A group of Florida middle school students are facing hate crime charges after a racially motivated assault on their white classmates. The group, made up of three black and two white students, reportedly yelled “It’s opposite day, brown power!” as they whipped, kicked and hit a group of four white kids. Another attacker said the assault was “revenge” for slavery.
The attack took place at a recreation center in Coconut Creek Florida on Wednesday. One of the victims told NBC Miami that the five boys jumped him and yelled racial slurs. The attackers reportedly singled the boy out, saying “you’re white” before throwing him on the ground and proceeding to kick, stomp on and “whip” the victim with a USB cord.
One of the victims, who has not been identified because he is a minor, told NBC that he no longer feels safe attending Lyons Creek Middle School in Broward County, Florida. The victim further said that the attackers told him and his friends that it was “revenge for what they did in the 1700s, slavery.”
‘They were whipping them, kicking them, hitting them,’ Frank Foster, a parent of one of the victims, told NBC. Foster said his son is still being abused at school over text messages for reporting the assault. “People at school are calling him a snitch for reporting it and doing the right thing,” the victim’s father continued.
The five students were arrested and charged battery and evidence of prejudice while committing a battery, which is a third-degree felony. However, the mother of one of the alleged attackers said she is angry at the victims and claimed they are trying to “ruin” her son’s life by having him prosecuted.
