A Native American family in Nevada [URL="http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/06/native-family-attacked-by-skinheads/"]is seeking justice[/URL] in the aftermath of a brutal attack in May by a group of skinheads. The assault led to severe injuries sustained by several members of the family. But one of the family members was arrested while the skinheads were let go. The leader of the skinheads is the son of a former police officer, and no charges have been brought against the gang.
[quote]
[B]Updated on June 29, 2011, with links to support pages.[/B]
Johnny and Lisa Bonta, a Native family from the [URL="http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/06/natives-targeted-most-for-hate-crimes/"]Reno Sparks Indian Colony[/URL], became the latest victims of a hate crime on May 24 when they were attacked at a gas station along I-80 in Fernley, Nevada, a border town between the Fallon and Pyramid Lake Indian reservations.
“I was pumping gas at Quick Stop on our way to Reno to look for another job when these skinheads in a blue car drove by real slow and checked us out. The driver jumped out with a baseball bat, and I asked them ‘why you holding a bat?” said Bonta. “He said ‘let’s do this’ and tried to pick a fight. I don’t know how to explain what happened—we didn’t do anything to them.”
Bonta, a Paiute member of the Reno Sparks Indian Colony, tried to avoid the confrontation by telling them he didn’t want to fight. He got back in the car, with his son-in-law Shane Murray at the wheel, and they quickly drove away with the carload of skinheads in close pursuit.
As they approached the freeway ramp, they were cut off as the blue car swerved in front of them, then slammed on the brakes, causing Murray to crash into it. Murray said he recognized one of the attackers as Jacob Cassell, a former classmate and son of retired Lyon County Sheriff officer Jim Cassell.
“They all jumped out of the car with baseball bats, knives and a crowbar, and we knew they were going to hurt us,” said Lisa Bonta, in an interview from Washoe Medical Center, where she was in treatment for seizures she suffers.
The fight broke out on the highway after 1 p.m. and while traffic was passing by, no one would stop to help them. Lisa and her daughter, Alyssa, were terrified watching the brutal and bloody fight as her unarmed husband and son-in-law tried to fight off the three young men in their 20s.
“I saw one of them hit my husband in the head with a bat, and the other one was trying to cut off his braid with a knife. Johnny was covered in blood and they just kept hitting him with a crow bar. They even tried to slit his throat,” she added.
“Jacob Cassell had my son-in-law on the ground in a chokehold and Shane was turning blue. My daughter was sobbing ‘they’re killing him’ and somehow she found the strength to hit Jacob in self-defense so he would release Shane.”
It was then, Lisa said, that Cassell turned his anger on her and her daughter, jumping on the hood of their car while swinging a baseball bat and cursing at them.
“I’m a 46 year-old woman with serious health problems, and I tried to defend myself, but he hit me across the lower back with his bat, calling us ‘niggers and river monsters,” said Lisa, who is Anglo. “He pointed at Alyssa and said he would rape her the next time he saw her in Fernley, where she lives.”
Meanwhile, Johnny Bonta was knocked unconscious with a bat, his nose and sinus cavities broken and bleeding, with stab wounds on his neck.
Lisa said Jacob Cassell taunted the family as the sirens approached, telling them, “You hear those cops coming? They’re not going to help you. My daddy is a cop in this town, and nothing is going to happen to me. You fucking niggers are going to jail.”
When Lyon County Sheriff’s officers arrived, they took statements and began filling out police reports with Cassell and his friends, but they did not take statements from any of the victims. When Lisa asked why they were not being questioned for a statement, no one responded. “They ignored us,” she said, before she suffered a seizure and required medical attention.
Three ambulances responded to the scene and took Lisa, Alyssa and Murray away for treatment; Murray’s injuries included a crushed elbow and broken hand.
Johnny Bonta, bleeding and barely standing after being hit in the knees with a bat, was arrested on the scene and taken to jail. He said he was not allowed medical treatment for six days while he was in the county jail, all the while uncertain about what charges had been filed against him.
