ABOUT 11 P.M. on Sept. 9, dozens of youths with bats and pipes descended on a tidy residential area of Port Richmond looking for white teens who allegedly had attacked an African-American kid at Stokely Playground a couple of hours earlier.
Two fearful white teens spotted Mark LaVelle on Indiana Avenue near Belgrade Street and asked for help. Suddenly, the mob appeared. LaVelle, who said that he didn't know the two kids, who looked to be 13 or 14, ran with them into his nearby house.
" 'We got you, you white mother-------!' " LaVelle said he heard someone yell in the "mob" of black and Hispanic youths.
Inside his house, LaVelle, 37, called to his wife, Kim, 30, to go to their bedroom with their twin 13-month-old boys, Mark and Mason, and to call police. He also ordered his two other sons, 11 and 17, and his nephew, 7, to stay upstairs.
With the two teens hiding in the house, LaVelle, 5 feet 10, 220 pounds, a well-known sports-league organizer and coach in the community, went outside to try to calm the angry mob.
They were standing on his steps. One shouted, " 'Something's going to happen now!' " LaVelle recalled in an interview Friday at his house. LaVelle got nervous and went back inside, locking his door with a deadbolt.
But the attackers pounded on his front windows and kicked his wooden door so hard, it flew open and some of them entered his house.
"The first guy hits me with a pipe. The second guy knocks me in the face. All I'm hearing is my wife and kids screaming," said LaVelle, who feared that the next time they saw him, he would be in a casket.
He said that he was able to push the attackers out the door, but then a third man - who had a gun - tried to extend his arm. LaVelle grabbed onto the gunman's lower arm and shoulder so he couldn't raise the weapon. Then, police sirens screamed in the neighborhood, and the mob turned and ran.
LaVelle was able to identify three of the people from the melee. He said he did not know if they had been chasing the white teenagers, or if they were just trying to find someone to attack.
Police arrested Bergson Morin, 21, of Rosehill Street near Wyoming Avenue, Feltonville, as the man with the gun. They arrested Enrique Delgado, 32, of Rockland and C streets, Feltonville, as the man who hit LaVelle with the pipe. And they arrested a 17-year-old juvenile as the one who punched LaVelle in the face, giving him a black eye.
LaVelle said that the next day the mother of the juvenile came back with some other people, banging on his door, screaming. LaVelle, who was at a charity sports event, was called back to the house by one of his sons.
When he got home, LaVelle said, the mother yelled at him, " 'You white mother------, you got my kid locked up! You got my son locked up because he's black, you're white!' " The mother claimed that her son had been "a witness," not an attacker. To that, LaVelle said if that were true, it would come out in court.
But the mother, according to LaVelle, then yelled: " 'If you make it to court! I know where you live!' "
Police public affairs could not confirm yesterday if the mother has been arrested for making threats.
Patty-Pat Kozlowski, president of the Port Richmond on Patrol and Civic Association, said that police told her that the attack on LaVelle stemmed from the incident at Stokely Playground, Indiana Avenue and Thompson Street, a few blocks from LaVelle's house.
She heard that an African-American "kid got knocked off his bike or fell off" and white kids were laughing at him. The group of African-Americans and Hispanics came back for retaliation, Kozlowski believes.
She said she didn't know any of the people involved in the playground incident or in the attack on LaVelle. LaVelle said he also did not know anyone involved.
Morin and Delgado, who face charges of aggravated assault, conspiracy, burglary, weapons and related offenses, face a preliminary hearing in Municipal Court today. They are both in custody. Their family members could not be reached for comment.
Freddy Godoy, Delgado's attorney, said yesterday that someone Delgado knows "was probably related to the child" who was attacked in the playground. But he contends that Delgado was not one of the people who attacked LaVelle.
Richard Patton, Morin's attorney, declined comment yesterday.
Kozlowski, a legislative aide to City Councilwoman Joan Krajewski and a lifelong Port Richmond resident, wrote about the attack in The Spirit community newspaper, which serves the river wards. Since then, the story has created a lot of buzz in the predominantly white neighborhood.
Kozlowski and Maryann Trombetta, president of the Port Richmond Town Watch, both recalled the murder of Sean Daily, a white teen who was beaten and shot by bat-wielding youths, mostly Latino, in May 1989.
They don't believe that the attack on LaVelle started as a racial incident, but believe that there was a racial element to it when the mob "called him a white mother------" and when the juvenile's mother allegedly threatened LaVelle.
LaVelle, who runs sports leagues composed of youths and adults of different races, said he doesn't want any retaliation on the people who attacked him. But the attack has instilled fear in him and his family, and he hopes that there will be more of a police presence in the neighborhood.
