Roy Exum
A shocking video that was taken from a security camera last month on a Florida school bus surfaced this week and the questions it leaves in its wake are more revealing than any possible answers. In the tape, and on some cell phones, three black teenagers are shown giving a smaller, 13-year-old white kid a severe physical beating, leaving the victim with a broken arm, two black eyes and lumps just about everywhere.
It seems the white kid allegedly had told school officials that the black guys, all 15 years old, had tried to sell him marijuana earlier in the day during the dropout-prevention program all four were attending this summer. The beating was in retaliation, according to police who had been summoned by the frantic bus driver over his two-way radio.
According to the police report, as the bus was stopping near the intersection, the three suspects started punching and kicking the victim for nearly a full minute. As the white boy tried to crawl under the seat, the suspects kicked and stomped on him. The bus driver pleaded for the attackers to stop and warned them they would go to jail if they did not.
Here’s the rub: The vicious assault occurred in Pinellas County, Fla. (Clearwater) on July 9. Just four days later in Sanford, Fla. – about 130 miles to the east – George Zimmerman (white) was acquitted in a sensational trial for the Feb. 2012 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin (black.) Protests and rallies and accusations over what some claim was a racially-motivated killing have taken place all over America and, for the record, are still ongoing.
So the first question that begs after the Pinellas County assault is where were the news trucks, the T-shirts with the face of the battered victim silk-screened on the front, and the angry fat women shaking their balled fists at the cameras? Where is America’s outrage, now that “white-on-black” has become “black-on-white?”
More especially, where is the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who after the Zimmerman acquittal slammed Florida as an “apartheid state” and labeled it as “the new Selma” to the delight of the liberal media? What about Stevie Wonder, who vowed never to play in Florida until the Stand Your Grounds laws are repealed? The NAACP silence is understandable but those who shout vehemently for equality are now quite mute.
Allen West, a former state legislator who is also black, is furious at what he perceives is a double standard. The former Army Colonel wasted little time in blasting the black “civil rights” leaders – or “race baiters” as some who only play the race card are now called – and his outrage brings new light onto the beating. Most news accounts immediately following the bus attack failed to identify the assailants as black or the victim as white.
But West wasted no words. “Three 15-year-old black teens beat up a 13-year-old white kid because he told school officials they tried to sell him drugs … Do you hear anything from Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, the NAACP, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, liberal media or Hollywood? Cat got your tongues, or is it that pathetic hypocrisy revealing itself once again? Ya’ll just make me sick!”
After the three juveniles finished mauling their victim, they fled the bus through its emergency door but police quickly apprehended the trio, charging each with aggravated battery and one with unarmed robbery. They have yet to appear in court, but little furor or public outcry is anticipated.
John Moody, the 64-year-old bus driver who retired shortly after the beating took place, has come under considerable criticism this week for not intervening in the beating but has told reporters the three 15-year-old bullies scared him and he felt his stopping the bus and calling for police was proper procedure.
And Allen West? After the Zimmerman trial he sent out this message to over 350,000 followers on Facebook: “Yes, Trayvon Martin shooting was a tragedy which the usual suspect race baiters and progressive media are using for political gain. Where is the outrage for the recent killings in Chicago of a 6-month-old black baby, 16-year-old black honor student, or 17-year-old black teenager who refused to join a gang? The focus is on the symptoms which promote political gain, not the disease which now afflicts the black community. And I am tired of white liberals invoking the heinous memory of lynchings.”
It is hard to call Allen West a racist. Instead, a lot of Americans – quite regardless of race – appreciate and respect what the man has to say.
royexum@aol.com