Assuming he was on his way to the hospital, Lisa Bonta had no idea her husband had been arrested. She finally located her husband in jail after calling other facilities repeatedly, and was very upset that he was not given medical treatment for his extensive injuries.
“I asked them to tell me what charges he was being held on and no one would say. They said they gave him the information, but he can’t read or write, so I needed to find out. At first they said there was a bench warrant for an unpaid $367 fine, and when we made arrangements to pay that, they charged him with battery with a deadly weapon, even though it was those boys who had the weapons. The booking papers say we owe $30,367.00. ”
Lisa Bonta is outraged that their attackers were all released at the scene of the crime and were not charged despite the fact they bragged about it on Facebook on May 24, the day of the attack.
Two hours after attacking the Bontas, Josh Janiszewski of Fernley wrote, “Just laid the fists and boots to some 6′ 5” tongan dude. what you got on little guys?” at 3:13 p.m. When asked if they gave them hell, Josh responded. “Oh we did. That’s for sure!” at 3:48 p.m. “Amen,” said Jacob Cassell at 4:07 p.m.
Jacob’s mother Dee Cassell also commented, “So…who has blood? You guys need to come home to mom?” at 4:48 p.m. She later added that she gave them First Aid. “Better have ur asses at home after I did 1st aid. Don’t piss off women – they r worse than men!” she wrote at 8:00 p.m.
When asked if they got “some good licks” in, Josh said, “sent em to the hospital, they got fucked up man, thats for sure.”
Meanwhile, Johnny Bonta stayed behind bars while Lisa and her family called the jail each day, asking if Johnny had been treated for his injuries. No one would tell her his condition. One morning, she says a surly guard told her “he’ll have to get his Indian doctor if he wants treatment,” then hung up on her.
Lisa appealed to the Reno Spark Indian Colony and said she was able to get two Indian Health Service doctors to agree to visit Johnny in jail, but was told by jail officials that could not be allowed. It was not until tribal police pursued Johnny’s release that he was finally released after six days and was able to see a doctor.
The family also lost their car following the attack. The Bontas could not locate their car after the Lyon County Sheriff’s office had it towed from the scene. When Lisa called to ask about their car, she was told the police had no information. She found the car two weeks later in a small towing yard, tires flattened and in need of repair. Since Johnny has not been able to work, they cannot afford to pay the impoundment fees or have it repaired. They are now walking to all of their medical appointments in Reno. The situation has created great hardship for them and their children.
“We lost everything as a result of this attack, and now we’re homeless since we can’t go back to Fernley,” said Lisa. “The FBI took our statement last week and we know they got a copy of the video from the gas station parking lot. We are asking for a full investigation into this hate crime.”
The Bontas said since this happened, at least four other Native families have told them they too were harassed and attacked by skinheads in nearby border towns. But people told her they don’t report the incidents because they don’t believe police will help them. These follow an April 2010 attack on Vincent Kee, Navajo, in Farmington, New Mexico, where three men took Kee from a McDonald’s and shaved a swastika symbol on the back of his head and branded him with the symbol using a coat hanger.
“Someone could have died that day,” said Lisa, “and the only reason this happened is because my husband and son-in-law have brown skin. We have a 10-year-old daughter, and I have to speak out about what happened for her sake. I just don’t understand why these young boys think they have the right to randomly beat others. We have to put a stop to this kind of behavior.”
Lisa also said they are hiring an attorney. “I want the police to know they can’t deny people medical treatment just because they feel like it. Johnny could have died from a head injury, and they violated his civil rights. They should be held accountable.”
