Double Standards?
April 9, 2006
I actually wandered by Michelle Malkin’s site today looking for updates on the NASCAR/NBC story, and instead started to read this story, about a young college student, John Hehman, in New York who was apparently chased into traffic (he later died) by a group of young black men. I shouldn’t even say men….they were really children, as young as my son, who I cannot imagine doing such a thing.
This, from The New York Post:
The NYPD hate-crimes unit is probing a report that a white NYU student killed by a car in Harlem was fleeing a gang of black teenagers screaming “Get whitey!” sources said yesterday. If the report proves true, the violence could turn out to be an eerie replay in reverse of the infamous 1986 Howard Beach murder, where a black man was chased into traffic and killed by a group of white bigots. The 20-year-old student, John Broderick Hehman, died yesterday, six days after the attack. The sources said Hehman might have been targeted as a soft mark for robbers after the teenage gang spotted the caring urban-studies major handing pocket change to a wheelchair- bound man near the corner of 125th Street and Park Avenue Saturday night. The gang of youths, some of them as young as 11, had been smoking pot inside a nearby Popeye’s fast-food eatery at 8:30 p.m. when they spotted Hehman walking by and then stopping to help the handicapped man. An anonymous caller later tipped the CrimeStoppers hot line that a group of youths screamed, “Get Whitey!” and ran toward him. Witnesses said Hehman fled into traffic against the light and was hit by a Mercedes-Benz traveling east on 125th Street.
I do a pretty decent job of keeping up on the news, I think. Yet, I don’t recall reading anything about this story. Why not? If it were a black man being chased by white teenagers, it would be all over the news. Somehow this just doesn’t seem right to me.
They did manage to make several arrests, at least. This, from NY1:
Four teenagers are facing charges in the death of an NYU student who was hit by a car earlier this month in Harlem in what some are calling a hate crime.
Hassan Mayfield and Andre Johnson, both 15, face second degree murder and robbery charges. Charges are pending against two 13 year olds.
Investigators believe the four chased 20-year-old Broderick Hehman into the street on April 1st. Hehman was hit by a silver Mercedes on East 125th Street near Park Avenue. He died three days later.
Eric Adams of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement says Hehman died for two reasons.
“One, because he made a decision to do a kind act for someone. Second because of his ethnicity; that’s unacceptable,” he said.
“Very simply, if the reports are accurate that one of the people in the group said, ‘get the white boy,’ that’s a hate crime,” said civil rights attorney Norman Siegel.
13 and 15 year olds?! OMG…what is wrong with this picture?
Read more about John Hehman…who was called JB by his friends…here.
What say you?
Crossposted at The Cotillion.
Posted in Uncategorized
My name is Tammy. I'm a 45 year-old married mother of three teenagers, living in my version of paradise, also known as SW Florida. I can tend to be opinionated. My political views lean to the right. I'll think of more later, lol.
April 9th, 2006 at 8:50 pm
That just makes me sick. My God, can you imagine how the parents of this college kid feel?
April 9th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
thats a sad story all around
April 10th, 2006 at 8:23 am
Interesting how the white people were called bigots in the first article and the blacks simply called teenagers.
Then in followup articles the name calling got worse for the teens. The whole story is awful and saddens me.
April 11th, 2006 at 8:42 am
(QUOTE)I do a pretty decent job of keeping up on the news, I think. Yet, I don’t recall reading anything about this story. Why not? If it were a black man being chased by white teenagers, it would be all over the news. Somehow this just doesn’t seem right to me.(QUOTE)
That’s a Bunch of BS. This was in the headlines as anything of this nature is.
Don’t try to make it a race issue, because that can work both ways.
These are just ignorant little boys who was looking for trouble,
it just so happens that they are black.
This makes black people look bad when we deal with race issues everyday,
this goes to show you not only white people have that type of mantality.
It’s sad that anyone had to go through something like this No matter what race you are.
April 12th, 2006 at 7:52 pm
Nice change to the blog.
April 13th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
This was the first I had heard of this. How sad and true. I don’t care what anyone says, it is a race issue and if the situation was reversed it would be plastered all over.
May 5th, 2006 at 11:01 pm
On April 4th, J.B. Hehman, 20, a prolific and articulate member of our Wired New
York Community (posting as “TLOZ Link5â€) and a Junior at NYU, died from injuries
he received three days earlier when he was assaulted while walking on East 125th
Street in Harlem.
Read more at http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8889
The forum community has reacted to this tragedy by partnering with Bette
Midler’s non-profit New York Restoration Project (NYRP) to execute a two-pronged
plan of action:
1) On May 13th, volunteers will converge at Maggie’s Garden (located at 149th
Street and Broadway in Harlem), an NYRP community garden in Manhattan for a
community service project to be performed in J.B. Hehman’s memory. Volunteers
are needed.
Read more at http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8967
2) Our members have also embarked on a fund drive to raise $10,000 to create the
J.B. Hehman Endowment for Environmental Education. This endowment will fund
earth science programs in community parks and gardens for under-served and
minority children in Upper Manhattan.
No contribution is too small and all are greatly appreciated. For further
information on these efforts and how you can help or donate please visit:
http://www.wirednewyork.com/jb/memorial/ or
http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?p=95940
As JB Hehman posted in our forum: “If you love the place you live, love it with
the same passion that so many New Yorkers do, then you’ll learn to tolerate its
imperfections if it hasn’t been ingrained in you already. Be to its virtues verykind, but be to its faults a little blind.”
Help us remember and celebrate J.B. Hehman’s contributions to our community!