how flawed the American justice system is, particularly in areas where minorities significantly outperform these lazy fat ass types. I hope some Sikh gangs get a hold of this jackoff and show him what it’s really like to mess w/ some pissed off sardars.
“Lovin” wrote: “the fact that this guy got a ‘slap on the wrist’ shows you how flawed the American justice system is”
Do you know that the Indian justice system is the most backlogged in the world. They estimate that it would take 350 years to clear out all of the cases that have not been tried as of yet.
In fact, India is a country in which people are routinely held in some of the worst imaginable prisons without even a trial. For a description of what it is like to be in an Indian prison, read Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
Before you write about how flawed the American justice system is, you should realize how flawed other legal systems are. Funny, never any mention of India’s flaws – only America’s. It’s easy to criticize the superpower; not so easy to criticise your own country.
i agree, this manucci is a douche
////In fact, India is a country in which people are routinely held in some of the worst imaginable prisons without even a trial. For a description of what it is like to be in an Indian prison, read Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.////
Ever heard of Guantanamo Bay, my red, white and blue, buddy? And I will read a book written by some white dude to understand India’s flaws. I will also read the Jungle Book and watch Gunga Din while I am at it. Go wave your flag high, order a diet coke and join the army.
“To Satya,”
What do you think about sati? Last I checked, they didn’t burn widows in the west.
In some states (I believe MD is one), it is an option for the parents of a minor to be charged and tried for crimes their delinquent brat-ass kids commit. I think the theory is to make parents more accountable and more involved in keeping little Minuccis in check.
Satya,
just bcuz the US system may be better than other countries doesn’t justify that someone like this gets away w/ nothing more than a ‘don’t do it again’ threat. Btw, give india 225+ yrs as a nation to work out its kinks and then let’s make a rational judgment. comparing a 58 yr old nation w/ one that’s been around since 1776 is no fair comparison.
and just like To Satya said, Gitmo is a great example of how ‘corruption’ also runs rampant in the US as well, not to mention so many stories of ppl being randomly held and questioned in a so called ‘secular’ country.
And btw, ‘to to satya’, trying to use sati as an indictment against India is like us holding Mary Kay Letourneau’s weirdness against all Americans. Make a more rational argument if you want to really rip us.
How heartbreaking that one act of compassion and forgiveness helped this monster to hurt more people. Sometimes, you can’t win.
Nicky the Zeppelin looks like he has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or Down’s.
one thing that really bothers me is that in this country a racial event is almost always classified by the politicians and media (not SM) as something happening to a black person. This is really unfair. I’ve seen a lot of this over the yrs where Arabic, Indian, Chinese etc victims are often overlooked but if someone does anything to a black person it’s headline news and time for action. This is really ridiculous, PC driven crap. A hate crime is a hate crime, it shouldn’t be exclusive to any one group. Now, before anyone gets offended, realize i’m making a statement as a whole and not downplaying what happened to the black guy who got his skull fractured by this idiot and whomever else may have been injured. I just don’t like that in this country, race/diversity/minority has exclusively become a catchphrase for Black or Latino. Unfair. No matter how divided our socioeconomic statuses, Indians are minorities too.
well said, Lovin. I remember an incident at Princeton, recently, where Asian women were the targets of this wacko-perv gaura, and the bastard kid got off with basically a slap on the wrist. You can’t honestly tell me it would have gone down the same way if it was a hate crime on black women. And if it had been white women?? oh gawd, the sky might have fallen down!
totally agree w/ you DD, in my opinion there seems to be a bias against Asian based minorities in terms of these crimes. I think a lot of this is due to many people’s views of Asians as ‘threats’ to their financial and economic security. Plus, politicians here make a killing off of acting like they care about black/latino plights and go into action to gain votes, which are in sizable numbers. The media feeds off this PC nonsense and the spiral starts. I just graduated out of bschool and can’t tell you how many ‘diversity’ events and organizations were strictly black. I was even told that certain events were not ‘for me’ bcuz of my ethnicity and relative SES. what garbage. Thus, the whole ‘minorities = blacks’ mindset never-ends and spills out into everyday life.
