← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Okiereddust
Thread ID: 19417 | Posts: 30 | Started: 2005-08-04
2005-08-04 12:49 | User Profile
[QUOTE][CENTER][IMG]http://www.newsok.com/tempimages/a4trial.jpg[/IMG]
Dennis Scales, 19, who was left a quadriplegic in a September 2004 crash that led to the trial of Ammon Reich, is removed from an ambulance before being wheeled into the courthouse in Ada. Reich is accused of killing East Central University football player Joseph Tusan, who was in the back of a pickup that was hit from behind on Sept. 19. Photo by Jim Beckel [/CENTER]
By Carrie Coppernoll [URL=http://www.newsok.com/article/1569683/?template=home/main]The Oklahoman[/URL] "I can't move," Dennis Scales said. "I can't feel myself. I can't take a bath by myself."
Scales, a former safety for the East Central University football team, was taken by ambulance from his home in Texas to testify in the trial of Ammon Dean Reich, 44. More witnesses will be called today.
Reich is accused of using his pickup to knock another pickup, carrying 11 students, off a Pontotoc County highway last year. Scales' teammate, Joseph Tusan, 18, was killed.
Reich is charged with first-degree murder and 32 counts of assault and battery. He has pleaded innocent.
Several East Central students testified about the events leading up to the crash.
The students told jurors they went to the Canadian River to look for a party but had a confrontation with Reich and his relatives and friends under the U.S. 99 bridge.
[B]Racial slurs were used.
"The n-word is so charged with emotion that no person in their right mind would use it ... but Ammon said it," his attorney, James Rowan said.[/B]
Reich fired a gun into the air, according to testimony, and the students left.
However, the groups had a second confrontation later, where some traded blows. [B]One of Reich's daughters was struck in the head and later needed 25 stitches, according to testimony.
When Reich saw his daughter bleeding, "he went into a rage," Rowan said. "He absolutely lost his temper." [/B]
Reich fired a pistol into the air, and the students fled in a pickup, said Nolan Crowdus, Tusan's roommate.
Reich struck the back of the pickup and it left the road, flipping and throwing out the seven people in the bed.
When the truck came to a stop, Crowdus, who was riding in the cab, grabbed another friend and crawled into the woods nearby.
Crowdus said he didn't know where Tusan was.
"I didn't even see him," Crowdus said, covering his face with his palm and then wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.
Tusan was pinned between the tailgate and an embankment near the road, said Michael Smith, who was riding in the truck bed.[/QUOTE] Guys, remember when a few brothus just decide to have a little fun with your daughter or other loved one don't use the "n"-word, please! Just say, "golly gee, my honored afro-american friends, do you really think this action is going to enhance our country's quest for tolerance, diversity, and racial understanding?"
2005-08-04 13:33 | User Profile
[QUOTE]ADA - The trial begins today of a Konawa man accused of intentionally causing a traffic wreck that killed an East Central University student last year.
Ammon Dean Reich is accused slamming his pickup three times into a pickup carrying 11 students. The students' truck flipped, killing ECU freshman Joseph Tusan.
Reich has been charged with 11 crimes for each of the three strikes -- one count of first-degree murder and 32 counts of assault and battery with a deadly weapon.
Reich, 44, and a group of family members and friends reportedly argued with the students earlier that day. Both groups used racial slurs, according to testimony.
Reich is white, Tusan black. The FBI investigated the possibility that the hit-and-run was a hate crime, said Gary Johnson, spokesman for the FBI in Oklahoma City.
[B]The FBI report has been handed over to the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department, which will decide whether to prosecute Reich in federal court. [/B] A spokesman for the Justice Department did not return calls.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin this morning in the Pontotoc County Courthouse.
Officials have predicted a packed courtroom for Reich's trial. Members of the defendant's family and the 11 victims' families have crowded into the small court to watch the proceedings leading up to the trial.
Reich remains free on $125,000 bail. He can leave Pontotoc County only to visit relatives in Seminole County or his attorney in Oklahoma County.[/QUOTE]I think, if I were him, I'd run.
2005-08-04 13:46 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Jury is seated in hit-and-run murder trial
By Carrie Coppernoll The Oklahoman
ADA - Eight women and four men will decide the fate of a white Konawa man charged with murder for the hit-and-run crash that killed a black East Central University freshman last year.
