Michelle Malkin had this story from Denver with some dangerous PC implications (link):
The Denver Police Department announced today that they have made 32 arrests during a sweep to end a four-month spree of what police said were racially motivated assaults and robberies in downtown Denver, including the LoDo entertainment district.
A task force comprised of the Denver Police, FBI and the Denver District Attorney’s Office investigated 26 incidents in which groups of black males verbally harassed and then assaulted white or Hispanic males, according to Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman.
Many of the victims were robbed after being assaulted.
Three suspects, Allan Ford, Torrance McCall and one juvenile are still at large. Suspects are being held on $1 million bonds for each count.
I don’t wish for it, but if I’d been one of the victims when I lived in Denver, the outcome would’ve likely been different (headline: “Denver Police Question Man Who Defended Himself As to How His Accuracy Was Dead-Nuts Accurate Under Duress, Seek Training Tips”). Ahh yes, so many nights in LoDo… Avs Games… Wazee Supper Club… The Keg… I miss it, and they miss me! Though I guess I couldn’t move back to Colorado now that EBRs have been banned.
What I found interesting and worthy of kudos is that the Denver Post actually bristled at the PC-ness of the police response to this. I guess even a broken clock is right twice a day (link):
Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman said that groups of young black males from the Rollin’ 60s Crips and the Black Gangster Disciples gangs approached single white or Latino men late at night and struck them in the head, often after berating them and calling attention to their race, but sometimes attacking without warning.
Victims in the LoDo and 16th Street Mall attacks suffered broken noses and shattered eye sockets, among other head injuries. Sometimes wallets and other small items were stolen.
“We have seen coordinated efforts before, but not by this large of a group,” Whitman said as the arrests were announced Friday.
Yet no concerted effort was made to alert residents to the unusual nature of these violent crimes, or their apparent racial motivation.
Police say there may have been 26 such attacks, almost all against white males, but investigators stress there could be other victims and more are coming forward. A few are women.
Monday, police spokesman Sonny Jackson told us all but one of the 35 suspects are now in jail, each on a $1 million bond due to the racial bias involved. The mostly young men and teenage boys are charged with aggravated assault, aggravated robbery and bias-motivated crimes.
The situation was so grave even the FBI got involved.
Who knew? Certainly not the young white and Latino men who were at risk of being attacked.
Though Denver Police issued a warning on Sept. 3 that they were aware of “a pattern of assaults and robberies,” they simply said “single males” should be on the lookout.
Jackson said that at the time, police weren’t yet aware of the full scope and biased nature of the attacks. Once the warning went out and police heightened their presence, he said, the attacks “dried up.”
Therefore, Jackson told us, it was unnecessary to issue a more explicit warning, even as investigators learned the more menacing aspects of the crimes.
Jackson said keeping the warning broad should have been enough. “We didn’t want anyone to take their guard down,” Jackson said.
But if police know that a particular segment of the population is being targeted, don’t they have a responsibility to give potential victims a specific warning?
We’ve criticized the news media for sanitizing news for PC reasons before, but it’s highly alarming when it’s the police doing the sanitizing. As painful as it is to give that warning, it’s not the police’s job to make others feel ok about what’s happening in the real world. It’s (ostensibly) their job to protect the public (though we in the GIN see the real-world role of police as more of “mop up and take the report” than crime prevention).