There are protected minorties in the U.S. and we ain’t one of them.
damn straight
A former employer of mine (LARGE company, prided themselves on diversity and tolerance and fluffy happy things that sound good on mission statements. Hint: Rhymes with Walt Disney Co.) had a multicultural organization. The multicultural organization was mostly geared to black or latino/a members, and they made zero acceptance for mixed-race members. Meaning, if you were half-white, you could forget about joining. sad.
My dear sepia tinted friends, with whom I have never had any personal altercations. You affect sometimes the most baffling disingenuousness (there’s an easy one for the spelling bees, if I spelled it right). More “hate crimes” (aren’t all crimes of violence hate crimes?) are committed against whites than against any other group. You haven’t heard? And why do you think that is? Because a white victim of a black perpetrator gets no press. Nearly all of my family members and friends have been victims of black crime, ranging from purse snatching to rape and murder. I would suggest you seek out the rape stats of black on white vs. white on black. You’ll be in for a big laugh. FBI stats record Hispanics as white if they are perpetrators and Hispanic if they are victims. I am not making this up. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen coverage of some offense by whites against non-whites get huge press coverage, while atrocities against whites, such as the Wichita Massacre (heard of it. probably not. happened just a few yrs. ago) get no play. If a white victim is victimized by a black, the story usually gets little play. You want to know why whites do not want to live around blacks? Violence. And not committed by whites, most of whom are so wimpy they can’t say boo to anyone with more pigment than themselves. Yes, it’s a real bizarro world. You want to know why whites “hate” — hey, ask them. But only if they’ve got the guts to tell the truth. I am all for stamping out any sort of “hate” crime, but when I hear “people of color” go on as if they were ALL poor victims, it really makes me sick. Such a lie.
If a white victim is victimized by a black, the story usually gets little play. You want to know why whites do not want to live around blacks? Violence.
You want to know why it gets little play? It’s not news.
onemoretime,
1) this is a blog for south asians, so usually crimes on whites are not covered. they are usually covered in the liberal-elitist-left-wing media 2) south asians are about 1% of the population, while whites are about 70% 3) due to restrictive immigration policies, most south asians who have come to the US are educated and end up living in high-income neighbourhoods. Not ghettos areas where crimes are more likely. So disproptionately smaller number of SAs end up in ‘bad’ neighbourhoods. putting 2) and 3) together south asians crimes should be about 200 times less likely than a white crime. Hence it is news-worthy to report crimes on SA’s (at least on this blog). Also, have you checked stats on black on black crimes?, it should be the largest. Usually this is because crimes are more likely in poor areas and blacks are the poorest.
Now, on the other hand, what I am about to say might sound like a conspiracy, please go to the restroom and empty your bladder before reading futher (you have been warned). I am just reporting what I heard OK, so don’t shoot the messenger.. You see, my white friend Freya, claims that the reason no white violence is reported is because the media is filled with liberal elistist robots with white skin tones (HINT: no way that Stone Philips guy is a human). These robots are controlled in the Congo basin by black warlords who fund the whole gig by running an underground white slavery ring (HINT: you never hear about those missing persons on milk cartons do you?, why are they always white, did you see any black missing person, I sure didn’t..). Those sick bastards in congo want to wipe out the white race. (Big HINT for you: “missing whites on milk carton” contains wichita negro, lump in throat?). Anyways, poor Freya (white friend) on hearing about this started having nightmares and wetting her bed. On doctor’s advice, she does the macarena three times in the nude and then fondles herself to sleep. Phew.. hope I didn’t scare you buddy. Hey as I said, I’m just a messenger guy. Dammit…this world is such a harsh place. Sometimes, I feel so helpless and want to cry, but then I scream ho-jo-to-ho in falsetto like a Valkyrie and I feel calm…
Interesting comments in the thread. The media reports what it wants to report and uses a filter to exclude stories that do not fit their bias. Black on white crime should be classified as a hate crime if the mens rea (mental state) of the perpetrator was to attack the white person because they were white. When someone like Matthew Shephard is robbed it is reported as a hate crime because it sounds good to the media to have a gay man killed for being gay, facts be damned. When black guys say, “kill that cracker” it is ignored by the media. Charlottesville, VA had a string of black on white crime with townies attacking university students and the mayor held a press conference (2003) to say that it was not racial…despite the use of slurs.
