White Girl Bleed a Lot (6 page)

Olsheski and the two women tried to keep moving, but Graham got in their way again. Graham called him what the police are referring to as a “racial slur,” which in other times and other places would take this crime to a new level: A hate crime. But not here. Not now. Not with the Big Game against Notre Dame looming.

Then things escalated when Devin Street—one of the “most dangerous punt returners in America,” according to the announcers at the Big Game—punched Olsheski in the head.

A few weeks later the players were charged with assault and conspiracy, but that did not stop them from suiting up against Notre Dame. During the Big Game Olsheski broke for several long runs, picking up 172 yards on the ground. He also caught six passes. NBC Sports mentioned the crimes only once, albeit briefly. They called it a “confrontation.”

To Karl Olsheski, it seemed more like an assault.
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Unlike other examples of the Knockout Game, no one died. No one went to the hospital. Soon everyone was on their way. Game over. Olsheski lost.

This was almost just another case of another anonymous assault. More often than not these cases go unreported because
more and more people believe the police won’t do anything about it. But not this time. In this case, all three victims told police they recognized at least one of the players—or attackers. One of the women shared a class on vampires with star wide receiver Devin Street. The other knew Pitts from an African-American dance class. They identified Graham from a photo line-up.

Despite the eyewitness testimony of the three victims, authorities did not arrest the football players. Nor would there be a perp walk for these alleged violent offenders. Instead, police charged them with misdemeanor assault and conspiracy. The players received their summonses in the mail.

University officials said they were not going to “rush to judgment” and suspend the players. After fans learned the three players would be allowed to play in the next game, their reaction ranged from indifference to resignation. One student noted that anyone who thought the players were guilty was a closed-minded bigot.
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Through their attorneys, the players denied everything, even being there. All three of the players charged had pretty good games against the Fighting Irish. But to no avail: Notre Dame won in overtime.

In New London, Connecticut, Matthew Chew loved art, music, his family, body piercing, and roaming the dark and dangerous streets of downtown as if he did not have a care in the world. That was before Chew died at the hands of a black mob playing the Knockout Game. To this day, Chew’s friends insist New London is safe. They believe that Chew’s murder “was a random thing,” and that “violence can happen anywhere. There are home invasions in rich communities.”
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This version of the game began one night in October 2010. The twenty-five-year-old, free-spirited Chew was walking home after work at a downtown pizza restaurant. While Chew worked
to save money for college, six black men nearby played Xbox, watched TV, and decided they were bored. So they set out to play the Knockout Game: Lethal edition.
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Manuel Maccin Ortiz, a friend of the killers, described it this way on his Facebook page:

Nigga, yu just see someone walking nd then you hit him. Its not that hrd mnd. If they got money then yu take they mney.
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By the time this mob found Chew, they had already planned how they would surround him so he could not escape—as another potential victim had earlier in the evening.

The game began. They stabbed Chew six times. He died. Game over.

It did not take police long to catch the mob. The trial was uneventful and the outcome never really in doubt. Witnesses made sure of that. But the sentencing came as a bit of a surprise to some. One was sentenced to thirty-five years to life. Others received a fraction of that.

Twenty-one-year-old Brian Rabell was ordered to spend eight years in prison. He participated in the planning and beating of Chew but not the knifing. Rabell wore rosary beads around his neck at sentencing and promised to be a good person “once he gets out.” That made a positive impression on Judge Susan Handy. “You were so much better than this, Mr. Rabell,” said Handy at sentencing last week. Rabell’s lawyer said his client deserved a light sentence because he was a graduate of a technical school and was also very, very sorry.
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Handy sentenced another defendant, Rashad Perry, to fifteen years. Perry was part of the planning and beating but not the knifing. Investigators said Perry laughed during the killing. They said Perry was the man who dared another defendant to use the
knife to kill someone.

On_Facebook, Perry’s friends bragged about how he did not snitch.

During the sentencing Mathew Chew’s mother was showing the court some photos of her deceased son when a bailiff had to warn members of the Perry family not to scoff at her. Even so, the judge told Perry’s family she “sympathized with how they have lost one son to murder and another to prison. She also told Perry to act responsibly during his sentence, saying he is young and intelligent enough to turn his life around.” said the New London Patch. Perry’s life was not a “throwaway,” said Judge Handy.
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The others received similar sentences last week, ranging from five to eight years.

Some of the residents of New London, friends of the defendants, spoke out in the comment section of the New London Patch on behalf of the killers:

“Its [sic] Just Sad Too [sic] See This Happening Too These Young Beautiful Black Boys, And Its Also Sad For The Chews. My Heart Goes Out To Both Families God Bless,” said Samantha.
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Many of the killers’ friends pitched in on Facebook:

“Free my nigga quisy … and the rest of them.”

“Free my brothers.”

“Free my niggas.”

“These boys up there do not belong in jail.”

“No matter what anyone says, real friends will stick up for their friends even if they are wrong. I will rep for them till the day I die.”
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But all the attention on the predators from Samantha and Judge Hardy and friends did not sit well with other folks in New
London. Commenting in the same Patch article the responses were venomous:

“Samantha, Young Beautiful Black Boys? Are you completely brain dead?” said Leon Weastie in the Patch. “Foul, cowardly fatherless pack beasts. Why God ever stretched a patch of skin over these soulless animals is beyond me.”

