March 20, 2010

Big, Big News!

The New York Times website devotes a top-half-of-the-frontpage spot to headline this overwhelmingly important news story:

Arrest in Racial Case at N.J. Wal-Mart

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. — The authorities in southern New Jersey said Saturday that they had arrested a 16-year-old boy for activating a public-address system at a Wal-Mart store last week and ordering “all black people” to leave.

The boy, from Atlantic County, was charged by Gloucester County authorities with bias and intimidation and harassment in connection with the episode last Sunday. If convicted, he could face up to a year in a juvenile detention center, officials said. His name was not released because he is a minor.

According to the police, the boy picked up a public-address telephone in the Wal-Mart in Washington Township, one of two dozen accessible to the store’s customers, and said, “All black people, leave the store now.”

A store manager quickly apologized over the public-address system, witnesses said, and the police and the store opened separate investigations that included a review of images captured by the store’s security cameras.

Rafael Muñiz, the Washington Township police chief, said that while the cameras did not record anyone speaking on the public-address system, images showed three people — the suspect, a young man and a woman — standing near the phone just before the announcement, and rushing from the store just after it.

Investigators also scoured Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, and found postings, including some that the police chief said involved “kids bragging” about what happened.

With the help of anonymous tipsters, he added, investigators were led to the suspect, who was arrested Friday.

“We got lucky,” Chief Muñiz said Saturday at a news conference.

The suspect had been accompanied to the store by a friend and the friend’s mother, the authorities said. Neither the friend nor his mother had been charged, though Chief Muñiz left open the possibility that they could face prosecution for failing to report a crime.

The police would not disclose any details about the suspect, including his race.

In the course of their inquiry, officials said, investigators discovered at least two similar occurrences at the store in recent months.

The store’s parent company, Wal-Mart Stores, issued a statement saying it had modified its intercom system at the store to prevent such breaches.

“We’re pleased this matter is resolved,” the statement said. “We again apologize to all of our customers and associates who had to listen to something so offensive.”

In a statement on Friday, the company said: “We’re appalled by this incident and are amazed that anyone could be so backward and mean-spirited in this day and age.”

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, has a history of discrimination and labor complaints involving minorities and women, though in recent years it has redoubled its efforts to promote diversity at its stores.

Last year, the company agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused it of discriminating against blacks applying for jobs as truck drivers.

News of the arrest circulated among the customers at the Washington Township store on Saturday afternoon.

Paulette Duckrey, 43, who is black, said that when she heard about the episode, she guessed that it was a prank by a customer.

“I assumed it couldn’t have been an employee,” she said.

Kirk Semple reported from New York, and Nate Schweber from Washington Township, N.J.

Because a news story this big requires saturation coverage.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

45 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve, Why aren't you talking about tomorrow's disaster?!

Anonymous said...

Last year, the company agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused it of discriminating against blacks applying for jobs as truck drivers.

I was going to say Ricci, but I guess this is more at Duke Power.

BTW, what is the status of Duke Power in the aftermath of Ricci?

Anonymous said...

I think the 'powers that be' at the NYT know it is hilarious and it will get lots of attention.

Jerry Czarnecki said...

Three consecutive postings based on NYT stories? Isn't it better just to ignore that rag? I stopped reading it ten years ago for a reason, and the reason was stories like this one. No point in wasting more time pointing out the obvious biases etc. of that rag.

bbgfrhj said...

Shouldn't Bush, McCain, Obama, and Clinton charged for shouting loud and clear through government and media: "Illegal aliens, come to America and ruin this country"?

Now, I call that a crime. Funny how NYT ignores how millions of illegals violate the laws of this country but get all worked up over some prank at Walmart store.

SF said...

Sounds a lot like when some locl kids vandalized an antiabortion display by tearing up the crosses. DA threatened to make it a hate crime felony, then pleaded it to a misdemeanor with a lot of community service required.

Kylie said...

From the NYT article: " The police would not disclose any details about the suspect, including his race."

Maybe this time they lucked out and the suspect actually is white.

Not that that would make any difference to the NYT and its readers.

Vernunft said...