The jury was seated Tuesday in the trial of Ammon Dean Reich, 44. He is charged with one count of first-degree murder and 32 counts of assault and battery with a deadly weapon. Opening statements and witness testimony are expected to begin today.
Assistant District Attorney Chris Ross brought up the issue of race while questioning jurors, but reporters were not in the courtroom because potential jurors still filled all the seats.
While talking with possible alternates for the jury, Ross asked whether they would have a problem serving as jurors, knowing nine of the 11 victims were black males, ages 16 to 24. The alternates said "no."
Defense Attorney James Rowan told jurors the case "is not a whodunit," and the jury must weigh much more than race.
[B]"The central question in this case will be what was in Ammon Reich's mind at the moment his truck and Andrea O'Bryant's truck collided," [/B] Rowan said, referring to the woman who was driving the students.
Family and friends said during a preliminary hearing that Reich was drinking with them when they traded racial slurs with a group of East Central students, some of whom were smoking marijuana. The two groups scuffled. Reich's daughter was struck in the head and later needed 25 stitches.
Eleven students piled into a pickup and fled. Prosecutors allege Reich chased them and rear-ended their truck three times, causing it to flip. Joseph Tusan, an 18-year-old East Central freshman, was killed. Several others were injured, and one, Dennis Scales, was paralyzed.[/QUOTE]
All they really care about is that he used the "n" word, obviously.
2005-08-04 13:47 | User Profile
That guy Reich is finished.
2005-08-04 13:51 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Okiereddust]ADA - The trial begins today of a Konawa man accused of intentionally causing a traffic wreck that killed an East Central University student last year.
Ammon Dean Reich is accused slamming his pickup three times into a pickup carrying 11 students. The students' truck flipped, killing ECU freshman Joseph Tusan.
[B]Reich has been charged with 11 crimes for each of the three strikes -- one count of first-degree murder and 32 counts of assault and battery with a deadly weapon. [/B]
Reich, 44, and a group of family members and friends reportedly argued with the students earlier that day. Both groups used racial slurs, according to testimony.
Reich is white, Tusan black. The FBI investigated the possibility that the hit-and-run was a hate crime, said Gary Johnson, spokesman for the FBI in Oklahoma City.
The FBI report has been handed over to the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department, [B]which will decide whether to prosecute Reich in federal court.[/B] A spokesman for the Justice Department did not return calls.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin this morning in the Pontotoc County Courthouse.
Officials have predicted a packed courtroom for Reich's trial. Members of the defendant's family and the 11 victims' families have crowded into the small court to watch the proceedings leading up to the trial.
Reich remains free on $125,000 bail. He can leave Pontotoc County only to visit relatives in Seminole County or his attorney in Oklahoma County.[/QUOTE]
Nice situation. A guy is harassed all day by a group of stogie smoking blacks, fights back, and now faces [B]33[/B] criminal counts. And BTW, just in case you think he might have a chance of beating them, he will probably also be prosecuted all over again in Federal court too, probably someplace in OKC where they can get several blacks and mexicans on the jury.
Guys, if something like this ever happens to you, the first thing you do is [B]burn your PC and all the papers in your house[/B]. Don't ever let them find out where you stood.
2005-08-04 13:59 | User Profile
[QUOTE=xmetalhead]That guy Reich is finished.[/QUOTE]Strike three - having a name like "Reich".
2005-08-04 14:16 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Okiereddust]Nice situation. A guy is harassed all day by a group of stogie smoking blacks, fights back, and now faces [B]33[/B] criminal counts. And BTW, just in case you think he might have a chance of beating them, he will probably also be prosecuted all over again in Federal court too, probably someplace in OKC where they can get several blacks and mexicans on the jury.
Guys, if something like this ever happens to you, the first thing you do is [B]burn your PC and all the papers in your house[/B]. Don't ever let them find out where you stood.[/QUOTE]
It's a tough one for Reich, IMO. Ramming his car into another well after the first altercation took place definitely puts his crime in the first degree. The prosecution will convince the jury that it was premeditated.
There might've been another way for him to deal with the problem. If his daughter was assaulted the better revenge would be to get the cops to get the nigra who did it. He could've followed the other pickup to get the plate # for the cops instead of taking matters in his own hands and getting someone killed.
I understand in olden times in America, Mr Reich would not have even been slapped on the wrist for what he did, but in the New 'Kwa, it's simply not worth it to confront nigras with violence. If your a White man, you're gonna lose. Walk away or contact the police but don't take it into your own hands.
