Today, a story that's a little different. The man at issue wasn't falsely accused of rape, but a group of vigilantes thought he was a rapist. I do disagree with the reporter here. Street justice rarely gets it right.
Once again, we see the damage that can be done to an innocent man over a misidentification.
Innocent man beaten by group who thought he was a child rapist.
CENTER CITY - June 5, 2009 (WPVI) -- Street justice sometimes gets it right, and sometimes gets it wrong.
The case of 26-year-old Michael Zenquis is a disturbing reminder of what can happen when the police search for a child rapist fuels a potent intoxicant of street justice and an innocent victim is caught in its web.
"He calls me by my nickname, he says 'Romeo, we need to speak to you, we need to talk to you for a second, I got something to show you,'" Zenquis said.
Michael says it was Monday afternoon and he was walking home at Ontario and Argyle Streets when he was suddenly attacked by 5 or 6 people, some of whom he knew from the neighborhood."
Out of nowhere, I just start getting hit with sticks; I get hit with a baseball bat on my back. I was just getting stomped, I was just getting beat up for at least 45 seconds before I knew what was going on," Zenquis said.
It wasn't until then that he knew why he was being pummeled when someone yelled, 'You raped that little girl!.'
"I kept yelling, I'm innocent, I didn't do anything, I don't know what's going on," Zenquis said.
"They were just calling me, 'Rapist! You deserve to die!' They were saying, 'Kill him, kill him!', and it was just too much."
Five days since the attack, Zenquis is still marred with the bruises left from the vicious and brutal attack, on his eye where he was hit with a stick, on his back where he was hit with a baseball bat, his left shoulder, and his left foot which was bandaged up tonight.
"It still hurts a lot; I'm still going through a lot of pain here," Zenquis said.
Police officers took him to the hospital and then the special victims unit, where detectives realized he was not the guy they were looking for and let him go. He says he feels terrible for the little girl that was raped and understands the anger people felt, but:
"They shouldn't have took the law into their own hands, ok? Because look, they got the wrong guy. What if they would have killed me? Then what?" Zenquis said.
Further, he believes after he was beat up, police had a responsibility to warn the public not to take matters into their own hands.
"Me being beat up like that, they should have done something about it, because I was on the ground, I was bleeding and I was hurt. I think the police should have done something about it cause they knew I was beat up," Zenquis said.
After being prompted by his family, Zenquis says he went to East Detectives on Wednesday and identified two of his assailants from a photo lineup. He wants to press charges not just because of what happened to him, but for the next person who could be mistaken for a vicious criminal.
Thanks to one of our readers for the link.
Link: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=6851290
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
10 comments:
Steve, is this the same alleged rape that the feministing cabal wrote about the other day? If so, it seems this was the second vigalante attack to avenge the rape of a girl. Here is what that awful, awful feministing.com blog wrote in defense of the other vigilante attack:
*Potentially triggering*
This story is intense. An 11 year old was brutally raped. Members of her community beat up the man they think committed the crime. The neighbors will not be charged for the beating. Here's why,
Before making his decision, Ramsey said, he monitored Carrasquillo's condition and reviewed surveillance video of the assault. As soon as officers arrived at the scene, he said, the group stopped the beating.
"These people saw him, he attempted to run and they caught up with him," Ramsey said. "If the injuries had been severe, maybe we'd have to rethink it."
The Philadelphia chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police had offered a $10,000 reward in the rape case.
Carrasquillo has not been charged in the rape, but Ramsey said investigators have very strong forensic evidence and witness identification placing him at the scene.
Marc Lamont Hill makes the point that because of the erasure of the experiences of women of color and specifically black women with sexual violence in the justice system and the news media, there is an understanding within the community that no one is going to do anything about this injustice. So while we may fall on the side of never resorting to violence, many people do not have this privilege.
