Charmayne Brown, Black Reporter, Attacked On Camera By White Family In SC

From the AP:

Three people upset that a news crew was reporting on the arrest of a relative attacked the television reporter and yelled racial slurs at her and a photographer, authorities said Tuesday.

The family members, all white, began yelling and charged at black WSPA-TV reporter Charmayne Brown while she was standing in the street near the family's home in Union, said news director Alex Bongiorno.

Brown was punched in the head, and black cameraman Ti Barnes was also struck as he tried to pull family members off Brown, Bongiorno said. A video of the attack shows Brown, who wasn't seriously injured, defending herself.

"I think she's more affected by the verbal abuse than the physical abuse. She's really shaken up," Bongiorno said.

The fight was taped by a white crew from a second television station. They were not attacked.

Tousha Smith, 31, Billie Joe Taylor, 31, and Trina Vinson, 48, were being held at a Union jail Tuesday evening on assault and battery charges, authorities said. South Carolina has no law allowing a hate crime charge.

Attempts to contact the family were unsuccessful; messages left at several numbers were not immediately returned, and authorities said they weren't sure whether the three had attorneys.

Charges are pending against a fourth person, authorities said. The reporter and photographer were not charged.

Brown was reporting on the death of 73-year-old Tommy Howell, who was killed by a blow to the head after an argument, authorities said. His body was found Tuesday in his home. Police arrested his grandson, Shane Howell, and charged him with murder, Union Police Chief Sam White said.

Shane Howell remains in jail, and it is unclear whether he has an attorney.

"These people were very upset," White said. "I guess they just took it out the wrong way."

Comments

[Harrier]

10:45 AM on 03/17/2008

Unless you're in th south, I believe America has come a long way toward racism. However if the economy doesn't improve and new laws are passed against corruption­s in the finance industry, it will not matter as we watch our economy sink

[totalliberal]

06:02 PM on 03/16/2008

"The black female reporter stepped around her cameraman to throw the first punch. "


No I didn't see that and neither did you, nose-picke­r.
If that is what happened why are the 3 hillbillie­s in jail and the reporter is still working. I guess those SC cops can't see as well as you.

[totalliberal]

05:51 PM on 03/16/2008

"Hey Cleetus, em black reporters want to show are family is bad just cuz Billy-Bob punched grampa to death. I's gonna show em what fur. Whut happens in family is our business.

Republican­s down to the last in-born cell.

[DuckofDeath]

06:35 PM on 03/13/2008

The black female reporter stepped around her cameraman to throw the first punch. Those white people look suspicious­ly like trailer trash, and I don't like to defend trailer trash but the reporter threw the first punch. It is what it is.

[Waitaminute]

09:33 AM on 03/14/2008

Actually she didn't throw the first punch. The woman came ACROSS the street and attacked the reporter on public property. I guess you miss the part where after the reporter was attacked and pulled down to the ground, she started defending herself. I GUESS YOU DID.

[StuCop]

01:50 PM on 03/14/2008

running around someone and throwing punches is not defending yourself. i guess YOU MISSED THAT.

and where in the video evidence do you see a woman coming accross the street and attacking first?

the only video evidence i see is the reporter rushing around her cameraman and punching someone...­then after the cameraman pulls her from the fray again the reporter repeated yells explitives and attempts to rush back and continue the confrontat­ion. YOU MISSED THAT too.

[Felicty]

01:26 PM on 03/15/2008

It's always the black person's fault in your eyes, right?

[Amishguy]

02:33 PM on 03/13/2008

Once that was all over if I were that reporter I would have walked up to my camera man and beat his face in.

It's so nice that he got great footage of his co-worker getting her face kicked in but maybe he could have put his camera down and HELPED the poor woman!!

Do humans (Americans­?) have any humanity or emotion left?

We would rather watch someone get beat up than take the chance of getting hurt by helping the person. That is just plain sick.

[RevMetheus]

04:02 PM on 03/13/2008

I think you missed this line in your rush to be angry at everyone:

"The fight was taped by a white crew from a second television station. They were not attacked."

and this one:

"Brown was punched in the head, and black cameraman Ti Barnes was also struck as he tried to pull family members off Brown"

Remember, reading is fundamenta­l!

[treadway123]

07:58 PM on 03/13/2008

And you don't think that the pressure's of the race card the clintons have stired up all across America didn't have anything to do with this? This has to end, and know. Termendous­e amount of effort and life's have been given up to cool racial tensions and make progress to equality. Admit we still have a ways to go--------­----------­-but know it's all being stired up by the racial tentions in the elections. The thing is, White, black, young, old, Republican­s and Demacrates are behind this Illinoise senator and he's brought back hope and dreams to the Americans people. He could heal wounds and help repair drifts made. Know is the time for unity-----­--------an­d a time for Clintons to get out so we can get on with reaching a unity goals of this country.

[degjack]

09:19 PM on 03/13/2008

So the Clintons stirred this up, eh?

South Carolina was, is, and will always be one big, wasteland of a plantation­.

Why anybody with any intelligen­ce would want to live there beats me.

Clintons had NOTHING to do with it.

[WVRICK]

12:42 PM on 03/13/2008

It has been over a year since I have posted a response to an article but this one deserves a response.

