April 11, 2006
Did Gadget Envy Cause Harlem Death?
Details about the death of NYU junior Broderick Hehman continue to emerge. Today's news that Hehman was targetted by a group of teenagers for his cellphone; Hehman was walking in Harlem, headed to a friend's house, when he was chased by four teenagers. Hehman then died after sustaining injuries when he ran into a car to avoid the kids. The two thirteen year old suspects claim that their two fifteen year old cohorts never give them any of the goods when they rob people; the four suspects were arraigned yesterday. Police sources say that "teen wolf packs" are becoming more common in Harlem, what with the neighborhood's gentrification with gadget-owning people.
There's still debate as to whether or not Hehman's death could be a hate crime, but Reverend Al Sharpton weighed in: "The murder of the young man in Harlem was wrong, reprehensible and must be deplored by all. If in fact racial language was used, this also must be denounced by the entire civil rights community."
Photograph from photo.bwong.net
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Sharpton weighs in against racial injustice? Now what can the racists from the other threads complain about? Poor guys...
good for sharpton. He's become an astute politician.
As for the comment that teen wolf packs have become more prevalent in Harlem recently....lolololoololololol!
They've been prevalent for 20+ years. Remember wilding anyone??????
If people only had memories like elephants...sigh....
Umm, Sharpton said "if". The mere possibility ("if") of something racist happening towards the black community, would have had Sharpton yelling all over the place (while lining his pockets with $$$, of course).
When sharpton starts sticking up for whites, Latinos, Asians, etc. then we can talk.
I gotta give the loudmouth credit. I know he'd be screaming for blood if this was a black kid chased down by a bunch of white kids, but at least he's acknowledging the fact that black kids are capable of committing senseless acts like this as well. Maybe someday he actually will be interested in justice for all - not just justice for those that can get him a press conference.
Well, I have a long memory, and that's why I will never ever ever ever ever forgive Al Sharpton for the Tawana Brawley affair, and if you don't know what that is, look it up. If I ever see Al Sharpton in person I swear I will scream "Tawana Brawley! Tawana Brawley!"
When the guy was killed in Howard Beach it was headline news all around the country. Why doesn't this get the same kind of coverage? Why don't we have white people marching through Harlem and demanding that blacks put an end to their racist ways?
Speaking of Tawana, her second coming has arrived in Durham, NC. Another example of how only one kind of racism interests those on the Left.
Speaking of Tawana, her second coming has arrived in Durham, NC. Another example of how only one kind of racism interests those on the Left.
This isn't just the left my friend. I seem to recall the NY Post running front page after front page lambasting Fat Nick last summer.
Treating this story any differently seems to be a more insideous form of racism. By not immeadeatly labeling Black on White crime hate crime they seem to be sending the message, hey what do you expect from these people, of course we can't hold them to the same level of accountability
Where is the outrage?
Here we go again -- it's "teen wolf packs" when it's groups of black youths commiting crimes. Why do the media always describe black criminals as animals (e.g., "wilding") but not white criminals? I'm sure lacrosse teams can be predatory and primitive, too.
Ah yes, now comes the part after a bias attack on a person not of color when the prerequisite "Why isn't there the same outrage?" comments come flying in from left right field.
I'd say the cover of the Post, News, etc. etc. is a pretty big deal.
But if you must, have fun "marching through Harlem." I'm sure you'll overcome this.
(I hope you pick up my sarcasm, because I'm laying it on pretty thick.)
Here we go again -- it's "teen wolf packs" when it's groups of black youths commiting crimes. Why do the media always describe black criminals as animals(e.g., "wilding") but not white criminals? I'm sure lacrosse teams can be predatory and primitive, too.
That's your issue with this story?!?!
Did you have a problem with the way they called the innocent white kid being chased into traffic robbery victim, while the black criminal who gets smacked around by Fat Nick gets called heroic hate crime victim
The lacrosse team will be vindicated when that alledged rape goes to trial. The DNA evidence is in and there's no connection nor did a rape take place. In fact there is video of the woman entering the house with an already beaten face (not new, but old).
Blacks are expecte to be racist against whites, not vice versa.
Several years ago, my daughter attended a party given by one of her high school classmates. Following the party, several of the young people walked to the subway station to go home. En route, one of the kids was targeted (for something he had, perhaps a cell phone or an iPod) by a group of neighborhood kids hanging out on a street corner. In trying to escape from the gang intent on stealing his phone or whatever, this young man was hit by a car. Several months of intensive care and rehab later, he sustained permanent cognitive and behavioral damage and recently left school in the eleventh grade.
