Chicago hate crime: 4 black men held white man hostage

[MikeWB]

FOX 32 NEWS - Chicago investigators are questioning four African-Americans after a Facebook Live video shows a group of people torturing a white mentally disabled man while someone yelled "F*** Trump!" and "F*** white people!"

Chicago police were made aware of the video Tuesday afternoon. A young African American woman streamed the video live on Facebook showing at least four people holding the young white man hostage.

"The video is reprehensible," said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

"It's sickening. You know it makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that," Police Supt. Eddie Johnson added.

In the video, the victim is repeatedly kicked and hit, his scalp is cut, all while he is tied up with his mouth taped shut.

Detectives think the victim, who lives in the suburbs and appeared to be in his late teens or early 20s, met some acquaintances in northwest suburban Streamwood and they drove him to Chicago in a stolen vehicle, Guglielmi said.

The victim is then believed to have been held hostage and tortured in an apartment in the 3400 block of West Lexington on the West Side, Guglielmi said.

On Tuesday afternoon, police officers spotted the victim walking on a street on the West Side wearing shorts, Guglielmi said. Because it was unusual to see a man in shorts in the cold weather, the officers stopped to talk to the man, who appeared disoriented, and he was taken to a hospital to be treated for his injuries.

Toxicology tests were performed at the hospital to determine if the victim was under the influence of anything.

Police said the victim was a classmate of one of the suspects. He was held hostage for at least 24 hours and as long as 48 hours.

"It's quite a possibility that this is a kidnapping and that's certainly one of the charges we'll be seeking if it turns out to be that. But, he's traumatized by the incident and it's tough to communicate with him at this point," said Chicago Police Commander Kevin Duffin.

Community activist Andrew Holmes was made aware of the disturbing video, which he is calling a "hate crime."

Although President-elect Donald Trump was mentioned, Chicago Police do not believe the crime was politically motivated.

"I think some of it is just stupidity, people just ranting about something that they think might make a headline. I don't think that at this point we have anything concrete to really point us in that direction, but we'll keep investigating and we'll let the facts guide us on how this concludes," Supt. Johnson said.

Charges are expected to be filed in the next 24 hours.

http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/crime/227116738-story

[Christopher Marlowe]

Once again, if this was a case where a white gang tortured a retarded black man, we would be hearing about this 24/7 and they would have built a statue of the victim and declared a school holiday in his honor.

[Ognir]

those soros hoars blm always need a new gig
after michel brown and any other number of black guys killed

[MikeWB]

Facebook refuses to explain why live video of attack wasn't removed sooner
Company won't say why video showing a man bound, gagged and cut with a knife amid shouts of 'fuck Donald Trump' wasn't taken down for 30 minutes
Four suspects charged with hate crimes over beating streamed live on Facebook

Facebook on Thursday refused to respond to mounting questions over its apparent failure to take down a live broadcast of the brutal attack of a young man with disabilities in Chicago.

Four arrested over Facebook Live video of man tortured amid anti-Trump taunts
Read more
Wednesday's Facebook Live video showing a man bound, gagged and cut with a knife amid shouts of "fuck Donald Trump" undermines the company's efforts to market the tool.

For the last few months, Facebook has been running a multimedia advertising campaign encouraging users to try its video live-streaming product.

On billboards, television and online the company uses cutesy animations urging users to share warm and fuzzy moments like "hanging out with friends" or "when you see someone walking an animal that's not a dog".

At no point does the company suggest using the tool to document torture, police brutality or spree killing – but that is precisely what the tool has, in part, gained a reputation for over the last nine months.

This was brought to the fore most viscerally with this week's attack in Chicago. The 30-minute assault was watched by 16,000 people, leaving many asking why Facebook didn't take the content down as it did in the case of the police standoff with Korryn Gaines. Facebook did eventually take down the recorded video, but not before it had been copied and widely shared on YouTube.

Facebook refused to comment on how many people – if any – reported the content, although there appear to have been many comments under the live stream made by horrified viewers who may have also used the report tool. Nor would Facebook tell the Guardian when it first became aware of the video and how long it took to decide to take the footage down from the site.

