Raleigh citizens were on alert after two cases of black mob violence in two nights in their downtown in the summer of 2013.
The attacks were the latest in a series of episodes of racial violence in the area.
The local ABC affiliate was the only media outlet to report that a group of at least 15 black people stalked and beat a homeless woman after she saw them coming and tried to run away.
Maybe she did not make them feel welcome.
In contrast to most cases of black racial violence, local journalistic hot shot Kelli O’Hara actually identified the mob the way victims and the police did: They were black.
O’Hara fills in the details:778
On Tuesday night, Ardena Best was sleeping on a park bench when she said out of nowhere a mob of young men approached her.
"I happen to look across the street, I see a whole group of guys...like 15 of them," Best said.
She said the men crossed Fayetteville Street, and one stopped and yelled at her before the attack.
"'What are you scared?' And the guy looked and punched me on the side of my face real fast," Best said. "He clutched his fist and slugged me above my eye."
This was the second such assault in Raleigh in two days.
The other happened in the same street in the previous evening: According to the 911 tapes obtained by O’Hara, a man was walking down the street when he came upon a group of black people. One said ‘excuse me’ and punched him in the face. Quoth O’Hara:
Police said the two incidents sound similar. They describe the attackers as a group of African-American teens wearing gym clothes and traveling in a large group.
Best said she was shaken by the attack and now fears for her life. “This is the only place I have to sleep,” she said.
Despite that, O’Hara confidently reports Best is “OK and suffered no damages.”
There they go again: She ruined a good report. That is not OK with Taleeb Starkes, author of The Uncivil War.
The bruises will heal,” said Starkes. “The emotional damage will not. If you look at the news accounts of these kinds of crimes, the police and press tell us this was not a major crime. There was not much money involved.
The victim lived. But one of the reasons these crimes happen so much is that we take them so lightly. This kind of violent crime is life changing and traumatic to the victim. But we rarely treat the predators that way. If they lose a little money or no one gets hurt, it’s no harm, no foul. These predators are domestic terrorists and should be treated as such.
Despite North Carolina’s bucolic, Andy of Mayberry-like roots, black mob violence has become a regular fact of life in places like Greensboro, neighboring Durham, Charlotte and Asheville. But Raleigh often stays under the radar.
It does not have to: There are a number of recent video accounts of black mob violence in Raleigh. Several videos show late-night “Let Out” violence after the downtown clubs close.
Others document home invasion robberies, and of course, good old neighborhood fights involving lots of people.779
IHOP is an increasingly popular place for late night black mob violence, sometimes fatal. But not this time. Not in Raleigh. No one died. A lot of restaurant furniture was damaged in this video.
In 2008, a Raleigh shopping center was the site of a full-scale “Mall Brawl” involving 300 black people. Six black people were arrested. Several residents reported this was not an uncommon occurrence.780
One local resident pled guilty, with an explanation at the WRAL web site:781
This is only because they build a mall right in the middle of two well-known gang areas. The bloods and crips. They have always been trying to fight over whose area it is.
Why do you think so many of them sit and the front of the mall by the food court. There are so many hard working blacks that are embarrassed by their youth.
Get a job and work for what you get and stop have us pay our taxes for your 16-year-old babies mama?
GROW UP! And shut up about this racist BS! Statistics don’t lie! Yall are destroying our schools and our city!
No one has been arrested in the downtown attacks.