Four held over Chicago assault video

Chicago police are holding four 18-year olds in connection with a video live-streamed on Facebook showing the assault of a man believed to have special needs.

The man is seen cowering in a corner, bound and gagged, whilst he is beaten, partially scalped with a knife, his clothes are ripped, and a tie is tightened around his neck.

During the attack, the assailants, two male and two female, are heard making derogatory remarks about white people and Donald Trump. All four of the attackers are black. Some of the speech on the video is slurred.

Police believe that the victim knew the quartet, who abducted him from the suburbs in a stolen van, and held him captive for between 24 and 48 hours. Kidnap charges are being considered.

Kevin Duffin, Chicago Police Department Commander said of the victim that “he is an acquaintance of one of these suspects and apparently they met out in the suburbs. These subjects then stole a van out in the suburbs and brought him into Chicago.”

CPD press conference regarding disturbing live social media video depicting a battery ; victim was tied up https://t.co/jDrjfz4sJV— Chicago Police (@Chicago_Police) January 5, 2017


A sickening attack

Eddie Johnson, Chicago Police Department Superintendent said “I’m not gonna say it shocked me, but it was sickening. I think some of it is just stupidity. People just ranting about something they think might make a headline.”

By characterizing the remarks as “just stupidity” he stopped short of describing the attack as being racially motivated, although the charge of hate crime has not been ruled out.

This aspect of the crime has given rise to heated debate on twitter and other social media.

The Newest: Police take a look at hate crime legal guidelines in Chicago assault https://t.co/IYoyeb8VAj— WB News (@wbfullstories) January 5, 2017


Traumatised and disorientated

The victim was found wandering the streets in a traumatised and disorientated condition after the attack. He was taken to hospital, but the police have found it difficult to encourage him to talk about what happened.

Facebook: responsibility?

Questions have been asked about whether Facebook should have allowed such a disturbing video to be live-streamed on its site.

A spokesperson said in a statement: “We do not allow people to celebrate or glorify crimes on Facebook and have removed the original video for this reason. In many instances, though, when people share this type of content, they are doing so to condemn violence or raise awareness about it. In that case, the video would be allowed.”