Instead, a spokeswoman for the company in a statement: "We do not allow people to celebrate or glorify crimes on Facebook and have removed the original video for this reason. In many instances, though, when people share this type of content, they are doing so to condemn violence or raise awareness about it. In that case, the video would be allowed."

Facebook also pointed to a blogpost about community standards for Live Video, where it explains that it has a team on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week "dedicated to responding to reports" from users "immediately".

Reviewers can interrupt a live video stream if it violates the community standards and it only takes one report for an item of content to be reviewed. The company also monitors videos if they reach a certain level of popularity, even if they haven't been reported.

All of which raises difficult questions for Facebook about how the shocking video was broadcast, seemingly uninterrupted, for 30 minutes.

"I find it really hard to believe that not enough people reported it," said Reem Suleiman of SumOfUs, a civil rights group that's been campaigning for Facebook to be more transparent about its content takedown process.

"I don't want to speculate here, but we've had issues ourselves trying to get certain things taken down in the past," she added.

As NPR highlighted in November, the role of moderation is carried out by a team of subcontractors operating under pressure, making decisions about pieces of flagged content once every 10 seconds. It's no surprise that mistakes, such as the inappropriate censorship of a celebrated Vietnam War picture or a breast cancer awareness video, are made. Given the complexity and duration of live video streams, it's difficult to see how they can be effectively assessed under these conditions.

Katy Culver, the director of the Center for Journalism Ethics, suggested that perhaps nobody reported the video to Facebook. "Otherwise, I struggle to believe that the platform would not have taken it down," she said.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Guardian on Thursday that police learned of the Facebook video around the same time that the agency encountered the victim and quickly determined that he was the subject of the footage.

While patrol officers were assisting the victim, "other units had gotten word of the Facebook video", he said. "It only took a matter of hours to put this whole case together."
Guglielmi said police had no difficulties acquiring the video and did not make any formal requests to the social media company for help in securing evidence.

Four suspects have been charged with hate crimes, kidnapping, battery and burglary. Police identified the suspects as Jordan Hill, Tesfaye Cooper, Brittany Covington and Tanishia Covington. The suspects are all 18 years old, except Tanishia Covington, who is 24, according to the Associated Press.

The incident once again raises questions about Facebook's responsibility as a media company. Just as critics are calling for the company to stop the spread of misinformation on its platform, so too are they demanding Facebook make editorial judgemnts about Live video.

"It's a really good example of why Facebook cannot rely solely on its users to report content. It's clearly not effective, it's not good enough," said Suleiman.

She acknowledged that the live-streaming tool was valuable for exposing human rights abuses. "But there's a huge difference between using Facebook to expose violence and corruption and using it to violate, exploit and abuse people," she said.

The unpredictable course of live streaming has caught us unprepared
Read more
"If Facebook wants people to use its platform to report news, it needs to be held to the same standard that other news outlets are."

Others believe Facebook should be building better technical solutions for triaging problematic content.

"Facebook has to moderate horrifying levels of graphic and upsetting content that emerges around the world every day," said Claire Wardle of First Draft News. "But this example shows how much further the company has to go in terms of improving their discovery technology to ensure a video like this gets pushed to the top of a moderation queue."

Culver accepts that it is extremely challenging to monitor the volume of content posted to Facebook, but she said the social network appeared to be taking steps in the right direction.

"The course-correction they did on 'fake news' indicates they are thinking more about their responsibilities as a platform," she said.

https://archive.fo/1o2pa

[Zackon]

Once again these pre workouts for men are the best if this was a case where a white gang tortured a retarded black man, we would be hearing about this 24/7 and they would have built a statue of the victim and declared a school holiday in his honor.

There would be riots too.

[maz]

The story has already disappeared from the news cycle when we know that if the races were reversed we'd be hearing about it non stop for a few weeks.

The perpetrators are being held without bail, and their next court appearance is set for January 27. Let's see if the media follows up on this story or if they will continue to bury it.