His wife is afraid to stay at home, and "every time I hear a car, I'm looking out the door," he said.
"It's not a good way to live.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
"Patrons mistake ice cream shop mascot for KKK robes"
What is going on with the minority population that they are getting so hostile, lately? Is the terrific Obamonomics or WHAT? Do they really think that is a Klan uniform, are they stupid, or are they looking to just pick a fight with the rest of America. Aren't race relations great? Obama solved everything! White America, with its inherent and collective guilt over slavery, in a rush to install a black man as president, makes the biggest mistake of the century and THIS is the result. Minorities have become so hostile to American peace and their cohabitants that it seems like we are on the verge a crazy race war.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Actor Morgan Freeman has taken aim at America's far-right Tea Party politicians, saying their manifesto has racist undertones.
Many leading Republicans have been linked to the movement, which is geared towards ending Barack Obama's term as US President in 2012 - but Oscar winner Freeman fears the party's leading figures have questionable agendas.
The Shawshank Redemption star said: 'Their stated policy ... is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term (four years).
'What underlines that? 'Screw the country. We're going to do whatever we can to get this black man out of here'.'
More lunacy from the minority paranoid fringe.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
"I personally believe whoever wins that straw poll, they will be the next president of the United States." — Gov.Rick Scott.
President Herman Cain?
Hey, never question Scott's impeccable political acumen.
I've watched the Republican debate and I've watched President Barack Obama lead. And based on that, the pizza guy is looking pretty darn good.
Cain won the Florida straw poll by default, but you have to start somewhere, even if it is as the noors about Rick Perry's IQ have turned out to be alarmingly true.
Maybe George W. Bush couldn't have beat brother Jeb in "Jeopardy." But he certainly wasn't dumb. He just played the role.
Perry is the real deal, puffed up like a Parris Island recruit, saying stuff that would embarrass Gomer Pyle, alienating the very people who came to shower him with their love.
This guy could blow a date in a Texas brothel.
He couldn't even handle Rick Santorum, who grilled him like an errant schoolchild on the Texas Dream Act. And this is what one of John McCain's aides had to say about Santorum: "For pure, blind stupidity, nobody beats Rick Santorum.''
Well, apparently, somebody does.
Perry knew where the bullets were coming from and still couldn't duck.
He was supposed to get better after the first debate, and has steadily gotten worse.
Can you imagine him going up against Obama?
There would have to be 12 percent unemployment for Perry to win.
Mitt Romney could win with the current 9.1 percent.
He certainly didn't bask in the Florida love either, finishing behind Perry. But he is just hanging out, waiting for the Republicans to run out of anybody-but-Mitt offerings.
Tim Pawlenty was the first one. He attracted most of Jeb Bush's brain trust to his campaign. Just as they were gearing up to build a Florida machine for Pawlenty, he decided to duke it out with Michele Bachmann at the Iowa county fairs.
Unable to credibly dumb himself down, he lost.
So Pawlenty dropped out and backed Romney.
And now the Jebbies must decide if their search for an alternative to Romney turns into a search for an alternative to Perry.
Which would be Romney.
Unless Gov. Chris Christie becomes the alternative to Perry and Romney, given that Jeb isn't interested in becoming the alternative to all of them.
Jeb seems more interested in rescuing education than his party.
Are you getting all this?
Bachmann was fun while she lasted. But just as she was looking competent, she went all HPV on us and turned into that crazy woman spinning the roulette wheel in the Halloween Horror Nights promotion.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
So it looks like the GOP rank and file are in love with a black man for president. But this one is a self made businessman who operates in the real world, not some stratified upper ku-ku cloud like that fool Obama, who never did a Goddamn thing in his life worth mention; never met a payroll, never built a company, never did squat. But he looks good. He is arrogant, he is spoiled and entitled. He was a professor, but had no students. He was a lawyer but had no cases. He was a community organizer but had no organizers under him. He is a blank.
Thank you, Mr. Cain. It is nice to see a black man of achievement and substance running for this job, You have my vote, and I don't give a damn what your skin color is.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
The Racist teabaggers already have one minority in office, the last thing they want is another one. They'd lose their Skin head, Neo-Nazi, Right Wing Militia base.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Oh they are SUCH racists they voted for him in the straw poll!
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Oh they are SUCH racists they voted for him in the straw poll!
Find out how 'straw polls' are conducted before you make that assumption. The voters don't get to vote in a straw poll... only party officials and organizers who are invited to attend. A straw poll measures how much money you are willing to spend to bus your supports to the event.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Obama has done the same thing to race relations as did the KKK only in reverse with the black community attacking the white community.
Sad but true. However it is only a small percentage who resort to violence so "don't worry."
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Logged