I hate the current situation as much as the next guy, but the consequences for White men breaking the law are devastating. When the United States inevitably collapses due to it's insane injust policies and huge lies, then it will be every man for himself. But definitely not now.
2005-08-04 14:27 | User Profile
[QUOTE=xmetalhead]There might've been another way for him to deal with the problem. If his daughter was assaulted the better revenge would be to get the cops to get the nigra who did it. He could've followed the other pickup to get the plate # for the cops instead of taking matters in his own hands and getting someone killed.[/QUOTE] Yeah that's right. "Don't take the law into your own hands, just leave it for the authorities". Even though the authorities would probably hear you used the "n" word and prosecute you instead of the blacks.
2005-08-04 15:09 | User Profile
What a sight that must have been when the truck flipped over - several negros flying through the air. Must have been a straight out a tarzan movie with chimps swinging from tree to tree.
2005-08-04 16:55 | User Profile
Niggers are worthless animals. Whites shouldn't be prosecuted for defending themselves against wild animals.
2005-08-04 17:18 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Okiereddust]I think, if I were him, I'd run.[/QUOTE]I'd definitely run if I were him. He's going to leave his family behind anyway when they send him to the rape rooms, not to mention his anal virginity, so what the hell does he have to lose?
I'd take a gun, run off into the wilderness or woods like Eric Robert Rudolph, and, if later cornered, refuse to be taken alive to the rape rooms.
2005-08-04 18:23 | User Profile
I don't know about you guys but in my part in order to pass judgement on anyone I must read the story in at least three different places, even with the Jews (Zionists).
By the way, the Israelis are trying to get the spy Pollard back to the state of Israel because his mother is dying, only problem is that his mother die over three weeks ago, you must give those people credit for being persistent.
A Jewish settler got hold of an army uniform (he was problably in the reserve) and went into a bus and killed a bunch of Palestinians, the Palestinian wants to lynch him and the police can't get to him, that was the latest.
2005-08-04 18:28 | User Profile
Reich isn't necessarily going to be total toast, at least if the search of his home and PC doesn't turn up anything "racist." A decent jury would find him guilty of nothing worse than manslaughter, and they'd be lenient on him given his understandable rage. Of course, the prosecution is going to do its best to keep decent people off the jury. And, of course, if a decent jury goes easy on the man, that's when the feds will seriously consider Double Jeopardy, I mean, civil rights violation charges.
In any case, a civil judgement will strip Reich of his most of his money and assets for the rest of his life.
If there's one guy like me on the jury, he has one vote for acquittal. He was a father trying to defend his family. He wasn't trying to hurt them, just to chase them away forcefully so that they wouldn't return.
2005-08-04 19:47 | User Profile
Reich is accused of using his pickup to knock another pickup, carrying 11 students,
Background:
The (11) black students are: 1. really all legal adults. 2. football athletes, or at least some were. 3. indulging in a mind altering illegal substance. 4. a racially undiverse, intolerant and segragated group. 5. not on their way to work or church.
The (1) white man is: 1. twice their age. 2. enjoying the company of his family. 3. motivated to send (11) aggressive blacks packing. 4. a more skilled driver.
One man sends (11) strong, young adults fleeing.
Give that man a medal.
2005-08-04 19:48 | User Profile
I would hope he has automobile insurance...that should pretty well handle any civil liability.
Considering his daughter was attacked and injured, requiring 25 stitches...I very seriously doubt the federal attorney would want to stir the pot... :argue:
2005-08-04 21:14 | User Profile
"I didn't even see him," Crowdus said, covering his face with his palm and then wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. :crybaby: While talking with possible alternates for the jury, Ross asked whether they would have a problem serving as jurors, knowing nine of the 11 victims were black males, ages 16 to 24. The alternates said "no." All the talk of students and victims isn't going to sugarcoat the fact that this was a bunch of thugs who went looking for trouble, and got it in spades.:lol:
2005-08-04 22:26 | User Profile
"The n-word is so charged with emotion that no person in their right mind would use it ... but Ammon said it," his attorney, James Rowan said.
Nigga please, Chapelle must have used the n-word 50 times in a standup routine on Comedy Central the other night.
Are they now saying that when a cop does the pit maneuver, it is assault with a deadly weapon?