[I]Since the story broke supporters have started a petition at [/I][URL="http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-the-governor-of-nevada-brian-sandoval-to-investigate-law-enforcement-in-fernley-nv"][I]change.org[/I][/URL][I] for the Governor of Nevada to address the situation along with other hate crimes in Nevada. A Facebook [/I][URL="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-for-Johnny-Bonta-and-Family/142824812459997"][I]page[/I][/URL][I] was also created in support of the Bonta family.[/I]
[I]Indian Country Today Media Network will continue to follow this story and is looking into any fundraising information there may be for our readers. The case has been classified as a hate crime and is under investigation by the FBI. ICTMN is currently waiting for approval for copies of the police report. Calls to the Reno office of the FBI were not returned.[/I][/quote]Backwards savages:
[IMG]http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Johnny-Bonta-and-family_-e1309189122650-615x411.jpg[/IMG]
Glorious beacon of western civilization:
[IMG]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2230/3535097793_8be96cf5a3.jpg[/IMG]
[b]Edit:[/b]
[B]FBI investigates potential Fernley hate crime:[/B]
[quote]The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed it is investigating a possible hate crime that happened May 24 in Fernley, though Lyon County District Attorney Robert Auer said it was more of a “mutual fight.”The incident involved Johnny Bonta, a member of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, and other relatives on one side and three men on the other side. The Bonta side alleged that at least one of the other three men was a skinhead, but Lyon County officials said they have no evidence of that.
Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Chairman Arlen Melendez was described in an article published on the Indian Country Today Web site as being unhappy that Bonta was considered a perpetrator in the incident and noted Nevada in the past has a reputation of being the “Mississippi of the West” for racism problems.
“We need to put pressure on law enforcement and the judicial system to ensure the Bontas are treated fairly,” he said in the article. “Our main concern is that these attacks need to be taken very seriously and fully investigated as hate crimes.”
Melendez said in a Wednesday interview he is not calling what happened a hate crime.
“I’m saying incidents like that should be fully investigated by a neutral party,” Melendez said.
The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office might not be a neutral party since one of the people who fought with Bonta is the son of a former deputy, Melendez said.
“Hopefully, they might say one way or other what took place in a fair and impartial manner,” Melendez said.
The FBI is not commenting other than to confirm it is doing an investigation.
Neither Bonta nor the son of the former Lyon County deputy could be reached for comment.
On Tuesday, Lyon County Sheriff Allen Veil and Auer were willing to discuss what they knew about the case.
“The allegations made to say we have not investigated this properly are just not true,” Veil said. He described the accounts of the incident given on the Indian Country Today website as “awfully one-sided and without merit.”
Veil said his deputies and detectives have talked to witnesses and the three men in the fight, but Bonta’s group is not cooperating.
Auer said the incident is probably best described as a “mutual fight.” There were words exchanged between Bonta’s group and three men in another vehicle at the Quik Stop convenience store on U.S. 95 in south Fernley, Auer said.
Auer said the best evidence authorities have is that the three men left in a Mitsubishi, and Bonta’s group pursued in a white Ford Crown Victoria with Bonta’s son-in-law, who is not an American Indian, driving. It then appears that somewhere in the area of Truckee Lane and West Main Street in Fernley the group had a fight, Auer said. At some point, the Crown Victoria rammed the Mitsubishi, whose window was also smashed by a ratchet, Auer said.
“I don’t understand how it could be a hate crime if they pursued the other guys in the other car,” Auer said.
He has asked detectives to look at paint transfers on the two vehicles to see if it can determine which car rammed the other and to look for blood at the scene of the fight. Auer said he has asked for surveillance video from the Quik Stop.
Auer said Lyon County would like to hear the Bonta side of the story, but the people involved are not talking.
“If they want to tell their side of the story, let them tell it to the detectives,” Auer said.
The case is being investigated, so the records of the incident are not available for review, Auer said. No charges have been filed.
However, Bonta had an arrest warrant from Pershing County and was picked up on that unrelated charge.
Bonta pleaded no contest Oct. 7, 2010, to a misdemeanor bad check charge in Pershing Justice Court and was given $358 in fines and fees, Deputy District Attorney Bryce Shields said. When Bonta did not pay, the court issued an arrest warrant.
