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17-year-old Ali Kamara, a black Muslim, was walking home on Staten Island Tuesday night after it was announced that Barack Obama was elected president when he was brutally assaulted by four white men. Kamara tells the Daily News: "I see the car coming. They looked at me and said, 'Obama!' They were not happy. They had hoodies on. They started hitting me with bats and my body started vibrating." Luckily, Kamara was able to break away and hide until the thugs left; his mother, who moved with Ali to Staten Island from Liberia in 2000, showed the News a bloody towel she used to staunch his wounds. An NYPD spokesman says the department's Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the incident as a bias crime. And Kamara says he heard his assailants scream the word "Obama!" but not any other racial or religious slurs, so it could be the bullies just mistook Kamara for the new President-Elect.
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What do you expect from Staten Island, which has voted red for quite some time now? It's McCain and republican territory there.
Black Muslim teenager, not teacher.
Disgusted, but not surprised it's coming from Staten Island.
Oh here we go with the Staten Island bashing... This supposed incident took place in a predominantly black neighborhood. 4 white guys with hoods were lurking around at 10pm when the election wasn't even over yet and were looking to beat up a black kid because Obama might win?? Something screams b.s. here. Where's Reverend Al?
@Steven, I hope you're kidding. This kind of behavior shouldn't be expected anywhere, even NYC's anus.
Can we please just give Staten Island to Jersey?
You really think it's impossible that white kids wearing hoodies were in a predominantly black neighborhood and beat up some kids? you must live on another planet. Or maybe you're from SI, which is the same thing.
This isn't something that's okay to accept. Of course when Bush gets elected and efs everything up that's okay, but when a black man is elected we should just expect that black kids are going to get beat up? If this happened the other way around you wouldn't be so skeptical or so easy going.
He broke away and hid. How does a person who has been beaten up so badly with bats suddenly break away from four guys and then hide? Did he mean they stopped beating him? And then he hid? If they stopped beating him and left, why did he need to hide?
Did anyone search this kid's background?
Can we see a recent picture of this dude to see how much damage the bats did?
Can a DNA test be done on the towel?
I don't believe the word "Obama" is a racial slur.
Staten Island: Gotham's Alabama.
SI is piece of shit! I almost got stabbed in the library! just five minutes after I stepped off the ferry. there is a reason it was a landfill for so long.
Staten Island: Gotham's Alabama.
So what's your excuse when there's a hate crime in Manhattan? Blame it transplants from Ohio? Thank God for the anonymity of the internet because I wonder if you guys would talk like this in public. Of course, you probably surround yourselves with friends that think exactly like you do so perhaps you do talk like this.
bats are the guidos weapon of choice for beatings.
and, NJ is already an offshoot of SI.
Commissioner Kelly is particularly hungry to prove he's not a racist. My bet is that the NYPD makes a public example out of the thugs who did this.
Build the Trans-Narrows subway(s) promised 90 years ago; then watch the urban rednecks get soundly outnumbered by bargain hunting, home-buyer hipsters and minorities.
Wasn't Staten Island originally part of New Jersey?
I wear a small Obama pin on my coat and yesterday afternoon I was called an "n---er lover" by two iron workers on the subway—they were staring me down like I was about to receive a beat down... I can imagine this type of hate will be very prevalant in the coming years.
watch the urban rednecks get soundly outnumbered by bargain hunting, home-buyer hipsters and minorities
A toxic and cancerous water table is no bargain, believe me.
http://www.silive.com/southshore/index.ssf/2008/09/ground_water_along_staten_isla.html
#16, is that true? It sounds really farfetched in this city, especially since the Iron Workers Union supported Obama in this election.
#7 I'm born and bred Bay Ridge Brooklyn and still here. Like most natives we don't bash other parts of the city because we think it's cool, ironic etc. We're not hung up on such stupid shit. I'm reacting to what appears to be a fishy story. If it's true I'll condemn those who did it but I won't condemn Staten Island as a borough. With your logic I should be bashing every person in Harlem every time there's a crime committed in that area. Three people were shot in Harlem last night. Let's ship all of the residents of Harlem to Jersey!
bornbred. I believe a better punishment would be to ship all those that live in Jersey to Harlem.
What is wrong with people?! Seriously.
did they carve a backwards B on his cheek?
