Ohio man's beating by bored teens sparks 2 rallies

NORTH COL­LEGE HILL, Ohio (AP) — The bru­tal beat­ing of a man by a group of young teenagers who said they did it because they were bored has shaken the Cincin­nati sub­urb of North Col­lege Hill and stirred some to ques­tion why police aren't inves­ti­gat­ing the attack as a hate crime.

Now nearly two weeks after the beat­ing, the small working-class city is brac­ing for two oppos­ing ral­lies Fri­day, one orga­nized by a self-described white sep­a­ratist who says he wants to draw atten­tion to "hate-crime hypocrisy."

"The rally is meant to be a way in which white cit­i­zens can gather and express their dis­con­tent with the prob­lem of black-on-white crime, as well as the cen­sor­ship and down­play­ing of these crimes by the media and police/government offi­cials," wrote Robert Rans­dell, of Flo­rence, Ky.

The other rally, being orga­nized by a local church pas­tor, is designed to pro­mote unity and diver­sity and draw atten­tion away from the other demonstration.

"This crime does not define our com­mu­nity," pas­tor Zach Whit­tle said. "We want to show what our com­mu­nity is really about."

On Aug. 11, six black teenagers attacked and beat Pat Mahaney, who is white, as the 45-year-old was return­ing home with a six-pack of beer, North Col­lege Hill Police Chief Gary Foust said.

Mahanay was attacked from behind and had done noth­ing to pro­voke it, Foust said, adding that police don't con­sider the beat­ing a hate crime but a ran­dom act by the group of 13- and 14-year-olds, who said in sep­a­rate inter­views that they were bored and look­ing for some­thing to do.

Mahaney had exten­sive inter­nal and exter­nal injuries, and was hos­pi­tal­ized for four days.

The teens were set to go on trial Fri­day on charges of felo­nious assault and aggra­vated rioting.

Foust said he has got­ten dozens of calls and emails from peo­ple across the coun­try and through­out Ohio ask­ing why the beat­ing wasn't being treated as a hate crime.

"At no time did they indi­cate the crime was com­mit­ted because of race; they were just walk­ing around the streets with noth­ing to do," Foust said. "Let's face it, for a per­son to have been vic­tim­ized to the extent that Mr. Mahaney was vic­tim­ized, it's hard to wrap your head around how bore­dom could be a motive, and I think that's what peo­ple out­side (the com­mu­nity) strug­gle with."

The beat­ing and sub­se­quent national atten­tion pro­moted Foust, Mayor Dan Brooks and other city lead­ers to hold a news con­fer­ence Mon­day defend­ing their city as a typ­i­cal working-class com­mu­nity where a shock­ing but atyp­i­cal crime occurred.

"We are shocked by what hap­pened. We are dis­gusted. We are res­olute," Brooks said. "This is not North Col­lege Hill. It is not emblem­atic of our schools, of our soci­ety and of our city."

Brooks, Foust and other com­mu­nity lead­ers are encour­ag­ing res­i­dents to attend Friday's unity rally and ignore Randsdell's.

Rands­dell is the Cincin­nati coor­di­na­tor for the West Virginia-based National Alliance, which he said believes that all races should live apart from one another.

The South­ern Poverty Law Cen­ter, which tracks hate groups, describes the alliance as a neo-Nazi group once con­sid­ered to be the most dan­ger­ous in the coun­try. Its founder, William Pierce, wrote "The Turner Diaries," which described a white takeover of the U.S. and has inspired ter­ror­ist acts, includ­ing the Okla­homa City Bomb­ing, accord­ing to the SPLC.

Rands­dell said he wants to keep his rally peaceful.

"Basi­cally I'm just pro­vid­ing a forum for white cit­i­zens to show up and express their dis­con­tent and anger," he said. "They have the same right as other groups of this coun­try, and they aren't hate­ful or evil or racist for doing it."

Posted by Scott Mahoney on Aug 24 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.