By: Billy G. Howard
If you’ve spent any time in front of the television, on the internet, or virtually anywhere in public over the past week it has been extremely difficult to not be exposed, take part in, or overhear reports and opinions about an incident that transpired in Chicago, IL. In this situation there were three African American eighteen year-olds, two male and one female, as well as a twenty-four year-old African American female who tortured and tormented a mentally challenged Caucasian man, also eighteen.
The victim was reportedly missing two days and the situation culminated with live streaming of a thirty-minute video to Facebook. Echo was immediately heard from President Obama at the White House, throughout social media networks and, subsequently, the Chicago Police Superintendent himself, Eddie Johnson. Initially, the incident was investigated as a hate crime as most are connected to the victim’s race but investigators later dismissed that concept. In the state of Illinois, however, hate-crime charges could still be sought if a victim’s mental disability is determined to have sparked the attack.
It is truly unfortunate that one of the individuals involved had been associated with the victim for some time and actually lured him away from home under the pretense of attending a sleep-over. That proved to not be the case as the “friend” drove the young man around for two days in a stolen van and eventually to a house in Chicago where the others were waiting.
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