“Samantha, Why do you refer to the low life killers as ‘YOUNG BEAUTIFUL BLACK BOYS’?” asked Sally Eldridge. “And oh by the way, Samantha you need to do some soul searching. Those boys as u call them are disgusting excuses for humanity.

“Young Beautiful Black Boys?” What about the “Young never hurt anyone White Boy who was MURDERED”?” asked Kim McCorkindale.
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In New Orleans, police say they are “baffled.” So is the daily newspaper.

Three black men in New Orleans stalk and stomp a man almost to death. They laugh. They linger. They beat him some more. They move on. Then return and kick him in the face.

“I’ve never had an incident like this. Usually there’s a reason, and usually it’s robbery,” Detective Michael Flores told the
Times-Picayune
last week. “Not in this case.”
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Cops and reporters may not be able to figure it out. But at least one person in New Orleans who posted at
Times-Picayune
figured it out. “It’s called the ‘Knockout Game.’ Go Google it because it’s happening all across the country, but the lame stream
media is very silent on the subject.”
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Early in the evening the mob had tried to start the Knockout Game with someone else, but when that person acted as if they had a weapon, the game was over before it began. The mob moved on to the easier target, a person who now awaits reconstructive surgery to repair the broken bones in his face. Meanwhile, the baffled police look for suspects.

When going through my research I was looking for a story I recalled about a black mob that beat a Pittsburgh teacher. The video had gone viral. I hit the play button to refresh my memory and soon I was looking at something unfamiliar. It was a security cam video from 2012 of a black mob beating a teacher--just not the one that went viral and was seen around the world. That was a
different
mob in Pittsburg beating a
different
teacher. The one I found was a bit more mundane, as violent events are often described when they happen to other people:

Teacher walking down the street. Black people coming from the other direction. They attack him. Chase him. And he falls down in front on a car, which almost runs him over but not quite.
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The incident I was searching for happened a few months later. The teacher got hurt pretty badly, not just from the punch but from hitting his head on the curb.
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A Pittsburgh television talk show host said it was not a mob, because only one person punched the teacher. When I pointed out the others were laughing and congratulating him and made no move to help the teacher but instead ran away, the Pittsburgh TV guy said I was fanning the flames of hatred—or whatever people like that say when they see something they cannot refute.

Down in Tuscaloosa, it would have been just another Knockout Game except for one thing: The assailants in this black mob were all members of Alabama’s 2013 National Championship football team.

Late one Sunday night on the campus of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Samuel Jergens was returning to his dorm when three black men asked if they could borrow a lighter. That is the last thing he remembers before waking up on the sidewalk, bloody, with head injuries and bruises. His friend Chris Burks told the campus paper: “His left side of his face was gigantic. The jacket he was wearing and his headphones were completely drenched in blood, the bottom half of his face was completely covered in blood; he was bleeding badly from his lip. He had clearly been badly beaten.”
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An hour later, the three members of the Crimson Tide did it again. Both men were beaten unconscious with “excessive force”: punched and kicked about the body and face, say police reports. Both students were robbed as well. One lost a backpack with an Apple MacBook computer, the other his wallet. Police arrested Tyler Hayes, Eddie Williams, and Dennis Pettway in connection with the beating, and Brent Calloway for using a debit card stolen during the robbery.
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All four are freshman and were among the most heavily recruited high school seniors in the country. Three had extensive playing time this year; Williams was a redshirt freshman. Calloway has a previous arrest for possession of marijuana in the fall of 2011 while he was a redshirt freshman.

Three of the players confessed to the involvement in the beating and robbery. But Calloway is taking a harder line on Twitter:

All four were suspended from, then kicked off, the team. Parents and high school coaches were shocked. Greg Seibert coached
the six-foot-two, 285-pound Pettway at Pensacola Catholic High School. He told al.com:

There are times that in the maturation process we thought he would be a little more vocal, a little more bringing people along with him. He’s got a little bit of immaturity in him that would lead him -- if he’s around people that have some dominant personalities -- into situations that are negative. About 95 percent of the time, he was OK. There’s 5 percent where he would talk too much in class or be late or something like that. Nothing that ever rose to the level of what we’re dealing with today.
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One of the four was arrested the day before for carrying a loaded pistol without a permit. Eddie Williams was arguing over charges for gas at a local convenience store and was “acting erratic” when the attendant called police and they found the weapon. He was charged and released after posting $500 bond. Williams was the only one of the four without extensive playing time on this year’s national championship team.
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Students are trying to make sense out of it. Several of those who commented on the attack at local news sites observed that the beating was just another example of racial violence that is often unreported or ignored. Others said race had nothing to do with it: “Every culture commits crimes,” said David Claussen. “Open your eyes and quit being a racist.”
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But even before the wounds healed, the pleas entered, or the sentences handed down, some Tide fans were pleading for mercy. After all, writes Alex Scarborough for ESPN, Ray Lewis came back after being involved in a double murder, so why not these four?