If these three young men are, in fact, guilty as charged, they need to be locked away for a very long time.

Three football players at Guilford College, a school with a Quaker background, face assault and ethnic intimidation charges after an attack on three Palestinian students, authorities said.

The victims were beaten with fists, feet and brass knuckles early Saturday by attackers who called them "terrorists" and used racial slurs, the News & Record of Greensboro reported Tuesday.

School officials believe about 12 people were involved in the altercation, Nic Brown, spokesman for the college in Greensboro, told The Associated Press. Administrators were still trying to determine whether some were fighting or trying to break it up, Brown said.

"We've had a very, very unfortunate event, unfortunate conflict among students who actually knew each other, and who had lived and interacted in the same residence hall with no conflict among themselves," Brown said.

Authorities charged Michael Bates, 19, of Reidsville, North Carolina; Michael Robert Six, 20, of Greensboro, North Carolina; and Christopher Barnette, 21, of Semora, North Carolina, with ethnic intimidation and assault and battery, according to court documents. They were released Monday on $2,000 (euro1,500) bail.

Now I’m opposed to the “ethnic intimidation” charge on principle, but the assault charge alone is disturbing. The victims of this attack, assuming this was an unprovoked altercation, did nothing to deserve what happened to them. Forget the ethnicity angle and focus on the real crime – seemingly random violence against fellow human beings.

But I do urge that everyone wait until the investigation is complete and the evidence is in -- because there seems to be a lot more evidence left out of this report than what is included.

Posted by: Greg at 11:12 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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