Every discussion of the epidemic of black mob violence at carnivals and fairs should begin with two words: Lori Lavorato.
We have already met her in this book, but she is worth remembering again because she was the police officer fired for telling the truth about racial violence at the Iowa State Fair.
But that was so long ago: Beat Whitey Night 2011 is now just a distant memory. Let’s flash forward to more than a dozen, more recent examples of black mob violence at fairs and carnivals all around the country, starting in Hampton, Virginia 2013.
Over Memorial Day weekend, five people were shot, one died, and two have been arrested for murder following an outbreak of black mob violence at the Hampton Coliseum Spring Carnival.
The shooting happened on Saturday night, the third day of the event, while police were in another part of the fairgrounds trying to quell a different case of black mob violence, one of several prior to the killing, some involving 50 to 100 people.
Officials cancelled the remainder of what was scheduled to be a 10-day affair. This was not the first episode of shooting or mob violence at the Fair: Last year, shots were fired but no one was killed.657
As is often the case, the readers tell the story the reporters cannot. Or will not.
“Every year this carnival attracts thugs and every year it is a breeding ground for violence,” said a reader of the Daily Press in Hampton. “Children want to attend the carnival and the low-lifes in this area are drawn to it for some reason. I would LOVE to be able to bring my children to the carnival but it's just not safe.658
And oh yeah, it’s been happening here a long time.
Some complained that anyone drawing attention to the fact that the fighters, the shooters, and the people shot were all black is racist: “A mother and father have lost their child, a sibling has loss his brother and the only thing some of you racist people can only say is negative things.”
Notice the script flip: The victims and witnesses are now the predators. And the predators? All of a sudden they are the victims.
Nice.
You have to decide, right here. Right now. That you are not going to let people do that anymore.
Are you in?
Others hoped that if the paper ignored the violence -- including the racial aspect of it -- that would make Hampton look like a better place: “It is probably a good idea for the daily papers to avoid writing about this nonsense and inform the community on positive attributes going on other places.”
Which is what other newspapers and TV news outlets do. And they put their audience in danger they had no idea even existed.
Hampton is 30 miles from Virginia Beach, where just a few weeks before, 40,000 black people rampaged through the beach town on a Saturday night, destroying property and creating violence.
On the other side of the state in Roanoke, the Drew Expo 2012 was forced to close their carnival early after it was the scene of black mob violence involving 500 people both in and out of the fair. No arrests were made. The Expo went off in 2013 with large-scale police presence that prevented large-scale violence that city officials said would cause them to abolish the Expo if it happened again.659
In the Detroit metro area, black mob violence struck at least three carnivals in May 2013. In Westland, according to ClickonDetroit.com:660
“Police say more than 100 teenagers -- mostly boys -- started a fight during the Westland Firefighters Charity Fund Carnival. It happened in a shopping center parking lot where the violence got so out of hand that it spilled over to neighboring businesses.”
Two weeks later at the St. Mary’s Polish Country Fair in neighboring Orchard Lake, hundreds of black people fought and destroyed property during the festival.
Eddie Kulczyk said he “saw the video on clickondetroit.com. Of all of the fights, definitely didn't look like they were Polish people causing the trouble.”
"It seems that every community has the same issue,” said Westland city councilman Bill Johnson. “It's just not safe.” 662 He called for a ban on the carnival.
In Taylor, another suburb of Detroit, several fights broke out at the Gibraltar Trade Center carnival at the beginning of May. Several people reported hearing gunshots but the police chief denied anything like that happened.
“My daughter and her friends went to this carnival and I heard someone was stabbed along with gunshots fired, they were running into the building to get away from them,” said Teresa Lynne J. In the comments section of the News Herald.
“My son was there and he said that there was also gunfire and that he and his girlfriend were running for their lives!,” said another parent.663
“Numerous people have posted hearing gunshots, as well as having family working at Heritage Hospital, and reporting how busy they were due to the fight at GTC,” posted another reader. “So, to say no one was injured, I believe is a complete falsehood, and a case of the mayor trying to cover how dangerous it really is there.”
The State Fair that probably got the most attention for racial violence was Milwaukee in 2011. Hundreds of black people roamed in and out of the fairgrounds, beating up white people at will.
Which was not too much different than what 50-100 black people did just three weeks before when they looted a Milwaukee convenience store, then, two blocks away, assaulted several people on an Independence Day holiday picnic.
“White Girl Bleed a Lot,” said one of the attackers, standing and laughing over her victim.
Milwaukee is also the site of frequent and intense black mob violence at the Juneteenth festivals, local malls and even St. Patrick’s Day parades.
The newspapers and local TV news rarely identify the culprits by race. But this time, they had little choice: The people on the 911 calls sure did. Here are a few: Milwaukee State Fair 911 calls:664
The editors at the local paper promised they would get to the bottom of it: “This is our fair, a showcase and celebration of the state, and reports of African-American teenagers randomly beating up white fair-goers - similar to attacks last month in the Riverwest neighborhood - are shocking. We simply can't let this happen again. ”665
That turned out not to be true.
But 2011 was such a long time ago. Let’s get back to 2014, April in Wyoming, Michigan. The local press called it a brawl. Victims called it assault. 666
“I was yelling, ‘Please stop, please leave me alone.’ If you watch the video, you can hear me screaming for my life,” one victim said to Wood TV 8. 667
The victim’s mother saw it on video. She did not call it brawl: “The victim’s mother Janice said she was surprised her daughter survived after watching the video. “They were stomping her like a piece of meat, and you can hear the laughter and the excitement. And she wasn’t the only victim that night,” she said. “I had to ask myself how she lived through it.”
Good question. But no one connected to her daughter’s beating was arrested. So we will never know. But some of the locals know one thing that the press there will never say:
“This was Beat Whitey Night, just like the Wisconsin State Fair or the Denver Attacks or the Atlanta attacks or the Philadelphia attacks or the attacks at the Ohio State Fair....The video shows the race of the perps.”
Over in Sandusky, Ohio, home of the Cedar Point amusement park, police arrested 16 black people in June of 2014 for having a riot -- not in the park, but in their living spaces after the park was closed.
Charged with aggravated rioting were Lawanda, Cashia, Laon, Marquise, Kyreese, Dajon, Ja’Quan and a few others. 668
Just a few weeks before, a mob of 50 to 100 black people rampaged through the annual Football Fair in Pennsville, New Jersey.
They beat parents, they beat kids, they beat coaches. They destroyed property. And attacked police too.
Two cops ended up in the hospital, and seven people were arrested. Some on video.669
And a local reporter called the Willie Shields talk radio show on WLVT radio to complain that I had injected raced into it. When race had nothing to do with it, he said.
Willie handled it. We don’t have to worry about that.