Man shot for wearing Obama T-shirt

To retell what actually happened:

Dube Egwuatu was buying a mobile telephone top-up card in an off-licence when the gunman confronted him and glared at the top, which carries an image of the Democrat US presidential candidate underneath the legend 'Believe'. The man then launched into a tirade of racist slurs, shouting 'I f***ing hate n*****s' and urging 36-year-old Mr Egwuatu to leave the shop with him.

The man then left the shop but when Mr Egwuatu re-emerged, the attacker was waiting for him in broad daylight with a threatening-looking dog and holding a gun behind his back. Realising what had sparked the increasingly violent assault, the terrified Mr Egwuatu zipped up his jacket to cover the image of Mr Obama and walked to his car. But the shaven-headed man, who was white, followed Mr Egwuatu and after pulling open the passenger door pointed the gun at him.

After pleading with the man to leave him alone, the married former street warden put the keys in the ignition and turned the engine on. The attacker then fired the gas-powered ball-bearing pistol three times, hitting the civil servant in the face, hand and shoulder. Fearing for his life and bleeding heavily, Mr Egwuatu raced away in his car and found somewhere safe to call for help. He was taken to hospital and later sent to have a piece of metal removed from his jaw.

And on the safety of BB guns and air rifles:

Nonpowder guns kill an average of four Americans yearly, and from 1990 to 2000, there were 39 such deaths -- 32 of children younger than 15, the study found.

I guess it's ok here to ridicule the attack and blame the victim when he's black, the attacker is white, and the attack is racial hatred..

Having actually lived just down the road from Norwood Junction (just south of north Norwood) I can say it's a mixed racial area. Black guys and white guys usually get on pretty well there.
We have the guy who fired the bb gun and the guy who was shot.
We only have the guys who was shot's side of the story but not the shootist.
My take on it is that because he's wearing the T-shirt the journalists have seized upon it and gone on a publicity frenzy trying to milk the story and possibly get some of the Obama effect to increase.
The guy who did the shooting more than likely did it for a reason other than a guy wearing a bloody t shirt.
To do that usually takes provocation. Especially with the anti-weapon laws in the UK.

[edit on 7-10-2008 by WatchRider]

Originally posted by WatchRider
My take on it is that because he's wearing the T-shirt the journalists have seized upon it and gone on a publicity frenzy trying to milk the story and possibly get some of the Obama effect to increase.
The guy who did the shooting more than likely did it for a reason other than a guy wearing a bloody t shirt.

a) you sound like Ann Coulter when she said that WTC 9/11 widows are like basking in limelight or something or otherwise use the event to their profit

b) what you post is at best speculation which is no better than the admittedly incomplete info we got, so what's the point

I personally haven't seen a single Obama T-shirt where I live, and I can imagine the effect could be quite dramatic, especially that the shooter is likely a bigot (in addition to being generally an @rsehole of 1st caliber).

Originally posted by WatchRider
My take on it is that because he's wearing the T-shirt the journalists have seized upon it and gone on a publicity frenzy trying to milk the story and possibly get some of the Obama effect to increase.
The guy who did the shooting more than likely did it for a reason other than a guy wearing a bloody t shirt.
To do that usually takes provocation. Especially with the anti-weapon laws in the UK.

Or you know...you can actually read the articles. That helps sometimes

Dube Egwuatu was buying a mobile telephone top-up card in an off-licence when the gunman confronted him and glared at the top, which carries an image of the Democrat US presidential candidate underneath the legend 'Believe'.

The man then launched into a tirade of racist slurs, shouting 'I f***ing hate n*****s' and urging 36-year-old Mr Egwuatu to leave the shop with him.

The man then left the shop but when Mr Egwuatu re-emerged, the attacker was waiting for him in broad daylight with a threatening-looking dog and holding a gun behind his back.

Realising what had sparked the increasingly violent assault, the terrified Mr Egwuatu zipped up his jacket to cover the image of Mr Obama and walked to his car.

But the shaven-headed man, who was white, followed Mr Egwuatu and after pulling open the passenger door pointed the gun at him.
....

The idiocy on display in this thread is absolutely mind-boggling. I understand that we are often more tolerant of bad behavior when the perpetrator is on our side of the political aisle, but it must take some gargantuan miscalculations in your logic to even WANT to downplay or justify this incident.

"But it wasn't a real gun!", "I'm sure it bounced right off!", "But he provoked it! I'm sure of it!". You know, when you put it that way, I guess it does seem kind of innocuous. Why, I think I might even enjoy being chased by an incensed man and his menacing dog. If he has a gun of unknown power, even better. Perhaps he will even do me the pleasure of shooting me in the face with it, where, god-willing, it will lodge itself in my jaw. Oh god! This is positively orgasmic!

But I know, I know, no one suggested he should enjoy it, only that it should be seen as no big deal ("Hey! At least it wasn't a real gun! Then we might have a story..."). And anyway, he provoked the attack by wearing a political shirt and, most likely, hurling insults of his own at the attacker. I know. How unfair of me. Your true arguments were so much more rational than the one I've just crafted.

[edit on 7/10/08 by paperplanes]

if obama is elected he will be a dead man walking.


a black american president.

who could ever imagin such a thing?

I was messing around when I was a kid and intentionaly shot my buddy with a pump action BB gun. I shot him in the foot the bb went through the top of his shoe and through his foot stoping just under the skin on the bottom of his foot. And I only pumped it one time. I just thought it would sting him not go through his shoe and foot.

