i know him, he's actually a nice guy.

This is exactly why I don't miss Oregon. I never see confederate flags in NJ or NYC. It's so much more diverse over here and people are much more sensitive to individuals coming from different racial backgrounds. When I lived in Eugene, we had a guy in a white truck with a confederate flag in his window (and rifles in the window as well), turn around his truck to follow us. Luckily we were in a porsche and were able to out run him. Our hearts were racing and we had to risk breaking the law to possibly avoid being shot by the ignorant guy.

Remember the guy who had a large confederate flag in the bed of his truck, and couldn’t understand WHY the school wouldn’t let him park his truck at the school? This is exactly why! The flag these guy’s are flying stands for just that kind of intimidation. The people who created, flew and fought for that flag did so because they thought they had the right to keep people as slaves. That involved intimidation, murder, rape and all manner of inhuman depravities. At least these young men stood up and admitted that the reason they were doing this is because the kid was black. No other reason, just because the kid was black. For these guy’s and others like them (confederate flag flyers) this is just normal behavior.

Why are they not being charged with attempted murder? They tried to run a child down in a truck for god's sake. I bet the assailants come from good "Christian" homes too. Their parents should be ashamed of themselves for raising boys that grew up to be such weak examples of men.

I totally agree with you Rhimea. Race and such should not make a crime more based solely upon that. People are jerks and people are dangerous and it should not be a different crime that was committed just because this boy is black white green purple or what have you. What sucks is that those who did this crime will be charged and sentenced differently than if that had been a group of say blacks who were doing that to a 15 yo white child. A crime is a crime is a crime and that is what it should be called.

These hate crimes are another Liberal run amok idea to further separate the races. Progressives and Liberals are racist. They want the divide, otherwise why would not they make special laws. Intimidation is intimidation whether it is white on white, black on black, white on black or black on white. These so called hate crimes are just another liberal attempt to get the races hating each other, create a divide. A crime is a crime. I'm surprised they haven't come up with a hate crime for conservatives intimidating liberals or liberals intimidating conservatives. That would not be quite as easy, and of course they like easy feely good mamby pamby crap. A crime is a crime, change the code, abolish racism.

My point is that I think it is discriminatory. Prosecute the crime for what it is. Why add an extra severity to it that would not be there if the tables were turned?

What's your point, Rhimea? Why should ANY child or any person be so intimidated they have to hide in a bush to get away from a group of people chasing them? This is very sad and troubling. My heart goes out to this child and his family. As well as to people who don't find this incident outrageous and unacceptable.

When is the last time you heard about a black person arrested for a hate crime?