What is the lesson? I think we have to teach our kids that their material belongings are simply not worth their lives...cell phones, ipods, whatever. Give it up and live.
jmunnie
your persecution complex won't wash here. Sorry.
Don...nope...haven't forgotton Tawana. I was being a bit tongue and cheek about Sharpton. He is an opportunist of the first order. They don't make 'em like him anymore!
Thanks, guys. You never fail to disappoint.
2x4 needs to take his or her clozapine. Firstly, I'm an Black woman against hate crime legislation. It amounts to criminalizing thought. A murderer is a murderer and needs to be put in jail (also against the death penalty) whatever he was thinking while he did it. That said, just because the suspects were Black and the victim was White doesn't make it automatically a hate crime. If they were after his stuff, it's some sort of robbery/murder combo.
I think the whole "teen wolf pack" idea points to another very important aspect of this story that is being overshadowed by the racial aspects - THESE KIDS WERE AS YOUNG AS 13 YEARS OLD! What is wrong with the world when a teenaged kids decide they are going to go out and target someone for a robbery. I'm going to say it - where were their parents? If they are starting that young, there is no hope no matter what race they are. There is obviously something seriously wrong with them. I'm glad they are being charged as adults. Society needs to start showing kids today that the BS they pull is no joke. Maybe it will make some of them think twice.
Liberal guilt is such a bitch...I've only been mugged once in 20 years in NYC (Park Slope subway station, to be specific). My assailants were two rather young African-American men, and I spent months...years...cataloging all the reasons why it was my fault and how society was to blame and those poor kids had no choices. Much later I realized...."Hey, they punched me and took my stuff!!"
Hate crime laws are nothing more than anti-free speech voodoo. Sharpton and anti-free speech activist Norm Siegel are concerned that their franshise is going bankrupt. These kids should be charged with the crimes committed, not for their thoughts.
I'd say the cover of the Post, News, etc. etc. is a pretty big deal.
Really? Were they editorializing the story, insisting that it was a hate crime? Have they been splashing the pictures of the kids across the front page for days on end?
But if you must, have fun "marching through Harlem."
Actually the equivalent would be a group of whites marching through Bay Ridge lead by the head of a white supremacist organization. I'm sure that would go over well in the Post.
I'm sure you'll overcome this.
Yea, I'll be fine. I'm not so sure about the readers of the papers who now have gotten the subtle message, well just another example of how the black man can't be held accountable for his actions.
I agree that the concept of hate crimes is a bunch of bull produced by the masters of victomoloy.
However, as Malcolm X said: the chickens have come home to roost.
If hate crime is on the books, apply it fairly or get rid of it.
correction: masters of victimology. Bad spelling today.
This post's title is misleading and stupid at best. "Gadget Envy" isn't the cause here. Attempted robbery, the unlawful taking of another's property through violence or intimidation, is the cause. The fact that it was inspired by the poor guy talking on a cellphone doesn't make it "gadget envy." "Gadget envy" is a. an emotion and not an act and b. not the same as identifying a mark based on the variety of expensive electronics he's carrying and his vulnerable, distracted state, and c. a completely trite, flippant construction totally inappropriate in this context.
If someone dies during an attempted Rolex robbery, that doesn't make the death caused by "Timepiece Envy."
An automobile caused this death!
An automobile caused this death!
yep, exact same scenario as another incident a few years back.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Beach#The_Howard_Beach_Incident
I seem to recall the reaction being a bit different though...
janine, knowing clozapine in the first place puts you on the list of receipients. ah, alas, i had to look it up... so that clears me of using it ;)
as for a hate crime, it's alledged, by eye witness acount, that the youths were screaming "get whitey" which classifies it as a hate crime. as it would if a "wolf-pack" of whites was screaming "get the n---er"
Tedious lawyer alert: for those of you who think hate crimes endanger free speech, please read/re-read the case law. There is a lot more that goes into hate crime analysis than punishing somebody for racist thoughts.
I think "Gadget Envy" is totally wrong for the headline. If you read either the Daily News or NY Post articles, the gist is that the NYU student was targeted because he was talking on his cellphone, and therefore not paying attention to his surroundings.
And I'm not blaming the victim, but these so-called "wolf packs" evidently targeted people alone and not alert.
If I'm by myself on a street, I will go out of my way to avoid large groups of teen males - black, white, or brown. The mob mentality gives them a sense of invulnerability and peer pressure often leads to rash actions.
a lot more - as in double jeopardy. What's alex trebek's view on this.