2005-08-24 19:54 | User Profile
Depressing follow-up to the story. Earlier I said they couldn't sugarcoat what these "students" were doing. No, they simply blot it out. The fight is described in this story as an "argument."
[url=http://www.onlineshawnee.com/stories/080705/new_20050807086.shtml]Reich convicted[/url]
ADA, Okla. (AP) -- A 12-member jury convicted a 44-year-old man of second-degree murder and multiple accounts of assault and battery Friday for a racially charged, hit-and-run incident that killed an East Central University football player and injured others.
The eight-woman, four-man jury deliberated for less than three hours before convicting Ammon Reich of murder and 32 counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Jurors recommended that Reich, who is white, spend the rest of his life plus 320 years in prison.
Formal sentencing is scheduled on Aug. 30.
One of Reich's daughters hyperventilated and had to be carried out of the courtroom as the verdict was read. His mother collapsed on the courthouse lawn after she left the building.
Family and friends of the defendant and victims briefly shouted at each other outside the courthouse.
Reich, of Konawa, was convicted in the death of Joseph Tusan, 18, of Arlington, Texas, on Sept. 19. Prosecutors had charged Reich with first-degree murder in Tusan's death. Another ECU student, Dennis Scales, was left a quadriplegic following the collision.
Prosecutors alleged that Reich rammed a pickup carrying Tusan, who was black, and other ECU students during a high-speed chase that followed an argument with others, including Reich, along the Canadian River near Ada. Tusan and members of his group had gone there looking for a party after a team victory.
Racial slurs and profanities were used, and Reich twice fired weapons into the air -- first a .22-caliber rifle, then a pistol.
Tusan's friends and members of his family listened silently as the judge read the verdict but celebrated outside. Tusan's girlfriend, Laura Ramirez, said she was thrilled with the life sentence.
"As long as he's in jail," she said.
Andrea O'Bryant, who was driving the pickup Reich struck, said she was also pleased.
"He should have got first-degree" murder, she said. "But he got a life sentence. I feel bad for their family."
O'Bryant's mother, Cindy Johnson, hugged Tusan's mother, Donna, as she left the courthouse. She wiped tears as she talked about how her family's lives have changed since the crash.
"I think Donna Tusan said it best," Johnson said. Reich "has hurt all of these kids, all of these families. But he's also hurt his own family."
During an impassioned closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Chris Ross said Reich didn't care that he had killed Tusan and paralyzed Scales.
"He left Joseph Tusan and Dennis Scales on the side of the road like so much garbage," Ross said, holding back tears. "He walked off and left them there."
Testifying in his own defense, Reich said that only the second of the three hits on the students' vehicle was intentional. Reich said the pickup braked at one point and he swerved to miss it but accidentally hit the bumper.
Trooper Ronnie Hampton, who testified for the prosecution on Thursday, testified again Friday to rebut Reich's scenario.
"That didn't happen," Hampton said.
2005-08-24 19:59 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Stanley]Depressing follow-up to the story. Earlier I said they couldn't sugarcoat what these "students" were doing. No, they simply blot it out. The fight is described in this story as an "argument." [/QUOTE]Whatever. Stormfront said this sort of thing wasn't of interest to WN anyway, so I guess we can just go back to bashing fundy's, focusing on itler arcania, and the other things self styled WN love - virtualy aything it seems in prefernce to lending concrete and practical help to their own kind.
2005-08-25 01:29 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Okiereddust]Nice situation. A guy is harassed all day by a group of stogie smoking blacks, fights back, and now faces 33 criminal counts. And BTW, just in case you think he might have a chance of beating them, he will probably also be prosecuted all over again in Federal court too, probably someplace in OKC where they can get several blacks and mexicans on the jury.
.[/QUOTE]:crybaby: Yes, I would say those charges are justified for a man who was defending himself and his daughter against these unfortunate, always abused and innocent African Americans.lol. And he used "the N word" OMG! I say crucify him!
[QUOTE]The eight-woman, four-man jury deliberated for less than three hours before convicting Ammon Reich of murder and 32 counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Jurors recommended that Reich, who is white, spend the rest of his life plus 320 years in prison.[/QUOTE] Certainly not surprising. The most annoying part is that I am sure at least some if not a majority of the jurors were white.
