“John Mason, a 32-year-old tattoo artist, is in a medically induced coma with serious head injuries after being beaten [at a bus stop] downtown on Lombard and Howard streets, just a block from the Bromo Seltzer Tower,” baltimore.cbslocal.comreports. And here’s the kicker: “The bold attack was at 1:30 p.m. last Friday.” In other words, Mason was attacked in broad daylight. “Twice, he kept telling them he didn’t want to fight. He didn’t want to fight. They didn’t care.'” Despite the Baltimore po-po’s hint of a possible revenge attack, the witness reckons the thugs weren’t settling a score. “They didn’t know him at all. They was just looking for trouble.” TTAG’s unable to find a tattoo parlor in Baltimore that knows of Mr. Mason, but the point remains: no one deserves that kind of beat down. [h/t Skippy Sanchez]
some folks cannot be reasoned with. Be polite. Be professional. Have a plan to kill every motherfvcker you meet. It’s a good day when you don’t have to implement the plan. But it’s a better day when you don’t get beaten into a coma.
+1
There is a history of this sort of thing in Baltimore. The powers that be usually try to ascribe some BS motive and not admit that it could be an unprovoked attack. Google Zach Sowers and the associated fallout. Maybe the guy did do something but I have seen quite a few totally random acts of violence in Bmore.
Baltimore is a scary scary place, and I’ve lived in other cities and worked in Manhattan. The only city equally scary to me is D.C.–although I’m not sure if it’s the chocolate coating or the chewy white center that scares me more.
When I go to Baltimore I make a beeline for the Inner Harbor, hang out during the day, and bug the hell out when the sun gets near the horizon. I had to stay in B’more when my son was in the hospital once–scariest week of my life. I felt a little safe because I was staying in a hotel on Gay Street, and who wants to be part of the “Gay Street Gang?” (that’s a joke, folks).
My feelings about the place won’t change when I’m finally able to carry a gun there.
thats funny considering that gay street is a collection of grungy strip clubs a block west of the BPD HQ for the city. I lived in bmore for 3 years and let me tell you it can be a fun place to live (night life and such) but there is no getting around the fact of violence like the post here DOES happen.I personally witnessed raids on rowhouses around the one i was living in at the time. The bus route across the city are critical for people to move about as mass rail transit in bmore is a phucking joke (2 lines the city subway and the light rail, they run north to south and don’t connect, and down run east to west either) so if you don’t have a car (parking in the city is a nightmare btw) you only have the bus as an option to go to job/ about one’s business.
Isn’t it amazing the way media talking heads can’t bring themselves to describe the race of the attackers. They talked to an eyewitness but claim not to have any description of the attackers! Of course this means the attackers were black and therefore part of a protected group. So the victim is white and the attackers black but the donut munchers at police headquarters can’t figure out a motive. Maybe if it happened to the mayors son something might get done.
80% of the population of Bal’more is black, so that detail says almost nothing. The people who work downtown commute in and then leave at dark. A few blocks away is dangerous turf. The city has a long standing major crime problem, and the only thing remarkable about this crime was that it occurred downtown in daylight, where such crimes are rare. The attack was much like other attacks on tourists there and in Chicago, suggesting that it is a fad to pick someone and take them out. Vicious.
I think his point was that it’s verboten to mention it at all in this kind of case, whereas were the victim black and the animals white, it would be a national uproar against the evil racist whiteys within the hour. Which is hypocritical, wrong, and has fostered the image of the scary betrenchcoated white guy as one of the last widely accepted generalizations used to lord over a particular group.
This was not a national news story. I think the local news knows its audience well enough that stating the race of the miscreants was unnecessary.I am quite certain that stating the race of the suspects is not “forbidden.” You should remember that Maryland was occupied by Union forces in the Civil War to keep it from joining the Confederacy. Those southern leaning attitudes persist.
Bingo.
I’ll bet when it’s all said and done that the violent actions will be attributed to the victim having said or done something racist to the poor downtrodden inner city youths (who were probably out and about trying to do something positive for their community), and that the victim’s actions were the straw that broke the camel’s back, unfortunately but completely understandably causing them to act out their frustrations in a violent physical manner. The real tragedy here is that the victim’s racism and the subsequent violent (but completely justifiable) actions of the downtrodden youth will only serve as ammunition for racists like us who will use it as an example of why to stay the hell out of the city. The victim was reported to have tried to talk his way out of the situation by assuring the attackers that he didn’t wish to fight them (as if there might be any confusion on that), but his pleas were ignored. Remember that the next time you’re in decision making mode about whether to fight or fly.
There is sooooooo much I’d like to say but I’ll keep it short and to the point. If it was eight white guys that kicked the living shit out of some poor black guy that news piece would have absolutely made for damn sure to make known the race of the attackers.
Too bad the guy didn’t have his Pit with him. It’d take at least eight guys to get to a Pits family member.
You obviously you haven’t got the memo, only white people are racist and only thier rare examples of such will be crowed from the roof tops or in this case on front page news
I left Bmore years ago but would move back if we get our CHP rights back in the state (which we might if it goes to SCOTUS!!). In the meanwhile situational awareness and a Zero Tolerance tanto folder kept me safe.
Add spontaneous daylight street beatings to the list of reasons i’ll never live in Baltimore.
If I was that dude and had a gun I would have brandished it while backing slowly away. Any sudden moves towards me or if a gun or knife were pulled then………..my life would change…..but not nearly as much as some of theirs. You really dont want to have been in that dudes situation though, so the moral is to try not to be, as much as you can help it.
I lived in and outside of Baltimore for 32 years. When we lived in Catonsville my wife accidentally set off the intruder alarm and forgot the password. It took 14 minutes for the police to show up. The neighbors did the same and it was 15 minutes that time.
Regarding not reporting the race of the perpetrators: there once was a police chopper, a dog team, and several other officers looking for someone at the college behind where we lived. I called the non-emergency police line to find out what was occurring. They said there was no risk and they refused to provide a description. You would think they would have wanted me to call them if I saw the person. I couldn’t because they didn’t provide a description. Except I could because I later found out my intuition was correct (not because they had committed a B&E at the college but because the police refused to provide a description).
Comments are closed.