CLAREMONT, N.H. (AP) — More than 100 people, holding hands and singing “We Shall Overcome,” gathered at a park to offer support to the family of an 8-year-old biracial boy who was nearly hanged by a group of teenagers.
The boy’s grandmother said the teens taunted him with racial slurs on Aug. 28 in the mostly white town of Claremont and pushed him off a picnic table with a rope around his neck. The boy was treated at a hospital for injuries to his neck and has been released.
Claremont police Chief Mark Chase said his department was investigating a “serious incident” involving juveniles in which an 8-year-old was hurt but declined to provide details.
Town resident Rebecca MacKenzie said she felt compelled to organize the Tuesday evening rally in the park to draw attention to a climate of racial intolerance and xenophobia.
“Claremonters are good people and, even as good people, we need to face the facts of racial injustice and begin a deep dialogue of how to deal with it in our community,” she said.
The rally came as Republican Gov. Chris Sununu asked that the state attorney general’s office help with an investigation into what happened in Claremont. The attack on the boy has gotten plenty of attention on social media after relatives posted images of his rope burns and details of what they say happened.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster said she was “outraged and sickened by the chilling images on social media and in the news.”
The boy’s family did not attend the rally, but several biracial families did from towns around Claremont and talked of the shock of hearing the news. None said their children had been targeted as the Claremont boy had been but said they had friends who had been called racial epithets or beaten up because they are not white.
“As a mother of a biracial child, this incident sent a chill through my entire body. As a mother, it broke my heart,” said Karen Liot Hill, a city councilor and former mayor from nearby Lebanon.
People in the crowd, some holding signs that read “Teach Love Not Hate” and “Stand Together,” listened as religious leaders, city officials and the police chief talked about the attack on the boy as a turning point in the community.
“This touched a deep chord with community members,” said Allen Damren, the assistant mayor in Claremont. “It got them up and moving, got them thinking and got them here.”
Trump voters, You built this!
It is somewhat heartening to see a bunch of my fellow white folks gathered to protest this attack, which is one of the more disgusting of the many ugly things that have happened since Trump started gaining traction during the campaign. I know such things have been going on for a lot longer than that, and many of them have been even worse than this one–often much worse, in fact, at least in terms of outcome–but something about the young age of the boy and the apparently spontaneous and cavalier nature of this attack strikes me as particularly sickening. Maybe it was the graphic picture of the boy’s neck and the fact that it harks back to the days of lynchings by the KKK. “Strange fruit” nearly hanging from a tree in New Hampshire. Looking at the picture reminded me of the old black-and-white photos of lynchings that ended in death–often the same casual inhumanity seems to be shown there in the faces of the white people (when they are visible). Viewing such pictures I feel a deep revulsion and a sense of shame in simply being white even though I had nothing to do with the events. May the boy and his family find the healing and support they need and deserve. May we white people stand with our fellow humans of all varieties on the side of love and justice against this onslaught of hate.
That the police chief said that the thugs who did this needed to be protected because they were just children says a lot about the attitude of the police. If the victim had been pure white and the offenders had been mixed, there is no doubt that the cops would be a lot more into it than they are now. And you can bet that the rhetoric would be entirely different.
I don’t disagree that, had the perpetrators been, shall we say slightly darker, their names would have been exposed by now. By someone, even if not officially by the police.
However, and this counts in every case, leaking or announcing those names makes trial much more difficult.
People know who they are, though.
When I read that I was furious. It sure does demonstrate the attitude the cops have. Sickening.