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Society
Michigan Teen Zach Tennen Attacked for Being Jewish, Police Say It's 'Not Likely a Hate Crime'
A Jewish student at Michigan State University was beaten unconscious and had his mouth stapled early Sunday morning. According to the Daily Mail, the attackers beat him after they found out he was Jewish and made anti-Semitic remarks throughout the ordeal.
Local police say the assault was "not likely a hate crime," though the attackers, who claim to be Ku Klux Klan, raised their arms in a Nazi salute and yelled "Heil Hitler" before they beat the teen.
Investigators have identified a possible suspect, but no further information was revealed.
Zach Tennen, 19, said the attackers knocked him unconscious and stapled his gums. "It was coming up in my two bottom teeth and it started in my gum, so, somehow they managed to staple it," he said.
His mother said there were about 20 people at the party who witnessed the incident but did not help.
Tennen was "thrown out" of the party after the attack and took a cab to the local hospital where he discovered he had a broken jaw. His jaw was later wired shut at a Detroit hospital.
The Tennen family reached out to the Anti-Defamation League, an organization fighting anti-Semitism, to inform them about the attack.
ADL Detroit Regional Director Betsey Kellman told MailOnline that they are "horrified by this violent assault and allegations that the student may have been viciously attacked because he was Jewish."
Despite the authorities' disbelief that the incident was a hate crime, Kellman has confidence that the police will thoroughly investigate the attack and "treat it as a possible hate crime."
Michigan State's Student Affairs and Services said they have "reached out to the family of the student assaulted in East Lansing to provide the academic and other support the student needs."
They promise to work with Tennen and his professors to "ensure he can fulfill his academic requirements."
Because the attack occurred off-campus, the university said all questions about the investigation should go to the East Lansing Police Department.
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Comments
A while ago, somebody walked
A while ago, somebody walked into the offices of the Family Research Council armed to the teeth and with fifteen Chick-fil-A sandwiches, and shot the first person he met, possibly intending to shoot others, although his first victim overpowered him with a bullet hole in his own arm.
Police said this wasn't a "hate crime".
Later, somebody scattered bacon where some Moslems had been planning to meet later in the day, and left notes expressing disapproval of Islam.
I don't know whether police said that this was a "hate crime", but most of the people here seemed to agree that it was, a few dissenting for hard-to-follow reasons.
Now some people have attached a Jewish lad at a party, after learning that he was Jewish, the attackers, claiming to be Ku Klux Klan, raising their arms in a Nazi salute and yelling "Heil Hitler" beforehand.
But police say that this wasn't "likely" to be a "hate crime".
I just don't understand how victims feel that they've scored a point in a game of which I cannot work out the rules, if they manage to get hate crime victim status, and how the police feel that they have scored a point in the same or a different game that they are playing, if they make a public statement denying the victims the hate crime status they crave, especially when this flies in the face of common sense, if we've been given a full account of everything the police know about what happened.
Could it be that there are some important facts omitted from the account we are reading, in order to sex up the story? Or is America these days really as weird as it seems to be to outsiders?
Whether a crime is indeed a
Whether a crime is indeed a hate crime depends whether the victim was attacked for being part of a group that is associated with the Democratic Party coalition. Not all Jews vote Democrat these days -- hence the doubt.
That was a just plain stupid
That was a just plain stupid statement.
The attackers were making anti-semetic remarks and beating him because he was Jewish.
Could you explain exactly how political affiliation has anything to do with this?
It is a hate crime, not a political statement, though, by technical definition, it could also qualify as an act of terrorism, considering that, if they attackers are members of the KKK, they are, quite factually, members of a known domestic terrorist group.
The insanity principle is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. The far right, the far left, vegans, creationists and other extremists believe in the insanity principle, religiously.
It was a joke.
It was a joke.
It was neither funny, nor in
It was neither funny, nor in any semblance of acceptable taste.
The insanity principle is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. The far right, the far left, vegans, creationists and other extremists believe in the insanity principle, religiously.
This is definitely a hate
This is definitely a hate crime & one which I think both Dems. & Repubs. can pretty well all agree should be prosecuted as such. What a horrible act. If only judges could sentence the offenders to the same treatment, it could discourage this kind of behavior!
I find it very difficult to
I find it very difficult to believe that a crime committed by KKK members is not considered a hate crime, when the victim had his jaw broken and gums stapled together besides being beaten unconscious. What kind of barbarism is this for the police to deny this is not a hate crime. The KKK is against African-Americans as well as Jews. The KKK's platform is similar to the neo-Nazis. These hate groups commit crimes against those they feel are not like themselves. That is hatred and it needs to be prosecuted as a hate crime. We can no longer accept flimsy excuses by authorities, and the fact police in Michigan made such comments is grounds enough to investigate whether or not they have been infiltrated by these hate groups. If so, police personnel need to be fired and replaced. Never again was the battle cry against the horrors of the Holocaust, and we should not forget that in the 21st century. A hate crime is defined by an attack on an individual, not towards a group or organization. The victim is an individual who happens to be Jewish. He could also have been any member of a minority or ethnic group.
If the description is
If the description is accurate, about the beating after they found out he was Jewish, then it is indeed a hate crime. But if they beat him before they knew, then it would not be. Just because they are clan members does not make all their crimes hate crimes.
It could also be some pranksters pretending to be clan members, which would throw the hate crime into doubt.
The authorities are often
The authorities are often part of the problem. There's a poor man living in a tent somewhere due to crooked authorities...yet it has all been hushed up & slid under the rug. One site, Supremely Unjust - http://www.supremelyunjust.weebly.com, has posted proof of the corruption as well as a link to a petition aimed at getting a govt investigation.
HolySmoke is comparing this
HolySmoke is comparing this Michigan incident of physical assault with William Roack's failed FLSA suit. Roack is in a tent because he voluntarily resigned his job. When he tried to claim discrimation practices, he could provide no prove or witnesses. Such cases are hard to prove, but no one terminated Roack's employment or requested his resignation, so his loss of income was his choice. Since this Michigan assault case has had no arrests or charges filed at all, there isn't even a government misconduct connection(if that was your intent in your comments). I don't know the circumstances of this assault, but if a party was off-campus maybe this guy was just a party crashed. Throwing an intruder of your property isn't a hate crime. If this student resisted being ejected off private property, this may not even be a crime.