Matthew Hermann, Other White Teens, Used Noose On Black Classmate: Report (VIDEO)

Three white teens face hate crime charges after they allegedly choked an African-American classmate with a noose and threatened to kill him late last month in Chicago, reportedly because he had become friends with a white girl one of the alleged attackers is related to.

The incident took place Dec. 23 around 10:20 p.m. at the home of one of the alleged attackers, located in the 1600 block of West 100th Place in the city's Beverly neighborhood on the Southwest Side, the Chicago Tribune reports.

According to Fox Chicago, the suspects, aged between 16 and 18 years old and students at Brother Rice High School, put a noose around the victim's neck twice and held him captive in the home. They allegedly threatened to kill the victim, also a Brother Rice student, using racial epithets repeatedly and pulling out a switchblade at one point during the attack.

(Scroll down to watch a report on the alleged attack.)

When he was finally able to leave the house, the victim claims one of his alleged attackers jumped him from behind with a knife and threatened to kill him again, Fox reports.

According to ABC Chicago, the teens were angry because the victim had a relationship with is one of their cousins.

Matthew Hermann, 18, of Alsip, was charged with unlawful restraint and a hate crime, both felonies, as well as misdemeanor battery, the Tribune reports. The two other alleged attackers, aged 16 and 17, are facing the same charges in juvenile court, while the 16-year-old was also charged with aggravated assault with a weapon.

As Patch reports, the matter was under investigation by Chicago Police for several weeks before charges were filed this month.

WATCH a Fox Chicago report on the hate crime charges:

Brother Rice Student Threatened with Noose, Victim of Hate Crime: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

Comments

[DontselltheUS]

07:22 PM on 02/02/2012

Brother Rice is an excellent high school. My nephew attends and I have been very impressed by the classes offered for discussion of social issues and morality issues. Very sad that these students (no longer) gave the school this derogatory image. That said, I moved back here after 40 years and was surprised at the level of racism that still exists in the Chicago area. The rest of the country (except the South) are light years ahead of Chicago with regards to non-tolerance of racism. Sadly, I suspect it is being passed down through the generations. Parents can stop this. It is well past the time to do so.

[KaliKross]

12:52 PM on 01/29/2012

But this is a post-racial society! Racism does NOT exist, except in the chimp-like minds of black people who collect welfare & pull the "race card" because they need an excuse to be violent, reckless breeders. ... Or so Newt says

[Pauli Gela]

11:38 PM on 01/28/2012

The Storm Front is reversing.

[Truffseka]

07:21 PM on 01/28/2012

When you have "" friends like these, who needs enimies? The very reason parents have to be mindful of who their children are befriending! The noose was the display of the boys extreme racist behavior, but I refuse to believe this was the first time they had showed this racially insensitive side of theirselves. Because they had gotten away with the underhanded remarks here and there, all of a sudden they got real comfortable with what they felt was only a "joke"....REALLY????

[borncitizen]

06:24 PM on 01/28/2012

Did anyone talk to their cousin first? Isn't the relationship agreed on by both parties? It sounds to me like it was kidnapping as well but I'm not a prosecuter but how do they prove hate crime? No witnesses to he said , they said .If they were Black and the victim White it would never be a hate crime.

[rjthakid]

11:51 AM on 01/30/2012

"If they were black and the victim was White it would never be a hate crime."

Yes, because our justice system is CLEARLY favors minorities, right?

[uchoos2]

08:27 AM on 01/28/2012

Boy oh boy are we back in the 50's and 60's again. The kids are getting these thoughts from their parents. If the parents cannot move on without racial thoughts then the kids wont either. I had a southern baptist mom and a roman catholic dad I grew up believing in my father beliefs that all were created equal and so are my kids. They would smack those boys down and stand up for the boys who were being threatened no one needs to be threaten like that and no matter what kind of school it is it still comes back to the parents. Tell them to grow up.

[radikal76]

04:55 PM on 01/27/2012

This story is fishy. Too many gaps in information and too many logical inconsistencies. Perhaps part of the reason I have a jaundiced eye is that about the last 20 times we were told of stories like this, they turned out to be hoaxes.

[jrwest78]

04:20 PM on 01/27/2012

Most blacks want affirmative action for all things....

except hate crimes

[cartoonking09]

11:38 AM on 01/28/2012

If only the 'world's greatest nation' hadn't started their black population out as 3/5ths a person and subjected them to sub-human status for so many centuries, they wouldn't want nor need affirmative action for ANYthing....

[jrwest78]

06:17 PM on 01/28/2012

most civilized nations went down that road, also...

only two major slave revolts in African History = not our fault

[madHenry]

12:49 PM on 01/27/2012

Beverly ain't exactly Beverly Hills. Working and middle-class white folks, mostly Irish. Alsip is worse off economically, verging on depressed. Essentially poor folks hating other poor folks because they're "not like us." It's classic Chicago at it's worst.

[mphalen]

12:12 PM on 01/27/2012

Good ol' Brother Rice. You send your kid to a nice all-boys Catholic school thinking that it would be better than the public school. And look what happens.

[morefreethings]

11:39 AM on 01/27/2012

if you change everyone's skin color in this situaiton (blackwhite) is it still a hate crime?

[accordingtoxen]

01:42 PM on 01/27/2012

Why would you even ask that? You think 3 black guys beating a white guy and calling him racial epithets would be any less punishable?

[jglass1966]

04:05 PM on 01/27/2012

EN you better check that one out! I remember when the whole hate crime law was coming up it didnt list any crime agains whites a hate crime because whites are not a minority!

[morefreethings]

06:28 PM on 01/27/2012

yes, yes i certainly do....

[LadiesloveCJ]

11:14 AM on 01/27/2012

It's kind of amazing that this is still happening, but then it's kind of not. America STILL has a race problem that continues to be perpetuated in many social circles. Post-racial America? I think not.

[Wrongway62]

10:44 AM on 01/27/2012

It is a sad state of affairs when anyone's color (black, white, yellow, red...) leads to violence. We as a nation fall another step down from or proclaimed moral leadership of the world. This is but another Indictment of the bitter hateful rhetoric spewed from the Political, Church and Social leadership.

[michelleobamaok]

09:57 AM on 01/27/2012

WELL, this is the America Newt Gingrich want us all to revert back to. Blacks have to learn their places and stop their educational and professional advances.

Blacks have only had total freedom for 47 years (Civil Rights Act, 1964; Voting Rights Act 1965), and already they are presidents, astronauts, entrepreneurs, media and entertainment titans.

This has got to stop!!! In Newt's day, black people knew their place: as janitors

[jglass1966]

04:11 PM on 01/27/2012

yet another hateful liberal : (

[jrwest78]

04:22 PM on 01/27/2012

you're still an ignoramus...

By the way...

Nobody oppresses the black man quite like a Democrat

[Quickslvrgrl]

09:24 AM on 01/27/2012

The mother says it's a "complete lie" when two of the other kids admitted to it. Why are moms in denial until the end?

[michelleobamaok]

09:58 AM on 01/27/2012

Who wants the world to know how stupid their children are?

[IamChicago]

12:03 PM on 01/27/2012

This is the Southside of Chicago (including the South & Southwest suburbs), racism is alive and well...... grew up there and left as soon as I could.

Everyone hates everyone, it is discussing......

[walkerhds]

12:52 PM on 01/27/2012

"Everyone hates everyone, it is discussing­...... "

it's been happening since after WW2 under Richard I. Keep the Loop and the white bungalow ethnic areas safe from "those people".