My goodness, do you think they intentionally made it seem like Wal-Mart was doing something wrong when it was just some douchebag kid?

Nah, the NYT is pretty good about that stuff.

Juan said...

Steve,

Time to head back to the Times website. Tom Friedman just floated a beach ball over the plate for you: America's Real Dream Team.

Kylie said...

Jerry Czarnecki said: "Three consecutive postings based on NYT stories? Isn't it better just to ignore that rag? I stopped reading it ten years ago for a reason, and the reason was stories like this one."

Stories like this one are the reason I started reading the NYT and The Grauniad online regularly. Know the enemy.

I don't think it's better to ignore either rag. Living in a small town in a red state, I was quite unaware of how far left the far left had gone. And I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself in rags like these.

Anonymous said...

Less than 25 miles from the Wal-Mart store in Washington Township, NJ, in the city of Philadelphia, young people are also using communications devices to terrorize "other" races of peoples.

Tonite at 9:00, a "Flash Mob" erupted on South Street, a street full of bars and restaurants. Flash mobs are a recent phenomena to Philly, they are groups of young blacks who migrate to a certain part of town and then create havoc at that place. The youths are notified to gather by cell phones, twitter, blackberries, etc..

Google philly flash mobs, it's a treat.

jbjbkioofpdk said...

Fire Departments across America under Obama and Sotomayor:

"ATTENTION, ATTENTION, WE HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT. ALL YOU BETTER QUALIFIED WHITE BOYS LEAVE SO THAT YOUR POSITIONS CAN BE FILLED BY LESS QUALIFIED BLACKS AND LATINOS."

Truth(er) said...

America's Dream Team:

When are people going to realize that the vast majority of these science fair projects are done by parents?

l said...

New York City black school kids who engage in physical violence are punished too much. This kid can't possibly be punished enough.

Sticks and stones only break your bones, but names will forever hurt you.

Anonymous said...

Why do you care so much about the NYT anyway? Even most people in New York don't pay attention to it.

Mr. Anon said...

By the way, Steve, many of us would be interested in your take on AMC's series "Breaking Bad", the new season of which premiers tonight. I have only seen a few episodes, but it is quite good. Interesting, if for no other reason, but that it takes place in Arizona, rather than California.

And I can't help but think that Vince Gilligan, the series creator, is at least tangentially familiar with your work.

Andreas said...

Friedman's column is really amusing.

I wonder if he has even noticed there were no names like Ramirez or Gonzales among those immigrant wunderkids. But still he ends his blather with:

"If we can just get a few things right — immigration, education standards, bandwidth, fiscal policy — maybe we’ll be O.K. As long as we don’t shut our doors."

Amazing Kreskin said...

Meanwhile, BBC News breaks this major hate crime story.

MWT said...

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, has a history of discrimination and labor complaints involving minorities and women, though in recent years it has redoubled its efforts to promote diversity at its stores.

Either you promote diversity or you discriminate - there is no middle ground.

Anonymous said...

Now watch Wal-Mart spend a fortune redoing all the P.A. systems in all their stores so it never happens again.

Joe Joe said...

Anyone think the ACLU will take this kid's case?

Cruel Cruel World said...

Steve would give one arm and one leg to be hired as a columnist for the NYT. It's the top of heap. Still after all of these years and all of the scandals.

It doesn't matter how much nonsense the "lefties" at the NYT spew. Just like the reputation of Harvard does not falter no matter how much Harvard egghead nonsense is spewed.

This situation can be compared to the De Beers diamond price monopoly (scam). Diamonds are actually not rare, they are plentiful.

But high diamond values are more or less maintained worldwide 1) because of a global mafia style intimidation network and 2) because so many retail buyers have been duped by the scam that there is a gigantic self-interested group of diamond owners out there (a voting bloc) who don't want to hear the truth about the bogus scarcity of diamonds.

Sounds like a familiar story?

Now go to a cocktail party and find some lady wearing diamonds who graduated from Harvard and tell her the awful truth about these matters. You will amuse her but you will not win her over. Instead she will recognize where her self interest lies.

Truth(er) said...

If diamond scarcity is a scam, then does that mean that the whole "blood diamond" issue is a scam as well? A way to maintain the De Beers diamond monopoly?

rich s. said...