I have been to South Carolina many times over the past years and while in South Carolina I met many kind wonderful decent people who were not racist. I also met many uneducated narrow minded people who were racist. The thing I find most evident is that the kind people and the racist people were repsented about equally among all races. Racism is a human thing just as kindness and gentleness is a human thing. They are however not traits usually found in the same person at the same time. The difference is education. Some parents educate their children to be racist and hateful and other parents educate their children to be kind and gentle. Until we teach our children to have compassion and to keep an open mind racism will never stop.

This family is obviously a violent family, they kill their own. How can we expect them to treat a stranger any differentl­y than their own blood relatives?

The fact that we even mention race when thinking about the shootings of the college students or this issue means we are not color blind. When we can look at the NC shooter and this family for what they are without regard to their race we are free from racism. In both cases what we have are people breaking the law, end of story.

[tiedtothewhippingpost]

10:22 AM on 03/17/2008

thanks

[1will]

12:25 PM on 03/13/2008

I thought it was ok for a group of people to beat someone to the ground and try to kick their head in. It was ok in Jena and the offenders got cash, a protest march and a spot on TV. Are the standards different somehow in this case?

[Waitaminute]

09:38 AM on 03/14/2008

I know it was ok for law enforcemen­t in Jena, not do anything when the black students had a gun drawn on them and beaten up a night or two before.

[1will]

06:01 PM on 03/16/2008

Was that when 3 black students threatened a lone white guy and he drew a gun on them?

[Wanjiru]

11:44 AM on 03/13/2008

...I can't believe that black reporter didn't use the advantage of her race in this situation!­...


...ugh...

.

[Boboday555]

09:11 AM on 03/13/2008

Who else thinks these white 'fellers' label themselves as Christians­?
They must worship the violent, unforgivin­g Jesus.

[PuffAndStuff]

09:06 AM on 03/13/2008

Behavior like this doesn't seem strange, noticing one of the woman's name is "Billie Joe" ...

I wonder where her sister Bobbie Sue and her brother Jimmy Joe was?


But maybe Ms. Ferraro can keep her family a little better in line next time, they really seemed to have lost it in this clip. ;) Jokes. Just Jokes re: ferraro

[tgood]

01:05 AM on 03/13/2008

Okay, how about two blacks arrested for murdering the white college co-ed ? Is this where this is going or is it just the season to keep whites on a guilt trip ? Some of you people are beyond belief. You pretend to know everything about everybody in one state based on one crime. Yet, you'll turn around and defend people who break the law because they're a minority and just couldn't help themselves­. Incredible­.

[Highwind]

02:26 PM on 03/13/2008

Those guys were thugs and gangsters. What does them being black have to do with anything? Murders happen everyday. It's sad, but they do. This is completely different than that. They attacked the girl for no reason. Stop defending bad behavior. Nobody is defending those murderers. What the heck is wrong with you?

[jinjinpinti]

01:21 AM on 03/16/2008

Exactly. Murderers and other evil people come in all colors. Statistics do show, however that the majority of serial killers are white males.

[Geminess]

06:15 PM on 03/14/2008

Yeah and one of those "blacks" was a vet JUST back from Iraq. Damn black people. Don't they know that killing a white girl can get them LYNCHED? Even i that vet had on his uniform, he'd still be lynched. It HAS happened. Instead of getting that vet some psychiatri­c help, this country threw him on the street to commit that abhorant crime against an innocent human being...bl­ack or white...IT WAS WRONG!!

[racom]

11:59 PM on 03/12/2008

All of these 'video analyst' watch the available TV news video and then making judgments reminds me of bill friest comical senate floor 'video diagnosis' of the Schiavo woman a few years back. He didn't know what the hell he was talking about and neither do 99% of these commenters­.

[concerned4us2]

11:51 PM on 03/12/2008

South Carolina Has a lot of backwards thinking going on. No law to protect against hate Crimes?
Check some of the other pathetic thinking in this state. It's sick. Isn't this the state where all the radical white christians were going to move to and then try and secede because America was "run by Homosexual­s" or whatever they were claiming. Ugh.
The white trash republican thinking has GOT to go. These type people need to stop dragging the Real America down. What an embarrassm­ent.

[shotgunjohnny]

11:10 PM on 03/12/2008

wait, was the geraldine ferraro? so this is what she is up to now?

what's up with the other news team? "oh that's channel 7, if we stand and watch as they get the sh*t kicked out of them, we'll get the story, hahaha!"

when a white tv crew stands by to film the black woman getting her a** handed to her, it really makes you wonder....­.

[Fenria]

10:37 PM on 03/12/2008

Why is race featured so prominentl­y in this story? The story appears to be about a reporter who was attacked by a family because she was reporting about a sensitive subject to them. There is no reason whatsoever to bring race of any kind into this issue. I'm really amazed at how many times the race of each person is mentioned, as if there was some kind of agenda behind it....hmmm­mmmm......

[SOOKOOYAH GURL]

11:09 PM on 03/12/2008

RACE is the focus because they used racial slurs while beating the crap out of her!!

Hopefully TOUSHA, TRINA AND BILLY JOE will get the same type of justice that inner city youths cought with Marijuana get or the Rockerfell­er sentances of 10 to 20 years...

[tgood]

01:06 AM on 03/13/2008

Yep. The agenda is to put everybody on a guilt trip to perpetuate the black walks on water now that Obama speaks. LOL.

[gallstones]

07:54 PM on 03/13/2008

When you assault somebody, you are guilty--ri­ght?
When you use racial slurs and target someone for their race, you're racist--ri­ght?

That was a totally assinine comment tgood.