2005-08-25 02:24 | User Profile
[QUOTE=starr]Certainly not surprising. The most annoying part is that I am sure at least some if not a majority of the jurors were white.[/QUOTE]True, However they did give him second degree murder instead of first, which xmetalhead said he thought was clearly convictable on. The magnitude of the sentence was harsh, but I think that is a matter of the sentencing guidelines.
The profile of this case in the media and the fact these were football players at the local state college figured in too (football players are just under thestatus of gods in Oklahoma, and race relationsare always a very sensitive issue). I think it was obvious that if the jurors had made any serious give this guy a break, the feds would have just stepped in and reprosecuted him under hate crime charges anyway. Things that tend to hurt the morale of juror's inclination to iconoclasm.
Give me a break - if Stormfront didn't care a whit about this guy, who supposedly they exist to protect, why should we expect jurors to break their necks for him?
2005-08-25 13:08 | User Profile
[QUOTE]
Racial slurs and profanities were used, and Reich twice fired weapons into the air -- first a .22-caliber rifle, then a pistol.
This is "assault and battery with a dangerous weapon?"
"He left Joseph Tusan and Dennis Scales on the side of the road like so much garbage," Ross said, holding back tears.
Which is exactly what they were. The man should have been fined for littering and released.
2005-08-25 13:28 | User Profile
Give me a break - if Stormfront didn't care a whit about this guy, who supposedly they exist to protect, why should we expect jurors to break their necks for him?
I don't get it. What good would the 'support' of a neo-Nazi website do him? Raise money for him? If they had, it would have been one more item to damn him with anyway.
The state trooper taking the stand - twice - against him carried a lot of weight, I'm sure. And he was going to do time regardless, what with the dead body and all.
I actually know a few folks from Ada, however, and they're not the kneejerk-liberal type. Maybe Reich projected a Lindstedt-type image in the courtroom. Any pix of this guy? I'll be interested to hear how the appeal goes (though 300-year sentences are hardly ever overturned.)
I'll remember this story of Oklahoma jury justice, however, the next time I have to hear Okie blame all the problems of the world on "New York". Looks like you need to get your own house in order down there.
2005-08-25 13:34 | User Profile
I figured there had to be more to this than Okie's version.
[url]http://www.cnhins.com/crime/local_story_217183719.html[/url]
Family testifies in murder trial
Details on racially charged arguments, firearms and a vehicle chase came in the third day of the Ammon Reich murder trial in Ada, Okla.
By Renee’ Rackley CNHI News Service
ADA, Okla. — Day three of the State of Oklahoma vs. Ammon Dean Reich packed the emotional courtroom once again as the jury heard the testimonies of Reich’s wife and family.
Reich, a 44-year-old diesel mechanic from Konawa, is charged with the first-degree murder of Joseph Tusan, an 18-year-old East Central University football player, and the assault and battery of 10 others in a Sept. 19, 2004 hit and run incident.
Shelly Flanigan Reich, Ammon Reich’s live-in girlfriend at the time of the incident and now wife, took the stand to give the jury her version of what happened that night.
Shelly Reich had several discrepancies in her testimony that contradicted her story at the preliminary hearing and an initial interview the morning after the fatal accident, according to Chris Ross, assistant district attorney.
During those morning hours after the wreck that killed Tusan, Adam Whitney, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations (OSBI) agent, videotaped an initial interview with Shelly Reich in which she admitted her husband had been drinking that night and was “tipsy, but not falling down drunk.”
Shelly Reich also told Whitney gunshots the college students heard that night came from a .22-caliber squirrel rifle Ammon Reich kept in his pickup and there were no other guns involved. In response to Ross questioning her discrepancies, Shelly Reich said, “I was very stressed out, I hadn’t had any sleep.”
When Ammon Reich’s 18-year-old daughter Lauren Reich sat before the jury, Ross asked her about firearms used that night. Lauren said when the first verbal altercation occurred, her father shot off a .22 into the air. The shots ended the argument at that time and the feuding groups separated.
[B]Lauren Reich said she, her father, her stepmother Shelly, her sister Brandy, and Brandy’s fiancé, Orin Baird, all returned to the Reich home on the river and retrieved more guns. Lauren Reich said she grabbed a 9mm, her dad got a .45, Shelly Reich got a .22, and Brandy Reich grabbed a .40. Lauren Reich said she and her sister tucked the pistols into the backs of their pants and the family drove back down to the river, where the second verbal and physical fight broke out.[/B]
Brandy (Reich) Baird, Ammon Reich’s oldest daughter, was injured in the second fight that evening. Brandy Reich said during the physical fight [B]one of the white males in the group of college students began swinging a chain and struck her in the head and her father in the neck. This white male was later identified as Matt Wall.[/B]
Wall testified that during the physical fight he removed his belt, wrapped the leather around his hand and started swinging the buckle. Wall said he remembers striking Ammon Reich but did not recall striking a female.
