Racist Mental Violence

Every once in a while, some unknown douchebag (I don’t believe the email headers) sends me an email something like this:

Hi Mark,

Did you see this article?

It’s about Racial violence over Christmas season — all over the country. More than a dozen episodes. All in the last month or so.

Thought it might be grist for your mill.

Mark

p.s. Apparently holidays are a good time for mob violence.

The link is to one of Colin Flaherty’s crazy WorldNetDaily articles about what he calls “racist mob violence” or, when he’s being more direct, “black mob violence.” However, the incidents aren’t just from  “the last month or so.” They’re selected from all over the United States over a two-year period. And Flaherty’s summary descriptions of them aren’t exactly a high point of precision journalism. For example:

In Baton Rouge over the weekend, a mob of 200 black people caused a panic at the Mall of Louisiana after they began fighting and running through the shopping center.

As it turns out, if you follow the story links, a crowd of 200 juveniles, apparently mostly black (as seen in one picture), showed up at the mall for some kind of impromptu meet-and-greet put together via Instagram, and a few fights broke out. Police arrested ten of them and dispersed the rest, calling for their parents to come and pick them up. No serious injuries were reported.

In February, police used pepper spray on a black mob of 600 waiting for the release of a new style of basketball shoe.

Actually, 600 people were waiting outside a store for a new shoe when some guy cut in line, causing a fight. He was the only arrest. A few people fighting in a crowd of 600 does not make for a mob, although police did help control the crowd. Also, this was from eleven months ago, not the recent Christmas season.

In September, WFAB reported Baton Rouge police had to break up a riot of more than 100 black people at a skating rink. One man brandished a gun, and families were “fearing for their lives.

It looks like everyone in the building was black. Flaherty refers to these incidents as “racial” violence, but it looks all black-on-black to me. And again, this was not Christmas.

In Newport News, Va., a black mob broke out in a “large fight” at the Patrick Henry Mall two days after Christmas. Police were called to the mall to quell mob violence involving more than 100 black people.

Actually, a fight broke out in a shopping mall food court. There were no weapons, no injuries, and police arrested five teenagers.

You can see what Flaherty’s doing here. He has obsessively curated a collection of reports of violent incidents at establishments frequented by black people, probably because they are in black neighborhoods. These are real incidents — sometimes an idiot cutting in line at a sale, and sometimes a dozen or so kids who might be gang members — but Flaherty tries to portray these incidents as mob action by attributing the violence to every black person in the building. Thus a fight between a handful of teenagers in a mall food court becomes, in his mind, a riot by every black person in the mall.

The fact that he’s been able to collect a few dozen incidents of this nature isn’t all that shocking when you consider that the U.S. black population is around 40 million people. There are bound to be thousands of violent goons in any group that size.

Flaherty, however, explains the discrepancies between the reported facts and his summaries a little differently:

In Dallas at the East Texas Mall, police and shopping center officials said a “Black Friday” disturbance was just a scuffle. The video tells a different story: It shows a black mob of more than 100 people fighting, throwing furniture, tossing trash cans, and hurling wreaths – all while police with dogs and tasers try to subdue the crowd.

(“Hurling wreaths”? Oh no! They could put someone’s eye out!)

But that’s not what’s actually in the video. The four or five big black teenagers throwing things at each other are kind of scary, but the other black people in the video are spectators, either watching or taking cover. Police made one arrest for shoplifting. Flaherty’s description of the story is a huge exaggeration of the actual story.

Of course, Flaherty doesn’t see it that way. Everywhere he looks, he sees unruly mobs of black people, and yet the media isn’t reporting the story, and cops aren’t making mass arrests. In Flaherty’s mind, that’s proof of a conspiracy between the police and the media to hide the truth about black mob violence. Because Liberals.

No, really. That’s his theory. Because, you know, police are always reluctant to arrest black people. And the media hates making a big deal out of things.

Update: And to whoever sent this, thanks. You were right, it was something I could write about.