By Kirthi Nath
Baltimore, MD: On August 18, 2009, 76-year-old Baltimore resident James Privott was brutally attacked by three men while fishing with his wife at Fort Armistead Park. As the couple was packing up their fishing gear, three men assaulted James Privott with a sledgehammer and a bat while shouting racial slurs, including the N-word, and then stole his money and car and fled the scene.
As word spread about the attack, local residents flooded the police lines with anonymous tips and emails that ultimately helped the police capture the suspects. The three assailants, 28-year-old Carl Lockner, a registered sex offender and self proclaimed member of the Aryan Nations; 16-year-old Emmanuel Miller and 17-year-old Zachary Watson, will be charged with first degree assault and armed robbery. Lockner, who stated that the attack “wouldn’t have happened if he [Privott] was a white man,” will also be tried under state hate crime laws.