A friend just directed my attention to the following story:

According to police, Owens fussed at some kids playing basketball in the middle of Delmar Drive about 8:30 Saturday night. They say the kids left and a group of adults returned, armed with everything but the kitchen sink.

Police tell News 5 the suspects used chairs, pipes and paint cans to beat Owens.

Owens’ sister, Ashley Parker, saw the attack. “It was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed.” Parker says 20 people, all African American, attacked her brother on the front porch of his home, using “brass buckles, paint cans and anything they could get their hands on.”

Police will only say “multiple people” are involved.

What Parker says happened next could make the fallout from the brutal beating even worse. As the attackers walked away, leaving Owen bleeding on the ground, Parker says one of them said “Now thats justice for Trayvon.” Trayvon Martin is the unarmed teenager police say was shot and killed February 26 by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in Samford[sic], Florida.

This is horrible for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that (according to the police account) this was an unprovoked attack by a mob on one man. Then there’s the race issue (20 blacks against one white? Ay CARAMBA) and the fact that someone allegedly declared the attack to be justice for Trayvon. 

Christ.

I’d suspected that people were still resentful as a result of the case, but I’d honestly hoped that the recent arrest of George Zimmerman (as well as the charges laid) would serve to ease much of the tension.

Unfortunately, there has been little done so far to address the fact that Zimmerman was initially allowed to walk free while the police had inexplicably decided not to investigate the killing. (The Sanford Police Chief, Bill Lee recently attempted to resign and was refused.)

Nerves are still raw about all of that and I suppose it was only a matter of time until something like this happened.

Let’s hope that the perpetrators are caught (by the police) and tried. Let’s hope that that would be enough to stem the flow of reprisals which must surely follow something like this, affecting the guilty and innocent alike.

Let’s hope that this can be stopped before it gets any worse. And my condolences to Matthew Owens and his family.