Soft sobs filtered through the courtroom as forensic pathologist Dr. Ionas Yacoub took the stand. After a detailed description of Tusan’s fatal injuries she said Tusan’s type of trauma was consistent with being thrown from a vehicle. She added that a blood toxicology screening showed no traces of alcohol in Tusan’s system.
Oklahoma State Trooper Ronnie Hammond of the fatality investigation unit took the stand and compared the bumper of O’Bryant’s pickup to the brush guard of Reich’s pickup.
He used overhead photos to demonstrate that damage to both vehicles showed evidence of Reich hitting O’Bryant three separate times from behind. The first two hits caused minimal damage due to the alignment of the two vehicles, but because of the angle of the third and final hit, O’Bryant lost control of the pickup and overturned.
Hammond explained that Reich hit the corner of O’Bryant’s driver’s side bumper in a left to right motion and nothing she could have done would have kept her from losing control. Hammond said the direction in which O’Bryant turned the wheel after the final hit would normally be the correct thing to do, but the force was too great to correct at that point.
Ross asked Hammond if he had ever seen an accident like this and Hammond said he had not.
Ross asked, “Does it look to you like an accident?”
Hammond replied, “No, it was an intentional collision.”
Jim Rowan, Reich’s defense attorney, did not deny Reich was tail-gating O’Bryant or that the first two hits were intentional. Reich, he mentioned, was angry at the students he believed injured his daughter.
The third and final hit, Rowan argued, was not intentional or Reich’s fault but O’Bryant’s.
Rowan claimed O’Bryant was speeding away from Reich when she attempted to pass a vehicle uphill on a two lane stretch of the highway. Rowan claimed O’Bryant moved left of center to pass, saw the headlights of oncoming traffic, “slammed” on her brakes and swerved back into her lane, causing Reich to rear-end her accidentally.
Rowan asked Hammond if it could be possible under those circumstances to accidentally rear end someone and Hammond replied, “Yes.”
Ross then asked Hammond about the total incident to which Hammond replied, “I am of the opinion that the totality of the collision was intentional.” According to Hammond’s analysis of the skid marks at the scene, O’Bryant was only slightly left of center at the time of the third hit. He also said the skid marks present were not consistent with those of a vehicle that has “slammed” on its brakes.
[I]Renee Rackley is staff writer for the Ada (Okla.) Evening News.[/I]
2005-08-25 13:50 | User Profile
On the other hand.....
[QUOTE]Ammon Reich, a 43-year-old white man from Ada, Okla., stands accused of first-degree murder in the death of Joseph Tusan, an 18-year-old African American college student from Arlington.
Witnesses called it a hate crime.
[B]As Tusan walked by Reich outside of an East Central University football game Sept. 19, witnesses said Reich remarked to friends that his dog was a “nigger killer.”
“After that, they said Reich called some friends from his cell phone and asked them to come help him kick some nigger’s ass,” Tusan’s best friend Malik Ali said.[/B]
Tusan, a freshman football player at Ada’s East Central University, died when the pickup truck he was riding in was rammed from behind and overturned, ejecting and killing him and injuring 10 others. Ada High School sophomore Terrence Richardson identified Reich as the driver who caused the truck Tusan was riding in to overturn.
“A hate crime is the last thing Joseph thought would ever happen to him,” Ali said. “We thought those things were in the past.”
Their friendship began in the third grade and continued while they attended Arlington’s Bowie High School. Their families even took vacations together.
Race was never an issue to their varied group of friends in Arlington.
“We have a very diverse community here,” said Gina Scott, Ali’s mother. “Our kids did not have their antenna up when it came to looking out for racial problems. They just never came up.”
Tusan received a scholarship to play football at ECU in Ada, while Ali went to Florida A&M to study film.
Ali warned Tusan about pockets of racism he had heard about in places like Ada.
“Joseph didn’t believe it,” he said. “He didn’t want to think racism was a problem anymore. Neither did we.”
