Four Teens Beat, Attempt to Drown Black College Student

Posted by Pam Spaulding at 6:04 AM on September 26, 2007.

This post, written by Pam Spaulding, originally appeared on Pam's House Blend

Why?

Four teenagers have been charged with a hate crime, accused of the beating and attempted drowning of a black college student at Haulover Beach Park Marina over the weekend. After calling him the N-word, the teens beat Florida International University freshman Stephen Barrett with a baseball bat and tried to drown him in the Intracoastal Waterway, Miami-Dade police said.

The suspects in the attack range in age from 15 to 18. All had attended a keg party at an island in the middle of the Intracoastal. About 1 a.m. Sunday, Barrett and two other FIU dorm mates were on a boat headed back to Haulover Marina when the driver of the boat said it was overloaded. ''Get off the boat, N-----,'' the teens said to Barrett, according to police reports.

After that, Barrett and his dorm mates got off and waited for the next boat. When they did get back to the marina, the thugs were waiting for them with baseball bats. According to the Miami Herald, Barrett was knocked into the waterway, and the teens held his head under water.

It should be noted that Barrett's friends were white and Hispanic, but the thugs went right for Barrett with the racial slur then beat them all -- guilt by association since they were with a young black man. It makes me sick and sad to hear about young people full of such hate.

Have we learned nothing?

Tagged as: race, racism, hate crimes

Pam Spaulding blogs at Pam's House Blend.