Bonta posted $358 bail after he was picked up in Lyon County and forfeited it when he did not show up in Pershing Court on Tuesday, Shields said. The warrant has been dismissed because the bail was applied towards the fine and fees.
Veil said there is a federal protocol for identifying someone as a skinhead or a member of a racist gang. As far as the son of the former deputy, “we don’t have enough evidence to put him in that kind of a category,” Veil said.
Melendez, who served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights after an appointment by then-U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the incident is a topic of conversation in the American Indian community on Facebook.
“What we want to make sure is that the governments or townships take the possibility of hate crimes serious,” Melendez said. “In the end, if this is a hate crime ... it’s going to escalate to more serious things down the line.” [/quote]
Sources: [URL]http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/06/native-family-attacked-by-skinheads/[/URL]
[URL="http://www.rgj.com/article/20110630/NEWS01/110630038/FBI-investigates-potential-Fernley-hate-crime?odyssey=nav%7Chead"]http://www.rgj.com/article/20110630/NEWS01/110630038/FBI-investigates-potential-Fernley-hate-crime?odyssey=nav|head[/URL]
White trash
I like the skinheads who aren't absolute Neo-Nazist scum.
[QUOTE=staticman;30846246]The assault led to severe injuries sustained by several members of the family. But one of the family members was arrested while the skinheads were let go. The leader of the skinheads is the son of a former police officer, and no charges have been brought against the gang.[/QUOTE]
That just sickens me.
[QUOTE=staticman;30846246]A Native American family in Nevada The assault led to severe injuries sustained by several members of the family. But one of the family members was arrested while the skinheads were let go. The leader of the skinheads is the son of a former police officer, and no charges have been brought against the gang.
[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u9/staticman0/2ql5r8h.gif[/IMG]
[QUOTE=GhostG45;30846321]I like the skinheads who aren't absolute Neo-Nazist scum.[/QUOTE]
I forgot what band it was but it was more or less anti-Skinheads, they were skinheads in the sense of shaved heads but they were anti because they would go around and find neo-nazi skinheads and beat the shit out of them
[QUOTE=halflambada;30846368]I forgot what band it was but it was more or less anti-Skinheads, they were skinheads in the sense of shaved heads but they were anti because they would go around and find neo-nazi skinheads and beat the shit out of them[/QUOTE]
Them and the actual movement of non-aggressive skinheads is who I was referring to, actually. These guys: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinheads_Against_Racial_Prejudice[/url]
This really gets me mad. When anybody does this kind of racist attack, it gets my blood boiling. I vote we harass the attackers on facebook until they tell jacob cassell's dad what they did and go to jail for it.
I don't know whether I should rage harder at the fact they threw him in jail without seemingly doing anything about his injuries or the fact that HE'S getting charged with battery.
Anon, I hope you're reading this!
They call themselves cops, but they aren't doing their job right. cops are to be unbiased, and not care if it's family they put in jail, because that family member just nearly killed someone. We need to get this fixed.
I am sure there is more we can do besides signing the petition.
[QUOTE=cpt.armadillo;30846625]They call themselves cops, but they aren't doing their job right. cops are to be unbiased, and not care if it's family they put in jail, because that family member just nearly killed someone. We need to get this fixed.
I am sure there is more we can do besides signing the petition.[/QUOTE]
/sarcasm Non-whites don't deserve to have the law on their side, it's called karma!
[QUOTE=GhostG45;30846383]Them and the actual movement of non-aggressive skinheads is who I was referring to, actually. These guys: [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinheads_Against_Racial_Prejudice[/URL][/QUOTE]
Real skinheads aren't racist, and you don't have to be a SHARP to not be a racist. SHARPs are just an extreme anti-racist sect of the skinhead movement.
Skinheads originated in the late 60s, specifically 69. They listened reggae from Jamaica. Yeah that's right the original skinheads listened to music done by black musicians and many were black.
Just thought I'd clear this up. Neo Nazis are not skinheads. Skinheads are people who are fans of 69 Reggae and Oi! music.