The quicker Duke exits this tournament, the quicker its male students can get back to what they do best, the abuse and debauchery of minorities. Then, maybe the NYT could ignore teenage high jinks and resume demonizing adult white males.

Anonymous said...

And I can't help but think that Vince Gilligan, the series creator, is at least tangentially familiar with your work.

Whiskey must have loved the way that Gilligan [not so subtly] ridiculed the emasculated hyper-feminine education establishment during the gymnasium scene.

And the Voodoo/Santeria stuff was, ah, well, decidedly un-PC [to say the least].

Wait - how were we supposed to spell "Voodoo"?

JeremiahJohnbalaya said...

"Voodoo/Santeria stuff".

It looks like the crawling on hands and knees is some old native american thing that has been incorporated into Catholic ceremonies/pilgrimages.

Whiskey said...

I have not seen Breaking Bad. Interesting. It's sold as a woman's show (i.e. "transgressive" guy breaks all the rules, becomes an outlaw, family drama, etc.)

OT: Obama plans to make instant citizens of 20 million illegals and another 30 million or so in Mexico by ramming it through just like Health Care.

That's why he's not worried. He basically makes America like Cuidad Juarez, he's President for Life.

Still happy you didn't vote for McCain? McCain would have floundered around doing nothing. Obama is busy transforming America into a non-White majority nation, and socialist hell-hole (the two go together).

Get ready for basically every place in America looking like a combination of Oakland and Santa Ana.

rob said...

Thanks Mr. Anon, I didn't know season 3 was on already.

I have not seen Breaking Bad. Interesting. It's sold as a woman's show (i.e. "transgressive" guy breaks all the rules, becomes an outlaw, family drama, etc.)

No way. Kinda geeky high school teacher becomes criminal mastermind. It's total power fantasy wish fulfillment. It's like Heroes if Peter's power was making crank.

Anonymous said...

One good question is what is it about Wal-Mart specifically that papers like the NYT don't like and consistently attack it?

Anonymous said...

jared taylor's ar conference was shut down because of threats of violence.. not even in the news. Hmmn why
palestinians dying by the hundreds... not even in the news..hmm why?

who, whom?

Mr. Anon said...

"Whiskey said...

I have not seen Breaking Bad. Interesting. It's sold as a woman's show (i.e. "transgressive" guy breaks all the rules, becomes an outlaw, family drama, etc.)"

Most TV is marketed to women. I'm not sure that this particular show is. It may just be targeted at nerds - mild-mannered chemistry teacher becomes bad-ass criminal mastermind. I'm just amazed that it actually shows 1.) latinos, and 2.) often shows them in an unflattering light. There are a few of the usual sops to PC orthodoxy (the black oncologist), but then there are also a few elements that seem consciously constructed so as to lampoon the usual PC cliches.

"Still happy you didn't vote for McCain? McCain would have floundered around doing nothing."

Yes. If McCain had been elected, an amnesty would have already been passed last year.

The Anti-Gnostic said...

Still happy you didn't vote for McCain? McCain would have floundered around doing nothing. Obama is busy transforming America into a non-White majority nation, and socialist hell-hole (the two go together).

Incorrect. McCain would have gotten us in a true meat-grinder of a war with Iran, then pushed amnesty through as a way to get more tax/cannon fodder for his Napoleonic campaigns. The war would expand endlessly as non-State groups joined the cross-border fight against the Great Satan. This would be followed in turn by an immense influx of Middle Eastern and Central Asian refugees from the chaos over there. Then more 'civil rights,' national security regs, welfare, etc. to try and assimilate the new arrivals, and on and on.

With Obama, people will get pissed off instead of attending mindless Sarah Palin rallies. By 2012, there will probably be some state referendums on secession.

TheNakedArab said...

Whiskey said:

"I have not seen Breaking Bad. Interesting. It's sold as a woman's show (i.e. "transgressive" guy breaks all the rules, becomes an outlaw, family drama, etc.)"