"And Kamara says he heard his assailants scream the word "Obama!" but not any other racial or religious slurs, so it could be the bullies just mistook Kamara for the new President-Elect."
John - your normal facetiousness is a little inappropriate here, no?
Staten Island is the only borough that voted for McCain. All others, and all the suburbs (even Jersey) voted for Obama.
#18, yes it's true. Why would I lie about that? They were two gritty mean looking guys. A lot of businesses small and large, as well as unions and organizations supported Obama, but that's not to say all of their members did.
wow, I'm speechless at that comment edex.
to think it still happens and the brazenness of it.
if you need my pepper spray....
Wouldn't mind seeing those four raped with a radio.
Yeah, I guess I'm astounded by the fact that it happened rather than think you made it up. I gather the guys were heading to the Ferry.
before others jump on my case, yes I know it happens to caucasians by other groups but all he did was wear a small button.
kinda reminds me when I wore my Jerry Brown button into a strip joint and the girls took a liking to JB.
Ohio transplants telling Staten Islanders to go back to New Jersey...New york is a neurotic, fucked up place to have an identity in.
"Can we please just give Staten Island to Jersey?"
I don't think Jersey wants Staten Island.
Here's what needs to happen:
Give Richmond County to Jersey in a trade for everything east of the Hackensack River. People shit on Jersey a lot, but at least that area is more urban and diverse than that shitty island to our south.
24 what does that have to do with anything?? They also voted for McMahon (a democrat) over Straniere (a republican) for Congress. There's also more registered Democrats than Republicans on Staten Island so maybe if they actually got up off their asses and voted they might actually be more in line with the rest of the city. I still see know relevance between that and the story unless you are making the ridiculous accusation that Republicans are more apt to allegedly physically attack an individual than a Democrat.
6 years ago I went to a house party in SI. Everything was cool until folks started getting drunk. One douche, egged on by his crew, started going up to latinos at the party telling them, "Get the fuck outta my neighborhood!" The host told him to chill, he didn't. His boys, were laughing..thinking it was funny, so people just started to leave the party.
Pardon my ignorance, but voting for John McCain means you are a racist? I am pretty sure the sub human goons who beat up this kid weren't up @ 6AM voting Republican...
".. but not any other racial or religious slurs, so it could be the bullies just mistook Kamara for the new President-Elect."
Seriously, this is the lamest thing I have ever heard and not an excuse.
"my body started vibrating"
Usually when I'm beaten with a bat, I set my phone to 'loud'.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/11/05/2008-11-05_gang_angry_at_barack_obama_win_beat_me_s-1.html
picture of him there.
Wow the comments on the Daily News article are frightening...
that's sad and sickening. just like SI.
Comments on the Daily News page are always frightening.
I wish the Secret Service was on Staten Island to perforate the four asswipes who did this.
Beaten down with baseball bats and the evidence is...a blood-stained towel. Right.
This may turn into a liberal's version of that girl who carved a B into her face.
The Daily News posts make the Gothamist community look like a tight-knit family of refined, loving, gentlefolk.
Ooof.
like i said yesterday. napalm
Can we make Cincinnati the capitol of Staten Island...
Here's some audio I recorded in cincinnati while on the campaign trail canvassing for Obama...
http://www.txtualhealing.com/upset.mp3
This is not made up...
Look, it's not perfect but c'mon already with all these negative stereotypes/remarks about Staten Island. As someone posted earlier, all the same crimes and incidents happen in all the other boroughs, but in those cases, the people are made fun of, not the place. Most if not all of these comments are from people that have no clue what SI is really all about. Like it or not, we're a part of NYC.
"...it could be the bullies just mistook Kamara for the new President-Elect."
Yeah... cause that kid almost looks like Barack Obama (who was in Chicago at the time of the beatdown). Yeah, I'm sure those douchebags were thinking they were beating up Obama.
some of you guys are ridiculous. there are lots of negative stereotypes about staten island (and with good reason). but there are good decent human beings living there, too.
Why did someone try to stab babyhilter at a SI library? Why did babyhitler go to a library in SI?
I want to know.