Posted by Samhita - June 04, 2009, at 04:19PM | in Race , Sexual Assault , Violence Against Women
And here is the story referenced by the post in that awful, awful feministing.com blog: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gzRZ1
Steve, is this the same alleged rape that the feministing cabal wrote about the other day? If so, it seems this was the second vigalante attack to avenge the rape of a girl. Here is what that awful, awful feministing.com blog wrote in defense of the other vigilante attack:
*Potentially triggering*
This story is intense. An 11 year old was brutally raped. Members of her community beat up the man they think committed the crime. The neighbors will not be charged for the beating. Here's why,
Before making his decision, Ramsey said, he monitored Carrasquillo's condition and reviewed surveillance video of the assault. As soon as officers arrived at the scene, he said, the group stopped the beating.
"These people saw him, he attempted to run and they caught up with him," Ramsey said. "If the injuries had been severe, maybe we'd have to rethink it."
The Philadelphia chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police had offered a $10,000 reward in the rape case.
Carrasquillo has not been charged in the rape, but Ramsey said investigators have very strong forensic evidence and witness identification placing him at the scene.
Marc Lamont Hill makes the point that because of the erasure of the experiences of women of color and specifically black women with sexual violence in the justice system and the news media, there is an understanding within the community that no one is going to do anything about this injustice. So while we may fall on the side of never resorting to violence, many people do not have this privilege.
Posted by Samhita - June 04, 2009, at 04:19PM | in Race , Sexual Assault , Violence Against Women
And here is the story referenced by the post in that awful, awful feministing.com blog: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gzRZ1
Pierce,
These are, as far as I can tell, different stories. Scary that in either case, no one will be charged for assault in the beatings. That is beyond disgusting.
It also reinforces that it is a lie that men don't care about rape. That may seem obvious, but think about it: every story of overreaction and anger over a reported rape involves MEN. Men aren't shutting their eyes to this crime, despite the assertions of paid sexual assault humilators who go around to college campuses to shame innocent young men into thinking they are part of "the rape culture."
And, of course, young women are openly encouraged to put themselves in harm's way by drinking and flirting with strangers -- but to suggest they are part of the problem is "victim shaming."
True, but I think we know that it isn't really about getting men involved (they already are), it's about maintaining thier power to control the conversation, and to keep the 'victim' mantle.
And let's be perfectly honest. It is as much about the funding as anything. I'm sure there are those in the industry who truly are in it for the help they give the victims who have been raped, but for those who are on the boards, it's about the money.
In this and that other case, why the police aren't arrsesting those people for assault, is beyond me. Does this mean, that I can go and beat anyone I want and when the police show up, say I thought he was a rapist, and avoid punishment? Once again, how is it that the police aren't taking rape seriously? Just serious enough that anyone believed to be a rapist can be beaten by a crowd with no consequences.
As I have repeatedly point out, rape counseling for mant is a shtick, a job -- they've found a niche and are capitalizing on it. And if their work defames an entire gender by painting them as rapists-in-waiting, oh, well, too bad.
The lessons from these incidents are these, as I see it: cries of rape ARE believed; cries of rape DO taint the male accused; and cries of rape CAN destroy innocent lives.
What's incredible is that this was caught on tape and the police still won't do anything about it. As far as they're concerned these "citizens" have a right to assault anybody they feel like, with their emotional state serving as a defense.
Men get extremely angry at rapists in cases where the dominance hierarchy is being subverted, for example a low-status man commits a rape. He is violating all the rules for access to women.
"Men get extremely angry at rapists in cases where the dominance hierarchy is being subverted, for example a low-status man commits a rape. He is violating all the rules for access to women."
What does this have to do with either of the recent instances of vigilante justice, where the victim and the attackers all come from the same socio-economic background? Are you saying that if a rich man raped a poor woman, no one else in her class (for lack of a better word) would care because it didn't violate the rules for "access to women?"
Norm: that's a good point. Sometimes when men talk about protecting women they're really talking about regulating them.
Not that I disagree with having rules against rape! But I would like to see something like a rational process for determining whether or not one has occurred.
Post a Comment