December 2007 Beating
On December 4, 2007, a highly publicized assault occurred on a Route 27 bus in which four people were attacked, including the bus operator. Nine youths - all between ages 14 and 15 and students of the Robert Poole Middle School were charged. Because all nine suspects were African-American and the victims (except for the bus operator) were white, the incident was originally investigated as a hate crime. Hate crime charges were later dropped after no evidence could be found that the attack was racially motivated, but assault charges against the students have remained. The attack has prompted local and state lawmakers to consider legislation that would stiffen penalties for attacking the operator or a passenger on a bus.
Read more about this topic: Route 27 (MTA Maryland)
Famous quotes containing the words december and/or beating:
“For I have lost the race I never ran,
A rathe December blights my lagging May;”
—Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849)
“Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beating up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad. I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready. And when the people eat the stuff they raise, and living in the houses they build, I’ll be there, too.”
—Nunnally Johnson (1897–1977)