Ali wants his best friend’s death to mean something.
Reich is on trial for first-degree murder, but Tusan’s family and friends say it is not enough.
They want him tried for a hate crime.
Jonah Douglas, Oklahoma City NAACP spokesperson, said that would be an exercise in futility because the state’s hate crime law has no teeth.
“The most you can get is 10 years,” he said. “Probation is more likely, though.”
Douglas said stiffer hate crime laws are needed, citing the Supreme Court decision in Wisconsin v. Mitchell, which noted that hate crimes can trigger social instability and are meant to send a message to keep people in their place.
“Hate crimes are more like terrorism than anything else, so why shouldn’t we treat them as such?” he said.
Tusan’s friends and family agree, so they took action.
[B]Scott called her sister Geraldine Warren, vice president of political affairs for AOL Time Warner, for help. Warren called a friend at the NAACP’s national headquarters.
Things began to happen.
The FBI and the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund are investigating the case as a hate crime and the Oklahoma City NAACP is waiting to introduce the Joseph Tusan Resolution during Oklahoma’s next legislative session. The resolution calls for sentences of up to life in prison for those found guilty of committing murder as part of a hate crime.[/B]
But Scott said even if the laws are changed they won’t bring Joseph back.
She remembered what a compassionate young man he was and how much he adored his mother. She also recalled a tattoo Tusan got the week before he died.
It said, “Only God can judge me.”
“Isn’t it ironic that he died because someone who didn’t even know him thought they could judge him?” Scott said.[/QUOTE]
2005-09-02 23:26 | User Profile
Ammon Reich
[img]http://nbcin.kten.com/images/headlines/headlines_221200593224am_ammon_reich.jpg[/img]
2005-09-03 02:09 | User Profile
[QUOTE=il ragno]On the other hand.....[QUOTE]Witnesses called it a hate crime.
As Tusan walked by Reich outside of an East Central University football game Sept. 19, witnesses said Reich remarked to friends that his dog was a ââ¬Ånigger killer.ââ¬Â
ââ¬ÅAfter that, they said Reich called some friends from his cell phone and asked them to come help him kick some niggerââ¬â¢s ass,ââ¬Â Tusanââ¬â¢s best friend Malik Ali said.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]Yes, yes, yes.
This sounds like a very good [B]story[/B] Spiderman. I noticed though there's no link on it. Just curious where you got it. Sounds like something the SPLC or NAACP would put out.
I suppose it is a little odd for a place like NYC, where if you even look crosswise at a black they charge you with a hate crime. Or at least make you pay a hefty bribe to the cop/prosecutor.
2005-09-03 02:37 | User Profile
[url]http://www.theshorthorn.com/archive/2004/fall/04-nov-30/sc113004-01.html[/url]
Whatsamatta...."Google" too complex a procedure for you? It's from a UT article. There are only a handful of stories on this case to [I]begin [/I] with, you know. I stress again; this case is entirely a local one. If you hadn't brought it up, I'd never have heard of it. Reich was tried and convicted by an all-Oklahoma jury - after the defendant's family lied under oath and a white trooper took the stand twice to give evidence against him. Rightfully so, too.
Here's the key graf from the [I]first [/I] story right above it. Laugh this one off too, genius.
[QUOTE]Lauren Reich said she, her father, her stepmother Shelly, her sister Brandy, and Brandy’s fiancé, Orin Baird, all returned to the Reich home on the river and retrieved more guns. Lauren Reich said she grabbed a 9mm, her dad got a .45, Shelly Reich got a .22, and Brandy Reich grabbed a .40. Lauren Reich said she and her sister tucked the pistols into the backs of their pants and the family drove back down to the river, where the second verbal and physical fight broke out.[/QUOTE]
That's taken from the daughter's trial testimony. Would you handle a dispute like this against people who were obviously unarmed...a few of whom were white? By arming both your daughters, hiding your pieces down the small of your back and going BACK...with your family in tow? Suppose those college kids had been armed, too, and [I]your wife and kids got killed in the crossfire? [/I]
[B][I]If Alex Linder's second-in-command Glenn Miller had tried this, you'd be haw-hawing and dropping smilies like they were dog turds, chuckling at the Knuckle Dragging WNs who poison the wellwater for all of us. Instead you insist that this lunatic is a martyr for the white race.[/I][/B]
And you have the [B]nerve [/B] to come on, sober as a deacon, to tut-tut at the intemperate language used here in describing [U]actual rampaging crackhead killers and rapists.[/U]
You even got one last "Noo Yawkah" shot in. Why? No reason; just to get one more cheap smirking shot in. Now go ahead and patiently explain to me why Alex Linder and Glenn Miller and Martin Lindstedt make us all look bad and ought to be shunned, but Ammon Reich is a 'hero'. Please; I'm all ears.