I don't know, I'd like to see that march. This case is getting headlines because of the race angle and because the kid died (echoes of Howard Beach), but I'm willing to guess he was not the only person mugged for a cell phone/iPod/gadget of choice north of 96th Street of late. I'm also willing to guess that some of those victims may in fact be not white. Maybe it's time for the whole community to stand up and say something.
OoOoOOoo--this is all very MYSTERIOUS.
Actually, the laws of physics caused this death.
Tim N. I'm pretty sure there are more victims of gadget theft north of 96th and any neighborhood in nyc with large numbers of poor people. I think in most cases of black on black theft, most of the victims give up the gadget lest they get a good beatdown. I think that when Guliani cleaned the streets w/ his aggressive policing toward black and latin street criminals, people have started getting overconfident and have started brandishing their gadgets like its no big deal. But its the same as it always was-filas and gold chains in the 80's now ipods and cell phones today. People have to learn to be discreet because there are always people out on the streets in the city looking to take your s**t from you at all times.
I hate to nitpick the way Gothamist is reporting this again, but J.B. didn't die because he ran into a car to avoid them. He died from injuries when the car ran into him.
He died from a series of events that were directly caused by his targeting by a group of thugs. They are responsible for the ultimate outcome of their actions, aka his death. Geez, what's up with everyone? Why don't you just call it suicide since he technically decided to run in front of that car himself?
yup, it's called proximate cause. that's why it's second degree murder.
2x4: I work in biotech (and also stop to surf the internerd...often) so of course I know what it is; just because you're ignorant of your treatment options doesn't make you any less crazy. Oh, and Tim N. makes a really good point.
Teen Wolf Pack. Awesome name. I'm gonna start me one of them new fangled indie bands.
yeah i'm ignorant cuz i didn't know some obscure schizo drug... wow! you're punches are packed hard... got any more for this ignorant white guy?
lock'em up, throw away the key. next...
in an unrelated note, that picture was definitely taken from an East Campus dorm room...
Well, I live up in Washington Heights, and although I pay 75% higher rent than a lot of the people in my building and consider myself lucky, I don't have the dough to buy a snazzy cell phone or an iPod. That said, I see no lack of minority people on my subway and the streets of my neighborhood with very nice razr motorolas and pretty little iPods.
So I would say it's more of an economic hate crime.
I am only half hispanic, and never considered myself a racist, but must admit to getting annoyed with all the white students moving into my neighborhood with their Marc by Marc Jacobs boots and bags and all their gadgets. I have caught myself thinking, "THIS is what they do with the money they save by living here and driving up the rent for people like me who came here first and made them think the coast was clear for them?"
If I can feel resentful towards them, can you imagine how they people making a fraction of the money I make (and I'm not rich) feel? There's the feeling that "I was here first you spoiled little white kid with your NYU lifestyle and your parents paying your rent for you. Or you young parents with your "waspy middle class" clothes and your $637 Bugaboo stroller, taking up space on my subway... "
Sure it would be nice if all these people wouldn't flaunt their goodies and act so spoiled and out of touch with the realities of the people they're living amongst. That would be diplomatic, and perhaps keep them out of trouble. But why bother? They'll have taken over the neighborhood quickly enough to not give a shit about how anyone feels about them. And who knows where I"ll have to move to next.
(But wherever that is, those kids will be on my heels waiting to move in once it's safe.)
Al Sharpton is a walking hate crime.
I think everytime he opens his mouth Martin Luther King spins faster in his grave. I think all the James Brown hair chemicals have leeched into Mr. Sharpton's brain.
That said, one should always maintain situational awareness, especially while walking or biking. And always look like you know where you are going. This is not a "blame the victim" rant, but you got to stay alert! (Then again, it is hard to see the little juvenile delinquent who comes at you from behind, runs after you and thwacks you in the bike helmet while trying to cycle away from the group of little thugs.) If something doesn't feel right try to get the hell out of there and/or call 911. If push comes to shove just give the thugs whatever gadget they want or even better toss it in one direction and try to flee in the other. No phone/iPod/gadget is worth getting killed over.
Number 41, what exactly then do you expect the new crop of residents to do? To just stop their way of life? To just live in a state of fear and not be able to buy anything that can soothe their consumerist lifestyle? Rubbish!
It's not like these people intentionally flaunt their gadgets and clothes in the poor people's faces.
I do however agree that they should be careful and not for example take their ipod, digital camera out to often or in places where they think it's not safe to do so.
Newyorkette
I grew up under modest circumstances, did my time up in Washington Heights (pistol-happy Elwood St, in fact)--and am still struggling to make ends meet.
However, there is nothing more distasteful to me than the pettiness of someone who resents someone else's economic wellbeing. It just sounds petty and resentful.