Bottom line has been said but should be repeated, racism is usually fomented by those who benefit from classism within our society. If the poor rural whites with bad schools and high crime (lots of drugs, alcoholism and guns) ever realized they should better themselves instead of being angry at the poor urban blacks who have bad schools and high crime (same) it would be more difficult for the wealthy minority to continue to have advantageous laws and populism would rule. Desi groups are excluded as minorities because they are rich and well educated by and large, and affirmative action and fighting injustice is really all a big money grab…I support a color blind meritocracy, so did MLK, but many of the 5k suit wearing race baiters of today would be firmly against it.
With the few private-sector hate crimes I’ve seen or followed closely, it’s been something along the lines of the police refusing to classify the incident as a hate crime, which then leads the media not to classify it as a hate crime (people who do reporting are rarely going to get at the substance of a matter without some real familiarity with it…it’s like reading my undergrad essays 🙂 The ones I’ve seen have been against desis, but I would bet that this applies uniformly, not just in the ones against desis or White people because it’s much easier for the police to just investigate something as a crime rather than a hate crime; they may not be trained to udnerstand what a hate crime is; and it may be politically in the interests of the people in charge not to classify things as hate crimes, etc., etc.
Personally, I have something of a problem with the whole concept of a legal category of hate crimes except in truly extraordinary instances (like the dotbusters or the klan), because I think it’s a very blunt solution to a complicated problem. And it exacerbates existing problems by relying on our criminal justice sysytem. I don’t see why simple prosecution wouldn’t suffice , without extra penalities and the such. Documentation is important so the same politicians and police officials and media people that are currently undercounting hate incidents can’t continue to do so, but the extra sentenccing penalites smack of the same attitude that supports the death penalty as a means of extra retribution–if for a slightly more noble purpose perhaps.
By the way, I’m sure you know, but Matthew Shepard was not just robbed or killed, but strung up like a scare crow. I’d be willing to concede that it wasn’t a hate crime against him (and by implication other members of his community), but you’re going to have to provide more evidence than arguing media bias with no proof (I’m relying mostly on the initial media accounts and the subsequent HBO movie that was made).
onemoretime, you can’t just redefine “hate crime” or “hate incident” as you please. It’s basically a crime in which part of the motivation is an attack on a person as a representative of a community (whether perceived rightly or wrongly)–as far as I understand it. Just because the term has the word “hate” in it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a particular sense in which it’s being used. So the rest of your discusison isn’t about hate crimes or hate incidents–it’s just about about crime (or possibly violent crimes).
The claim that you never hear about White crime victims because of some media conspiracy is ludicrous, especially when you consider the amount of coverage that conflicts like Northern Ireland and Israel get compared to, say, Kashmir or Rwanda or The Sudan (while they’re happening…not the movies afterwards).
Also, in case you weren’t aware, “the fear of Black men” has kind of been a running theme throughout American history for a long time. Look into it.
i do think that in this country, there is an inherent ‘poor them’ view/bias/slant what have you in the media when it comes to white views of blacks. One, no one wants to be called racist as it will kill ratings and destroy financial incentive. Any organization that reports flaws of black/latino culture will get ostracized by the so called ‘champions’ of the cause like Sharpton, Jesse Jackson etc (who are all frauds). So what gets reported are mainly sob stories which emulate empathy for the black cause. Whereas for Indians and other higher SES minorities in this country, there’s nothing to feel ‘sorry’ about. There seems to be some sort of unwritten rule that if you are not poor (ie Indians), then you are exempt from the treatment that ‘underprivileged’ minorities get here bcuz they are poor, w/o any regard as to the cause of te poverty or any true factors which continue to contribute to it.