2005-09-03 03:55 | User Profile
[QUOTE=il ragno]Reich was tried and convicted by an [B]all-Oklahoma jury [/B] - I like they way you say that. Sounds like "Okie" is a new pheneotype:lol:>
after the defendant's family lied under oath and a white trooper took the stand twice to give evidence against him. Rightfully so, too.
Here's the key graf from the [I]first [/I] story right above it. Laugh this one off too, genius.
That's taken from the daughter's trial testimony. Would you handle a dispute like this against people who were obviously unarmed...a few of whom were white? By arming both your daughters, hiding your pieces down the small of your back and going BACK...with your family in tow? Suppose those college kids had been armed, too, and [I]your wife and kids got killed in the crossfire? [/I][/QUOTE]You commie New Yorker. Are you trying to impinge upon our sacred right to bear arms? Guns are a way of life down here. They obviously just wanted to use em for self defense. Or maybe just apologize to these guys, and offer to go have a little fun target shooting.:gunsmilie:gunsmilie:gunsmilie
Seriously, they never used the guns. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense actually. Sounds like, as the article notes, they'd been drinking.
[B][I]If Alex Linder's second-in-command Glenn Miller had tried this, you'd be haw-hawing and dropping smilies like they were dog turds, chuckling at the Knuckle Dragging WNs who poison the wellwater for all of us. Instead you insist that this lunatic is a martyr for the white race.[/I][/B] And no apologies. One's innate character is an important factor in judging one's crimes.
[QUOTE]And you have the [B]nerve [/B] to come on, sober as a deacon, to tut-tut at the intemperate language used here in describing [U]actual rampaging crackhead killers and rapists.[/U][/QUOTE]No, I wasn't tut-tutting it. I was wondering though if its entirely fair for us in turn to be tut-tutting Jonah Goldberg. I think if Jonah Goldberg declared himself a Neo-Nazi, a lot of us would all be joining the SPLC and asking him of running a "hate campaign" against us.
You even got one last "Noo Yawkah" shot in. Why? No reason; just to get one more cheap smirking shot in. Who ever says you need a reason? :biggrin: > Now go ahead and patiently explain to me why Alex Linder and Glenn Miller and Martin Lindstedt make us all look bad and ought to be shunned, but Ammon Reich is a 'hero'. Please; I'm all ears.[/QUOTE]Linder and Miller on principle. Lindstedt - he's weird, but I don't think I or others here have really said he doesn't make some good points occasionally, or is getting a fair shake this time.
But I admit, to a cynical New Yorker this whole Reich defense could sound like a case of selling the Brooklyn Bridge, and this Okie might sound a bit like he's bought a little investment in it. I don't think anyone ever said this guy was a saint, or his family, but something about the way he was treated still doesn't ring right.
2005-09-03 05:27 | User Profile
[url=http://www.channeloklahoma.com/news/4916454/detail.html]Ammon Reich Sentenced to Life Plus 320 Years[/url]
Consider the chain of events, as best as we can piece them together from what has been published.
Reich's family has a picnic at the river.
A gang of black and white students show up.
A confrontation ensues. Nasty words are said. Reich fires a gun and the students high-tail it.
Reich and his family go back home to arm themselves.
The students come back and fight Reichs' family. His daughter is injured. Reich flies into a rage and pursues the attackers.
I suppose it's possible that in the first confrontation the students were minding their own business and Reich's family were the aggressors, but I don't believe it for a minute. If it were true, every damning detail would have been published, instead of being buried under the phrase "accounts differ as to what happened next." And it's obvious the students started the second round.
I am not justifying Reich's actions, but by God, he was provoked. Now compare his sentence to that of the Carr brothers. A jury gave them the death penalty, and an appellate judge threw that out. Of course, not a speck of hate was detected in their actions. Reich, on the other hand, has been made the poster boy of hate.
The message sent is loud and clear: White man, don't you dare stand up to Negroes. Just slink away with your tail between your legs.