After a video of three African-American teenagers beating a 13-year-old white boy on a Pinellas County school bus went viral, a prominent Florida conservative is demanding to know why entertainers and civil rights leaders -- the same voices outraged over the George Zimmerman verdict in Sanford last month -- are silent on this case.
Back on July 9, the three assailants, all of whom are 15, attacked the victim who reported to school authorities that one of them tried to sell him drugs. During the attack, caught on video, the victim suffered two black eyes and a broken arm. The incident took place in Gulfport.
While bus driver John Moody reported the incident, he did not attempt to intervene and has gone on national airwaves to defend himself. Moody, who is 64, retired after his handling of the situation was criticized and questioned.
The three accused attackers -- Joshua Reddin, Julian McKnight, and Lloyd Khemradj -- fled the bus after Moody stopped the vehicle. They were captured by police and charged with aggravated battery. Reddin also faces charges of unarmed robbery.
But with civil rights leaders and entertainers from across the nation critical of a jury recently finding Zimmerman not guilty in the death of Trayvon Martin and attacking Florida for the Stand Your Ground law, former Congressman Allen West, a favorite of the tea party movement, is demanding to know why they have been silent on this issue. Singer Stevie Wonder has said he will not play concerts in Florida unless Stand Your Ground is repealed. Slamming Florida as an apartheid state, Jesse Jackson has called for a boycott of Florida, though he didn't resist the opportunity to appear in Tallahassee to support protesters rallying against the Zimmerman decision and calling for the repeal of Stand Your Ground.
While he lost out to Democrat Patrick Murphy last year, West has remained active politically and has left the door open to a political comeback in 2016. This week, West called out Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Wonder and others for being silent on the Gulfport incident.
Three 15-year-old black teens beat up a 13-year-old white kid because he told school officials they tried to sell him drugs, West noted on Wednesday. Do you hear anything from Sharpton, Jackson, NAACP, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, liberal media, or Hollywood? Cat got your tongues or is it that pathetic hypocrisy revealing itself once again? Y'all just make me sick.
Sunshine State News attempted to reach Rainbow/Push, a group affiliated with Jackson, on Thursday but received no respone to inquiries on the Gulfport incident.
Watch the video below:
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com.
