Kevin Williamson. | Supply: Jacksonville Police Division
The days when violent acts of racism had been blindly ignored and oftentimes legally validated in America have for all intents and functions come to an finish. However, as everyone knows, racial prejudice continues to be very a lot alive and may pop up at any given second.
That gave the impression to be true when a 23-year-old Black girl suffered one of the current examples of an obvious hate crime after she turned the sufferer of what she described as a racially-motivated verbal assault by a 59-year-old white man that led to him punching her within the face greater than 10 instances final week at a gasoline station in Jacksonville, Florida.
Now, calls are rising for Kevin Troy Williamson to have his prices upgraded considerably to replicate what attorneys say was a racist assault in opposition to Rayme McCoy for no different motive apart from his bigoted ideologies.
Williamson has solely been charged with misdemeanor battery, based on News4Jax, regardless of the vicious nature of his assault. He’s out on a $20,000 bond with phrases that stop him from having any contact with the sufferer, witnesses or the gasoline station, the place surveillance video recorded the brutal assault.
McCoy posted the damning video proof to her Instagram, exhibiting Williamson delivering a sequence of closed-fist punches to her face earlier than he shortly exited the gasoline station’s retailer.
Right here’s how News4Jax initially reported it:
“McCoy stated she walked into the gasoline station close to her house and was adopted by an older white man who was already concerned in an argument with somebody outdoors.
McCoy stated the person was ‘ranting and raving’ and utilizing racist language and at one level, the person walked towards the counter the place McCoy was standing and he or she requested him to again up. That’s when the person stated he had a gun in his automotive, McCoy stated.
‘So at that time, I felt threatened,’ McCoy stated. ‘He put his beers on the counter in entrance of my stuff and I slid them over and at that time, that’s when he began punching me within the face.’
Video shared with News4JAX, which doesn’t comprise audio of the alternate, exhibits the person with a mustache and a inexperienced shirt punching McCoy within the face a minimum of 10 instances earlier than he walks out of the shop. The video was additionally posted on social media and shared hundreds of instances.”
Williamson’s license plate quantity finally linked him to the crime, which led to his arrest final Friday, Might 20. It was later revealed that he’s a registered intercourse offender, which he really had the unmitigated gall to reference when asking the choose to think about releasing him with out bond.
“Ma’am, may I converse a second? I request that perhaps you might decrease my bond to nothing as a result of I’m not a flight danger,” he boldly pleaded in court docket, happening so as to add, “I’ve fulfilled, for 33 years, the state’s registration necessities. By no means missed. I’m all the way down to – I bought 2 and ¾ years left, and so they’re going to alleviate me of that. After all, I’m going to court docket.”
After the choose politely denied his request, he responded by stating, “Sure, Ma’am. Simply thought I’d ask you,” earlier than wishing her a “great day.”
Nonetheless, the native information outlet First Coast Information reported on Wednesday that Williamson is out on bond together with his subsequent court docket date set for June 10.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Workplace wrote in its report that no hate crime was dedicated, however legal professional Randy Reep confirmed it’s really as much as the State Lawyer’s Workplace to resolve if that cost might be pursued. He explains this by stating, “So the battery is an undesirable touching — that’s simple to persuade a jury of on this case. That girl didn’t invite the punches that she obtained.” Reep clarified issues additional by stating, “However for those who add within the hate crime aspect, like we noticed within the Mr. Arbery case up in Georgia, you’re including in now a racial animus because the motivating issue to try this battery — it turns into a tougher factor to show. There’s a brand new aspect within the story to show.”
As soon as witnesses are interviewed, the State Lawyer will decide on the ultimate prices. Reep expects that course of to take between two to 3 weeks.
Within the meantime, McCoy’s attorneys and household together with neighborhood activists say they wish to see Williamson’s prices to be upgraded.
“It was in truth, appalling, savage, barbaric, vicious, and brutal. Miss Rayme McCoy was singled out due to her race,” Ben Frazier, an influential native civil rights activist, stated. “However its affect is far broader than that. What occurred at that BP service station amounted to an assault on the very coronary heart, physique, soul and consciousness of the higher Jacksonville neighborhood.”
It was “racism and hate” that motivated Williamson to assault McCoy, the sufferer’s mom stated throughout a press convention earlier this week.
“As a lady, I’m infuriated to know {that a} man would brutally assault a lady on account of his personal private anger and rage. As a mom, you at all times wish to make certain your kids are secure,” Shefreea Williams stated. “My coronary heart aches understanding that I used to be unable to guard my daughter from this heinous crime. It disturbs me to know that my daughter now feels unsettled about coming into a gasoline station alone. As a human, it saddens me that we nonetheless reside in a world of racism and hate.”
SEE ALSO:
‘All He Had To Do Was Comply’: Houston Police Union Justifies Cop Fatally Taking pictures Jalen Randle In The Again Of His Neck
‘Cops Aren’t Doing Something’: Uvalde Faculty Taking pictures Investigation Spotlights ‘Unprepared’ Police Response
33 photographs
Suspected Florida Racist Who Brutally Attacked Black Lady In Viral Video Deserves Hate Crime: Legal professionals
was initially revealed on
blackamericaweb.com
