Photo: iStock Editorial
Community members and loved ones are seeking justice after a Black teenager was brutally attacked outside of a movie theater in California by a group of white teens who got off on citations, per Atlanta Black Star.
The attack on 18-year-old Michael Robinson and his friend unfolded outside a Regal Cinemas in Simi Valley, California on Friday (August 1). A group of white teens confronted Robinson and his friend in the parking lot.
Video of the incident shows the teens punching and kicking Robinson, chasing him across the parking lot, and calling him the N-word. At one point during the encounter, Robinson attempted to defend himself with a chair.
“They end up pushing my head into a trash can, and they start hitting me in the back of my head,” Robinson said. “Honestly, I thought I was going to die. Because I know what happens when you get hit on the back of your head. You could have internal bleeding. You could have brain damage.”
The attack left the 18-year-old with a concussion, cuts, bruises, and a chipped tooth. Robinson said he didn't know the attackers, but his friend had a prior conflict with them.
Police arrested four teenagers and cited them with battery before they released them to their parents. One of the teens is the son of a Simi Valley police officer, who authorities said was removed from the investigation.
Residents packed a Simi Valley City Council meeting demanding accountability and hate crime charges for the teenagers.
“This wasn’t a fight. It was a hate-driven attack, and it happened right here in our city,” Jared Jasson, a friend of Robinson’s, said. “When we ignore or excuse this kind of behavior, we’re sending a message that racism is allowed to exist in our community.”
called the incident a clear racial attack. “He was the only African-American, and that’s why this is a targeted hate crime. As they were attacking him, they were yelling racial slurs. It is crystal clear what transpired,” Robinson’s attorney, Jamal Tooson, said in a statement.
Simi Valley Police Chief Steve Shorts acknowledged that the attack was “definitely a hate incident,” but said the decision to press hate crime charges is up to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
An investigation into the incident remains ongoing.
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