January 5, 2017

It's bad enough to commit hate-related crimes. But doing it on Facebook Live? What kind of evil is this?

CNN reports that 4 people have been arrested in connection with the beating of a special needs student after broadcasting their torture on Facebook.

The disturbing 30-minute video shows a man tied up and his mouth covered, cowering in the corner of a room. His attackers laugh and shout "f*ck Donald Trump" and "f*ck white people" as they kick and punch him.

The video shows someone cutting into his scalp with a knife, leaving a visibly bald patch.
Police said the victim is an 18-year-old with special needs. Officers found the disoriented young man wandering a Chicago street "in crisis" Tuesday afternoon.

The victim was white; his attackers were black. And that may end up prompting hate crimes charges against them.

Because the victim is white and the people in the video are black, police also are investigating whether hate crime charges are appropriate, Duffin said.

"Although they are adults, they're 18. Kids make stupid decisions -- I shouldn't call them kids; they're legally adults, but they're young adults, and they make stupid decisions," Duffin said.

"That certainly will be part of whether or not ... we seek a hate crime, to determine whether or not this is sincere or just stupid ranting and raving."

This is just insane and awful. Police aren't attributing any kind of political motive to the crime at all, but it's clear that these kids thought it would be just great to torture this guy and taunt him until he renounced Trump.

It's sick and it's wrong, and they should pay for the crime.

Glenn Beck immediately went right to Black Lives Matter, assigning them responsibility for the crime, because apparently 18-year olds can't decide for themselves without some outside influence?

As horrible as this crime was and is, there's no reason to make it something it's not. These four individuals have done something terrible that they decided on their own to do. No outside group ever said they should torture someone and film it live. Are we going to blame Facebook too, since it gave them the tools to broadcast their sick behavior?

I look forward to justice being done, and I hope that young man is able to recover quickly.

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