A white man, Michael Owens was horribly beaten by an all black mob in Mobile, Alabama. A black man, Terry Rawls, has been arrested. According to WKRG news in Mobile, both individuals have a history of animosity as well as past legal issues. Also according to the same source the police are saying that there were likely 4 actual actors and the rest of the mob was bystanders. Federal officials are going to make the call regarding hate crime designation.
Those facts aside, the fact about the case that is leading many news stories is that according to a neighbor, one of the suspects said, “This is justice for Trayvon” as she left. What drew me to investigate the case was that headline. When I looked further I found that police officer Cpl. Chris Levy stated, ”I can tell you this without a doubt, 100% certainty, that Trayvon Martin was not the motivating factor in this incident.”
When I first saw this headline and the quotation about the beating being about Trayvon, I was concerned for the victim but also feared that a wave of vigilante mob justice could be breaking out. Now, I am less concerned about mobs of black people beating up white people in the name of Trayvon Martin, than I am afraid of a wave of media spin creating the impression that said mobs are gathering ominously.
