Al Sharpton apparently couldn’t get a plane out of St. Louis. Ditto for Jesse Jackson. There is little doubt that both men will be rushing to Baltimore first chance they get to lead a protest rally over the brutal, racially-motivated beating of a white man by three black teenage thugs. There’s also a chance that pigs will fly.
CBS Baltimore notes that an unidentified 25-year-old white male was struck in the face with a rock last Thursday as he left his job as a lifeguard job at Otterbein Swim Club. One of the suspects, 19-year-old Sidney Joyner, also tried to stab the victim with a pocket knife, but the intended target moved swiftly enough to dodge the blade.
“The victim began to yell out,” said Sgt. Jarron Jackson of the Baltimore Police. “Residents began to come out of their homes; the suspects then ran away.”
Joyner is a suspect in a similar attack that took place a night earlier in the same area. The vicimt, 24-year-old Sal Schittino, Jr., was robbed and stabbed in the heart, liver, and lungs. He was released from the hospital. No arrests have been made in his case.
Joyner has been charged with armed robbery and two counts of assault for his alleged role in the Thursday incident. The victim’s family believes this was a hate crime. Said the man’s father:
I feel like this was attempted murder. An injury that severe definitely wasn’t an intent to injure — it was an intent to kill.
He questions why Joyner wasn’t charged with a hate crime, since the suspects reportedly yelled, “Hey, white boy!” at the time of the attack.
If roles were reversed, it definitely would be no question whether it was a hate crime or not.
