As black mob violence at carnivals go, the 2014 racial mayhem at the Florida State Fair in Tampa was not that big of a deal.

Sure hundreds of black people creating mayhem. On video. Police were attacked. Property destroyed. Fair-goers beaten. Venders assaulted. Cell phones stolen. An old lady in a wheelchair robbed. People jumping fences and refusing to pay for rides. The fair closed early. And most of the media glossed over most of it. ⁶⁷⁰

Despite the fact that officials even said they even expected it.

The local daily paper in Tampa carried a story about a Trayvon Martin commemoration rally in Miami -- his birthday was over the weekend -- but nothing about the widespread racial violence at the Fair in its own backyard.

Like most of the examples from the previous chapter, the local media in Tampa reported the violence piecemeal: Some said it was just a few teens fighting. Others reported the violence in greater detail: hundreds of teens attacking police, fair-goers and workers. But absent one fact: The central organizing feature of the crowd committing the mayhem. They were black.

Many people who attended the fair noticed the omission, and thought it important enough to let others know too:

“The article failed to mention all the facts: Black males were the ones starting and committing the crimes,” said Annie Penn at the message board of the local ABC affiliate in response to it story. “I was there!”

Another fair-goer filled in a few more blanks for the ABC story:

“This is a lie,” said Jamie Piaskowski about the sanitized version of the story. “I was there in the midst of it all. The carnies had to move tables to protect their vendor trailers and people. There was more than a few kids. This was a few hundred kids in a mob mentality. It was a very dangerous situation. It makes me sick to see the news and the police whitewash this.”

Ever get the impression the natives are getting restless?

The mayhem at the Florida State Fair started on a Friday with free tickets for Students Day. Amazing how often that free stuff is associated with black mob violence: Free tickets, free bus rides, free phones …

By evening, assaults and property damage were breaking out all over the fairgrounds.

David Donohue contacted WTSP news after he saw the other news reports because he wanted people to know what really happened was more than just a few fights. “We were standing in front of a ride when all of a sudden a rush came by and I got knocked up against a booth,” Donohue said.

His two children described how they were punched in the face, pushed down, and stepped on. “They trampled me,” said Mason Donohue, “then another guy came and stomped on my chest.”

Deputy sheriffs ejected 99 people for fighting. The Tampa Bay Times reports deputies were outnumbered and overwhelmed. “Approximately 200 deputies could not handle the chaos, sheriff's officials said. A commander with 30 years of experience, Maj. Tom Feeney, said it's the worst thing he has seen in law enforcement.”

One deputy was trying to break up a fight when the crowd turned on him.

“Several juveniles jumped on him,” the police spokesman told WTSP. “They were stealing candy apples from concession stands and throwing them at our deputies.”⁶⁷¹

Three hours after the 99 “teens” were kicked out, one of them was killed trying to cross a nearby interstate freeway. And now, we learn from the Sheriff’s Department, that violence at the fair is something they expect because it happens so much.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that the person who died was “Andrew Joseph III, one of 99 people ejected that day, which is not uncommon on the first Friday of the fair,” said Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Debbie Carter. "There are usually a lot of young high school kids that start fights with each other and cause problems." ⁶⁷²

Usually? This is the first time at the Florida State Fair that officials have ever said violence was a regular problem they could predict.

Maybe next year they can sell tickets.

And oh yeah, that has been happening here a long time.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that next year, the sheriff’s department is going to notify the several black groups including the NAACP that violence and theft and mayhem were not acceptable at the state fair.

The newspaper did not say why the sheriff’s department singled out black groups.