Central Park II: It's About Race, Stupid! Part I

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Central Park II: It's About Race, Stupid!

By Nicholas Stix

(This isn’t about the brutal, racist, April 19, 1989 black and Hispanic mob attacks and robberies of whites, and rape of a white woman in Central Park; it’s about the brutal, racist, June 11, 2000 black and Hispanic mob attacks, robberies and rapes of white women in Central Park. I originally published this 5,800-word report all at once, but have chopped it up into bite-sized portions, so that people will read the whole thing, and, of course, in order to maximize my hits and impact.)


June 22, 2000

As I write this, the number of women claiming to have been attacked during the June 11 wilding spree in New York City's Central Park has risen to 53, while the number of perpetrators has fluctuated from an estimated 60 at one point, to 33, and presently back up to 42. Nineteen men have so far been arrested, one of whom was eventually cleared and released from custody. Amidst the charges and counter-charges that have flown back and forth, one has been notable by its absence: That the attacks were racially motivated. Race is the 800-pound gorilla no one wants to talk about. But all the tiptoeing around it merely underscores its ubiquity.

Yesterday, police arrested Alexander Eraide, of Queens, and a 15-year-old youth whom they refused to identify, in the attacks. Thus do they join the following list:

• Dellon Evans, 17, Queens
• Tremayne Bain, 23, Brooklyn
• David Rowe, 24, Hempstead, L.I.
• Steven Burt, 32, Jersey City, N.J.
• Isaias Lozado, 19, Queens
• Manuel Vargas, 18, The Bronx
• Imanuel Nunez, 18, The Bronx
• John Taylor, 24, Far Rockaway, Queens
• Jason Commissiong, 20, Brooklyn
• David Garcia, The Bronx
• Roberto Camacho, 18, Inwood, Long Island
• Julio de la Cruz, 22, North Bergen, N.J.
• Isaiah Forbes, 18, Queens
• Marc Daniels, 21, Irvington, N.J.
• Leslie Marcano, 19, The Bronx
• Jensen Soto, 16, Brooklyn
• Trevor Britton, 29, Brooklyn
• Lonnie Hopson, Rockaway Beach, Queens

Every single one of the 33 suspects -- those under arrest, as well as those still at large -- is black or Hispanic. A decisive majority is black. (Odd, considering the event was Puerto Rican.) So naturally, the first New York Times dispatch spoke of an "excess of testosterone." Had a white mob set upon black women, we would be hearing about many things, but testosterone would not be one of them. And in the case of a white mob, the Times would not have initially refused to publish the photographs of suspects still at large that the police had released, along with a plea by Police Commissioner Howard Safir for help from the public in bringing the suspects to justice. It must have been short on space that day. The "newspaper of record" only deigned to publish the photographs after every other New York daily already had.