The predators walking among us

In June 2006 Tracy Hilliard of Las Vegas was walking home from the store with her 13-year-old daughter. Two young black men approached, and the girl became nervous. But Hilliard, as she later testified, told her daughter not to prejudge people.

At that moment, one of the young men said he was going to rob her. One of the assailants pulled out a .38-caliber handgun, pointed it at the mother and daughter, and then shot Hilliard twice in the back.

Hilliard received major internal injuries but survived. 19-year-old Ryan Royal has just been sentenced to four to 12 years for robbery. Incomprehensibly he was not charged with attempted murder or even with assault with a deadly weapon.

But Tracy Hilliard (who, judging by the photo of her in the story, not only believes in “not prejudging” people, but in wearing plunging necklines to court) was lucky.

On Friday April 4 at 9 p.m., a Columbia University graduate student, Ming-Hui Yu, was waiting for a bus as 122nd Street and Broadway when he was attacked by two “juveniles” (i.e. two savages too young to get the punishment they deserve). Seeking to escape, he ran across Broadway and was struck by an SUV which threw him 30 feet through the air, horribly mangling him. He died a few hours later.

The readers’ comments at the Columbia Spectator seem to reflect such outspokenness on the reality of black violence that one commenter writes:

Wow. Who knew the gothamist comment boards were like a Ku Klux Klan rally?

It’s sad. I live on the block, but have never felt harrassed.

If perp wants a material item, just give it up for God’s sake.

Here is the Daily News story from April 5:

A Columbia University grad student trying to escape muggers darted onto a busy stretch of Broadway Friday night and was struck and killed by an SUV, police said.

The impact hurled the 24-year-old victim 30 feet in the air and sent him skidding to the pavement near 122th St.

He died several hours later at St. Luke’s Hospital, cops said.

The man, a Columbia teaching fellow who lived on Amsterdam Ave., was waiting at a bus stop at 122nd and Broadway shortly before 9 p.m. when two teenage thugs set upon him, cops said.

The victim refused to give up his belongings, and the two attackers starting punching and kicking him, cops said. That’s when he tried to flee, running diagonally across Broadway toward 121st St.

“It was just horrible, horrible,” said John Stathis, 57, a plumbing contractor from Queens who has a shop nearby. “The guy’s body was twisted like a pretzel.”

Victor Bradley, 21, a security guard from the Bronx, said he ran toward the sound of a loud boom.

“The guy was bleeding from the nose,” Bradley said. “I can’t even put it in words.”

Police described the victim only as an Asian man who taught statistics at the Graduate School of Arts and Science.

His name was not released pending family notification.

The driver of the Jeep Cherokee was headed downtown when he hit the young scholar. The driver remained at the scene, and no charges were filed against him.

Cops were still searching for the muggers, who ran off after the crash. But police said their images were caught on several security cameras on buildings in the area.

A woman who answered the phone Friday night at the SUV driver’s home declined comment.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 13, 2008 02:16 PM | Send