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At least three people were seriously assaulted by a group of black men at the Century 16 Theater

Posted by Ria, 28 Dec

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On my surfing on the net today I run upon a very disturbing news report. It reads :

“Richmond police determined Friday that at least three people attacked by a crowd of young black men at Century 16 Hilltop Theater this month were victims of hate crimes.

Two victims were attacked Aug. 11 outside the theater, and one was assaulted inside, stomped by at least 30 men while the film "Step Up" continued to roll, Police Chief Chris Magnus said.

The theater staff failed to help any of the victims. In one case, a witness reported employees in the theater lobby laughing as they watched a crowd of about 10 men beat and kick a woman huddled on the sidewalk in front of the building.

If identified, some of the attackers could face felony assault charges, Magnus said.

"We're really getting a horrific picture of what happened up there that night," Magnus said. "We are now saying that some of the factors present indicate there was a potential hate crime."

But police have been unable to identify suspects, or even the victim huddled on the sidewalk, in part because of a failure on the part of patrol officers to do their jobs properly on the night of the incident, Magnus said. Officers failed to take one victim's report until his mother phoned later to complain. They routed another victim's report as "vandalism."

In the "vandalism" case, Magnus confirmed, a crowd of young black men in front of the theater smashed the window of the victim's car and tried to drag her out by her ponytail, while someone shouted, "Get the white bitch!"

Representatives from San Rafael-based Century Theatres did not return several phone messages.

The incident began about an hour into the movie, police said, during a scene dealing with interracial dating. A crowd of young black men seated in the back rows began shouting and throwing candy toward the front of the theater, mainly occupied by Latinos and Filipinos.

Philip Herrera, 23, stood up and asked them to stop pelting his girlfriend and mother. In response, several men hauled him out of his seat and beat him severely enough to cause a concussion, according to the victim and witnesses. Dozens of others joined in kicking him as he crawled up the aisle.

Although Herrera said he did not believe his beating was racially motivated, his mother thought it was. So did City Councilman John Marquez, who also suggested that ethnic animus on the part of the officers, who are black, influenced their response.

Herrera and his mother, Judy Martinez, told the Times last week that officers refused to enter the theater to look for suspects, refused to take a written report, refused to escort Martinez into the theater to look for her shoes and refused to escort the group to their car.

"This has been going on for years," said Aleta Martinez, Herrera's aunt. "I was born and raised in Richmond, and I've lived with harassment and racial discrimination my entire life. It's gotten worse and worse there."

Marquez said this week that he supported the department's follow-up actions, including the internal affairs investigation launched by Magnus into officer conduct during the attacks.

"The chief sent me an e-mail with all the steps that have been taken so far, and it sounds like everything he is doing is right on," Marquez said. "But there is still the police internal investigation into the officers' response, and I am waiting to see how that comes out."

Mayor Irma Anderson, who is black, skirted the race issue.

"Violence against anyone is totally unacceptable regardless of who the perpetrator is and who the victim is," she said. "It saddens me that there still exists challenges to building trust between the Police Department and the local community."

The victim who attackers tried to pull from her car, Rene, told the Times she drove to the theater in her pajamas about 11:30 p.m. to pick up her son, who attended the 9:55 p.m. showing. She said that when she arrived, she saw a large crowd in front of the theater, and several people beating the unidentified victim huddled there.

Rene asked the Times not to publish her full name because she is afraid.

She said she apparently drove too close to the beating, because the crowd turned on her car. Several of the men jumped on her car, kicking and pounding. They smashed her rear windshield and stole her purse.

When police arrived, the men were trying to drag Rene out of her car by her hair.

"(Police) told me to get the hell out of there," she said, "because it wasn't safe."

Rene has spent the past two weeks trying to file a damage claim with the theater to get the $5,000 worth of damage to her car repaired. The Police Department had better luck arranging a meeting with Century Theatre management this week.

"We went over some of our concerns and offered some ideas for avoiding problems," such as turning off movies at the first sign of a riot and keeping more than one security guard on duty after 11 p.m., Magnus said.᾿

I don’t know about you people but if that thing happened where I grew up in the whole theater would be whooping their butts. I mean we all had lived a moment where our classmates threw pop corn candies etc at us while we were watching a movie :P but not to the point of getting so disrespectful and hooligan like.

The lack of respect in this society increases with an alarming rate and its our duty and responsibility to educate the people, the youngsters of our society to make them understand that respect doesn’t come with a 6 figure annual income but it should rather be a natural extension of ones personality.

What do you all think?