Wrong. It's an overqualified (used to do R&D) goy chemistry teacher who puts up with a bitch wife, gets cancer, has to do something drastic to leave his family with something after he dies, decides to cook meth, and becomes a bad-ass in the process. He finally stands up for himself to even the lowest class of people. Has a very finely done "father-son" relationship with a former 'troubled' student who he now works with selling meth.

Polichinello said...

Whiskey, please. One of McCain's first acts, if not his first act, would have been to pass an Amnesty. The health bill sux, but it will make it all the harder to pass amnesty, since it'll kill the false, but critical claims to fiscal control made by Obama and the Democrats. It doesn't make amnesty impossible, but it makes it far less likely than it would have been under McCain.

Anonymous Anglo said...

Dear Steve-o-sphere, I need your advice. My census form arrived on Saturday and I dutifully set out to complete it. I'm a non-hispanic white. No problem. My wife was born in South America, so I check hispanic white. When I start filling out the questions for my children I become flummoxed. Do I apply a "one drop" rule for hispanic ethnicity for my "50% hispanic" children? What's the Department of Commerce policy? What about my grandkids?

Tino said...

Juan and Andreas:

I write about Thomas Friedman here

http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2010/03/bait-and-switch-since-high-skill.html

kudzu bob said...

If the kid's lawyer is smart, he'll put him up to claiming that what he said over the intercom was really just an attempt at performance art meant to draw attention to the racism that pervades society. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Tanstaafl said...

It could be worse. Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle aimed some words at an even more priviledged minority, and got sent to prison.

The New York Times: Search for 'Simon Sheppard Stephen Whittle' = zip.

Anonymous said...

> Dear Steve-o-sphere, I need your advice. <

Either write in "American," or select "African-American" (the latter = mo money for your hood).

CJ said...

The discussion on this topic seems sufficiently broad to include this absolute classic for the affirmative action files:

Officer faces rape charge

(excerpt)

Huffman, who until last month had been president of the Rhode Island Minority Police Association, pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree sexual assault contained in a grand jury indictment that was instigated by the state police.

Anonymous said...

Is “Walmart Hate Crime” another hate crime hoax? Suspect may be black.
Submitted by NewsSystem on Mon, 03/22/2010 - 11:41

The so-called “Walmart Hate Crime” has received national attention and led to the arrest of a 16 year old boy. Police Chief Rafael Muniz and Prosecutor Sean Dalton are both refusing to name the race of the suspect. A spokesman for the local police told media that “the boy’s race is not relevant to the investigation.” Similar statements have been made by police departments in the past when a high profile anti-black “hate crime” turned out to have a black perpetrator. In fact an astronomical percentage of these high profile “hate crimes” turn out to be total hoaxes. Meanwhile white people ...

http://www.tips-q.com/news/right/1915204-walmart-hate-crime-another-hate-crime-hoax-suspect-may-be-black

Anonymous said...

It's only a matter of time until this happens again and WalMart is prosecuted.

David Davenport said...

but that it takes place in Arizona, rather than California.


That TV show is set in Albuquerque, which is in NM, not AZ.


One good question is what is it about Wal-Mart specifically that papers like the NYT don't like and consistently attack it?


Maybe Walmart has never ever advertised in the NY Times and similar big city papers.

Mr. Anon said...

"David Davenport said...

""but that it takes place in Arizona, rather than California.""

That TV show is set in Albuquerque, which is in NM, not AZ."

Really? I had thought it was set in Phoenix. As I said, I haven't watched it much. Now that you mention it, it looks more like Albuquerque than Phoenix. Thanks.

Mike said...

US could learn how to prevent financial disasters from North Korea.

In an un-official announcement which was released this morning, the world learned the fate of the North Korean Official, Pak Nam-gi. He was reportedly dragged in front of a firing squad and shot until he was dead for ruining the country’s financial affairs.

Pak Nam-gi was said to have been responsible for revaluing the communist regime’s currency back in November, but in spite of his many attempts to stop inflation, the country continued to suffer money-wise. The president, Kim Jong Lii was not at all happy about the situation, and Pak Nam-gi was charged with conspiracy to “infiltrate the ranks of revolutionaries to destroy the national economy.”




http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world/korean-official-executed-for-ruining-nations-economy_100336435.html