Neo nazis hijacked the term skinhead in the 80s.
[editline]2nd July 2011[/editline]
Also SHARPs aren't non-agressive. They will beat the shit out of a hammerskin on sight.
Should we, as a collective, send some form of message to the Nevada Governor, or should we go to Obama?
I am completely in favor of citizens taking matters into their own hands when the law does not dispense true justice and outright refuses to protect the innocent and deal with the guilty. And in this case, given the sheer amount of bullshit involved with regards to the Police, those vigilantes can go as crazy as they like. Maybe the world will have a few less assholes in it when they're through.
itt non-whites raging
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("Shitposting" - SteveUK))[/highlight]
[QUOTE=DonerKebab;30846848]itt non-whites raging[/QUOTE]
More like someone training to be a cop raging about how fucked up the Law is in that place.
[QUOTE=cpt.armadillo;30846792]Should we, as a collective, send some form of message to the Nevada Governor, or should we go to Obama?[/QUOTE]
Go cry to yo mama obama
[QUOTE=cpt.armadillo;30846909]Okay, so, what should we do?[/QUOTE]
Rage. And the next time we happen to get into a fight with skinheads, we hit them extra fucking hard.
Hit them extra hard... then we get arrested...
[editline]2nd July 2011[/editline]
Also, my dad told me to look for this on snopes.com, but I haven't found any yet.
It's a shame there is so little Native Americans left. Justice should be served for the family. They look like a good family too. It's a shame about the police not filing charges just because one of them was a police officers son. That shouldn't be an excuse.
There should never be any excuses, because then they wouldn't be doing their job.
[QUOTE=GhostG45;30846383]Them and the actual movement of non-aggressive skinheads is who I was referring to, actually. These guys: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinheads_Against_Racial_Prejudice[/url][/QUOTE]
It's more than just SHARP, there's a whole culture of anti-racist skinhead movements. If you look at the history, being a skinhead is more about working class empowerment than it was ever about being racist. Racist assholes just co-opted the culture and cut out the ideals they didn't like, like the fact that it doesn't matter if you are black, white, brown or purple; just as long as you are working class.
[QUOTE=Rofl my Waff;30846664]Real skinheads aren't racist, and you don't have to be a SHARP to not be a racist. SHARPs are just an extreme anti-racist sect of the skinhead movement.
Skinheads originated in the late 60s, specifically 69. They listened reggae from Jamaica. Yeah that's right the original skinheads listened to music done by black musicians and many were black.
Just thought I'd clear this up. Neo Nazis are not skinheads. Skinheads are people who are fans of 69 Reggae and Oi! music.
Neo nazis hijacked the term skinhead in the 80s.
[editline]2nd July 2011[/editline]
Also SHARPs aren't non-agressive. They will beat the shit out of a hammerskin on sight.[/QUOTE]
This. I cannot tell you how many times I have had to explain that real skinheads are not Nazis. Most of the skinheads I used to hang out with went out of their way to find racists to fuck with.
It's quite sad that they are so racist to the people that were clearly here first.
[QUOTE=Leonmyster;30847382]It's quite sad that they are so racist to the people that were clearly here first.[/QUOTE]
Americans then: KIIL REDS
Americans now: I wonder why is there so little natives left
[QUOTE=johan_sm;30847458]Americans then: KIIL REDS
Americans now: I wonder why is there so little natives left[/QUOTE]
[img]http://kloposmasm.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/the-real-illegal-immigrants.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/jh2up/10rn12f.gif?t=1242109002[/img]
It's 2011 damnit, this shit should stop already.
[QUOTE=johan_sm;30847458]Americans then: KIIL REDS
Americans now: I wonder why is there so little natives left[/QUOTE]
Western Europe did more damage than "Americans".
[QUOTE=redBadger;30847735]Western Europe did more damage than "Americans".[/QUOTE]
That's expected, western europe is many thousands years older than america
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