Mentally unstable people inflict violence upon others all the time. Sometimes it's even over something as ridiculous as the last pork chop, or the type of t-shirt someone wears. I am disappointed to see how much the media has publicized this event, almost as if they are gleefully relishing the political/racial beehive this has stirred up. This tragic act of violence is hopefully an isolated incident perpetrated by somebody with severe mental problems and should not be viewed as "the first of many racial incidents" in a contentious political race.

reply to post by lee anoma


But.... but..... wait....
Doesn't the UK have gun laws???



S'pose the bad guys did not resort to spoons after all eh?

[edit on 10/7/2008 by Rockpuck]

[edit on 10/7/2008 by Rockpuck]

Ok, a couple things here. Either the guy who did this is nuts and should not really represent any general population, or there is more to the story.

I don't like Obama, but I'm not going to chase someone down and shoot them with my Daisy rifle. Nor will most other people that I know not supporting Obama.

Or maybe this "victim" really pushed some buttons. The article is a bit too simplistic for me to jump to any conclusions ... maybe wait for a trial before we all throw stones?

OT rant ... And remember, to all of you who want change. Both Obama and McCain pushed the bailout. So what kind of change would we get either way?

God I'll be glad when the election is over. Everyone has gone mad. Perfectly decent people, all acting like a bunch of Trolls.
No wonder nobody worth having will run for office. You would have to be crazier than the guy with the BB Gun to run for office.

My new choice for President -



Please send all donations made out to cash.

I doubt this was politicially motivated. Why in the U.K. would violence break out over another nation's politics? It makes little sense - race is a far more likely factor.

Originally posted by lee anoma

Man shot for wearing Obama T-shirt

itn.co.uk

Mr Egwuatu was attacked as he tried to buy a mobile phone card at an off-licence in Upper Norwood, south London, on Sunday afternoon while wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with an image of the black US presidential candidate.

A man confronted Mr Egwuatu inside the shop and launched a volley of racist abuse before chasing him with a Staffordshire bull terrier.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
[url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1070975/Man-shot-times-street-racist-gunman--wearing-Barack-Obama-T-shirt.html]www.dailymail.co.uk[/url ]

I do think the media is sensationalizing this piece. It leads the average American who only skims headlines the idea that a man was

A) Shot with a real gun, injured or dead as a result
B) Shot for the explicit reason that he was wearing an Obama shirt.

All that we know for sure from the evidence presented in the news article is that a man with a clearly ethnic (Middle Eastern possibly?) name, and therefore probably appearance, was shot with a BB gun by another person who spat racial slurs.

How do we know that it was because of the Obama shirt at all? The assault could have been based solely on the basis of the victim's race, nowhere does it specify that the Obama shirt was the true object of hate here.

reply to post by Sublime620


Thanks for the sanity, Sublime.

Jeez...the man was racially berated, chased, threatened with a pit bull, accosted and shot but since it was a "BB" gun it's not a violent attack according to some members here.

What sort of lives are you living where that's normal?

You do know this constitutes assault right folks?
You don't have to be beaten to death for it to be a crime.

Good grief.

Originally posted by Sublime620
And I will concede that possibly this thread title should be changed. It is misleading, but the article itself is exactly as it should be.

...and those are the rules.
There are a number of ways I wanted to write the title but that would break policy.

Every article I saw said he was "shot".
Rightfully so, because he was.

Bullets aren't the only thing a person can be shot with.
If you assumed it was a .45, you did that on your own and didn't read.

- Lee

what the hell does mr Obama have to do with this ??????????????????

answer - most likley chuff all

but hey thats not going to stop idiots spinning it for every last drop

mr Egwuatu was a coloured gentleman - thats why he attracted the ire of a petty thug with a pitbull that was probally more inteligent than its owner

what mr Egwuatu was wearing is very unlikley to have made any difference to events

get over it - and stop trying to score political points

this attack was saddly the latest in a growung trend of racially motivated attacks across the UK - the attacker should be hunted down and publically flogged as a warning to others

and as the dwindling number of real police officers on the streets seem unable to deal with the situtation - my solution would be for the govt to stop treating the Ghurkkas like crap - and deploy them on the streets to keep the peace . they would put the fear into the thugs

reply to post by Rockpuck


They usually use knives.
Personally I like the odds should I ever have to face a nut with a beef.

What if he did have easy access to a gun though?
Be a whole different story, I imagine.

Thank goodness that wasn't the case and the victim actually walked away without having massive holes in his chest.



- Lee

Originally posted by Alxandro
This doesn't sound to me that having Obama as President will restore America'a image abroad, so why do his followers really believe it.
This is actually proof to the contrary.

What? You're using an idiot who has to resort to expressing himself by shooting someone in the face with a BB gun and running at them with a bull terrier as representative of how the rest of the world won't "restore America'a image abroad"? Why? Because a racist idiot took exception to it? Surely, you mean 'restore America'a image to the violent racists abroad'? That appears to be the only demographic this guy really represents.

You're making a desperate stretch there.

..described as 6ft and with short hair
When did England stop using the Metric system

England has never really taken on full metrication, we haven't suddenly "stopped" using it. Living in England, I've never actually known anyone describe their height or weight in metric units, the majority of people default to Imperial with feet and inches and stones and pounds. Most people still talk of distance in miles and yards and so on.