And your own post pretty much contradicts your point. If minorities are flaunting ipods and cell phones then those items are really not inaccessible, are they?
It's not an issue of the haves and have-nots.
It's an issue of people growing up in an environment where poor values and lack of good role models keeps them trapped in a meaningless and outcasted existence. They are pariahs with no ambition, and it's a shame someone didn't teach them better.
And someone on the board asked....."where were their parents?" What kind of question is that? Since when do delinquents do anything out of the norm in front of people who will stop them. The two thirteen year old guys will be tried as children. (Don't be too quick to "move on." They'll be back. Thank the system for that.) All children do things behind their parents back. Look at the Lacrosse Team in North Carolina. Their, assuming, respectable parents are in disbelief that their children are the subject of national news, for something so raunchy, no doubt. Gee, look at what their "wolf packs" are up to. Even if, for the sake of argument, and there was no rape, they invited strippers to their party. I see all kinds of lap dance nonsense going. Uhmmmmm.... "where were their parents."
When a person chooses to hang out, at night, in any neighborhood, the rule is....don't act or look like a victim. Most people know that flashing jewelry and sophisticated items etc. especially, out in the open is risky. In New York City, most people don't even disclose that they have a wallet.
When blacks are attacked by other blacks, it is called " black on black crime." If anyone starts hanging around an area that has a prevalent crime rate, whatever the cultural make up, it doesn't matter what color you are, criminals are going to get you. Blacks that commit crimes against other blacks don't go after people they know. Crime is usually random and it does not discriminate, especially when the criminal has "teen" at the end of their age. Stand in the middle of Time Square and flash you valuables. I am sure someone with a criminal mentality has picked you out of a crowd and will probably follow you around for the day or days, looking for an opportunity to take your stuff. They go after victims. When "gentrification" evolves and white people move to places like Harlem, incidents like this are likely. Most of the wealthy white and black people have moved out of Harlem, however Strivers Row, among others, is still a nice place to live for white and black professionals. On the other hand, the places in Harlem which are getting rebuilt are in areas that were full of boarded up buildings. Where do these people think they are moving or hanging out? Mayberry, North Carolina. White children are into rap and are hanging out more and more in black communities. They are going to parties too. The only reason you heard about the crime is becasue the person was white. The crimes have been happeing for a while. Welcome to the statistics. Stop thinking in such nieve terms.
And also to all of you with a negative perspective of " Mr." Sharpton. Good for "loud mouth Al Sharpton." Sounds like he gets on your last nerve. That means that he doing his job, very well.
MH---the same holds true for the Lacrosse wolf pack.
We live in a culture where violence against women is heralded in the pop culture. Including crossover rap music.
As for this business about the crime being noticed only because it's black on white...like I said to an earlier poster: persecution complex don't fly here. It's falling on deaf ears. Cuz it's tired out old bullshit. Find some new bullshit and shock us by keeping race out of it. Thanks in advance
What I mean about same holding true for the lacrosse team: lax parenting, bad communication, bad role models. The difference between them and ghetto blacks is that they have more structure in their lives. Doesn't preclude bad values though.
David Brooks wrote a great column about this in the New Times recently.
SUZ Yeah...so much for "more structure."
You are contradicting yourself. The lacrosse team incident involves a young group of men looking to "female" strippers, " women," for degrading entertainment. This is not rap. This is a group of men in an environment for higher education, and who supposedly come from "good homes." Also, one of the members of the team spoke of inviting strippers over and "skinning them alive." What have their, "more structured lives," done for them? Actually, this incident throws them in the same heap as rappers that degrade women in music entertainment. (Except, the rappers are not going to on trial for singing.) If the lacrosse team went to prison for this particular crime, they would not be placed in the "more structured" prison section. They would be considered criminals, period.
Like I said..."Welcome to the statistics...." Statistic means....it has happened many times. Speak out against all crime. There is no persecution complex over here. Only reality.
MH--It's obvious that you read 3 words of my post and then decided to attack on erroneous grounds. Go back and read it again.
Because I really don't understand the context of your post in response to mine.
I've read all of your comments, along with various other posts by others. However, maybe, you should go back and read your own post and see the contradiction in your statement. Especially, in terms of ghetto blacks and structure. Where do get your ideas and draw your conclusions from, is it your course on Ghetto Blacks 101.
There seems to be a stink about hate crime laws being applied hypocritically, when the real stink should be about the fact that it actually harms minorities more than it protects them--i.e., it's applied against Blacks at a much higher rate than Whites.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/hcrvp.htm