Vigilante justice in Milwaukee. FYI Milwaukee, Wisconsin is experiencing an epidemic of carjacking and car theft. It is especially exacerbated during very cold weather when people tend to leave their cars running when stepping out of them briefly in order to keep their interiors warm. Consequently crews of car thieves drive around the city looking for unattended cars to steal. The thieves then frequently use the cars for armed robberies and/or for drug deliveries to waiting customers. The Milwaukee Police department has a “no pursuit” policy for stolen cars and “non-violent” offenses. This car theft / car-jacking epidemic has no end in sight given the reluctance of the police and the court system to confront the problem. In this case, based on this and other news reports, it appears that African-American thieves attempted to steal a car in a Hispanic neighborhood. One of the thieves, a 15 year old youth, was caught by the car’s owner and served with a beating by the owner and a crowd of onlookers. Keep in mind that in white neighborhoods there usually isn’t a crowd of people hanging around in the middle of the day (1:50 PM CST) and available to mete out such street justice. Anyway the authorities aren’t doing anything about the dangerous nuisance of car theft so the people are.
Photos of alleged car thief are making the rounds on social media. The 15-year-old was taken out when a car owner caught the suspect and an accomplice attempting to swipe his vehicle.
The teen's pants were stolen, suggesting the car owner was black.
The mother of the alleged thief acknowledged he had attempted to steal cars before, but said he didn't deserve to be pounded. In fact, reports say he only suffered minor wounds.
For unstated reasons the boy's father was not interviewed.
The other suspect fled.
The crime occurred in Milwaukee, Wisc.
Photos of a teen boy lying beaten and partially clothed on a Milwaukee sidewalk are generating intense reaction on social media this week, with some outraged at the violence and others saying the boy got what he deserved.
It's the backstory that has people fired up. The boy was suspected of trying to steal a car on the city's south side, and he was beaten and stripped of his pants after his victim caught him in the act, police say. Photos of the boy then were posted on Facebook and shared widely.
The attempted car theft and beating happened around 1:50 p.m. Monday near S. 32nd St. and W. Madison St. Police said, in a statement first reported by WITI-TV, that the owner of the vehicle saw two people trying to steal it, and he confronted the suspects.
One suspect was able to flee in a getaway vehicle, but the other didn't make it and was punched by the car theft victim, police say. As the suspect tried to climb a fence to get away, another witness caught him by the pants, pulling them off.
The car theft suspect was identified by police as a 15-year-year old Milwaukee boy, who suffered a minor injury in the incident and has been arrested. The case will be forwarded to the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office for charges against the boy.
Police also said in their statement on the incident that they plan to recommend charges against the person responsible for beating the boy and posting the photos on Facebook. That person's identity still is under investigation, police said.
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