April 14, 2012

Two white reporters beaten at a red light

On Sat. night, April 14, 2012, two white reporters for the Virginian-Pilot Newspaper, Dave Forster and Marjon Rostami, were at a red light where about 100 black youths were hanging out. One threw a rock at their car and Forster got out to confront the youth. Then they were swarmed. At least 30 young men surged forward to take turns punching and kicking their victims.(1)

Rostami managed to call 911 and scream the location. When two officers showed up the crowd scattered. One of the officers quickly left to answer another call. When the hysterical Rostami tried to describe what had happened, she says the officer told her to shut up and get in the car. Both said the officer did not record any names of witnesses who stopped to help. Rostami said the officer told them the attackers were "probably juveniles anyway. What are we going to do? Find their parents and tell them?"(1)

The officer pointed to public housing in the area and said large groups of teenagers look for trouble on the weekends. "It's what they do," he told Forster.(1)

Both Forster and Rostami were out of work for a week, recovering from their beating. The day after the attack, Forster searched Twitter for mention of the attack. One post chilled him.(1)

"I feel for the white man who got beat up at the light," wrote one person.
"I don't," wrote another, indicating laughter. "(do it for trayvon martin)"(1)

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Michelle Washington, Editorial writer for the Virginian-Pilot.

The Virginian-Pilot is the leading information source in the Norfolk area and despite the fact the newspaper knew two of their own had been beaten by a mob, THEY REFUSED TO REPORT IT! It wasn’t until May 1, that one of the paper’s columnist, Michelle Washington, broke the story in an editorial.

A gang beating of 2 people at a traffic light should have prompted immediate coverage. Why wouldn’t the paper report a black on white mob attack, when the reverse would have been instant international news? 

Miraculously, only 3 days after the coverup was exposed, police arrested a 16 year old juvenile.(2)

Virginian-Pilot editor defends the coverup!

A day earlier, Denis Finley, editor of the Virginian-Pilot ran a story defending his decision not to report the incident. Judging by his response, he is either clueless or a liar:

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Denis Finley

“We have checked to see whether there is an inordinate amount of crime in the neighborhood where the attack happened. There is not.”(3) The truth is, there is a lot of crime in that neighborhood. The web site WAVY.com, using data from crimemapping.com, looked into how many crimes are reported in the area of the April 14 assault. A report for the week of April 8 until April 14 shows 49 crimes were reported within a one mile radius of the reported assault. WAVY.com spoke to residents in the neighborhood who say it is not a safe place after dark.(4) Whether this is a high crime area or not shouldn’t change anything. You report a mob attack.

"Race has entered the equation. The attackers are black; Forster and Rostami are white. A Twitter post mentioned Trayvon Martin, fueling the opinion that we are practicing reverse racism, that if a group of white people had attacked a black couple, the incident would have been front-page news. None of this is true.”(3) Finley must live on the moon. It IS true. Only clueless liberals refuse to admit it.

“Forster and Rostami were victims of what police described as a simple assault, and, initially, they did not want to be named in a news story.”(3) Findley is hiding behind the police report pretending that he doesn’t know any more about the crime than that. A mob attack is front page news and they don’t have to identify the victims. 

“We did not cover up anything. What would we gain by protecting some thugs who beat up two of our reporters? The accusation is ludicrous.”(3) It’s not ludicrous at all. There is a trend around the country to refuse to disclose the race of the attackers if they are black. This is another example of political correctness that defies common sense and justice. Cities don’t like reporting black crime because it shows black racism that many politicians would rather pretend doesn’t exist. Cities want tourists to spend money in their town. Revealing black on white crime hurts that effort.

The Virginian-Pilot became a liberal paper

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Maurice Jones

The President and Publisher of the Virginian-Pilot was Maurice Jones, who ran the paper for 21 months until leaving on Apr 4 for a job in the Obama administration. He ran the paper with a decidedly liberal slant. Jones reportedly received $700,000 in salary and bonuses during his time at the paper.

David Mele, 41, will take over from Jones on April 16. Jones stated: "He is more than ready, and, frankly, the company is trading up, as they say in the sports world. I feel very good about that choice."(5)

Sources:
1. http://hamptonroads.com.nyud.net/2012/05/beating-church-and-brambleton
2. http://hamptonroads.com/2012/05/16yearold-charged-assault-two-pilot-reporters
3. http://hamptonroads.com/2012/05/column-pilot-stands-handling-attack-staff-members
4. http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/norfolk/norfolk-police-chief-press-conference-may-3
5. http://hamptonroads.com/2012/04/pilots-online-executive-named-papers-new-publisher