Responses to "At least three people were seriously assaulted by a group of black men at the Century 16 Theater"

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Girlstar7 says:

Posted: 01 Jun 09

I am from the bay area and I use to go to that movie theater all the time about over 3 years ago before I moved to Los Angeles. And I have never exprienced such evil in my life.I am embarrassed that these young black men are so "evil and monster like." This is disgraceful and a reverse of racism to innocent latino persons. As a black person, how on earth can these thugs assult an person of color who have been struggling to survive in a country that has rejected their ancestors too. I must very honestly say that living here in the valley of los angeles I have exprienced racism by a lot of latino women towards black women in the job market. If you don't speak spanish out here and the hiring manager is in charge than you most likly won't get hired for that position. And I'm talikng good jobs as well as minimal jobs too. Although there was no physical assult, the looks and talks in spanish says it all. The latino gangs out here are trying to destroy all the people in the black community and take over a community that african americans have had for centuries. So I just think the black and latino thing is outrageous and dangerous. It's so sad that these are real events. I pray things change, like now!!!

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homesteader says:

Posted: 31 Dec 08

got them in my woods also , New Years resolution s : clean shotgun / buy fresh ammo and go visit where they reside . Fear for ones life because of Death threats will end in 2009

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homesteader says:

Posted: 31 Dec 08

Ria , sorry about the attitude ,but if one or two do not feel pain . They will return to hurt other innocent people and I do not see a Racial problem , just a gang of punk kids

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homesteader says:

Posted: 31 Dec 08

You threaten to shoot me with a gun , you had better hurry and pull the trigger cause your time just became limited and I believe in self-defense . Touch my wife or children and if you do live someone will be pushing you in a wheelchair .

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homesteader says:

Posted: 31 Dec 08

Anyone who physically lays a hand on a woman is no longer considered a man in my eyes , I lived throught Vietnam and the slogan on bumpers was ; kill em' all and let God sort out the good ones . Reading this brings back thoughts , that to imprison criminals and the State to pay $ 80,000.00 a year to house and feed each of them has come to a time to be stopped . I remember chain gangs working beside the Carolina highways in the late 60's with a Deputy on a horse with a 30/30 rifle .

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homesteader says:

Posted: 30 Dec 08

In Texas we have a right to carry concealed and God gives man or woman the right to protect with deadly force , Ones own life , the life of their kin or the right to protect personal property against bodily harm . It is called self defense . Police have to play bye the rights of the criminal / whereas Victims need to start helping the police by protecting themselves . Stop and think how cold that coffee will get or if the donuts will stay fresh if they are called to do their duty : To serve and protect , I think I read that on the side of a patrol car once .

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Dougan says:

Posted: 03 May 07

In summer 2004 my and my brother attend a showing of THE BORN SUPREMACY at that same Century Theater. Afterward, we were accossted be some young local hoods in the lobby. The incident more involved my brother, but ended in the parking lot with the thugs threatning to shoot both of us. To make a long story short, Richmond Police were called. They did briefly take the two juvinels into custody, but wound up letting them go. This after it was discovered that the thugs put a brick through my car window. (None of this is made-up, this AUCTUALLY happened.) As result of that incident, I no longer attend movies at Century Hilltop. The typical audience there tends to be just waaaay to rouwdy for my tastes. I'm not going to get into the whole race thing, I feel it's irellavent. Though I'll admit there are probably some double standards the need to be looked at. (I'm black by the way.) But I agree with the Richmond Mayor. Violence against ANY citizen should NOT be tolerated... PEIROD. The local Authoraties need to be prepared to deal with these situations CORRECTLY instead of taking the easy way out.

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canniebus says:

Posted: 04 Jan 07

Well this really caught my eyes… I was totally amused… not the LOL way. It was the aggggghhhh!!! Kind of amusement. Seriously how would those f***** up hooligans feel if all this was being done to their own. As the saying goes “Do unto others what you want them to do unto you!!!᾿ How do these people expect racism to stop against them when they are the main perpetrators of hate crimes? I dont even want to imagine what would happen if the roles were reversed and it was a black woman's hair being pulled. Am sure blacks would have rained blows on the perpetrators. My point is sometimes I tend to think that as much as people are against racism, we bring it on to ourselves... And those chosen to enforce laws on hate crimes arent doing anything to help... If the law itself isnt being enforced in the right way, how do we expect these hate crimes and racism to end?

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cellie says:

Posted: 02 Jan 07

It is so atrocious to see how people still live along racial lines. If you ask me, that was purely racist, both on th part of the perpetrators of the crime and the police officers. For them to just sit there and do nothing means that they were actually encouraging the gang to continue with their hooliganism against the victims. This aint fair at all coz the police are supposed to serve all... not just a particular group of people. Its a free country and I guess everyone has the right to just get up and go wherever they want without any brutality being committed against them and the police should be there to offer somme protection in case this happens.

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