If true--this incident is a disgrace. Nevertheless, it cuts both ways...I'm a white guy who resides on Staten Island and was bicycling home from work, riding through a route that took me through the same area where this incident allegedly took place, the heavily black North Shore neighborhood of Stapleton/Clifton. I was challenged by a group of black teens who demanded to know if I voted for Obama or not. I happen to have reluctantly preferred Obama to McCain, but I don't think the kids who shouted at me "YO! You vote for Obama!?" were asking me out of mere curiosity & to engage me in a friendly political discussion. They saw a white face riding a bike through "their" neighborhood, and I felt pretty sure that as far as they were concerned, there was only one correct answer to give about how I voted, so I ignored their question and just pedaled faster.
Staten Island is full of people who moved there from Canarsie in the early 90s to get away from black people. It's a disgusting, backwoods, very UN-NYC place to live, for the most part. I could see if you live walking distance to the ferry, then it could be kind of cool, but only the black people who the whole rest of that borough are afraid of live there. The rest of that place is pretty much redneck bumblefuck New Jersey, where you have to drive to get even just a thing of milk, but with New York taxes. It's real poetic justice what's happening to those racist scumbags who fled there though: The RUSSIANS have moved in there. And your typical Staten Island dumbass coojean considers Russians to be worse than "the blacks."
Didn't they vote to secede from NYC? Let 'em, and seal off that overpriced frickin' bridge, too.
And charge the thugs from that group under the Patriot Act or some other civil liberties/ fair trial denying bullshit passed by their beloved W, and throw them to Guantanamo.
Certain categories of crimes should have much harsher penalties. Rape/ abuse/ sex crimes/ abuse of children/ etc, shooting police/ firefighters/ etc, and any crimes based on color/ religion/ gender, etc. These animals are terrorists. They're the enemy.
Joclyn wrote:
"Staten Island is full of people who moved there from Canarsie in the early 90s to get away from black people."
My family moved to Staten Island when I was an infant from Canarsie, because my parents could afford a big old Victorian--we moved to Grasmere, right next to the VZ Bridge and a 10-minute train ride (yes, SI has a train) from the ferry. When we moved to Grasmere, it definitely was a segregated area, but we lived 5 blocks from the "'hood" and the North Shore area. Today, racism persists on the Island (like it does everywhere else) but it is becoming much more diverse. Come off your high horse!
As for SI being a "very un-NYC" place to live--I moved back to my parents' house on SI (subsequent to divorce) after almost a dozen years living in Park Slope a couple of years ago. I've come to realize that SI is much more like "the real" NYC than places like the Slope, which is full of hipsters from places like Minnesota who live there a couple of years and then move to the next trendy place and where I almost never heard a Brooklyn accent amongst the denizens of the brownstones. As a teen and 20-something, I wanted to escape from Staten Island too, but people who never lived here don't have the right to criticize our borough until they really know it. It's a diverse place. And it wanted to secede because the other 4 boros were dumping all their garbage on us! It wasn't a matter of the other 4 borooughs "letting" SI secede or not. Giuliani got the dump closed down, SI changed its mind.
All crime is horrible. Hate crimes just that much more so. But I am curious. How is it that an older white man jogging in my home town was beaten and robbed by 4 black youths and it does not even make the local paper. The same thing happens to a black youth and it makes national news. Why is this? Perhaps it is because this IS news whereas the former happens so often to be unnewsworthy?
Mikhael,
Say what you will about Park Slope, but leave Minnesotans out of it! Minnesota is the tenth-wealthiest state in the country (by median household income), not some backwoods collapsed industrial hellhole like Ohio (a more appropriate target for such examples). The state has also voted Democratic in presidential elections for considerably more consecutive elections than NY (it was the lone blue state in 1984), and is the only state to elect a Muslim US congressman, so there's really no excuse to target it instead of, say, Indiana.
You may very well run into Minnesotans in Park Slope and other hip city neighborhoods, but this has to do with the state's strong education system, which produces a lot of cosmopolitan individuals. On the other hand, Ohioans are likely to be there because they got the hell out of an undesirable place with a broken economy.
I grew up in St. Paul, so I understand what it's like to have obnoxious former suburbanites move into the "inner city", but it's really no more fair to cite people from Minnesota in Park Slope than to cite people from, for instance, Connecticut -- which no one seems to do.
--A former Minnesotan now living in a "hip city" other than NY.
P.S. This crime is completely f'ed up. I'll set a good example and not impugn SI for it though.