This is why I get very upset when i hear ‘they have it bad’…what, like it was easy for our parents to come here in the 60s/70s w/ barely any money in their pocket, limited to decent understanding of English, few contacts if any, and entering a foreign culture to succeed?
Shepard was targetted because they thought he had money. They went crazy and did horrible inexcusable things to him because they were on drugs. There is no evidence they did it because he was gay, or targetted him because he was gay, it just made a much better story.
I agree about the Sudan and Rwanda and the Kashmir except in one respect, as someone who spent a semester just doing research on the conflict in Sudan I found it very difficult to find reports by anyone except way after the fact (Danforth) or from biased liars (official accounts from Khartoum). In Israel for instance you had Jenin, then you had the typical antisemitic b.s. offered by a hysterical BBC saying that it was a massacre, followed by a contradiction by the Israelis who said it was soldiers who were killed…afterwards reporters and observers were allowed to dig it up and see for themselves, guess who was lying? Look into that. If there are no reporters allowed, and the only people providing information are governmental parties it gets less media attention for a reason.
Does racism play a part in conflicts and genocide and dictators being ignored in Africa and Asia? Yes. Is there a bigger factor still? Of course…its money money money. Sudan has a muslim government murdering Christians, engaging in genocide, but also murdering Muslims in Darfur. The storyline is pretty compelling, muslim arabs in the north who identify with Egyptians and who enslave the blacks who live in the south who are either animist or Christian…it is ignored because Europe, Russia and China all have oil interests in the very area that caused the murder of civilians and in fact their funds provided much of the military equipment and manpower.
In America however the facts remain that while there is a lot of black on black crime, blacks attack whites more than any other group attacks anyone and the media does not cover that or report it as a hate crime. It is similar to the fact that if a heterosexual redneck on methamphetamines robs a homosexual and beats him outside a gay bar (in a city, not talking about Shepard) it is reported as a hate crime, but if a pedophile homosexual targets little hetero boys because he is sick, it is not reported that way at all.
The media filters out what they do not want to talk about. It is not politically correct to feel badly for desi victims because they are part of the people groups of non violent, intelligent, talented and successful immigrants to this country.
Except their defense statement said they did it because he was gay.
The ‘logic’ behind this is as follows – 1) Poverty results from discrimination. 2) Indians are relatively rich.
Therefore the they (usually the left wing socialist types) conclude that Indians don’t face discrimination.
Not that the Conservative end of the political spectrum is much better, here is their line of reasoning 1) Most ‘people of color’ are relatively poor. 2) Indians are relatively rich but they are also colored.
Therefore they conclude that any claim of discrimination on basis of color is void.
My view-
1) Discrimination based on factors like race, as opposed to merit is real 2) It is bad because it unnecessarily depressess the social and economic performance of those being discriminated against, and results in lost potential for society as a whole.
Indian Americans were able to compensate for discrimination because they were selected for things like education. But our socio-economic performance would be even higher if we faced less discrimination, on the other hand our socio-economic performace would be lower if we faced more discrimination.
the one thing the media and most people in this country are too afraid to say is that discrimination is perhaps at an all time low in this country, and that much of the economic plight of blacks occurs bcuz they dont’ take advantage of all the things that are specifically designed for them. No one calls them out on crime, drugs, and teen pregnancy, things that are proven to occur in substantially higher proportions in their community, rather, the racism tags, the ‘biases’ in the statistics, the ‘they can’t help themselves’ labels get slapped on the true problem and cloud any serious reform efforts.
Fat Nick please don’t drop the soap…in the shower.